World Top News

NASA kicked off Monday its plan to send an unmanned space capsule into the moon’s orbit, marking the initial launch in an ambitious plan to establish a long term presence on the moon for scientific discovery and economic development. The space capsule, called Artemis I, will travel for roughly 40 days -- reaching as close as 60 miles from the moon, and then 40,000 miles above the moon when orbiting over its dark side -- before landing in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of San Diego. After the launch was scrubbed, the next attempt will occur Sept. 3.

BERLIN -- German Chancellor Olaf Scholz insisted Tuesday that his country was well-prepared to tackle a possible energy shortage due to Russia's squeeze on European gas supplies, as fears grow about the rising prices that will hit consumers across the continent this winter. Speaking at the start of a two-day government retreat, Scholz cited Germany’s decision to reactivate oil and coal-fired power plants, mandate the filling of natural gas storage facilities and lease floating liquefied natural gas terminals following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. A decision on extending the operating life of Germany’s three remaining nuclear power plants is also expected soon. “All of this and many further measures have contributed to us being in a much better situation as far as supply security is conc...

ISLAMABAD -- The United Nations and Pakistan issued an appeal Tuesday for $160 million in emergency funding to help millions affected by record-breaking floods that have killed more than 1,160 people since mid-June. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Pakistan’s flooding, caused by weeks of unprecedented monsoon rains, were a signal to the world to step up action against climate change. “Let’s stop sleepwalking toward the destruction of our planet by climate change,” he said in a video message to an Islamabad ceremony launching the funding appeal. “Today, it’s Pakistan. Tomorrow, it could be your country.” Guterres will visit Pakistan on Sept. 9 to tour areas “most impacted by this unprecedented climate catastrophe,” U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric announced Tuesday. The U.N. ...

BAGHDAD -- Armed supporters of a powerful Iraqi cleric who clashed with security forces in the capital began to withdraw from the streets Tuesday, restoring a measure of calm after a serious escalation of the nation's political crisis. Following two days of deadly unrest that sparked fears instability might spread throughout the country and even the region, cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, 48, told his supporters to leave the government quarter where they had rallied. Within minutes, some could be seen heeding the call, dismantling their tents and walking out of the area known as the Green Zone. The cleric's supporters packed up their belongings and trucks ferried away bundled up mattresses. Mounds of trash littered thoroughfares and the steps Naot Sandals leading up to Iraq's parliament building...

MEXICO CITY -- Relatives of some of Mexico’s over 100,000 missing people marched through downtown Mexico City Tuesday to demand authorities find their sons, daughters, parents and siblings. The protesters carried photos of the disappeared hanging from their necks, and chanted “Where are they? Our Children, Where are they?" Many claimed that, rather than investigating the abductions, authorities are quick to assume that disappeared people might have been involved in illicit activities. ”Frequently, there are no investigations, re-victimizations. We continually face negligence and inaction,” said Miriam Jaqueline Palmeros, whose daughter Jael Monserrat Uribe disappeared two years ago and has never been seen since. To mark the International Day of the Disappeared, family members mounted a...

MOSCOW -- Before Mikhail Gorbachev came along, the Soviet Union seemed an immovable superpower in perpetual antagonism to the United States. With a breathtaking series of reforms, Gorbachev changed all that — and re-directed the course of the 20th century. Alongside Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher, Gorbachev was a key protagonist in a global drama that many thought impossible and, for those who lived through it, seemed almost surreal. Under Gorbachev, the Berlin Wall crumbled, thousands of political prisoners were released and millions of people who had known only communism got their first real taste of freedom. But he was unable to control the forces he unleashed — and ultimately waged a losing battle to salvage a crumbling empire. Gorbachev died Tuesday at a Moscow hospital at 91....