Pope Francis wished courage and warmth for the world in his Christmas Eve mass homily, as God is stronger than "darkness and corruption." He also made a phone call to Iraqi refugees who fled ISIS violence, saying that they are "like Jesus" on this night. “Through the course of history, the light that shatters the darkness reveals to us that God is Father and that his patient fidelity is stron [...]

An Arab sheikh seems to think the 'world's poorest president,' Uruguay's Jose Mujica, is in dire need of cash. He's offered $1 million for Mujica's iconic 1987 VW Beetle - but the pot-smoking leader says he will donate the money to the homeless instead. “I didn’t give it any importance,” the humble ex-guerilla leader told a news conference, after the Uruguayan weekly Busqueda broke the st [...]

Pope Francis has promised that your favorite pooch will have a spot in heaven, along with all other animals. He made the vow while comforting a little boy mourning the loss of his dog, according to media reports. During his weekly address in the Vatican's St. Peter's Square, the pope told the boy that “paradise is open to all of God's creatures.” [...]

For the first time in two decades, through a spate of school shootings at the likes of Columbine, Colorado and Newtown, Connecticut, more Americans say it is more important to protect gun rights rather than to increase gun control, Pew Research found. Pew’s latest poll on American attitudes regarding gun rights found that 52 percent of respondents are more concerned about the protection of t [...]

An elevator every 30 seconds will be a feature of future skyscrapers, promises German tech giant ThyssenKrupp. They have unveiled technology that allows more than one car in a single shaft and the lifts can go sideways as well as up and down. The company says its invention will revolutionize modern architecture, because central blocks of elevator shafts – a necessary element of today’s buil [...]

Around 30 percent of the world's population is now obese, while 50 percent is expected to fall into the category by 2030. Meanwhile, 5 percent of global deaths each year are linked to the condition, creating a drag on the global economy. A new report by the McKinsey Global Institute (MGI) revealed the not-so-hidden cost of an increasingly sedentary population that has acquired a bad taste for f [...]

25 years ago, Hungary was being toasted in the West for opening its border with Austria to East Germans, in a move which led to the fall of the Berlin Wall. Now the Western elites are not happy with Budapest which they consider far too independent. The refusal of Prime Minister Viktor Orban and his ruling Fidesz party to join the new US and EU Cold War against Russia, which has seen the Hungari [...]

Hope is a strange beast. Without it life becomes devoid of meaning. Without meaning, existence becomes a chore. Europe's youth lack hope, as an entire generation become victims of political ineptitude and older leaders who simply don't seem to care. Generational struggles have always existed, and angry kids decorated them. From James Dean’s red-jacketed firebrand in ‘Rebel Without a Cause� [...]

The Catholic Church, which previously condemned homosexuality as "intrinsically disordered," is considering embracing homosexual believers, as well as partially accepting same-sex, and other religiously unsanctioned partnerships. [...]

Western nations are fond of using “democracy promotion” as a justification for interfering in other countries, including overthrowing elected leaders (as in Ukraine). But Western democracies themselves often fall short of democratic values, as John Chuckman explains. I read and heard about Hong Kong’s students putting themselves at risk demonstrating for democracy, and my first instinct w [...]

At age 29, Brittany Maynard was diagnosed with aggressive terminal brain cancer and given only six months to live. She has since moved to Oregon, which has a death-with-dignity law, and is advocating for more assisted-death legislation in the US. After suffering from debilitating headaches, Maynard, called a vivacious, adventurous individual from birth by her mother, was diagnosed on Jan. 1 wit [...]

ulian Assange has transcended the confinement of his Ecuadorian embassy asylum to attend the 2014 Nantucket Project – as a hologram. In his ghostly entirety Assange was speaking about censorship, control and manipulation of history. Speaking with filmmaker Eugene Jarecki, Assange closed the 2014 event, sharing his thoughts on importance of research and free access to information, and risks of [...]

When you think of how happy people in a whole country are, what do you take into account? True, country well-being and perception of own happiness depend greatly on the economic situation. But it's Panama that tops Gallup's Global Well-being Index. The Gallup-Healthways index, released for the year 2013, puts the Latin American country at number one, with war-torn Syria and Afghanistan coming i [...]

A group of high-profile trade unions have backed a growing campaign opposed to a new transatlantic trade deal critics claim will make the privatization of Britain's National Health Service (NHS) irreversible. Three of the UK’s largest unions have tendered motions to the Trade Union Congress (TUC) in Liverpool, outlining their opposition to the cross-border agreement currently being negotiated [...]

One person dies as a result of suicide every 40 seconds, according to a new World Health Organization report released on Thursday, citing economic factors and noting that three times as many men as women kill themselves. “Suicide is an amazing public health problem. There is one suicide every 40 seconds -- it is a huge number,” said Shekhar Saxena, director of WHO's mental health department [...]

Spending less time on the sofa lengthens 'telomeres' - the caps on chromosomes which protect the genetic code inside. The best anti-ageing technique could be standing up, scientists believe, after discovering that spending more time on two feet protects DNA. A study found that too much sitting down shortens telomeres, the protective caps which sit at the end of chromosomes. [...]

Support for Scottish independence has risen eight percentage points in a month, and momentum is firmly in its favor. Have the Scots now got the desire to become a nation once again? “A bheil Gàidhlig agaibh? Alba, táim in nGrá leát.” Only about 90,000 people will understand that question, or about two percent of the Scottish population, but the considerably larger (close to 2 million) n [...]

Marsha Coleman-Adebayo recently co-wrote “No Rights that a White Man is Bound to Respect” for Black Agenda Report. She will be speaking at a rally outside the Justice Department Wednesday afternoon “to call on the Attorney General to help secure justice for Michael Brown and the people of Ferguson, Missouri, as well as an overhaul of U.S. law enforcement tactics in order to stop police bruta [...]

The United States is one of only three countries in the world that does not offer a monetary supplement to new mothers on maternity leave from their jobs, according to a United Nations study. The report, prepared by the UN’s International Labor Organization, found that the only two other nations that do not provide cash benefits during maternity leave are the absolute Persian Gulf monarchy Om [...]

Around 110 million Americans are now receiving welfare benefits, including food stamps, Medicaid and subsidized housing. This has prompted calls to raise the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour. A third of Americans are now on welfare benefits, prompting calls to raise the minimum wage and encourage more people to stay in work. [...]

One of the more intriguing and appealing features of Catholicism is confession. This basically means that, in the eyes of Rome, any error or crime, no matter how profound, can be exorcised once a believer receives absolution from a priest. The media has something similar, except it’s known as ‘mea culpa’ culture. Essentially, it allows them to print and broadcast any amount of utter codsw [...]

With the Obama administration already on the defensive about its threat to jail — or impose harsh fines on — New York Times reporter James Risen for refusing to reveal a confidential source, a Washington Post editorial urges the government to end all legal moves against him. The Post editorial (“The Administration Should Not Press Reporter James Risen to Reveal a Source,” August 22) quo [...]