Ecologists are urging creative solutions to clean up plastic waste choking waterways and threatening ecosystems across the globe. The United Nations Children’s Fund partnered with a Colombian company to turn piles of plastic into the building blocks of education in Africa. VOA’s Arash Arabasadi takes us to school. …

A blanket of smog has once again enshrouded India’s capital after a weekend of clearer air and  better weather. The morning air quality index Monday at the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi was 497.AQI between 301 and 500 is considered “hazardous” for all population groups.  It is not measured past 500.Air …

Ecologists are urging creative solutions to clean up plastic waste choking waterways and threatening ecosystems across the globe. The United Nations Children’s Fund partnered with a Colombian company to turn piles of plastic into the building blocks of education in Africa. VOA’s Arash Arabasadi takes us to school. …

U.S. health officials say they have found the likely cause of a mysterious illness in people who smoke e-cigarettes, describing the findings as a “breakthrough.”Anne Schuchat of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday that a compound known as vitamin E acetate is a “very strong culprit” in …

President Donald Trump said Friday his administration will pursue raising the age to purchase electronic cigarettes from 18 to 21 in its upcoming plans to combat youth vaping. Trump told reporters his administration will release its final plans for restricting e-cigarettes next week but provided few other details.    “We have …

Mercury is putting on a rare celestial show next week, parading across the sun in view of most of the world.   The solar system’s smallest, innermost planet will resemble a tiny black dot Monday as it passes directly between Earth and the sun.   Unlike its 2016 transit, Mercury …

Studies show when people pet an animal, their blood pressure goes down along with stress and anxiety. That’s why therapy dogs are increasingly found in schools, counseling centers and even in hospitals. VOA’s Carol Pearson reports on two hospitals that use therapy dogs to help patients on their medical journey. …

Anthropologists have found skeletons of at least 14 woolly mammoths that died after falling into traps built by humans 15,000 years ago.    The two pits were found in Tultepec, just north of Mexico City, Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History said this week.    Researchers speculated that ancient hunters …

Two leading U.N. agencies are warning that growing mental health disorders among children and adolescents are driving them to engage in increasingly risky, self-destructive behavior. The World Health Organization and the U.N. children’s fund, which on Thursday opened a three-day conference on the issue in Florence, Italy, reported that up to …

A federal judge has thrown out a Trump administration rule that would have let health care providers refuse to perform abortions and other medical procedures on religious or moral grounds.Judge Paul Engelmayer said Wednesday that the rule was unconstitutional, arbitrary and capricious. He said the rule would have led to …

New research in  the United Kingdom has added another reason to vaccinate kids.  A measles infection can zap the immune system’s “memory” — putting people at risk all over again for diseases they already had, such as chickenpox.  VOA’s Arash Arabasadi looks at a lab where scientists made the discovery. …

NEW DELHI — As winter sets in, residents in New Delhi follow an unusual weather routine: People in the world’s most polluted capital do not look out their windows to see whether it is a sunny or a chilly day, but to check on how bad the toxic smog that …

Melania Trump is visiting a Boston hospital’s cuddling program that aims to help infants born dependent on drugs or alcohol.The first lady’s stop Wednesday at Boston Medical Center is part of her “Be Best” initiative.The hospital developed the program to nurture babies born with neonatal abstinence syndrome. The hospital also …

The world economy could be boosted by as much as $100 billion a year if employers successfully encouraged their staff to meet World Health Organization guidelines on exercise, according to an analysis of the economic impact of activity.Adding an extra 15 minutes of daily walking, or jogging a steady one …

Sakshi Chauhan has not left her house in a quiet inner-city slum in the Indian capital for the past six days on her doctor’s orders.The 22-year-old call center operator is recovering from a severe throat infection and the thick smog now blanketing New Delhi has made even breathing dangerous.”The moment I …

Brazil’s carbon emissions have remained stable despite an increase in deforestation because they were offset by a larger use of clean energy sources such as ethanol and wind power, a report said on Tuesday.Brazilian emissions of gases blamed for global warming reached 1.939 billion tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) …

A global team of more than 11,000 scientists is warning that the planet “clearly and unequivocally faces a climate emergency.”In a report published Tuesday in the journal Bioscience warns in no uncertain terms that the world would face “untold human suffering” if it does not make deep and lasting shifts …

The journey of NASA’s dauntless Voyager 2 spacecraft through our solar system’s farthest reaches has given scientists new insight into a poorly understood distant frontier: the unexpectedly distinct boundary marking where the sun’s energetic influence ends and interstellar space begins.The U.S. space agency previously announced that Voyager 2, the second …

The complex El Nino weather pattern that can bring disastrous heavy rainfall and long droughts to countries around the Pacific — from Peru to Indonesia and Australia — will probably emerge again in 2020, researchers have predicted.An international team of scientists forecast an 80% chance next year of an El …

Italy will next year become the world’s first country to make it compulsory for schoolchildren to study climate change and sustainable development, Education Minister Lorenzo Fioramonti said.Fioramonti, from the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement, is the government’s most vocal supporter of green policies and was criticized by the opposition in September for …

The United States announced Monday that it has notified the United Nations that it will begin its withdrawal from the 2015 Paris climate agreement to lower greenhouse gas emissions. “President Donald Trump made this decision because the Paris Agreement unfairly burdens American businesses, workers and taxpayers while giving a free pass …

For more than two years President Donald Trump has talked about pulling the United States out of the landmark Paris climate agreement. Starting Monday he finally can do something about it.Even then, though, the withdrawal process takes a year and wouldn’t become official until at least the day after the …

A radio host who helped spread the word in the fight against Ebola has been stabbed to death at his home in northeast Democratic Republic of Congo, the army said Sunday.The motive for the murder in the town of Lwemba in the troubled Ituri region was unknown, but it came …

Dense, noxious smog enveloped the Indian capital and surrounding area Sunday, causing residents to suffer from burning eyes, sore throats, and shortness of breath.Pollution levels in New Delhi hit a three-year high, forcing 37 flights to be diverted from the city’s international airport due to low visibility.The Central Pollution Control …

A breast cancer diagnosis is terrifying enough at any time. But for 49-year-old Grecia Solis, the arduous choices faced by all cancer patients were complicated by the crippling decline of Venezuela’s public health facilities.After her diagnosis two years ago, doctors recommended surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy. Before the oil-producing nation’s steep …