Jim Zarroli

An appeals court in South Africa has convicted double-amputee sprinter Oscar Pistorius of murdering his live-in girlfriend, a ruling that could send him back to prison for up to 15 years.

The court ruled that the trial judge erred last year when she convicted Pistorius of "culpable homicide," the ...

Britain's House of Commons has voted overwhelmingly to launch airstrikes against Islamic State militants in Syria, bolstering the U.S.-led campaign against the group.

The vote was 397-223, with support coming from both the ruling Conservatives and some Labour MPs.

Britain's Royal Air Force already participates in the campaign against Islamic ...

Brazil's Congress has opened impeachment proceedings against President Dilma Rousseff, who is accused of manipulating government finances to benefit her re-election effort.

The move injects a new element of instability into the political landscape in Brazil, which is being roiled by corruption scandals and a sharp economic downturn.

Eduardo Cunha, ...

Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen is signaling that it may finally be time to raise interest rates, saying the U.S. economy has recovered substantially since the Great Recession.

Speaking to the Economic Club of Washington, Yellen said Wednesday that the economy has come a long way toward its twin ...

Spain's highest court has halted a push for independence by the northeastern region of Catalonia, ruling Wednesday that secession would be unconstitutional.

From Madrid, Lauren Frayer told NPR's Newscast unit that the decision, which was widely expected, came unusually quickly:

"In its ruling, Spain's Constitutional Court affirmed the country's ...

Puerto Rico has managed to make a payment due today on its bond debt, but officials are warning that the commonwealth's fiscal position remains tenuous.

As a result, the government will have to pay for essential government services by using money budgeted for upcoming debt payments, said Melba Acosta Febo, ...

The International Monetary Fund says it will add the Chinese renminbi to its basket of reserve currencies, a significant milestone in China's long campaign to be recognized as a global economic power.

The decision means that the renminbi, also known as the yuan, will join the U.S. dollar, the Japanese ...

Amazon has released a glimpse of what its much-anticipated drone deliveries could look like, although it warns the service is still very much in a testing phase.

A video released over the weekend shows a drone being loaded with a small package on a warehouse conveyor line. It then floats ...

A court in Jerusalem has convicted two Israeli teenagers in the 2014 kidnapping and killing of a 16-year-old Palestinian boy, a crime that heightened tensions in the run-up to the Gaza war that summer.

The two teenagers, who were not named because they are juveniles, are expected to be sentenced ...

A 15-year-old boy died of Ebola in Liberia on Monday night, the first person in the country to perish from the disease since July, health officials say.

Two of the boy's family members, his father and brother, reportedly also have tested positive for the disease. The Associated Press reports: ...

Turkey says that after issuing 10 warnings in five minutes, two of its F-16s shot down a Russian warplane that Turkey claims violated its airspace.

On Twitter, Russia's Defense Ministry said its Sukhoi SU-24 was flying "only within the borders of Syrian territory." Its pilots, the Russians said, appear ...

At least 16 people were injured when shooting suddenly broke out in a New Orleans park Sunday evening, police said.

Hundreds of people were gathered at Bunny Friend Playground in the city's Upper Ninth Ward to record a music video when two groups began firing at each other, according ...

The U.S. drug giant Pfizer and its smaller rival Allergan have agreed to merge, creating the world's biggest pharmaceutical company by sales.

The $160 billion deal is the largest example so far of a corporate inversion, in which a U.S. company merges with a foreign company and shifts its domicile ...

CNN aired The Hunting Ground — a controversial documentary about campus sexual assaults — despite the threat of legal action.

A lawyer for Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Jameis Winston threatened to sue CNN if it aired the film on Sunday night. It ran as scheduled.

In the film, Erica Kinsman ...

In France, the third Thursday in November is usually a day of fireworks and festivals, when people pause to celebrate a uniquely French custom: the uncorking of the first Beaujolais of the season.

But in a country in deep mourning, no one feels much like celebrating.

Reservations were down sharply ...

UnitedHealth Group, the nation's largest health insurance company, says it's considering dropping out of the public exchanges that are an integral part of the Affordable Care Act, because it's losing money on them.

"We cannot sustain these losses," CEO Stephen Hemsley said in an investor call Thursday morning. "We ...

Women around the world have narrowed the gender gap on key measures of political engagement, health, economics and education, but progress remains slow, according to a report from the World Economic Forum.

Although women are entering the workforce in large numbers, they continue to face wage inequality, and now ...

The U.S. investment company TIAA-CREF has amassed vast holdings of Brazilian farmland through a joint venture that has done business with one of the country's most notorious "land grabbers," according to a report published by a nonprofit group.

The report details a complex business arrangement that enabled TIAA-CREF ...

Update at 5:45 p.m. ET 24 Governors Now Oppose Resettlement:

In the wake of Friday's terrorist attacks in Paris, a growing number of Republican U.S. governors say they oppose allowing refugees from Syria to settle within their states.

"Given the tragic attacks in Paris and the threats we have already ...

Japan has once again slipped back into recession, casting new doubts upon whether "Abenomics," its much-touted economic-reform agenda, is succeeding.

The economy contracted by .8 percent in the third quarter of 2015, following a decline of .7 percent in the preceding quarter.

It was the fourth time in five years ...