Members of the Arctic Sunrise crew, known internationally as the "Arctic 30," were freed on Wednesday by Russia's government. Charges against them were dropped as part of the amnesty reform passed by parliament, which many speculate is an attempt to …

A Utah couple is suing their county — confusingly, also called Utah — because the county is refusing to provide marriage licenses to same-sex couples. Shelly Eyre said that the Utah County's refusal to provide a license to her and her partner, Cheryl…

Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood is certainly not having a very merry Christmas: the country's interim government declared the group a terrorist organization today, dealing the final blow to the organization's short-lived foray into the democratic process.…

In his first Christmas address, Pope Francis called on Atheists to join believers in the question for "a homemade peace." The pope's first "Urbi et Orbi" — to the city and world — address focused on peace around the world, particularly in the Central…

Pope Francis got a great present just in time for his first Christmas at the Vatican. A CNN/ORC International poll that found his approval rating is a super-high 88 percent among American Catholics. Now, an 88 might just be a below-average grade at H…

Queen Elizabeth II pardoned British mathematician Alan Turing for his 1952 conviction for homosexuality Thursday, in a rare gesture. Turing is widely considered a father of computer science for his development of the Turing test, a way of evaluating …

Did your mother abstain from the gooey goodness of peanut butter while pregnant with you? If you're now allergic, a new study suggests that might be part of the reason why. According to the study, published in the JAMA Pediatrics journal, the more nu…

Bad news out of Iowa State: Dong-Pyou Han, who served as an assistant professor at the university, apparently faked the results of an HIV vaccine trial by spiking rabbit blood with human antibodies. His results got millions more in research dollars f…

In case you missed it, here are some of the week's top stories in religion: Pope Francis got some big news this week when he was named Time magazine's person of the year. In Oklahoma, a blurring of the lines between church and state led satanists and…

Everyone wants to claim the late Nelson Mandela as a friend, but not everyone is willing to go as far as Kenyan senator Mike Sonko. The attention-seeking senator thought no one would notice that he, ahem, altered a photo of arguably the most talked a…

Just one day after India's Supreme Court overturned a lower court ruling and reinstated a colonial law banning gay sex, government officials now say they are considering repealing the law via the legislative process. Various high-ranking officials of…

This is not good: the World Health Organization's International Agency for Research on Cancer reports that the number of global cancer diagnoses each year has risen to over 14 million. That's a rise of over 1 million cases from 2008, when the global …

On Tuesday, stoners the world over rejoiced that Uruguay had decided to legalize marijuana — but celebrations may be short-lived. A United Nations drug-watchdog group has declared that the small South American nation is violating international law wi…

American Hindus are joining Satanists as the latest religious group to ask for a monument to their faith at Oklahoma's state capitol. The Universal Society of Hinduism is planning to ask Oklahoma's State Capitol Preservation Commission for permission…

Ding, dong, another evil revenge porn website is dead. California Attorney General Kamala Harris announced this week that the owner of the revenge porn website ugotposted.com has been arrested. Twenty-seven year old Kevin Bollaert was charged with 31…

On Wednesday, the Supreme Court of India issued a ruling reinstating the country's ban on homosexual sex. A lower court had decriminalized the practice four years ago, overturning a colonial law known as Section 377, which banned "carnal acts against…

For those who thought Edward Snowden had it in the bag, you were wrong: TIME magazine named Pope Francis 2013's Person of the Year Wednesday. Egypt's not-really-democratic leader, General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, won the reader poll with 26.2 percent of…

Good news for journalistic freedom: The New York Court of Appeals ruled today that Jana Winter, a Fox News reporter who covered the Aurora movie theater shooting last year, will be protected under New York's shield laws from having to disclose the na…

A new study suggests that Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder can be transmitted via television images. Though the disorder has been on the psychiatric radar for over two decades, this is the first study to suggest that people outside the immediate impact…

Something sketchy is afoot at Google. The company’s “Don’t be Evil” motto is failing, some say, due to Google’s new investment in the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). Why? Because ALEC is downright right-wing. Among its benefactors is co…