West Africa is most at risk of fatal hemorrhagic fever epidemics, including Ebola, researchers said Wednesday, calling for greater preparedness to save lives. A study in The Lancet medical journal assessed the likelihood of four viruses — Ebola, Lassa, Marburg and Crimean-Congo — spreading on the continent, charting progress from …

NASA is using an asteroid’s close flyby to test Earth’s warning network for incoming space rocks. The small asteroid was on track to pass within 27,200 miles (43,800 kilometers) of Antarctica early Thursday. Program scientist Michael Kelley said that’s “pretty close” as these things go. But he stressed there’s no …

In his new autobiography, retired astronaut Scott Kelly gives an unflinchingly blunt take on his U.S. record-breaking year in space and the challenging life events that got him there. This isn’t your usual astronaut’s memoir. Kelly recounts dumpster diving on the International Space Station for discarded meals after a supply …

There have been four outbreaks of highly pathogenic H5N8 avian flu in farms in central and northern Italy since the start of the month and about 865,000 chickens, ducks and turkeys will be culled, officials said on Wednesday. The biggest outbreak was at a large egg producing farm in the …

A new study shows there has been a huge increase in the number of obese and overweight children around the world in just a couple of generations. In one of the biggest epidemiological studies ever undertaken, scientists found dramatic transformations in many parts of the world. Henry Ridgwell has more …

A study shows there has been a tenfold increase in the number of obese and overweight children and adolescents worldwide in just 40 years. In one of the biggest epidemiological studies ever undertaken, scientists with the World Health Organization and Imperial College London analyzed height and weight data for 130 …

Spacewalking astronauts hustled through a lube job and camera swaps outside the International Space Station on Tuesday, their second trip outside in less than a week. Astronaut Mark Vande Hei made fast work of greasing the big robot arm’s new hand. Vande Hei and station commander Randy Bresnik replaced the …

Miroslav Lajcak, president of the 72nd session of the U.N. General Assembly, has an ambitious agenda of global issues he wishes to focus on in the coming year, and moving the implementation of the Paris climate change agreement forward is one of his top priorities. The Slovak diplomat told VOA …

A mass oral cholera vaccination campaign for hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees and host communities is taking place in Bangladesh. The campaign is led by the Ministry of Health and supported by the World Health Organization and U.N. Children’s Fund. In the last week, nearly 10,300 cases of diarrhea …

Washington state sued President Donald Trump on Monday over his decision to let more employers claiming religious or moral objections opt out of providing no-cost birth control to women. State Attorney General Bob Ferguson, who successfully sued to block Trump’s initial travel ban early this year, announced his latest lawsuit …

Environmental groups are outraged over the Trump administration wanting to overturn an Obama-era plan to slash greenhouse gas emissions blamed for global warming. Environmental Protection Agency head Scott Pruitt announced Monday he will scrap the Clean Power Plan, declaring “the war on coal is over.” Climate change skeptic Pruitt made …

A girl saw her mother’s face for the first time. A boy tore through the aisles of Target, marveling at toys he never knew existed. A teen walked onto a stage and watched the stunned expressions of celebrity judges as he wowed America’s Got Talent. Caroline, Cole, Christian. All had …

Surgery plays a major role in diagnosing cancer and finding out how far it may have spread. But soon, instead of waiting for the lab results, surgeons could learn exactly where a tumor is located almost immediately, during surgery, using a device shaped like a pen. VOA’s Deborah Block reports. …

In the United States, the number of amputees is expected to double by 2050. There are similar statistics for the developing world, but many of those places do not have the infrastructure to support those trying to function with a lost limb. One doctor in Uganda is trying to provide …

Howling winds, deadly floods, fire and ice so far this year have pushed the U.S. into a tie for weather disasters that topped $1 billion in damage. There have been 15 costly disasters through September, tying 2011 for the most billion-dollar weather disasters for the first nine months of a …

The Trump administration says it will broaden the scope of an opt-out provision in the Affordable Health Care Act, allowing nonprofits and publicly traded companies to stop offering birth control coverage in the insurance they provide their employees. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services issued the new set …

As an outbreak of pneumonic plague worsens in Madagascar, the World Health Organization and other international agencies are working with the Ministry of Health to stop the spread of the deadly disease.  The latest official figures put the number of cases at 231, including 33 deaths. Pneumonic plague is a …

A global conference organized by the European Union aimed at better protecting marine life has raised more than $7 billion. During the Our Ocean conference that concluded Friday in the Maltese capital of Valletta, the EU committed $645 million to improve marine governance. Representatives from businesses, 112 countries and others …

The World Health Organization is sending 900,000 doses of cholera vaccine to Bangladesh to help prevent a major outbreak of cholera in the crowded Rohingya refugee camp that sits on the border of Bangladesh and Myanmar. At least a half-million Rohingya, a Muslim minority in Myanmar, have crossed the border …

The World Health Organization is sending 900,000 doses of cholera vaccine to Bangladesh to help prevent a major outbreak of cholera. On Oct. 3, the WHO said it could have acted faster to fight a massive, deadly cholera epidemic in Yemen. The announcements came after the agency announced a plan …

Water flows a long and winding path from the sink to the ecosystem, but not before making an all-important stop at a waste water treatment plant. It’s more than just cleaning out dirt and debris we can see; it’s about removing invisible contaminants that could poison nearby waters. Arash Arabasadi …

Greenhouse gas emissions from America’s largest industrial facilities fell 2 percent in 2016 to 2.99 billion tons, led by a large cut from the power sector, according to data published Thursday by the Environmental Protection Agency. The decline, which came in the final year of Barack Obama’s presidency, brings the …

When black rats invaded Lord Howe Island after the 1918 wreck of the steamship Makambo, they wiped out numerous native species on the small Australian isle in the Tasman Sea including a big, flightless insect that resembled a stick. But the Lord Howe Island stick insect, once declared extinct, still …

Seated before the grounded space shuttle Discovery, a constellation of Trump administration officials used soaring rhetoric to vow to send Americans back to the moon and then on to Mars. After voicing celestial aspirations, top officials moved to what National Intelligence Director Dan Coats called “a dark side” to space …

When researchers collected honey samples from around the world, they found that three-quarters of them had a common type of pesticide suspected of playing a role in the decline of bees. Even honey from the island paradise of Tahiti had the chemical. That demonstrates how pervasive a problem the much-debated …