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About 8500 years ago, hunter-gatherers living beside Eagle Lake in Wisconsin hammered out a conical, 10-centimeter-long projectile point made of pure copper. The finely crafted point, used to hunt big game, highlights a New World technological triumph—and a puzzle. A new study of that artifact and other traces of prehistoric mining concludes that what is known as the Old Copper Culture emerged, then mysteriously faded, far earlier than once thought. The dates show that early Native Americans were among the first people in the world to mine metal and fashion it into tools. They also suggest a regional climate shift...

AP: Administration Freed Terror Suspect By JOHN SOLOMON, Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON - Nabil al-Marabh was No. 27 on the FBI (news - web sites)'s list of terror suspects after Sept. 11. He trained in Afghanistan (news - web sites)'s militant camps, sent money to a roommate convicted in a foiled plot to bomb a hotel and boasted to an informant about plans to blow up a fuel truck inside a New York tunnel, FBI documents allege. The Bush administration set him free — to Syria — even though prosecutors had sought to bring criminal cases against him and judges...

...Why do the Greek descendants of the Minoans share a gene in their DNA with the Chippewas and no one else on the planet? In November of 1896, near the town of Newberry, Michigan. In Michigan's Upper Peninsula two woodsmen clearing land on a farm uprooted a tree and discovered three statues, and a clay tablet. The tablet was 19 by 26 inches in size. 140 small squares were cut into the stone. In each square a letter or character. The University of Michigan and the Smithsonian Institution were notified. Both of these institutions, at the time refused to look...

NEWBERRY - A dispute reportedly over sacred Indian stones resulted in a 32-year-old man being shot to death around 12:30 a.m. Thursday inside a Woodward Township home in Lycoming County. Police detained 44-year-old Kevin Bennardi who admitted to shooting Michael Woodhead in Bennardi’s home at 59 Wither Hollow Lane. No charges have been filed against Bennardi. The Sun Gazette reports, Bennardi told police Woodhead charged at him when he shot Woodhead multiple times with a .22 caliber rifle. Bennardi told investigators that Woodhead "was upset with him because he had touched Woodhead's sacred Indian stones." Woodhead, who is an American...

POMARIA, SC (WIS) ... Sheriff Lee Foster, calling the crime scene one of the worst he's ever seen, said 19-year-old Gregory Ashton Collins was arrested at the Orchard Park trailer park for the gruesome act after authorities used tear gas to force Collins out of his mobile home. ... A deputy saw something on a parked pickup truck linking the vehicle to the body. Deputies went to the house and Collins answered the door, but refused to come out. Newberry County CIRT team members and the SLED SWAT team surrounded the trailer. At the time, Collins was considered "armed and...

Newberry College president Dr. Mitchell Zais on Wednesday said the NCAA’s decision to bar the school from hosting postseason events and bear its Native American nickname on uniforms was “unjust, coercive and perhaps illegal.” The school can participate in postseason events as long as its nickname, the Indian face or the arrowhead spear are not displayed in any form. “We are disappointed in this unjust, coercive and perhaps illegal ruling from the NCAA,” Zais said as a part of the school’s formal response to the NCAA’s ruling. “We are sorry that the NCAA feels that Newberry is unfit to host...

Around 50 retired US diplomats have written to US President George Bush to complain about America's policy towards the Middle East. The letter is similar to one written by 52 former British diplomats to UK Prime Minister Tony Blair last week. The former US diplomats complained that President Bush's approach is losing the US "credibility, prestige and friends". They criticised what they say is Washington's unabashed support for Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. The American diplomats said they were deeply concerned by Mr Bush's endorsement last month of Mr Sharon's plan to withdraw unilaterally from Gaza. 'Great danger' They were...