Should all of [Greenland’s] ice sheet ever thaw, the meltwater could raise sea level 21 feet and swamp the world’s coastal cities, home to a billion people … the glaciers of Greenland are melting...

A fundamentalist Muslim whom the U.S. suspects of collaborating with Al Qaeda terrorists was named Saturday as the new leader of an Islamist militia that has seized control of [Mogadishu]. The militia … appointed...

At least 50,000 Iraqis have died violently since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion … a toll 20,000 higher than previously acknowledged by the Bush administration … Proportionately, it is equivalent to 570,000 Americans being killed...

Petaluma animal control workers expected to find a horde of cats when they knocked on the door of a 67-year-old man whose neighbor complained of stench … About 1,000 pet rats — ranging from...

In his online blog, Townshend described how a boy and girl, both aged 16, engage in a sex act. One not-so-graphic part read: “She had splendid breasts for such an elfin girl: loose, low...

After a comprehensive review of climate change data, the [US]’s preeminent scientific body found that average temperatures on Earth had risen by about 1 degree over the last century, a development that “is unprecedented...

An off-target Israeli airstrike in the central Gaza Strip killed a pregnant woman and her brother Wednesday and wounded at least 15 other civilians, including three children … A 1-year-old child was also critically...

Toxoplasma gondii looks as if it ought to be the most famous parasite on earth. This single-celled pathogen infects over half the world’s population, including an estimated 50 million Americans. Each of Toxoplasma’s victims...

A week ago, when Mexico and Iran were still playing the first half of their World Cup soccer match, gunmen allied with the Islamic courts burst into a tiny theater in the Hiliwaa neighborhood...

So while we were in Barcelona I noticed lots of posters about a nationhood referendum for Catalunya. Apparently it passed, with Catalonia declaring itself a full nation and not just an “autonomous region” of...