NewsPlexus Media February 25, 2020

Spanish authorities said Sunday that they have closed airports on the Canary Islands because of a wind storm that is blinding the archipelago with sand and dust. Spain's airport authorities said that incoming planes have been rerouted to other destinations and no flights are being allowed to leave airports on the islands' airports.

NewsPlexus Media February 24, 2020

Replicas of Christopher Columbus' Niña and Pinta have arrived along Mississippi's Gulf Coast, sailing into a Biloxi harbor as spectators aimed their phones out to the horizon. About a dozen spectators lined a pier Wednesday as the ships arrived.

NewsPlexus Media February 23, 2020

Volunteers from a Hong Kong theater group are turning their backstage skills to helping fight the new virus, sewing reusable protective face masks for those who can't access or afford them. Jo Ngai, a drama lover and founder of the group Nonsensemakers, along with her friend Jessie Han have turned a theater rehearsal room into a temporary handmade mask factory.

NewsPlexus Media February 22, 2020

The St. Louis Zoo has a new resident, and boy is he cute. The zoo announced Thursday that Teak, a black and white colobus monkey, was born on Feb. 3. Take a look at this cute baby.

NewsPlexus Media February 21, 2020

On Wednesday, Pope Francis seemed to thoroughly enjoy a surprise expression of affection: a long, tender kiss planted on his forehead by a man in one of the front-row seats reserved for ailing or disabled people at the end of his audience.

NewsPlexus Media February 21, 2020

A social media sensation dubbed the “Leaning Tower of Dallas” was born when a portion of a building survived an implosion in Dallas. After the implosion Sunday failed to bring down the core of the 11-story former Affiliated Computer Services building, the online jokes and photos began. Many, inspired by Italy’s Leaning Tower of Pisa, posted photos showing themselves pretending to prop up the lopsided tower.

NewsPlexus Media February 19, 2020

The family that owns a house in southwest England where an artwork from Banksy appeared in time for Valentine's Day has covered the mural after it was defaced. Here's a look at that mural.

NewsPlexus Media February 18, 2020

A Southern California aquarium has successfully bred the rare weedy sea dragon, the lesser known cousin of the sea horse that resembles seaweed when floating.

NewsPlexus Media February 12, 2020

Near-empty villages with abandoned, crumbling houses can be seen all over Serbia — a clear symptom of a shrinking population that is raising acute questions over the economic well-being of the country. The decline is happening so fast it's considered a national emergency and the United Nations has stepped in to help.

NewsPlexus Media February 10, 2020

She might have looked like a black-and- white blur, but this dog is pretty in Pink. Pink the border collie streaked to the Westminster Kennel Club's agility title Saturday night with determination, dazzle and a stream of barks.

NewsPlexus Media February 9, 2020

A 1944 painting by German artist George Grosz that depicts Nazi leader Adolf Hitler as the Bible's fratricidal Cain went on display at the German Historical Museum in Berlin on Tuesday as part of a new permanent exhibition.

NewsPlexus Media February 9, 2020

It took more than 45 years, but 219 paintings thought lost or stolen that include some considered to be among the most significant works Greek Cypriot artists have produced were put on display Monday. One such work by artist George P. Georghiou has been hailed as one of Cyprus' "most iconic paintings."

NewsPlexus Media February 6, 2020

Scholars at a Utah university are trying to unlock a mystery after discovering a nearly 70-year-old transcript of an interview with a notorious brothel owner that is written in a shorthand style that few people can read today.

NewsPlexus Media February 5, 2020

Conservationists working around the largest volcano on the Galapagos Islands say they have found 30 giant tortoises partially descended from two extinct species, including that of the famed Lonesome George.

NewsPlexus Media February 5, 2020

Pennsylvania's most famous groundhog on Sunday declared: "Spring will be early, it's a certainty." At sunrise on Groundhog Day, members of Punxsutawney Phil's top hat-wearing inner circle revealed the cuddly oracle's prediction — his 134th, according to the Pennsylvania Tourism Office.

NewsPlexus Media February 2, 2020

NASA is pulling the plug on one of its great observatories — the Spitzer Space Telescope — after 16 years of scanning the universe with infrared eyes. The end came Thursday when ground controllers put the aging spacecraft into permanent hibernation. Here's a look at some of the images Spitzer captured over the years.

NewsPlexus Media February 1, 2020

Pit and Paule, the new star attractions at Berlin's zoo, have made their first foray into the limelight, climbing and tumbling around their cub-proof indoor enclosure to the delight of the cameras.

NewsPlexus Media January 31, 2020

A telescope in Hawaii has produced its first images of the sun, revealing its turbulent gas surface in what scientists called unprecedented detail.

NewsPlexus Media January 31, 2020

In a nearly seven-hour operation, Russia's emergency services rescued 536 ice fishermen after they got stranded on a giant ice floe that broke off the island of Sakhalin in eastern Siberia, officials said.

NewsPlexus Media January 30, 2020

It's Lincoln the goat versus Sammy the dog in the race for honorary mayor of one Vermont town. The Nubian goat had won the post in Fair Haven, Vermont, last year after the town manager came up with the pet mayor election to raise money to rehabilitate a community playground and to get kids civically involved.

NewsPlexus Media January 28, 2020

Turkish emergency teams on Monday recovered the bodies of the last two missing quake victims from the rubble of a collapsed building, raising the death toll from the powerful tremor that hit eastern Turkey to 41. The magnitude 6.8 earthquake that struck Friday night also injured more than 1,600 others, authorities said. At least 45 survivors have been pulled out of the rubble alive.

NewsPlexus Media January 28, 2020

Two baby pandas born at Berlin's zoo have been chipped and checked in preparation for their first public outing in a few days, officials said Monday.

NewsPlexus Media January 28, 2020

As his long-lost son walked toward him in an airport terminal, a sobbing David Xol stretched out his arms, fell to one knee and embraced the boy for about three minutes, crying into his shoulder. He had not held the child since May 2018, when border agents pulled then-7-year-old Byron away inside a detention facility. They were separated under President Donald Trump's zero-tolerance policy — the father deported to Guatemala, the son placed in a series of government facilities before ending up with a host family in Texas. Xol was one of nine parents who won the exceedingly rare chance to return to the U.S. after being deported under family separation.

NewsPlexus Media January 27, 2020

The Cincinnati Zoo is using the third birthday of its beloved hippo, born premature, as a way to raise money for Australian wildlife affected by the recent bushfires.

NewsPlexus Media January 26, 2020

The results are finally in for the first chocolate chip cookie bake-off in space. While looking more or less normal, the best cookies required two hours of baking time last month up at the International Space Station. It takes far less time on Earth, under 20 minutes.

NewsPlexus Media January 24, 2020

The most serious outbreak of locusts in 25 years is spreading across East Africa and posing an unprecedented threat to food security in some of the world's most vulnerable countries, authorities say. Unusual climate conditions are partly to blame. The locust swarms hang like shimmering dark clouds on the horizon in some places. Roughly the length of a finger, the insects fly together by the millions and are devouring crops and forcing people in some areas to bodily wade through them.

NewsPlexus Media January 23, 2020

A pigeon wearing a tiny sombrero in Reno, Nevada, was discovered following sightings of its cowboy hat-wearing cousins in Las Vegas, a city manager said. Reno City Manager Sabra Newby tweeted about the bird Wednesday, saying it's quirky and fun but still inhumane.

NewsPlexus Media January 22, 2020

Art experts have confirmed that a painting discovered hidden inside an Italian art gallery's walls last month is Gustav Klimt's "Portrait of a Lady," which was stolen from the gallery nearly 23 years ago. The authentication of the painting announced Friday solved one of the art world's enduring mysteries — where did the missing work end up? — but left several questions unanswered, including who had taken it and whether it ever left the museum's property.

NewsPlexus Media January 22, 2020

Specialist firefighters have saved the world's last remaining wild stand of a prehistoric tree from wildfires that razed forests west of Sydney, officials said Thursday.

NewsPlexus Media January 23, 2020

Australia’s unprecedented wildfires season has so far charred 40,000 square miles of brushland, rainforests, and national parks — killing by one estimate more than a billion wild animals. Scientists fear some of the island continent’s unique and colorful species may not recover. For others, they are trying to throw lifelines.

NewsPlexus Media January 22, 2020

Tulip growers in the Netherlands beat back winter — if only for a day — with a riotous explosion of color Saturday as they turned an Amsterdam square into a multi-colored feast for cold-dulled senses to mark National Tulip Day. Several thousand people converged on Dam Square in front of the Royal Palace to enjoy and pick the 200,000 free tulips, making gorgeous bunches for themselves from the rainbow of vibrant colors on offer.

NewsPlexus Media January 22, 2020

Newfoundland's premier asked for the Canadian military's help Saturday as residents of the province's capital struggled to tunnel out from homes buried by the heaviest snowfall ever recorded in St. John's. Premier Dwight Ball said he had asked for the federal government's assistance, including mobilizing the armed forces, after the blizzard battered eastern Newfoundland.

NewsPlexus Media January 20, 2020

It's the second-most active volcano in the Philippines, a designated permanent danger zone long declared off-limits to human settlements. Yet to more than 5,000 people the Taal volcano is home.

NewsPlexus Media January 19, 2020

The decade that just ended was by far the hottest ever measured on Earth, capped off by the second-warmest year on record, two U.S. agencies reported Wednesday. And scientists said they see no end to the way man-made climate change keeps shattering records.

NewsPlexus Media January 19, 2020

Two beekeepers staged a sticky protest Wednesday outside Germany's Agriculture Ministry against the continued use of a controversial herbicide. Sebastian and Camille Seusing poured a bucket of honey onto the ministry steps, saying it was contaminated with high levels of glyphosate that was sprayed onto fields near their apiculture business in Brandenburg state, which surrounds Berlin.

NewsPlexus Media January 17, 2020

A 102-year-old man who is Indiana's oldest state employee is retiring after nearly six decades on the job, saying that “your body tells you when it's time to go.” Bob Vollmer plans to report to work for the last time Feb. 6 as a surveyor for the Indiana Department of Natural Resources.

NewsPlexus Media January 14, 2020

A small volcano near the Philippine capital that draws tourists for its picturesque setting in a lake erupted with a massive plume of ash and steam Sunday, prompting the evacuation of tens of thousands of people and forcing Manila's international airport to shut down.

NewsPlexus Media January 14, 2020

Activists placed hundreds of painted-red women's shoes on Mexico City's sun-drenched main square Saturday to call attention to gender-based violence in a country where, on average, 10 women and girls are murdered each day and less than 10 percent of the cases are ever solved.

NewsPlexus Media January 14, 2020

Rare salt formations have been documented for the first time on the shores of the Great Salt Lake, and they could yield insights about salt structures found on Mars before they disappear for good. They're showing up now in part because water levels at the largest natural lake west of the Mississippi have been lowered by drought and water diversion, exposing more shoreline. It's a story that's playing out throughout the American West as a growing population puts more demand on scarce water resources.

NewsPlexus Media January 13, 2020

Tokyo Olympic athletes beware — particularly larger ones. The bed frames in the Athletes Village at this year's Olympics will be made of cardboard. Sturdy cardboard.

NewsPlexus Media January 12, 2020

With a brass band playing and a parade of workers sporting Mardi Gras beads, a huge component of a new rocket system was wheeled slowly from a New Orleans spacecraft factory on Wednesday to a barge that will float it up the Mississippi River for testing.

NewsPlexus Media January 12, 2020

A baby gray whale heading south with its mother was spotted swimming alongside dolphins and sea lions off the Southern California coast.

NewsPlexus Media January 11, 2020

Thousands of Orthodox Christian worshippers plunged into the icy waters of rivers and lakes across Bulgaria on Monday to retrieve crucifixes tossed by priests in Epiphany ceremonies commemorating the baptism of Jesus Christ. By tradition, the person who retrieves the wooden cross will be freed from evil spirits and will be healthy throughout the year.

NewsPlexus Media January 11, 2020

The official posters are out for this year's Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics. The 20 posters have been created by 19 artists in fields ranging from painting, graphic design and photography. Calligraphy and Japanese manga are also represented.

NewsPlexus Media January 5, 2020

During Romania's communist era, children with disabilities were shunned, often locked away in institutions or kept at home and deprived of schooling and social interactions. Recent shows in which children with Down syndrome had the starring roles illustrate how much that has changed since communism fell in 1989.

NewsPlexus Media January 5, 2020

Here's your look at highlights from the weekly AP photo report, a gallery featuring a mix of front-page photography, the odd image you might have missed and lasting moments our editors think you should see.

NewsPlexus Media January 14, 2020

A newly forged steel instrument that can pinpoint the path of stars and planets across the night sky using the naked eye is a throwback to the years just before the advent of telescopes, returning stargazers in the hills of northern New Mexico to the essentials of astronomy in the past. Installed at St. John's College by graduates, the device is a remake of long-lost originals devised by Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe in the late 16th century to chart the location of stars and the orbits of planets.

NewsPlexus Media January 6, 2020

It's a rite of passage in schools across the U.S.: frog dissection. Sometimes it happens in middle school, sometimes in high school. Feelings about the lesson are generally summed up in one word: gross. One Florida high school recently tried to eliminate the gross-out factor by using fake, yet highly realistic, frogs.

NewsPlexus Media January 5, 2020

Huddleston native Beth Bays has been making giant hay bale sculptures for the last eight years. Her most memorable ones include characters from “The Wizard of Oz” and the Virginia Tech Hokie bird mascot. But her latest work, “Will-Hay Nelson," really struck a chord in the community upon its debut in November.

NewsPlexus Media January 5, 2020

Some people spent part of their New Year's Eve trapped on a Washington state highway after tumbleweeds blocked their route, authorities said.