Merrit Kennedy

Canada's government is preparing to launch a major inquiry on murdered or missing aboriginal women.

A 2014 study by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police found that nearly 1,200 aboriginal women were murdered or went missing between 1980 and 2012. But two government ministers involved in planning the investigation say ...

President Obama has designated three desert areas in California as national monuments.

The move permanently protects "nearly 1.8 million acres of America's public lands," the White House says in a news release.

All three areas lie east of Los Angeles. Two of the new monuments — Castle Mountains and Mojave ...

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov announced late Thursday that they had agreed to push for a "nationwide cessation of hostilities" in Syria within one week.

The communiqué backed by major world powers also vowed to work toward getting humanitarian aid into hard-to-reach ...

Syrian peace talks are taking place amid a new urgency. The four-year-old civil war could be on the verge of yet another humanitarian disaster.

Late Thursday night Secretary of State John Kerry and his Russian counterpart said they had agreed to work toward a "cessation of hostilities" among the warring ...

The push by Syrian government forces and their allies has put about 300,000 civilians in the northern city of Aleppo at risk of being placed under siege and cut off from food and humanitarian supplies, according to the U.N.

Since the start of last week, the offensive has displaced some ...

For years, Thai police have been trying to track down a master passport forger known only as "The Doctor."

All they had was a rough description: "a bald Iranian in his 40s," Thailand's The Nation reported.

The publication says '"The Doctor' had kept himself away from the public eye ...

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius has announced that he will leave his post in the government.

Fabius, 69, was instrumental in forging the Iran nuclear deal and presided over climate negotiations in Paris last December that saw nearly 200 countries adopt a landmark agreement.

His departure had been expected ...

A Russian opposition leader says he was sitting in a Moscow restaurant when about 10 men burst in, threatened to kill him and then attacked him — with a cake.

Mikhail Kasyanov is co-leader of the opposition Republican Party of Russia-People's Freedom Party (Parnas), which is planning to put forward ...

The mayor of Hawaii County has declared a state of emergency on Hawaii's Big Island over an outbreak of mosquito-borne dengue fever.

The island has seen nearly 250 confirmed cases of the mosquito-borne virus since September 2015. State health officials first reported two cases that originated there in late ...

Summarizing his annual assessment of the threats facing the United States, National Intelligence Director James Clapper told the Senate Armed Services Committee that "unpredictable instability has become the new normal."

That's a trend that will continue, he said.

Clapper's testimony Tuesday covered a wide array of threats, from cybersecurity ...

Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says that Canada will cease its airstrikes against self-proclaimed Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria by Feb. 22.

It will remain part of the coalition targeting the militants.

Canadian troops will now "focus on training and advising local security forces to take their ...

Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi rolled up with his motorcade over a massive red carpet to the opening of a social housing project, sparking outrage about apparent wastefulness in a country suffering from high levels of poverty.

According to local media reports, the red carpet was rolled out in 6th of ...

After an airplane passenger set off a bomb last week, the pilot managed to land the plane safely in Mogadishu, Somalia. Now CCTV footage released by the Somali government indicates airport workers may have been in on the attack.

The only casualty of the attack was the bomber, who apparently ...

New editions of textbooks in France will look a little different.

References to onions? You'll see the word ognon rather than oignon.

A tale about a centipede? The many-legged insect will be known as a millepattes, no longer a mille-pattes.

And most controversially, France is removing the hat-shaped accent known ...

The New York City Fire Department says a crane collapse early Friday in Manhattan's Tribeca neighborhood killed at least one person, seriously injured two others and left another with minor injuries.

The Associated Press reported that the person killed was a Wall Street worker sitting in a parked car.

Fire ...

Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder is proposing that $30 million in state funds be used to help pay Flint residents' bills for the city's lead-tainted water.

This comes after a growing outcry from Flint residents about having to pay for water that isn't safe to drink. Residents have been relying ...

Toyota has announced that it is pulling the plug on Scion, its offshoot car brand aimed at younger drivers.

Scion, which started in 2003, has seen lagging sales, with a mere 56,167 cars sold last year in the U.S.

Scion owners will be able to get their cars serviced ...

For the first time, top Army and Marine Corps leaders have testified that they think women should register for the draft.

"I think that all eligible and qualified men and women should register for the draft," Army Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Milley said during a hearing of the Senate ...

A landmark deal 10 years in the making will protect 9.1 millions acres of Canadian rain forest on the Pacific Coast of British Columbia.

The protected area in the Great Bear Rainforest is about half the size of Ireland.

The new land-use order — reached between aboriginal groups known ...

A Michigan emergency manager tied to two major controversies has resigned from his current post running Detroit's public school district.

Darnell Earley has faced escalating criticism over poor conditions in Detroit schools. Before that, he ran the troubled city of Flint. As Michigan Radio's Rick Pluta reports:

"He carried ...