Scott Neuman

Researchers at Trinity College Dublin have some long awaited test results: After 69 years, they have captured on video a drop of pitch, also known as bitumen or asphalt.

With a camera trained on a glass funnel containing a generous dollop of the substance, so thick that it appears as ...

More people around the globe view the United States positively than do China, but most of them also believe that Beijing is set to eclipse Washington as the world's dominant Superpower, according to a new Pew Research survey.

The study measured attitudes in 39 countries. Overall, the United States ...

The crew of a North Korean ship carrying a clandestine cargo of Cold War-era weapons from Cuba has been charged with endangering public security by Panamanian authorities, who seized the vessel earlier this week.

The North Korean vessel en route from Cuba was seized as it attempted to transit the ...

Nelson Mandela remains hospitalized, but his health is reportedly improving after spending five weeks in a Pretoria hospital with a lung infection.

Former South African President Thabo Mbeki, who succeeded Mandela, the country's first black president, says that the former anti-apartheid and Nobel laureate could be discharged soon.

Mandela has ...

Amazon describes Robert Galbraith's best-selling novel, The Cuckoo's Calling, as "a brilliant debut mystery in a classic vein." But as brilliant and classically inclined as it might be, the real mystery until now has been all about the author.

It turns out that Robert Galbraith is the nom de ...

At least 200 people are trapped inside a mosque in the Syrian capital, Damascus, as government forces rain artillery on rebel-held areas.

Rasha Elass, in Beirut, reports for NPR that the Syrian opposition has pleaded with the United Nations to intervene.

According to The Syrian Coalition — a Western-backed opposition ...

Hundreds of thousands of people in southeast China have been evacuated after a powerful typhoon barreled into the region, packing strong winds and heavy rain.

Typhoon Soulik made landfall in China's Fujian province Saturday afternoon after sweeping across Taiwan.

The typhoon comes as China is already battling torrential rainfall across ...

Civil rights groups reacted with disappointment to the not-guilty verdict in the George Zimmerman murder trial.

After the outcome became known late Saturday, the NAACP Legal Defense Fund said it would push for the Department of Justice to bring civil rights charges against Zimmerman, who was accused in the ...

Months of intense media coverage, weeks of courtroom testimony and hours of jury deliberations boiled down to a not-guilty verdict for George Zimmerman, delivered by a jury of six women late Saturday.

The decision came 17 months after Zimmerman, a self-styled volunteer watchman, fatally shot unarmed black teen Trayvon ...

George Zimmerman's brother, Robert Zimmerman, Jr., tells NPR's Weekend Edition Sunday that despite the acquittal in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin, it will be a "long time" before his brother's life returns to normal.

"Believe me, he is overwhelmed," the elder brother said in an interview with host Rachel ...

Unidentified attackers ambushed and killed seven United Nations peacekeepers in Sudan's southern Darfur region, the single-deadliest attack on the international force during its five years of deployment there.

The United Nations-African Union Mission in Darfur, or UNAMID, force engaged in an "extended firefight" with the assailants near Khor Abeche in ...

British investigators say they will lead a probe into a fire aboard a 787 Dreamliner as it sat empty on the tarmac at London-Heathrow Airport.

The fire broke out Friday aboard an Ethiopian Airlines plane about eight hours after it had taxied to the gate.

As we reported earlier, ...

Immigration officials in Russia say they've not received any application from Edward Snowden, the man accused of leaking top-secret NSA documents, a day after he told the media in Moscow that his plan was to seek temporary asylum.

Interfax news agency quotes Russian migration service head Konstantin Romodanovsky as ...

A loose rail is believed to have caused a train crash in France that's killed at least six people and injured dozens. Rescue workers on Saturday were still sifting through the twisted wreckage searching for possible survivors.

BBC quotes the state rail company SNCF as saying a metal bar ...

Although Buckingham Palace has never confirmed the exact date, Saturday is rumored to be the official due date for the child who will become the third in line to the British throne.

"There are really only two questions: boy or girl? And, what's the name?" Robert Hardman, a reporter with ...

Updated 10:27 p.m. ET

The jury in the murder trial of George Zimmerman on Saturday acquitted the former neighborhood watch volunteer of all charges in the 2012 fatal shooting of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin during a scuffle in a gated Florida community.

The six-woman jury announced its verdict of not guilty ...

Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani teen who was attacked by Taliban militants for promoting education for girls, received several standing ovations as she addressed the United Nations on Friday, calling on world leaders to provide free compulsory schooling to every child.

In October, Malala was shot in the head by Taliban ...

The United States has joined Germany in calling for the release of ousted Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi, who has been detained since a July 3 military coup in Cairo.

State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said that Washington and Berlin were in agreement that Morsi should be freed.

The Islamist leader ...

A Boeing 787 caught fire on the tarmac at London's Heathrow Airport on Friday, followed hours later by a technical problem aboard another 'Dreamliner' that forced the plane to turn back from a trans-Atlantic flight. The incidents sent Boeing's stock down more than 7 percent at one point.

The first ...

The Russian agency charged with safeguarding Kremlin communications is said to be opting for a low-tech solution to secure top-secret messages in the wake of the NSA surveillance scandal: typewriters.

Izvestia reports that the Federal Guard Agency, known by the acronym FSO, has placed an order for $15,000 worth of ...