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A Quick Online Divorce for $60? Not So Fast, Denmark Says

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A Quick Online Divorce for $60? Not So Fast, Denmark Says Photo An art installation in Copenhagen. Under new rules set to go into effect next year, Danish couples who have children and who decide to dissolve their marriage will be required to observe a three-month “reflection period” before the divorce takes effect. Credit Ole Jensen/Corbis, via Getty Images COPENHAGEN — As one of the most wired countries in the world, Denmark offers hospital records, death certificates, tax returns and other important documents with little more than a couple of clicks.
Even a divorce can be obtained in less than a week with only a short online form and a $60 fee. But Denmark has long had one of the highest divorce rates in Europe, and the government has decided that breaking up should be a little a harder to do.
Under new rules set to go into effect next year, couples who have children and who decide to dissolve their marriage will be required to observe a three-month “reflection period” before the di..

Matter: A Few Species of Frogs That Vanished May Be on the Rebound

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A Few Species of Frogs That Vanished May Be on the Rebound Photo A healthy variable harlequin frog with golden coloring in the streams of Panama. Credit Cori Richards-Zawacki In 2013, two biologists named Jamie Voyles and Corinne L. Richards-Zawacki spent weeks slogging up and down mountainsides in Panama. “We were bug-bitten and beat up,” recalled Dr. Voyles, now an assistant professor at the University of Nevada, Reno.
Near the end of their trek, they came to a stop. In front of them sat the object of their quest: a single gold-and-black frog.
“I can’t tell you what that moment was like,” Dr. Voyles said.
She had feared that variable harlequin frogs had disappeared entirely from Panama. As recently as the early 2000s, they had been easy to find in the country’s high-altitude forests.
“They used to be so abundant that you could barely walk without stepping on them,” Dr. Voyles said.
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Continue reading the main story But in recent years, Dr. Voyles and her colleagues star..

Cricket Hero Breaks Down in Tears on TV Over Cheating

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Cricket Hero Breaks Down in Tears on TV Over Cheating
Disgraced in a blatant ball-scuffing scandal that has transfixed the cricket world, one of its most exalted players flew home to Australia from South Africa on Thursday and broke down in tears, apologizing on live national television for sullying his country and its national pastime.
“I know I’ll regret this for the rest of my life,” said the athlete, Steve Smith, who until a few days ago had been the Australia team’s heroic captain. “I’m absolutely gutted.”
“I hope in time I can earn back respect and forgiveness,” Mr. Smith told a news conference at the Sydney airport as he struggled to keep his composure, his father standing behind him. “Cricket is the greatest game in the world. It’s been my life, and I hope it will be again.”
Mr. Smith returned to Australia five days after admitting to having concocted a plot with teammates to doctor the cricket ball by scuffing it with sandpaper during a match with South Africa last weekend. S..

Adnan Syed of ‘Serial’ Is Granted a New Trial

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Supported by U.S. Adnan Syed of 'Serial’ Is Granted a New Trial Photo Adnan Syed leaves the Baltimore City Circuit Courthouse in Baltimore, Maryland on Feb. 5, 2016. An appeals court ruled on Thursday that Mr. Syed, the subject of the first season of “Serial,” should be granted a new trial. Credit Carlos Barria/Reuters An appeals panel on Thursday vacated the conviction of Adnan Syed, whose case was chronicled in the first season of the hit podcast “Serial,” and ruled that he should be granted a new trial on all charges.
Mr. Syed was convicted in 2000 of the first-degree murder and kidnapping of his former girlfriend, Hae Min Lee.
In the ruling, the Maryland Court of Special Appeals said that he had received ineffective legal counsel at his trial because his original lawyer had failed to call a witness whose testimony, if believed, “would have made it impossible for Syed to have murdered Hae.”
“Accordingly, Syed’s murder conviction must be vacated, and because Syed’s convicti..

Pope Washes the Feet of Inmates, Reveals He Has Cataracts

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Pope Washes the Feet of Inmates, Reveals He Has Cataracts
ROME — Pope Francis urged inmates at a Rome prison on Thursday to never let their hopes be clouded like cataracts cloud the eyes — and revealed that he suffers from the condition and has to have surgery for it next year.
Francis, 81, disclosed the news as he bid farewell to inmates and staff at the Regina Coeli prison, where he washed the feet of 12 prisoners in a Holy Thursday ritual.
Francis frequently uses his visits to prisons to encourage inmates not to lose hope, and he repeated that Thursday by telling the prisoners that they must clear their eyes every day so they can see and spread hope.
“At my age, for example, cataracts come and you don't see reality well. Next year I have to have an operation,” he said.

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He said the same thing happens with life, when disillusionment, errors and fatigue cloud the soul. Francis urged the inmates to do a daily cleansing of their vie..