Free Republic

Considering the Crusades in the Context of the Current Conflict with Radical Islamists By: Msgr. Charles PopeRecent and persistent attacks by radical Muslims, especially the most recent beheadings of 21 Egyptian Christians, have many asking what can or should be done to end such atrocities. Military actions by numerous countries, including our own, are already underway. Most feel quite justified in these actions and many are calling for more concerted efforts to eliminate ISIS and related zealots who seem to know no pity, no reason, and no limits. I do not write here to opine on the need for...

Bill Gates doesn’t slum it when it comes to his vacations. The world's richest man has been photographed enjoying quality family time aboard an extravagant $330 million yacht. The Microsoft founder has been pictured on “The Serene,” a stunning 450-foot boat he’s renting from Stolichnaya vodka magnate Yuri Scheffler for a cool $5 million per week. Moored off the coast of Sardinia, it reportedly has 12 state rooms, a seawater swimming pool, a cinema, a nightclub, a climbing wall, a gym and two hot tubs.

(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis travels to Cagliari on the Italian island of Sardinia on Sunday September 22nd for a pastoral visit that includes celebrating mass at the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Bonaria. The Pope announced in May that he wished to visit the Marian Shrine of Bonaria or “Good Air” because it gave his hometown of Buenos Aires its name. During his 10-hour visit to the city of Cagliari this Sunday, the Pope will also meet workers, business representatives, prisoners, the poor, young people, leading representatives from the world of culture and the island’s Catholic bishops. Here is the...

The rich heritage of Tunisia, maybe the only place where the Arab Spring stands a chance Modern-day Tunisians, more Westernized than most Arabs, see themselves as descendants of the great Carthaginian general who invaded Italy. The Arab Spring began in Sidi Bouzid, a small Tunisian town, at the end of 2010. In a desperate protest against the corrupt and oppressive government that had made it impossible for him to earn a living, food-cart vendor Mohamed Bouazizi stood before City Hall, doused himself with gasoline, and lit a match. His suicide seeded a revolutionary storm that swept the countryside and eventually...

Ötzi the ice mummy may have met his death in the Alps some 5300 years ago, but his descendants live on – on the Mediterranean islands of Corsica and Sardinia. The finding comes from an analysis of Ötzi's DNA, which also reveals he had brown eyes and hair, and was lactose intolerant. The ice mummy was found in 1991 on an Alpine glacier between Austria and Italy, where he met a violent end in the Neolithic.....

Israeli Air Force sends number of squadrons from Nevatim, Tel Nof bases including F15, F16; Italians use Euro-fighter Typhoon.Refused permission to fly in Turkish airspace, the Israeli Air Force continued to create alliances with additional air forces in the region, wrapping up a two-week exercise with the Italian Air Force on Friday on the island of Sardinia. A number of squadrons of F-15 and F-16 fighter jets from the IAF’s Nevatim and Tel Nof bases participated in the maneuvers, which focused on low-altitude flights, dogfights and longrange interception. Air force sources said the teams were allowed to fly over a...

Sardina is home to an immense population of mysterious prehistoric stone towers called "nuraghi." (Singular form is "nuraghe.") Over 7,000 of these remarkable dry-stone edifices exist -- a concentration of monumental stone architecture unparalleled in Europe... Over 3,000 years old, the nuraghi have withstood the depredations of weather and later humans by virtue of their excellent design and construction.

Based on a recent site visit by an international team of specialists, including rock-art expert George Nash from the Dept.of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Bristol, and conservation archaeologist Jayne Pilkington, it was clear that certain basic protocols enshrined into the Valetta Convention have been violated by Italian authorities. Furthermore, nothing had been considered for the long-term conservation of this and other nearby Neolithic burial-ritual sites, including Tomb No.3 (Tomb of the Spirals) at the Necropolis of Sa Pala Larga which was in an advanced state of deterioration. In addition to in-filling the entrance of the main tomb, the Italian...

Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's private conversations with an escort, which have riveted Italians all week, may wind up getting him into trouble with Italy's archaeological authorities... In one of the transcripts of his purported conversations with Patrizia D'Addario posted on an Italian website, Berlusconi boasts to her about his sprawling villa in Sardinia -- complete with an ice cream parlour and artificial lakes. "Here we found 30 Phoenician tombs from (around) 300 BC," the voice is heard to say.

ROME (AP) — Italian police arrested six people Thursday in raids on a group of suspected radical leftists who were allegedly planning a terror attack, authorities said.

Sardinian scientists believe they've traced the roots of the 'death-defying' sardonic grin to a water plant commonly found on the Italian island. Greek poet Homer first used the word, an adaptation of the ancient word for Sardininan, to describe a defiant smile or laugh in the face of death. He was believed to have coined it because of the belief that the Punic people who settled Sardinia gave condemned men a potion that made them smile before dying. The association with Sardinia has often been disputed, but Cagliari University botanists think they've settled the case - and the plant in...

A tax on luxury yachts mooring in the waters of Sardinia and private jets landing at its airports is to be repealed by the Mediterranean island. Sardinia's new governor, who is the son of Silvio Berlusconi's tax adviser, is to scrap a tax on super yachts as one of his first acts in office. Ugo Cappellacci will also repeal a tax on private aircraft touching down on the island, which had cost jetsetters such as Mr Berlusconi, who owns a large villa on Sardinia, up to £690 a time. Mr Cappellacci is also expected to loosen restrictions on construction along...

Archaeologists in Sardinia said Thursday they have found the port of the Phoenician city of Tharros, held by some to be the ancient people's most important colony in the Mediterranean after Carthage. Researchers from the University of Cagliari and Sassari found the submerged port in the Mistras Lagoon, several kilometres from the city ruins. Excavations have long been going on at the site of the city itself, on a peninsula overlooking the Bay of Oristano in western Sardinia, but this is the first time its waterfront has been located despite almost two centuries of hunting. As well as an impressive...

Rubbish threatens Tuvixeddu necropolisRichard Owen in RomeMay 24,2008 An ancient Mediterranean necropolis described as one of the world's greatest historical sites is being submerged beneath cement, high rise housing and rubbish dumps, according to Italian conservationists. Tuvixeddu - which means “hills with small cavities” in the Sardinian dialect - contains thousands of Phoenician and Punic burial chambers from the 6th century BC. It has long been robbed of funerary objects but some of its tombs have retained their original paintings, including “Ureo's Tomb”, named after a sacred serpent, and “The Warrior's Tomb”, in which a decoration depicts a warrior throwing...

2007-08-17 19:38Sardinia's Phoenician settlement New digs on western coast may unearth ancient Othoca (ANSA) - Oristano, August 17 - An ancient Phoenician colony on the western coast of Sardinia may soon yield some of its long-buried secrets during new excavations. Othoca, founded by the Phoenicians some 2,600 years ago, partly evolved into the modern-day town of Santa Giusta but most remnants of the original settlement lie buried under a thick layer of mud at the bottom of a large lake. Experts believe the lake, separated from the sea by a narrow bridge of land, was once the port of Othoca,...

'To my sons, £7m of Sardinian coast: to my daughters, a shack in the hills' By Malcolm Moore in Capo Spartivento, Sunday Telegraph Last Updated: 11:44pm GMT 30/12/2006 In the bay of Jews, on the southernmost tip of Sardinia, the water is azure, the sand is white, and a colony of flamingos wades in the shallows. Even in December, the temperature is a balmy 17 degrees and the sea is calm, sheltered from wind by the surrounding mountains. From the beach to the mountains, the land belongs to Pietrino Culurgioni, 90. A hotel that he built offers sweeping sea views,...

WHEN THOR HEYERDAHL died in April, the mass media fell oddly mute. Some readers told me that they learned of the great Norwegian explorer’s death only a week later, by reading my eulogy on the Internet. Such apathy seems hard to fathom. Every schoolboy once read Kon-Tiki and dreamed of conquering the waves as Heyerdahl had done. Perhaps, imbued with the modern philosophy of "safety first," today’s journalists no longer wish to encourage such dreams. Media apathy has likewise greeted Dominique Goerlitz – Heyerdahl’s apprentice and heir apparent. On July 20, this 35-year-old German schoolteacher landed in Alexandria, Egypt, after...