In a country still deeply riven by division over differences — in race, class, political affiliation and more — it is Mpho Tutu’s “sameness” to her new wife that has created a stir.

Tutu (now Tutu-Van Furth) is the daughter of South Africa’s first black archbishop and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, and is really only the “same” as her wife in one way — they are both women. But in almost every other imaginable way, they are different. Tutu is black, South African, a devout priest and, as she puts it, “vertically challenged.” Marceline Tutu-Van Furth is lanky, Dutch, atheist and a professor of pediatric diseases in Amsterdam. MORE

In a pigs eye, you say, ha.

Doctors in south China claimed to have successfully transplanted the cornea of a pig onto a 14-year-old boy’s eye.

The bio-engineering transplant was carried out by a medical team at the Sun Yat-sen University’s Zhongshan Ophthalmic Centre in Guangzhou Province on February 25, reports the People’s Daily Online.

Since the operation, the boy has slowly regained sight in his right eye, according to the article. If the claims are true, millions of patients suffering from corneal blindness across China could be helped. MORE

You may not have noticed, but our planet is becoming increasingly unstable.  According to Volcano Discovery, 40 volcanoes around the globe are erupting right now, and only 6 of them are not along the Ring of Fire.  If that sounds like a very high number to you, that is because it is a very high number.  As I have written about previously, there were a total of 3,542 volcanic eruptions during the entire 20th century.  When you divide that number by 100, that gives you an average of about 35 volcanic eruptions per year. MORE

MANILA (Reuters) – Philippine President-elect Rodrigo Duterte said he will defy the Roman Catholic Church and seek to impose a three-child policy, putting him on a new collision course with the bishops a day after he called them “sons of whores”.

The southern mayor has yet to be declared the May 9 poll winner, but an unofficial vote count by an election commission-accredited watchdog showed him ahead over his four rivals, three of whom conceded defeat. Duterte assumes office on June 30. MORE

Lava bombs and a giant luminous ash cloud were seen spewing from the peak of Mount Etna in dramatic video footage captured on Saturday. MORE

Vatican City (AFP) – Pope Francis embraced the grand imam of Cairo’s Al-Azhar Mosque at the Vatican on Monday in a historic encounter both sides hope will lead to greater understanding and dialogue between the two faiths.

The first Vatican meeting between the leader of the world’s Catholics and the highest authority in Sunni Islam marks the culmination of a significant improvement in relations between the two faiths since Francis took office in 2013. MORE

Hundreds of ecstatic pilgrims are flocking to a statue of the Virgin Mary believed to be crying a single tear of blood.

Images of the statue with a red liquid dripping down its cheek have been shared on social media, prompting a mass pilgrimage to Floridablanca in Columbia.

Locals believe they have witnessed a miracle and others are swarming to catch a glimpse. MORE

(NaturalNews) Recent tests by the Portuguese No GMO Coalition showed that volunteers in the country had extremely high levels of glyphosate in their urine, placing their contamination rate well above that of many places in Europe. Every single one of the 26 volunteers had cancer-causing glyphosate in their urine; MORE

Isfahan is best known for its architecture. It is so beautiful, Iranians say, that to visit the city is to see “half the world.” And, Isfahan is famous for its carpets in classical Persian court styles.

But, in Poland, the city is known for still something else. It is “Isfahan – the City of Polish Children” [“Isfahan – Miasto Dzieci Polskich”]

In June, 2008, the Polish postal service issued a stamp that explained why. The stamp shows a small boy dressed in a cadet’s uniform. Draped behind him is an Isfahan carpet emblazoned with the Polish eagle. And next to him is the city’s nickname in Polish: “Isfahan – Miasto Dzieci Polskich.” MORE

Around 300 hundred protesters were expected to descend on Valparaíso, located around 115 kilometers to the northwest of the capital, Santiago, to march to the National Congress where President Michelle Bachelet was giving her State of the Nation address on Saturday. MORE

Signs of Charity or Strategy?

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Hundreds of faithful gather each week in the makeshift Savior of the World church. With its walls bedecked with Christian paraphernalia, it’s an unlikely scene in the heart of the Jewish state, hidden in a non-descript building in a hardscrabble area of coastal metropolis Tel Aviv. MORE

In a shocking interview, Pope Francis likened Jesus Christ to ISIS and said Muslim migrants must breed with Europeans to counter “declining birth rates.”