Free Republic

Virtual unwrapping software has revealed verses from the Book of Leviticus in a charred parchment scroll, making it the oldest biblical text after the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) announced on Monday. Found 45 years ago inside the Holy Ark of the synagogue at Ein Gedi, on the western shore of the Dead Sea, the 2.7-inch scroll was dated by C14 analysis to about 500 AD. “This is the first time in any archaeological excavation that a Torah scroll was found in a synagogue, particularly inside a Holy Ark,” the IAA said in a statement. ... To...

This image provided by ABC NEWS shows charred underwear with explosive packet, a six-inch long packet of the high explosive chemical called PETN that was smuggled onto the Northwest Airlines Flight 253 by 23-year-old Nigerian suspect Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab. (AFP/ABCNews-HO)

http://64.4.36.250/cgi-bin/linkrd?_lang=EN&lah=5f363ca8f1985ab244d5877e637c818f&lat=1095798538&hm___action=http%3a%2f%2fwww%2euselectionatlas%2eorg%2fenable%2ephp -This is an election atlas which runs a mock election. I'm sick of seeing it yellow and red.

So where is Muqtada al-Sadr and his Mehdi Army now? After taking serious losses against American and Iraqi forces and cynically hiding behind Shiite Islam’s most holy shrine in Najaf, these cowards have melted back into Iraqi society. Or have they? There are many questions to be answered regarding al-Sadr’s future, as he most certainly will oppose the growth of democracy in Iraq. Will al-Sadr and his thugs be held accountable for the violent crimes they committed in Najaf? During their reign of terror, they apparently held a kangaroo court. After Iraq’s top Shiite, Ayatollah Ali Sistani, pressured al-Sadr to...

Charred remains may be earliest human fires 19:00 29 April 04 NewScientist.com news service Archaeologists in Israel may have unearthed the oldest evidence of fire use by our ancestors. The site, on the banks of the Jordan River, dates to about 790,000 years ago. There are older sites in Africa, but the evidence from these is much more hotly contested. The moment that our ancestors discovered how to control fire has long occupied an iconic place in the popular imagination. Chimpanzees, our closest living ancestors, have demonstrated impressive feats of language and tool use, but fire use "is the most...