Four in a marriage: Vicki Darger says that her husband has a 'higher purpose' Vicki Darger has a spacious home in the suburbs, her children attend public school and she couldn’t live without her Blackberry. Her life seems utterly unexclamatory. But, look a little further and it’s clear that Vicki lives a highly unconventional married life. Her husband, Joe, has fathered 24 children... 

An optometrist checks the eye for glaucoma: The condition is one of the most common causes of blindness in the UK. Cocaine users are 45% more likely to develop glaucoma (blindness) even if they’ve given up the drug. People who take cocaine or are former users are 45 per cent more likely to develop a common form of blindness, a large study has found. Researchers also found they developed glaucoma... 

Is greed good? Research from the U.S. suggests inequality in a culture makes that society stronger Are greedy bankers good for society? Egalitarian civilisations ‘are weaker’ than those with inequality. Shortages of food affected the poor more, but the upper classes were able to maintain hierarchies. In equal societies everyone suffered the same, making those cultures less able to adapt... 

Britain’s Indian Summer is set to be abruptly interrupted as Hurricane Ophelia’s remnants bring four days of gales and torrential rains across the country. The hurricane, currently affecting the United States, is expected to hit with 65mph gusts, potentially rivaling the strength of Hurricane Katia that devastated parts of Britain last month. Jonathan Powell, a senior forecaster at Positive... 

By day, a red tide is unsightly and uninviting, with water the color of coffee. But at night, during this unusual phenomenon caused by a plankton bloom, the waves are a brilliant, almost neon blue. This wonderfully surreal scene has played out almost nightly along San Diego beaches for several weeks, luring spectators with cameras and video recorders. The bioluminescence is caused by a chemical reaction... 

Therapy: Thomas Lobel, who now calls himself Tammy, is undergoing controversial hormone blocking treatment. Parents say it’s better for Thomas to have sex change before he is adult. The lesbian parents of an 11-year-old boy who is undergoing the process of becoming a girl last night defended the decision, claiming it was better for a child to have a sex change when young. Thomas Lobel, who now... 

A child of a salt pan worker plays on the parched dry bed in the Khadaghoda Sector in the Little Rann of Kutch. Devastated by one of the worst droughts in decades, farming does not get much tougher than in India where thousands left with poor harvests and big debts have been driven to take their own lives. ­Sadly, the government has turned a blind eye to the growing problem. The farmlands in Telangana... 

Shows Paul beating President in head-to-head matchup. In a new Harris Poll, 2012 Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul beats President Obama 51 percent to 49 percent in a general election race. “This is yet another poll that clearly proves how competitive Ron Paul is against the sitting President,” said Ron Paul 2012 National Campaign Chairman Jesse Benton. “Dr. Paul is making strides,... 

19-month-old Alex Tesoriero is pictured with his parents Lisa and John at their home in North Balgowlah, on Sydney's northern beaches. He was born 11 weeks premature, weighing just 437 grams, and the tubes that kept him alive have left him with a physical aversion to anything going near his mouth or face. He’s the boy who simply won’t eat. Ironically, he is fed through a tube directly... 

New bouncer molecule halts rheumatoid arthritis – Protective protein prevents immune system from ravaging joints and bones. According to the US Department of Agriculture – Agricultural Research Service, Zinc helps increase the levels of the P21 Protein, therefore helps against Rheumatoid Arthritis. Researchers at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine have discovered why the... 

Saudi King Abdullah Saudi King Abdullah said on Sunday that women in Saudi Arabia are now allowed to vote, run in municipal elections and be appointed to the consultative Shura Council, local media reported. “Because we refuse to marginalize women in society in all roles that comply with sharia, we have decided, after deliberation with our senior ulama [clerics] and others… to involve women... 

A widespread power failure has left 10 million people across Chile without electricity, exposing the fragility of the energy grid in the world’s top copper producer. The blackout, which paralyzed large areas of the country, was sparked by a problem in the Chile’s national grid on Saturday. It occurred at 8:30 p.m. local time (23:30 GMT) and affected a 1,300-kilometer stretch of the narrow,... 

Recently, scientists from Bristol University (UK) and the Carnegie Institution (USA) found that virtually the entire globe is involved in the “production” of diamonds, except, perhaps, the nucleus. In a Brazilian mine minerals were discovered that appear to have formed at the depths of 400-660 kilometers from the surface of our planet.
 Even those who never touched a diamond know that... 

Two experienced Lancashire social workers say that in their estimation there are 20,000 bigamous or polygamous unions in the UK. Ghulam is a taxi driver who lives in Blackburn, a once-booming textile town in Lancashire. He has a terrace house near his local mosque (one of 53 in the area), a silver Nissan car and a very complex private life. For he has so many children that he struggles to remember... 

Ivar Giaever The global warming theory left him out in the cold. Dr. Ivar Giaever, a former professor with Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and the 1973 winner of the Nobel Prize in physics, abruptly announced his resignation Tuesday, Sept. 13, from the premier physics society in disgust over its officially stated policy that “global warming is occurring.” The official position of the American...