During Europe’s heat wave last month, Floriana Peroni’s vintage clothing store had to close for a week. A truck of rented generators blocked her door as they fed power to the central Roman neighborhood hit by a blackout as temperatures surged. The main culprit: air conditioning. The period — in… Read More

A goal post saved the United States from elimination at the Women’s World Cup. Ana Capeta nearly scored for Portugal in stoppage time but her shot hit the left post and the United States escaped with a uninspiring 0-0 draw Tuesday night that got them through — just barely —… Read More

A zoo in eastern China is denying suggestions some of its bears might be people in costumes after photos of the animals standing like humans circulated online. The sun bears from Malaysia are smaller than other bears and look different but are the real thing, the Hangzhou Zoo said Monday… Read More

Wildfires whipped on by strong winds triggered a series of major explosions Thursday at an air force ammunition dump in central Greece, but no injuries were reported as the site had been safely evacuated in advance, officials said. Fires have raged across parts of Greece during three successive Mediterranean heat… Read More

The chief executive of NatWest, one of Britain’s biggest banks, left her job on Wednesday after discussing personal details of a client — the populist politician Nigel Farage — with a journalist amid a furor over financial institutions’ power to refuse customers for their political views. The bank said Alison… Read More

A NASA power outage disrupted communication between Mission Control and the International Space Station on Tuesday. Mission Control couldn’t send commands to the station and talk with the seven astronauts in orbit. The power outage hit as upgrade work was underway in the building at Houston’s Johnson Space Center. Sponsored:… Read More

The city itself will be one of the brightest stars at the Paris Olympics, with ceremonies on the Seine, beach volleyball by the Eiffel Tower and a marathon route that passes through Versailles. In the end, though, it will be the 10,500 athletes who will grab the spotlight once the… Read More

The Taliban announced Tuesday that all beauty salons in Afghanistan must now close as a one-month deadline ended, despite rare public opposition to the edict. Sadiq Akif Mahjer, spokesman for the Taliban-run Virtue and Vice Ministry, did not say whether it would use force against salons that do not comply…. Read More