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Files reveal Peter Robinson warned of war in 1981 over IRA shooting

Peter Robinson believed a war could break out after the IRA murdered a unionist politician, government archives from 1981 have revealed.The comment came in an account of a late-night conversation between the present first minister and Stormont official (later Sir) Ewart Bell.South Belfast MP Rev Robert Bradford was shot dead in November 1981.Shortly afterwards, Mr Robinson told Ewart Bell there could be "war" before Christmas...

Civil War-era wreck off Egmont Key to become preserve

A Civil War-era ship that participated in one of the nation's most famous naval battles before sinking in the mouth of Tampa Bay is set to become Florida's 12th underwater archaeological preserve.The wreck of the USS Narcissus tugboat off Egmont Key just north of Anna Maria Island "provides not only a fascinating underwater preserve to explore, it also offers a unique and adventurous look into our nation's naval history," Florida Secretary of State Kurt Browning said this week in announcing the nomination.Built in East Albany, N.Y., in 1863, the Narcissus steamed south in January 1864 to support the Union Navy's blockade of Confederate shipping routes, according to a report complied by state researchers....

Tenth Alabama Regiment cemetery in Virginia uncovered 150 years later

BRISTOW, Va. -- About an hour west of Washington, D.C., on a scrubby plot of land overrun by pricker bushes and in the shadow of dense modern townhouse developments, an Alabama cemetery was born.Civil War preservationists with no personal links to Alabama admit to muttering a "Roll Tide" or two as they walked across the newly cleared land, the final resting place of between 75 and 90 soldiers with the Tenth Alabama Infantry Regiment.Historical documents and archeological study pinpointed the burial grounds, a desperate place in the late summer of 1861, when rampant disease claimed up to five or six Confederate soldiers a day at what was known as Camp Jones....

Gingrich seeks monument for black Union soldiers at battlefield

PETERSBURG - Leading Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich is behind an effort to have African-American Union soldiers recognized for their role in the Civil War Battle of the Crater.Gingrich, along with co-author William R. Forstchen, wrote "The Battle of the Crater: A Novel" that was released in November and recounts the role that United States Colored Troops played during the Siege of Petersburg in 1864.In the acknowledgments and afterward of the book, the authors call for a monument to be placed in Petersburg National Battlefield at the site of the Battle of the Crater in recognition of "forgotten" African-American soldiers "who, on a terrible day in July 1864, did indeed offer up the 'last full measure of devotion.'"The idea of a monument for United States Colored Troops has the initial support of National Park Service officials who oversee the battlefield. "We are definitely open to putting something near the Crater to let people know about the role of United States Colored Troops," said Petersburg National Battlefield Superintendent Lewis Rogers....

Mysterious Mass Sacrifice Found Near Ancient Peru Pyramid

An apparent ritual mass sacrifice—including decapitations and a royal beer bash—is coming to light near a pre-Inca pyramid in northern Peru, archaeologists say.Excavations next to the ancient Huaca Las Ventanas pyramid first uncovered bodies in August, and more have been emerging since then from a 50-by-50-foot (15-by-15-meter) pit.The pyramid is part of the Sicán site, the capital of the Lambayeque people—also known as the Sicán—who ruled Peru's northern coast from about A.D. 900 to 1100.Perhaps more than a hundred bodies—buried nude and some of them headless—lie in the newfound pit, according to Haagen Klaus, a bioarchaeologist at Utah Valley University in Orem who is studying the finds....

Oklahoma to recognize Woody Guthrie at last

Oklahoma has always had a troubled relationship with her native son Woody Guthrie. The communist sympathies of America’s balladeer infuriated local detractors. In 1999 a wealthy donor’s objections forced the Cowboy Museum in Oklahoma City to cancel a planned exhibition on Guthrie organized by the Smithsonian Institution. It wasn’t until 2006, nearly four decades after his death, that the Oklahoma Hall of Fame got around to adding him to its ranks. But as places from California to the New York island get ready to celebrate the centennial of Guthrie’s birth, in 2012, Oklahoma is finally ready to welcome him home. The George Kaiser Family Foundation in Tulsa plans to announce this week that it is buying the Guthrie archives from his children and building an exhibition and study center to honor his legacy.

‘Silence of the Lambs,’ ‘Bambi’ and ‘Forrest Gump’ Added to National Film Registry

Hannibal Lecter is going away for a long time — and so are Bambi, Forrest Gump and the adorable moppet played by Jackie Coogan in a classic Charlie Chaplin feature: the movies featuring these characters are among the 25 works that have been added to the National Film Registry, the Library of Congress is to announce on Wednesday. These films, which include Jonathan Demme’s “Silence of the Lambs,” Walt Disney’s animated feature “Bambi,” Robert Zemeckis‘s “Forrest Gump” and Chaplin’s “The Kid,” as well as Billy Wilder’s “Lost Weekend,” John Cassavetes‘ “Faces” and John Ford’s “The Iron Horse,” have been selected for preservation “because of their enduring significance to American culture,” James H. Billington, the Librarian of Congress, said in a statement. The 25 movies were chosen from 2,228 nominated by the public this year.

Private Owner of Washington's Letter to Jews Wants to be Left Alone

 Richard Morgenstern just wants to be left alone.But when you are the multimillionaire owner of one of the most important documents in American Jewish history — George Washington’s Letter to the Hebrew Congregation in Newport, R.I. — avoiding the limelight is not easy. Especially when that document disappeared from public view 10 years ago and you are the only man in the world with the power to bring it back.In a series of articles and opinion columns this year, the Forward has highlighted the importance of the letter not just to the American Jewish community, but also to the American nation. “It’s the most eloquent statement, perhaps in our history, of religious tolerance,” Washington biographer Ron Chernow told this paper.

Israel Risks New Turkish Ire with Recognition of Armenian Genocide

The Israeli Parliament on Monday held its first public debate on whether to commemorate the Turkish genocide of Armenians nearly a century ago, an emotionally resonant and politically fraught topic for Israel, founded on the ashes of the Holocaust and trying to salvage frayed ties with Turkey. The session resulted from a rare confluence of political forces — an effort under way for decades by some on the left to get Israel to take a leading role in bringing attention to mass murder, combined with those on the right angry at how Turkey has criticized Israel over its policies toward the Palestinians.

Judges: Not okay to say "boy" when referring to an adult black man

Last year, the United States Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit ruled that there were no racial overtones when a white manager at a Tyson chicken plant in Gadsden, Ala., called adult black men working there “boy.” “The usages were conversational” and “nonracial in context,” the majority wrote in a 2-to-1 decision that overturned a jury verdict of about $1.4 million in an employment discrimination case brought by a black Tyson employee, John Hithon... On Dec. 16, more than a year after the initial decision, the appeals court reversed course.

New Nixon biography by veteran journalist claims he was gay

A new biography by Don Fulsom, a veteran Washington reporter who covered the Nixon years, suggests the 37th U.S. President had a serious drink problem, beat his wife and — by the time he was inaugurated in 1969 — had links going back two decades to the Mafia, including with New Orleans godfather Carlos Marcello, then America's most powerful mobster.Yet the most extraordinary claim is that the homophobic Nixon may have been gay himself. If true, it would provide a fascinating insight into the motivation and behaviour of a notoriously secretive politician.Fulsom argues that Nixon may have had an affair with his best friend and confidant, a Mafia‑connected Florida wheeler-dealer named Charles 'Bebe' Rebozo who was even more crooked than Nixon.

Ancient Seal Found in Jerusalem

 

In his debut in Washington's power struggles, Gingrich threw a bomb

 On the evening of Oct. 4, 1990, Newt Gingrich and his then-wife, Marianne, were enjoying a VIP reception at a Republican fundraiser when they were suddenly hustled over to have their picture taken with President George H.W. Bush.“I thought it was a bad idea,” Gingrich said in a series of interviews in 1992 that have not been previously published.

Evolution of Angels: From Disembodied Minds to Winged Guardians

'Tis the season for winged humanoids to alight everywhere from store windows to Christmas tree tops to lingerie runways. But it wasn't always so. Angels, at least the Christian variety, haven't always been flying people in diaphanous gowns. And their various forms—from disembodied minds to feathered guardians—reflect twists and turns of thousands of years of religious thought, according to an upcoming book."There is lots of interesting theology about angels, and in some ways we've kind of lost the knack for that," said John Cavadini, chair of theology at the University of Notre Dame."We tend to think of angels as things that we'd find in a Hallmark card," Cavadini added. "But many people, especially in antiquity, were very interested in them"—in what they might look like, how they might organize themselves, how they behave....

Turkey accuses France of genocide in colonial Algeria

The Turkish prime minister has accused France of committing genocide during its colonial occupation of Algeria.Recep Tayyip Erdogan was speaking after French MPs passed a bill making it a criminal act to deny that Ottoman Turks committed genocide in 1915-16 Armenia.He accused President Nicolas Sarkozy of using the bill to fan hatred of Muslims and Turks for electoral gain.He said Mr Sarkozy should "ask his father, who served in the French Legion there" about the Algerian "massacre"....

National American Latino museum may face uphill climb

LOS ANGELES — Television’s highest-earning actress and a San Francisco art museum chief are two of the key figures in the bid to establish a new museum on the Mall devoted to the history and culture of American Latinos.But Eva Longoria, who will rally public support for a bill in Congress to create the museum, and Jonathan Yorba, chairman of the museum-lobbying group that picked her, also played key roles in the creation of a problem-plagued Los Angeles museum and cultural center focused on the contributions of Mexican Americans in Southern California.From 2004 to 2006, Yorba was the first executive director of La Plaza de Cultura y Artes, trying to lay the groundwork for the downtown L.A. museum that opened in April and almost immediately ran into financial difficulties....

Washington Monument has extensive cracks from quake

 The earthquake-damaged Washington Monument has extensive cracking and chipped stones near its peak that make it highly vulnerable to rainfall, and inspectors found cracks and loose stones along the entire length of the 555-foot structure, according to a report released Thursday by the National Park Service.The report was prepared by the engineering firm whose employees rappelled down the sides of the monument in September to inspect the damage. It offers the most detailed portrait yet of damage to the 127-year-old monument, which has been closed to visitors since a 5.8-magnitude earthquake shook the nation's capital Aug. 23.

French bid to outlaw genocide denial outrages Turkey

PARIS — French lawmakers easily passed a measure Thursday to make it a crime to deny the mass killings of Armenians in 1915 by Ottoman Turks amounted to genocide. Turkey swiftly retaliated, ordering its ambassador home and halting official contacts, including some military cooperation.Within hours of the lower house vote on the bill, which would penalize those who deny the Armenian genocide, Turkey meted out a severe punishment of its own.Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced a series of retaliatory measures, recalling the country's ambassador to France and suspending joint military maneuvers and restricting French military flights....

Strange But True: Ron Paul Thinks The American Civil War Was 'Unnecessary'

Texas Rep. Ron Paul, the anti-government GOP presidential candidate who is now surging in Iowa, is not a fan of Abraham Lincoln. He believes the Civil War was a "senseless" bloodbath that was the result of Lincoln's desire to "enhance and get rid of the original intent of the republic."...

For Gingrich in Power, Pragmatism, Not Purity

WASHINGTON — Newt Gingrich arrived in Washington in January 1979 as a brash congressman dreaming of a Republican revival. Not quite four years later, frustrated at the pace of change, he quietly sought counsel from a man he had once worked to defeat: Richard M. Nixon.Mr. Gingrich entered national politics in his party’s liberal wing; as a young graduate student in 1968, he campaigned for Nixon’s opponent, Nelson A. Rockefeller. Now, over a dinner in New York, the disgraced former president instructed the impatient lawmaker to build a coalition — the noisier the better.“He said, ‘You cannot change the country unless you are interesting and attract attention,’ ” Mr. Gingrich recalled in a speech years later. “And to do that, you have to have a group.”Mr. Gingrich promptly founded the Conservative Opportunity Society, a band of activist lawmakers who helped usher in the 1994 Republican revolution that made him his party’s first House speaker in 40 years.But many of the conservatives who rode to power with Mr. Gingrich ultimately deserted him, while he denounced them as “petty dictators” and “the perfectionist caucus” in the waning days of his tumultuous four-year speakership.