Delegates at a U.N. wildlife conference in Geneva voted Sunday to ban the practice of taking baby elephants from their natural habitat and placing them in zoos and circuses. Forty-six countries at the UN Convention ion International Trade in Endangered Species voted to outlaw the practice, white 18 voted against it, including the United States. Nineteen abstained. The ban proclaims entertainment venues to be “unacceptable and inappropriate destinations” for elephants.…

The U.S. has opened up secret communications with Venezuela’s socialist party boss as members of President Nicolas Maduro’s inner circle seek guarantees they won’t face retribution if they cede to growing demands to remove him, a senior administration official has told The Associated Press.   Diosdado Cabello, who is considered the most-powerful man in Venezuela after Maduro, met last month in Caracas with someone who is in close contact with…

Mourners in Iceland gathered Sunday to bid a final farewell to 700-year-old Okjokull, the first Icelandic glacier lost to climate change. After about 100 people, including Iceland’s Prime Minister Katrin Jakobsdottir, Environment Minister Gudmundur Ingi Gudbrandsson, and former Irish President Mary Robinson, made a two-hour hike up the Ok volcano for the ceremony. Children installed a memorial plaque to the glacier, now called just “Ok,” its name missing “jokull”, the…

Back-to-back mass shootings in the U.S. have re-ignited passionate debates about gun control in America. But there are other efforts underway to protect people from gun violence– like the creation of an intelligent building designed to handle an active shooter situation. Engineers and computer scientists at the University of Southern California are using virtual reality to help them design buildings that can protect its occupants.  Elizabeth Lee has more from…

Authorities in Afghanistan say the death toll has risen to more than 63 and injured to 183 in the overnight suicide bombing at a packed wedding hall in the capital, Kabul. The victims were mostly members of the minority Shi’ite Hazara community.  Afghan Interior Ministry spokesman Nasrat Rahimi confirmed the casualty toll in a statement issued early Sunday, saying women and children were among the victims. There were no immediate…

As back to back mass shootings in the U.S. prompt more difficult debates on gun laws, researchers at University of Southern California (USC) are working on a different, perhaps less controversial method of keeping people inside buildings safe and deterring people who want to commit acts of mass violence.   Design and Behavior Engineers and computer scientists are exploring building design and technology seeking ways to protect people. Recent innovations offer…

New York City police say they’ve apprehended a man suspected of placing two devices that looked like pressure cookers in a subway station.   Chief of Detectives Dermot Shea tweeted Saturday morning that a man seen holding one of the rice cookers in surveillance video was taken into custody.   The discovery of the cookers Friday led to an evacuation and roiled the morning commute.   Police said cameras near…

About 4,000 people have held a rally in Moscow to demand fairness in upcoming city council elections, and solo pickets protesting the exclusion of some opposition and independent candidates are taking place at prominent monuments. The actions Saturday have been much smaller and less heated than recent weekend protests over the issue. Two unauthorized demonstrations were previously harshly broken up by police, with more than 2,000 people detained altogether; a…

Saudi state TV says a fire has been controlled at a massive oil and gas field after a drone attack claimed by Yemen’s Houthi rebels. State TV said the fire struck the Shaybah oil field, which produces some 1 million barrels of crude oil a day.   Saudi-led Coalition Moves Against Separatists in Yemen A fracturing of the alliance could further stall any work toward peace and might deteriorate into…

Thirty years ago, the Iron Curtain dividing Europe lifted.   Next week, German Chancellor Angela Merkel travels to Hungary to commemorate the anniversary of a peace protest on the border with Austria that helped pave the way for the mass flight of East German citizens to the West. The Berlin Wall was torn down three months later, and 1989 went down as an era-changing year that ended the three-decade-long Soviet…