When SpaceX launched a rocket carrying an Argentine Earth-observation satellite from California’s Central Coast, both the night sky and social media lit up.   People as far away as San Francisco, Sacramento, Phoenix and Reno, Nevada, posted photos of the Falcon 9 rocket’s launch and return on October 7 night. It was the first time SpaceX landed the first-stage booster ...

Emergency services in Spain’s Balearic islands say at least five people have died in flooding caused by a torrential rainstorm, with rescuers looking for an unknown number of people still missing. An emergency services spokeswoman said four people died in Sant Lorrenc, a town about 60 kilometers (40 miles) east of Mallorca’s capital, Palma.   The fifth victim was in ...

A court in Guatemala has sentenced the former vice-president, Roxana Baldetti, to 15 years and six months in jail for her role in what became known as the “Magic Water” scandal. Prosecutors said that she embezzled millions from a state fund set up to decontaminate a lake.  The chemical formula used as part of the clean-up was an ineffective solution ...

  The UK’s foreign secretary has told Saudi Arabia that Britain expects urgent answers over the disappearance of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. In a phone call to Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister, Adel al-Jubeir, Jeremy Hunt warned that “friendships depend on shared values”.  Mr Khashoggi was last seen visiting the Saudi consulate in Istanbul last week, and Turkey says he may ...

By: Afzal Sayed Munna: The term poverty is defined in many ways and measured in a commonly used approach of relative income poverty. Often it has been defined in a conventional way where the line of poverty at national level is determined as the level of purchase required maintaining minimum level of calories. This was alternatively defined at international level ...

Penny Mordaunt increases pressure on government not to make concessions to EU Penny Mordaunt has refused to explicitly back Theresa May’s Chequers plan for Brexit, increasing pressure on the government not to make dramatic concessions to Brussels in the crucial days ahead. The international development secretary said she would not give a “running commentary” on the proposals when asked if ...

Revamp of east London site aims to create ‘world’s most joyful museum for children’ The V&A has announced its ambition to create the “world’s most joyful museum” for children and young people in a £13.5m revamp of its east London outpost, the Museum of Childhood. The redevelopment is intended to make the museum more immersive and interactive, to inspire, it hopes, ...

An Afghan official says a Taliban assault in northern Jawzjan province has killed 12 members of the security forces and wounded another 10. Gen. Faqir Mohammad Jawzjani, provincial police chief in Jawzjan, told The Associated Press on Tuesday that the attack took place in Qush Typa district late on Monday.   Jawzjani says the assault was a failed attempt to ...

The International Monetary Fund has warned a trade war between the US and China risks making the world a “poorer and more dangerous place” in its latest assessment of the global economy. The IMF has lowered its forecast for global growth this year and next.   It said that a full-blown trade war between the US and China would put ...

Google is shutting down its long-shunned Plus social network for consumers, following its disclosure of a flaw discovered in March that could have exposed some personal information of up to 500,000 people.   The announcement came in a Monday blog post , which marked Google’s first public description of the privacy bug.  Google deliberately avoided disclosing the problem at the ...