The Nobel memorial prize in economics has been awarded to three U.S.-based academics who studied why some countries are rich and others poor and have documented that freer, open societies are more likely to prosper.

The Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to Nihon Hidankyo, a Japanese organization of survivors of the U.S. atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, for its activism against nuclear weapons.

An interim government in Bangladesh has signed the instrument of accession to an international convention of the United Nations aiming at preventing enforced disappearances as a state party.

A Philippine appeals court has reversed a regulator’s 2018 order to shut down a prominent news outlet, marking a legal victory for journalists who angered former President Rodrigo Duterte by reporting critically on his deadly crackdown on illegal drugs and alarming human rights record.

A heartfelt letter written by author John Steinbeck offering paternal advice to his teenage son who was experiencing love for the first time has sold at auction for more than $32,000.

Nobel laureate Louise Glück is still breaking new ground at age 79.

Poland’s prime minister says he’s given instructions for the government to buy a house in France where the Nobel-winning scientist couple Marie Sklodowska-Curie and Pierre Curie spent holidays and weekends from 1904-1906.

Vice President Kamala Harris participates in a swearing-in ceremony with Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Yellen's husband George Akerlof, Tuesday, Jan. 26, 2021, at the White House in Washington. “In addition to the pandemic, the country is also facing a climate crisis, a crisis of systemic racism and an economic crisis that has been building for fifty years,” Yellen said in her message. Yellen became the third of Biden's Cabinet nominees to win Senate approval on a vote of 84-15 late Monday. Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, told Yellen that Biden’s plan represented a “laundry list of liberal structural economic reforms.”As Treasury secretary, Yellen, 74, will occupy a pivotal role in shaping and directing Biden’s economic policies. Since leaving the Fed, Yellen has been a distinguished fellow in residence at the Brookings Institution, a liberal Washington think tank.

(AP Photo/Peter Dejong)THE HAGUE – World leaders are converging — virtually — on the Netherlands Monday for a summit that will seek to galvanize more action and funding to adapt the planet and vulnerable communities to the effects of climate change. The Netherlands-based Global Center on Adaptation last week called on governments and financers around the globe to include funding for adaptation projects in their COVID-19 recovery spending. Kaag said that by using new and existing adaptation techniques, “we can build a climate-proof future together and promote sustainable economic growth in all parts of Africa.”British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will use the Climate Adaptation Summit to announce a new Adaptation Action Coalition that brings together more than 120 countries along with the European Union and nearly 90 other organizations to double down on climate adaptation efforts. Biden, in his first hours in office Wednesday, signed an executive order returning the United States to the Paris climate accord. It reversed the withdrawal by President Donald Trump, who ridiculed the science of human-caused climate change.

In this Sunday, Dec. 6, 2020, photo provided by Nobel Prize Outreach, Louise Glck stands beside the medal awarded to her for the 2020 Nobel Prize in Literature outside her home in Cambridge, Mass. The pomp and ceremony of the Nobel prize ceremonies were altered this year amid measures to slow the spread of the coronavirus. (Daniel Ebersole/ Nobel Prize Outreach via AP)STOCKHOLM – The pomp and ceremony of the Nobel prize ceremonies have been reined in this year amid measures to slow the spread of the coronavirus. Instead, their achievements will be recognized and rewarded at low-key ceremonies where they live and work in Europe and the United States. A Nobel prize comes with a 10-milion krona ($1.1 million) cash award — to be shared in some cases — diplomas and gold medals.

Ambassador to China Terry Branstad makes comments about pro-democracy activist and Nobel Laureate Liu Xiaobo during a photocall and remarks to journalists at the Ambassador's residence in Beijing. Pompeo thanked Branstad for more than three years of service on Twitter on Monday, Sept. 14, 2020. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan, File)BEIJING – The U.S. ambassador to China appears to be leaving his post, based on tweets posted Monday by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Pompeo thanked Ambassador Terry Branstad on Twitter for his more than three years of service. “Ambassador Branstad has contributed to rebalancing U.S.-China relations so that it is results-oriented, reciprocal, and fair,” Pompeo wrote.

STOCKHOLM, Sweden - The 2019 Nobel Prize for Medicine has been jointly awarded to William Kaelin Jr, Sir Peter Ratcliffe and Gregg Semenza for their pioneering research into how human cells respond to changing oxygen levels. Announcing the prize at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm on Monday, the Nobel committee said that the trio's discoveries have paved the way for "promising new strategies to fight anaemia, cancer and many other diseases." The 2019 medicine laureates, the committee added, have identified molecular machinery that regulates the activity of genes in response to varying levels of oxygen. This is a breaking news story, more to follow. The-CNN-Wire & 2019 Cable News Network, Inc., a Time Warner Company.