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Archaeologists uncover 5,000-year-old jewellery workshop By Jean Christou ARCHAEOLOGISTS have uncovered was appears to have been a jewellery workshop during excavations at the 5,000-year old Souskiou-Laona settlement. According to the Antiquities Department, a dense concentration of the mineral picrolite in the west ridge of the cliff-top settlement indicates that the spot was a workshop for the production of the cruciform figurines and large pendants. “The assemblage mainly consists of the raw picrolite material, possibly quarried from the Troodos Mountains rather than imported in pebble form from the Kouris River valley, many waste chips flaked from that raw material in order...

LUFKIN — Mae Smith, the 64-year-old mayor of the teeny Central Texas town of Holland, seized the civic center lectern like a dragon-slayer ascending the throne. In a fiery red pantsuit and a voice that echoed without the help of a malfunctioning microphone, she and her cohorts revealed to a crowd of about 50 souls clad in denim and plaid a little-known weapon against the foe of all in the room: Gov. Rick Perry's Trans-Texas Corridor. The weapon, Smith said, doesn't involve marching on the Texas Capitol, like more than 1,000 did last year, some on tractors and horses. It...

Topeka — Agreements with Mexico and Canada are setting the stage for construction of a huge highway that will gobble up Kansans’ property and jeopardize U.S. security, representatives from a wide range of groups said Monday. “Through incrementalism, apathy and inattention, our national sovereignty is being sacrificed on a cross of greed, socialism and globalism,� said state Rep. Judy Morrison, R-Shawnee. Morrison has introduced House Concurrent Resolution 5033 urging Congress to withdraw from further participation in the North American Free Trade Agreement and Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America. At a hearing before the House Federal and State Affairs...

Plots by Communists to infiltrate America. The disintegration of borders and rural areas. Citizens mobilizing and rising up against government agencies and big business. It all sounds like the plot for a summer blockbuster, but it's something that could be happening in your own backyard. These were just a few of the topics addressed in the "How to fight the TTC" workshop, held Monday at the Pitser Garrison Civic Center in Lufkin. The conference served as an informational meeting aimed at informing citizens and local government officials how they can unite in trying to stop the proposed Trans-Texas Corridor project....

There's been a lot of talk about the new Trans-Texas Corridor — the next-generation "super-highway" — and opinions are varying. Now the debate is coming to Lufkin's doorstep. On Monday, the American Land Foundation, Stewards of the Range and TURF will hold a workshop at Lufkin's Pitser Garrison Civic Center on how to stop the Trans-Texas Corridor 69. The event runs from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. A portion of Texas citizens have voiced their opposition to the TTC-69 in public meetings held by the Texas Department of Transportation, but believing they are not being heard, four cities and their...

FORWARD OPERATING BASE FENTY, Afghanistan, Jan. 16, 2008 – U.S. Army engineers of Task Force Rugged concluded the first of three winter skilled-labor workshops to train local Afghans on construction skills Jan. 13. Army Staff Sgt. Windle Morgan, of Task Force Pacemaker, instructs 50 Afghans students attending a skilled-labor workshop in Jalalabad, Afghanistan. The workshop is hosted by Task Force Rugged, 36th Engineer Brigade, stationed out of Fort Hood, Texas, and 864th Engineer Battalion, of Fort Lewis, Wash. The aim of the workshop, funded by the Commander’s Emergency Response Program, is to develop construction skills among local Afghan residents,...

Archaeologists stumble on sensational find 4 October 2007 Prokuplje -- Serbian archaeologists found evidence of the what could be the oldest metal workshop in all of Europe. According to National Museum archaeologist Dušan Šljivar, experts found a “copper chisel and stone ax at a location near Prokuplje in which the foundation has proven to be 7,500 years old, leading us to believe that it was one of the first places in which metal weapons and tools were made in prehistory.” Archaeologists hope that this find in southern Serbia will prove the theory that the metal age began a lot earlier...

With all the madness in the world, I meditated Tuesday on two matters of great gratitude. One is that through vigilance and good fortune we have, so far, gone six years without another major attack on U.S. soil. The other is that I wasn't one of the Texas officials who was forced to attend a workshop in Austin in which PR flacks would try (under a $20,000 contract) to teach me techniques for selling Gov. Perry's massive toll road boondoggle. It was a small part of a $7 million to $9 million campaign that will include feel-good ads pushing Perry's...

China's Earliest Handicraft Workshop Discovered? One of the world's oldest handicraft workshops, dating back more than 3,600 years, may have been discovered by Chinese archaeologists in the country's Henan Province. Covering about 1,000 square meters the workshop used turquoise to make elaborate and ornate works of art. The workshop was found in the village of Erlitou of Yanshi City and is part of the ruins of the imperial city belonging to the Xia dynasty (2100 BC-1600 BC), China's earliest. The imperial city was discovered two years ago. At the workshop crafts people made ornaments with inlaid turquoise, said Xu Hong,...

WASHINGTON, Aug. 8, 2006 – A workshop today and tomorrow at Fort Gordon, Ga., is providing career guidance for wounded servicemembers. The Defense Applicant Assistance Office, of the Office of the Secretary of Defense, and the Army’s Installation Management Agency are sponsoring the “Hiring Heroes/Wounded Warriors Technical Workshop” and career fair at Fort Gordon’s Gordon Club. The program will provide transitional career and employment information for soldiers who have suffered injuries while supporting operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom. DoD officials said the program is the first of its kind and will address issues such as benefits, entitlements and employment...

BAGRAM AIRFIELD, Afghanistan, Feb. 13, 2006 — U.S. Army engineers with the 864th Engineer Combat Battalion worked with Afghan military and civilian engineers to sharpen their construction skills this week. "The attendees at this workshop were selected by 15 local contractors who each selected four of their workers based on experience and skill." U.S. Army Col. Mike Flanagan The training, conducted at Forward Operating Base Salerno in Khost Province, covered a variety of engineering skills, such as vertical construction, carpentry, masonry and basic job-site safety. "The attendees at this workshop were selected by 15 local contractors who each selected four...

Teachers Hear Racist Agenda By Alan Bulluck The Guilford County Schools invited the public to attend an anti-racism workshop held for teachers, parents and community leaders last week, but refused to allow a reporter to stay in the room once he was identified as such. In fact, Crossroads Ministry, who held the seminar, has such clout that the second day, a reporter was thrown out after Guilford County School Superintendent Terry Grier had given permission for him to attend. Considering what they were teaching at this seminar, which teachers from Southwest, Andrews and High Point Central high schools were required...

MINNEAPOLIS - Minnesota legislators, plagued by enough drama and disagreement for a season's worth of plot lines on a reality TV series, decided they needed group therapy. About 75 senators and representatives voluntarily attended a workshop, "Beyond Bickering and Gridlock," that hoped to answer a question that plagues state lawmakers across the country and members of Congress alike: "Can't we all just get along?" It's an important question as the 2005 session gets under way. Last year's session, which crashed and burned after a partisan stalemate, produced few accomplishments but plenty of raw feelings and grudges. That lack of results...

In an effort to galvanize the message Kerry wants to deliver in the time remaining, he convened a powerful roster of journalists and columnists in the New York City apartment of Al Franken last Thursday. The gathering could not properly be called a meeting or a luncheon. It was a trial. The journalists served as prosecuting attorneys, jury and judge. The crowd I joined in Franken’s living room was comprised of: Al Franken and his wife Franni; Rick Hertzberg, senior editor for the New Yorker; David Remnick, editor for the New Yorker; Jim Kelly, managing editor for Time Magazine; Howard...

COEUR d'ALENE -- Planned Parenthood of the Inland Northwest is presenting a workshop to help families talk about sex. The March 20 workshop at Coeur d'Alene's Harding Family Center is geared toward parents and children in fourth through sixth grades. "This class will help young people gain a better understanding of their changing bodies, while parents will work toward clarifying the values they wish to convey to their children regarding sexual health issues," Laurel Kelly, education director, said in a press release. The workshop runs from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and costs $35 per family, one child and a...