From afar, the three young men tramping through a corn field here looked like Midwestern farm boys checking their crop. And a fine crop it seemed to be, with plump ears hanging off vibrant green stalks. But as they edged deeper into the field, the men — actually young scientists, not farmers —

Like many of you thinking you had the good sense to book your summer holiday during term time to cash in on good deals and avoid screaming kids, I am waiting to see if my travel plans will yet again be scuppered by an Icelandic volcano with an unpronounceable name (bow-r-tha-boon-ga?). But it seems

A potentially deadly albino cobra is slithering free in an upscale California suburb, and authorities are in a desperate search to find it before it bites someone. The hooded viper, possibly an escaped illegal pet, has already bitten a dog in the Thousand Oaks community, and the Los Angeles County