Facts & Trends

Pope Francis has declared Oscar Romero a martyr of the faith, paving the way for the murdered Salvadoran archbishop to be beatified, a step toward sainthood.  A right-wing death squad executed Romero in a hospital chapel in 1980 while he ...

A Canadian man nearly blew off his own head while trying to kill a mouse with a rifle.  Dale Whitmell, 40, tried to crush the scampering rodent with the butt of his rifle, but when he slammed the weapon on ...

"Women deprived of the company of men pine; men deprived of the company of women become stupid." - Anton Chekhov ...

A British woman has abstained from smiling for the last 40 years in an extreme attempt to ward off wrinkles.  Tess Christian, 50, told the Daily Mail that she adopted a permanent poker face as a child to prevent laughter ...

. . . breathing deeply, after a Chinese travel company shipped bags of fresh mountain air to the smog-choked city of Zhengzhou as a treat for residents.  “I felt my baby move right when I breathed in,” said a pregnant woman ...

A major Gates Foundation- backed study found that over 95% of people in 2013 lived with a health problem. The leading issues varied across the 188 countries surveyed: U.S. Back pain Ireland Major depressive disorder Saudi Arabia Diabetes Iraq Iron-deficiency anemia ...

A Chinese fishmonger found a 3-pound live bomb inside a squid he was cutting up.  Police took the squid away and blew it up in a controlled explosion ...

THE PROBLEM Congestion caused by commuters carries an annual price tag of $121 billion in wasted time and fuel costs. The average American who drives to work wastes 38 hours in traffic each year. THE INNOVATION City planning authorities increasingly ...

. . . driving with kids, after police got a 911 call about a woman’s screams issuing from a Massachusetts man’s car, and surrounded him.  Instead of finding a woman in distress, officers discovered several goats in the back seat, and ...

47%: Share of U.S. jobs that are at high risk of becoming automated in the next 20 years, according to Oxford University research ...