John Legend is expected on a Massachusetts college campus this week to receive a social justice award.   The singer-songwriter becomes the first recipient of the Salem Advocate for Social Justice award when he accepts the honor Tuesday at Salem …

An English policeman wearing a gorilla costume while crawling the London Marathon has finally finished the race, almost a week after starting.   Metropolitan Police officer Tom Harrison, who goes by the name “Mr. Gorilla,” raised a reported 26,000 pounds …

April 30 is International Jazz Day, with events and concerts being held throughout the world. It also marks the end of Jazz Appreciation Month in the United States. Sponsored by the National Museum of American History, it’s designed to stimulate …

An award-winning Iranian filmmaker imprisoned over his work has been released after serving about five months of his yearlong sentence, though he doesn’t know whether he’ll make movies again in the Islamic Republic.   Keywan Karimi told The Associated Press …

Once they acclimate to their new environment, overcoming language, social and cultural barriers, refugees in the U.S. often thrive. Some translate their experiences into assets that are valuable to their new community, as did Parvin and Yadollah Jamalreza. VOA’s June …

Al Pacino was considered too short, Marlon Brando was required to do a screen test, and director Francis Ford Coppola was almost fired. The director and cast of The Godfather reminisced Saturday in a 45th anniversary reunion in New York …

Growth in China’s manufacturing sector slowed in April, official data showed Sunday, pointing to an unsteady recovery in the world’s second-largest economy.    The monthly purchasing managers’ index by the Chinese Federation of Logistics and Purchasing fell to 51.2 in …

The White House press corps gathered Saturday for its annual black-tie dinner, a toned-down affair this year after Donald Trump snubbed the event, becoming the first incumbent U.S. president to bow out in 36 years. Without Trump, who scheduled a …

Every year, an estimated 15 million babies are born prematurely. It’s believed 1 million children die around the world each year of complications of pre-term birth. Researchers at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia may have developed a technology that could …

During a recent visit to Wisconsin, President Donald Trump announced he was signing an Executive Order reviewing the visa program that brings many technical workers to the United States, known as the H1B visa. About 85,000 workers come to the …

Thousands of environmental activists marched in the U.S. capital Saturday to try to draw support for climate-related causes. The People’s Climate March was meant to coincide with President Donald Trump’s 100th day in office, according to its organizers, who have …

If you’ve been walking through downtown Nairobi lately, you may have seen Moses Odhiambo. The 29-year-old self-taught saxophonist has been drawing crowds and inspiring a love of music in young people who, like himself, are growing up on the streets. …

San Antonio, Texas, is home to the greatest concentration of Catholic missions in North America, including The Alamo, the state’s first mission dating to 1718. The most visited historic landmark in Texas was also a fort and the site of …

A hacker claims to have stolen the upcoming season of Netflix’s hit series “Orange Is The New Black,” and is demanding that the video streaming service pay an unspecified ransom to prevent all the new episodes from being prematurely released …

President Donald Trump is re-opening for oil exploration areas that President Barack Obama had closed, a move that environmental groups have promised to fight. In an executive order Friday, the president reversed the Obama administration’s decision to prohibit oil and …

A group of experts meeting at the World Health Organization (WHO) recommend a promising experimental Ebola vaccine in future outbreaks of this fatal disease.  The 2013 Ebola outbreak in West Africa killed 11,300 people, highlighting the need for a vaccine …

Facebook is acknowledging that governments or other malicious non-state actors are using its social network to sway political sentiment, including elections. That’s a long way from CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s assertion in November that the idea that bogus information on Facebook …

United Nations officials say at least 11 people have died from a mysterious illness in Liberia, and tests have been negative for the Ebola virus. The World Health Organization said Friday that authorities are looking into whether the people were …

The latest economic data indicate the U.S. economy is growing at the slowest rate in three years. The GDP or gross domestic product, the broadest measure of all goods and services produced in the country, increased at a disappointing 0.7 …

Another protest march will take place in Washington Saturday. The People’s Climate March targets President Donald Trump’s efforts to undo action on climate change. A movement that began with a few scientists has grown to include everyone from low-income people …