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When Leonardo DiCaprio was a young boy, he used to play hide-and-seek in the overgrown gardens of a Hollywood Hills mansion owned by the family of the visionary British author Aldous Huxley. Now, 30 years later, the star of Titanic and The Aviator is paying back the hospitality by putting his Hollywood muscle behind the first big-screen production of Brave New World, Huxley’s most enduring novel. The Universal Studios movie, which Sir Ridley Scott wants to direct, has become possible only because years of wrangling over the terms of Huxley’s will have finally been settled, his granddaughter Tessa confirmed last...

'Black people are less intelligent than whites', claims DNA pioneer One of the world's most eminent scientists is at the centre of a row after claiming black people are less intelligent than whites. James Watson, who won the Nobel Prize for his part in discovering the structure of DNA, has drawn condemnation for comments made ahead of his arrival in Britain tomorrow for a speaking tour. Dr Watson, who now runs one of America's leading scientific research institutions, made the controversial remarks in an interview in The Sunday Times. The 79-year-old geneticist said he was "inherently gloomy about the prospect...

Nobel scientist condemned for 'racist' claims By Stephen Adams Last Updated: 2:48pm BST 17/10/2007 Nobel Prize winning scientist Dr James Watson has been heavily criticised for making “racist” comments after he said Africans were not as intelligent as Europeans. Dr Watson is no stranger to controversy Dr Watson, who helped unravel the structure of DNA with Francis Crick and Maurice Wilkins, was roundly condemned for saying he was “inherently gloomy about the prospect of Africa” because “all our social policies are based on the fact that their intelligence is the same as ours – whereas all the testing says not...

Brian Steidle's only weapons against mass killing were his pen, paper, and camera. The former Marine captain catalogs what they caught in Darfur, Sudan, with quick-fire urgency: toddlers with their faces smashed in, men castrated and left to bleed to death, charred bodies of villagers locked in huts later burned down. Charged only with monitoring ceasefire violations in the war-wracked region, he soon grew weary of playing spectator to genocide. So after six months, the 28-year-old Mr. Steidle returned to the United States a month ago and launched his own offensive to stop the killing. In mid-March he criss-crossed Washington,...

Fact, Fable, and Darwin By Rodney Stark I write as neither a creationist nor a Darwinist, but as one who knows what is probably the most disreputable scientific secret of the past century: There is no plausible scientific theory of the origin of species! Darwin himself was not sure he had produced one, and for many decades every competent evolutionary biologist has known that he did not. Although the experts have kept quiet when true believers have sworn in court and before legislative bodies that Darwin's theory is proven beyond any possible doubt, that's not what reputable biologists, including committed...

Serbian original at http://www.glas-javnosti.co.yu/danas/srpski/R04051101.shtml Glas Javnosti daily, Belgrade May 12, 2004 Impressions of Serbs from France who visited Kosovo last weekend Survival on tranquilizers Under the influence of strong medication the people in the refugee camps wept and trembled By Ivana Ikras (photo: A Serb woman beaten by Albanian mob during March 17 riots) The very approach to Holy Archangels Monastery, located in the Bistrica River gorge some three kilometers from Prizren, is dreadful. We were met at the bridge leading to the church by German soldiers and we stood in line in front of them for a long time....

Three Died That Day Chuck Colson November 21, 2003 Forty years ago, November 22, 1963 , a paralyzed world watched the horror of John F. Kennedy’s assassination, a dark day in American history many of us remember. That same day two other notable personalities quietly breathed their last and exited the world almost without notice. British writer Aldous Huxley, author of the grim, futuristic novel Brave New World, died in Los Angeles . C. S. Lewis, now regarded as the most influential Christian writer of the twentieth century, also died that day at his home in Oxford.