Krocky Meshkin calls himself a “paranormal street photographer.” The Los Angeles-based photographer loves to capture real moments on real city streets … with a mysterious twist. He’s the mastermind behind“Headless Sightings” — a quirky, surreal photo series that features headless figures walking among the general public in L.A. MORE

A California man is still fighting to be compensated by a local dry cleaner that he says has repeatedly used homophobic slurs and abusive language — quoted below — in its refusal to pay for his damaged throw pillow. MORE

Greece’s debt mountain is due to reach 180% of GDP in 2015 – the highest in the 19-member eurozone. The country owes the International Monetary Fund €9.2bn in loan repayments in 2015, this amount could buy 266 Challenger 2 tanks and maintain them for a lifetime.

Pope Francis praised Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas as an “angel of peace” during a meeting Saturday at the Vatican that underscored the Holy See’s warm relations with the Palestinians.

Francis made the compliment during the traditional exchange of gifts at the end of an official audience in the Apostolic Palace. He presented Abbas with a medallion and explained that it represented the “angel of peace destroying the bad spirit of war.” MORE

Literally millions of people take vitamins in the hopes that doing so will improve their health – but scientific evidence has pointed to vitamin supplementation being useless or worse. MORE

But across the country (and beyond), front-line pro-family groups and major activistshave been disappearing from the scene. Their knowledge, skills, and energy can’t be replaced.

The latest casualty was Bill Whatcott, a superb Canadian activist who even won important court cases in Canada’s infamous “human rights tribunals.” In March, Bill finally moved overseas because he could no longer support himself in that work. His fundraising skills didn’t match his activist skills. MORE

The Catholic Church in Germany is taking a stand for its remarried, lesbian, and gay employees.

More than two-thirds of Germany’s 27 Roman Catholic dioceses voted in favor of relaxing the morality clauses in employee contracts, a church spokesman confirmed toReuters on Tuesday.

The change means that getting remarried after a divorce or being part of a same-sex union is no longer grounds for automatic dismissal from a job at a church institution. MORE

Mr. Duncan knows more about the Catholic Church than the pope!

“It’s interesting how the Vatican has gotten so political when ultimately the Vatican ought to be working to lead people to Jesus Christ and salvation, and that’s what the Church is supposed to do,” said Rep. Jeff Duncan (R-S.C.), a hawkish defender of Israel.  MORE

Poultry producers and scientists have been hoping warmer weather would knock down a virulent strain of bird flu that has hammered the Midwest, but the virus recently took its biggest toll yet, hitting a farm in Iowa that held nearly 10 percent of the state’s egg-laying chickens. Here are some questions and answers about the outbreak: MORE

An Estonian military official told Ahmed Rashid of The New York Review of Books just how close we came to catastrophe when he revealed that a Russian fighter jet only just avoided a mid-air collision with a U.S. military plane. The narrowly avoided incident could have set off a chain of events which led to the invasion of Estonia and a descent into World War Three. MORE

What are we going to do once all the water is gone?  Thanks to the worst drought in more than 1,000 years, the western third of the country is facing the greatest water crisis that the United States has ever seen.  Lake Mead is now the lowest that it has ever been since the Hoover Dam was finished in the 1930s, mandatory water restrictions have already been implemented in the state of California, and there are already widespread reports of people stealing water in some of the worst hit areas.  But this is just the beginning. MORE

At least nine people have been injured and dozens of homes damaged in a hailstorm in southern Germany. There were reports of hailstones the size of golf balls in the state of Baden-Wuerttemberg. MORE