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Its a common practice in American English to use a comma in place of 'and' in newspaper headlines. It is sometimes called 'the Headline Comma', and he justification seems to be to save space.

There's a Metafilter thread about it here: http://ask.metafilter.com/20720/Headline-Question

English is my first language and I find it hard to parse too, but its not commonly used where I live (UK).

EDIT: Clarified that use is normally restricted to headlines

I would emphasize it's only in the headline dialect of English. Non-native speakers should probably just avoid using it altogether. It certainly can't be used to replace any "and" you'd like in a normal essay or anything.

Thanks. I've edited my comment to make the usage clear.

Also, The Onion has put the headline comma to spectacular use.

"Clinton Feels Nation's Pain, Breasts"

It's meant to be read as "25 petabytes bringing storage firm _and_ court case to the brink of collapse", I believe.

Took me a while to comprehend the meaning.

Thank you all for explanations. I learned something new today :).

Replace it with "and"