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MOSUL, Iraq — On Wednesday, new bells were raised over the Church of the Dominican Convent (Our Lady of the Hour), also known as the Clock Church or Latin Church, in Mosul, Iraq, during restoration work carried out by a team from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the Dominican Order. The church bells had been removed and melted down by the Islamic State (ISIS), which had converted the church into a detention center for ISIS opponents during its control of Mosul. The new bells were sent from Normandy in France. Meanwhile, the media office of...

The 28-year-old pop star took to his Instagram on Friday to share a three-minute video explaining the diagnosis Ramsay Hunt syndrome is a complication of shingles that can lead to temporary facial paralysis The hearing loss and facial paralysis associated with the complication is temporary, however, can become permanentJustin's right eye was unable to blink and the right side of his face did not move in the videoOn Tuesday, the artist had announced he was postponing the 'next few shows' of his seven-leg, 130-date Justice World Tour due 'non-Covid related illness' This has not been an easy year for the...

HENRYS LAKE — Gregory “Thor” Godar thought he was going to die. As the 500-pound bear slashed his back, swung him to the ground and bit his stomach, he looked into its eyes and was sure this was the end. “I said to myself, ‘Well, at least I’m getting killed by a pretty bear.’ She was very beautiful,” Godar says. How the attack happened Godar and his wife, Sherry Groves, had been hiking on the Aspen Trail at Henrys Lake State Park on Friday afternoon. The West Yellowstone, Montana, couple had hiked in this area of the park before but...

Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter Vigil/Easter Day are all important, even essential, to the Christian faith. The church encourages all Christians to participate in all the liturgies of this weekend, because only then do we hear the whole story; only then do we remember and reconnect [“re-member”] emotionally, mentally, and spiritually to the fullness of God’s love for humanity through Jesus Christ.A focal point of our liturgical journey through the weekend is when the presider proclaims at the Easter liturgies, “Alleluia. Christ is risen.” and the people respond, “The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia.” To make that joyful proclamation even more joyful,...

The American soldiers were eating breakfast in Balangiga’s town square when Filipino villagers, including men disguised in dresses, attacked them with bolo knives. Forty-eight Americans died. The year was 1901 and for the United States Army, the massacre in the central Philippines was the worst since Custer and his troops were slaughtered at the Battle of Little Bighorn, 25 years earlier. In retaliation, the United States commander ordered his forces to kill every male older than 10 and turn the central Philippines island of Samar into a “howling wilderness.” American troops killed civilians, burned houses and destroyed food supplies. They...

There used to be many songs in popular music that featured the word Bell. Which songs do YOU recall with that word in the title? For most people, the sound of a bell signified the moment something of great significance is happening. Two such examples include A. The Bells, as performed by Laura Nyro and Patti Labelle & the Bluebelles. from 1971. The song "The Bells" was written by Marvin Gaye and Iris Gordy, for the group The Originals. Laura and Patti Labelle do a fantastic take on it in the album called "It's Gonna Take A Miracle". When I...

A left-wing Dutch vegan who campaigned against cowbells in the Swiss village where she lives has had a request for a Swiss passport thrown out after annoying the locals. Nancy Holten, who was born in the Netherlands but moved to Switzerland at the age of eight, is a fluent speaker of Swiss German and has children who are Swiss nationals.

Notre Dame de Paris, the Gothic cathedral that is one of the most famous churches in the world, turns 850 years old this year and has gotten a new set of nine bells for a birthday present. The new bells range in size from 767 kilos (1691 lbs) to 1.91 tons. They were blessed in a ceremony at the cathedral on February 2nd (see this YouTube for the full ceremony; the top comment lists the times they were rung), but since they were lined up in the nave, their rings were only heard individually when their clappers were struck against...

The student government at the University of California-Berkeley (CAL) passed a resolution last month that would ban Salvation Army bell ringers and their iconic red kettles from campus this Christmas because of the Christian organization’s alleged bias against homosexuality. UC Berkeley is "reviewing" whether or not they will prohibit the Salvation Army from operating on campus this Christmas, after students passed a resolution condemning the charity. The resolution, cleared on November 14, accuses the charity of openly discriminating against gay individuals. “Salvation Army church services, including charity services, are available only to people ‘who accept and abide by the Salvation...

PORTSMOUTH, N.H. (CBS Connecticut) – For some, the idea of Christmas coming early is anything but welcome. Local shop owner Sarah Hamilton-Parker, tired after years tolling bells sounded by Salvation Army workers for hours on end during the holiday season, took matters into her own hands by reaching out to local authorities to complain about the noise. “I listen to this for 200 hours a year,” Hamilton-Parker told the Portsmouth Herald. “This is my fourth year and I can’t take it anymore. I’m so sick of it.”

A radical organization known as the Pacific Educational Group (PEG) is actively promoting Derrick Bell’s Critical Race Theory in public elementary and high schools nationwide, with an intense focus on what PEG calls “Systemic Racism.” With the approval of the Obama administration, and under the guise of closing achievement gaps between black and white students, PEG is promoting teaching methods that discourage “black and brown” students from conforming to an inherently “white” -- and therefore racist -- curriculum. PEG also encourages teachers to conform to the presumed cultural backgrounds of students, rather than focusing on norms of assessment and accountability....

Via Lachlan Markay at Heritage, we learn a Derrick A. Bell visited the Obama White House twice in 2010. The White House did not return a request for comment. The visits were on 1/29/2010, a Friday and 1/31/2010, a Sunday. For now, a web search of news reports did not turn up why Bell may have been in Washington that particular weekend. Heritage could not independently confirm that the Derrick A. Bell listed is the same individual who spoke at the rally. The White House did not return a request for comment.

Derrick Bell, the man whose scholarship inspired Barack Obama, was the Jeremiah Wright of academia. And a Hollywood cult hero. Bell was one of the chief proponents of Critical Race Theory, a radical doctrine that holds that American legal institutions—including our civil rights laws—perpetuate white supremacy. Bell’s ideas were not only radical, but bizarre. After leaving Harvard (he resigned in 1992), he wrote a racialist, antisemitic fictional essay titled “The Space Traders,” which Ninth Circuit judge Alex Kozinski described in the New York Times with disgust: Imagine, if you will, that space aliens land in the United States and offer...

Jingle Bells Bethlehem style. Palestinian minister Fadiha with a special Christmas carol...

President Barack Obama has appointed a far left labor unionist to a security sensitive U.S. trade post. Bob King On February 16, 2011,  Obama  announced the appointment of United Auto Workers president Bob King to the Advisory Committee for Trade Policy and Negotiations. As U.S. trade positions and data are always  key targets of foreign intelligence services, one would think that appointments to such a body would be subject to thorough scrutiny. Either this was not done in King's case, or affiliation with far left organizations, is no longer considered any sort of danger to national security in today's Washington....

Largest free swinging bell in the world: Shortly before the Epiphany Mass the clapper of the 24 ton bell -- The "decke Pitter" is the German Peace Bell. Cologne (kath.net/KAP) Shock in the Cologne Cathedral: The bell known as "Decker Pitter" by the locals is silenced. On Thursday morning the clapper with a 3.24 Meter diameter and with a weight of 24 tons, the largest free swinging bell in the world, fell. The cause is still unknown. Possibly there was some material weakening in the structure connecting the clapper to the bell itself. No one was injured as the Cathedral...

The clock tower at Southern Illinois University has played Christmas carols for nearly 15 years. But this year, someone complained – and that led university officials to briefly silence the holiday tradition until they could add a more diverse selection of music. “We got a complaint about not being inclusive in the music,” university chancellor Rita Cheng told Fox News Radio. She backed off comments she made to a local television station that claimed the music was indeed removed because it was “religious” and “offensive to non-Christians.” “No one really complained about it being religious,”

City Council has spoken: The bell at St. John the Baptist Roman Catholic Church in Manayunk most likely won't be silenced.... On Thursday, the full Council will consider the legislation, which would exempt churches and schools from Philadelphia's noise ordinance.... The church clamor began early last month when...the Rev. James A. Lyons, received a warning letter from the city Health Department. The letter....threatened the 179-year-old church with fines of up to $700 per day if the pealing bell was determined to be in violation of the city's 2006 noise law. At issue is the volume of the 7 a.m. bell...

Zero tolerance for church bells? Ring free zones? Instead of getting tough on dealers, Arizona prosecutors are going after pealers. It doesn't ring true, but it is. Here's the video report from Alliance Defense Fund: [video embed at source link] ADF is representing the bellringing Bishop in an appeal hearing of his criminal conviction and, in a separate civil case, is challenging the application of local noise ordinances to church bells.

SIERRA VISTA — On May 30 next year, the sound of patriotic music will be the norm on grounds of the Southern Arizona Veterans’ Memorial Cemetery. It will be on Memorial Day 2010 when a 40-foot-tall carillon — a bell tower — will be dedicated. On Wednesday, a short groundbreaking ceremony took place to start the construction phase for the carillon. Every year, the national headquarters of AMVETS helps fund two carillons to be placed in cemeteries that are dedicated as final resting places for veterans. Members of the local AMVETS post are sponsors of the project and have been...