Scott Neuman

For years, there have been two main theories about why chimpanzees, our closest evolutionary cousins, sometimes kill each other. One theory blames human encroachment on the chimpanzees' native habit in Africa. Another says that (male) chimps kill in the normal course of competition with rival groups.

A new study published ...

Updated at 10:30 a.m. ET

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko addressed a joint meeting of Congress today, thanking lawmakers for their support of Kiev in its fight against Russian-backed separatists.

Freedom, Poroshenko said, is "at the core of Ukrainian existence.

"We have an unbreakable will to live free," he said, saying ...

Islamic State fighters backed by tanks have seized 16 Kurdish villages in northern Syria over the past 24 hours in what is being described as a major advance for the extremist group, according to a human rights watchdog group.

The Associated Press quotes the British-based Syrian Observatory for ...

Scots decide today whether to end 300 years of union with Great Britain and go it alone as they cast ballots in a historic referendum that is sure to have a lasting impact no matter the outcome.

Public opinion polls in recent days have suggested that Scotland is evenly ...

Iran's foreign minister says the U.S. has been hesitant and contradictory in its approach to combating extremist groups in Iraq and Syria and that President Obama needs a reality check on the subject of defeating the Islamic State insurgency.

Mohammad Javad Zarif, speaking with Morning Edition host Steve Inskeep in ...

Iran's foreign minister says the U.S. has been hesitant and contradictory in its approach to combating extremist groups in Iraq and Syria and that President Obama needs a reality check on the subject of defeating the Islamic State insurgency.

Mohammad Javad Zarif, speaking with Morning Edition host Steve Inskeep in ...

The largest of several wildfires in California, the so-called King Fire in the Sierra Nevada forest northeast of Sacramento, is threatening 1,600 homes as it continues to spread almost unchecked.

According to the latest information, the King Fire, one of several that California firefighters are battling, has engulfed nearly ...

Updated at noon ET.

The largest of several wildfires in California, the so-called King Fire in the Sierra Nevada forest east of Sacramento, is threatening 1,600 homes as it continues to spread almost unchecked.

According to the latest information, the King Fire, one of several that California firefighters are ...

Authorities have identified a suspect in last week's shooting death of a state trooper and the wounding of another officer at a police barracks in northeastern Pennsylvania, warning the public to be on the lookout for a heavily armed man described as a "survivalist."

Police have launched a manhunt for ...

Updated at 11:30 a.m. ET

President Obama will meet today with military officials at U.S. Central Command in Tampa, Fla., to discuss the fight against the militants calling themselves the Islamic State, as House lawmakers prepare for a vote to authorize training for moderate rebels to oppose the extremist group.

Here's something to chew over:

With such magazine titles as Mein Hund & Ich ("My Dog and Me") and SitzPlatzFuss ("SitStayHeel"), Germany's newsstands have been basically a canine lovefest.

No more.

The recent launch of Kot & Köter (Poop & Pooches) is already taking a bite out of the admittedly ...

Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey told lawmakers today that while the president has ruled out "boots on the ground" as part of a campaign to destroy the Islamic State insurgency in Iraq, he was prepared to recommend a combat role for U.S. advisers or ground troops if the situation ...

The United States has begun its first-ever airstrikes in direct support of Iraqi ground forces, in the opening move of what could be a protracted fight against so-called Islamic State militants in the region.

NPR's Tom Bowman, on Morning Edition, says the airstrikes, south of Baghdad, targeted an ISIS position ...

Ukraine's parliament has granted separatist-held areas temporary self-rule and given militants amnesty in a vote aimed at quelling a months-long insurgency that has threatened to permanently cleave.

The parliamentary move comes in tandem with another to expand economic ties with the European Union beginning in 2016. Last year, former President ...

The Taliban has claimed credit for a suicide attack on a military convoy just yards from the U.S. Embassy in Kabul that killed at least three NATO soldiers and wounding nearly 20 other troops and civilians.

NPR's Sean Carberry, reporting from the Afghan capital, says the car bomb was detonated ...

Some 500 migrants trying to make their way from Egypt to Malta by boat are believed to have drowned last week after people smugglers reportedly rammed and sank their vessel, according to the International Organization for Migration.

The IOM report is based on reports from the few survivors of the ...

After the European Space Agency's Rosetta spacecraft spent a decade just catching up with Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, mission controllers have announced the spot where the probe's Philae lander will touch down. It turns out that there are no really good spots to land on a comet.

"This is not an ...

Odile, the strongest hurricane on record to make landfall on Mexico's Baja California, slammed into the tourist resort of Cabo San Lucas with winds up to 115 mph and is now moving up the massive peninsula.

"We haven't seen one get so close and with the possibility of impact, and ...

A cease-fire in eastern Ukraine is looking increasingly fragile amid renewed shelling in some areas, and as Ukraine's defense minister says arms shipments from NATO members have begun to arrive in Kiev to aid its fight against pro-Russia separatists.

At least six people were killed and 15 wounded in artillery ...

World leaders and diplomats from more than 20 countries have gathered in Paris to discuss strategies for defeating the Islamic State insurgency, with France's president urging that there's "no time to lose" and Iraq's new president insisting that extremists must be pursued to their sanctuaries in neighboring Syria.

"The Iraqis' ...