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Rare Roman glass bowl found 1,700 years after it's buried next to merchant in East London

This beautiful translucent dish belonged to a wealthy East Londoner living in Roman Britain 1,700 years ago. The rare 'millefiori' bowl - meaning 'one thousand flowers' was unearthed by archaeologists in London and is thought to be the first find of its kind in the western Roman empire. Researchers believe it will give fresh insight into life in Roman Britain. The dish is made up of hundreds of translucent blue indented glass petals, bordered with white embedded in a br

The Instant American Revolution

Barack Obama had everything perfectly choreographed for Wednesday, his 100th day in office. First he would travel to St. Louis for a town hall meeting, where he could be fairly sure of a glowing reception; then he would return to Washington for a televised press conference. His team had provided the media with insider anecdotes and graced a few correspondents with private background interviews. Nothing was left to chance for the 100th day -- an artificial anniversary established by

Current Crisis Shows Uncanny Parallels to Great Depression

The Germans have always had a penchant for looking to America to gain a glimpse into the future. They marveled at the Apollo 11 mission to the moon. They admired the gray but affordable Commodore personal computer. And they succumbed to the spell of an Internet company with the odd name of Google. Now the Germans are looking across the Atlantic once again, but this time they see images that remind them of their own past, images of sad-looking people standing in long li

'Looted' Chinese relic auctioned

Beijing said the Qing Dynasty relic was looted by British and French troops from its Summer Palace in 1860. The Chinese bidder refused to give his name, but said he was acting on behalf of an art collector in France. The piece sold for more than five times its estimated value after a tense bidding race with another Asian buyer.

Lebanon releases Hariri suspects

Their release comes hours after a UN court ruled there was not enough evidence to hold them. Supporters of the generals, mainly from the pro-Syrian Hezbollah movement, fired guns into the air and set off fireworks to celebrate the ruling. The UN court was set up to investigate the bomb attack which killed Mr Hariri and 22 others in February 2005.

Britain considers holding Malaya 'massacre' inquiry

Britain is considering holding an inquiry into an alleged 'massacre' of unarmed Malayan villagers by UK troops in 1948, reversing an earlier decision. The about face comes three months after the British Government turned down a request from Malaysian activists to investigate the killings, which took place during an anti-communist operation in the Malayan Emergency. The "Batang Kali massacre" occurred in a village in central Selangor state on Dec 12, 1948, wh

California Woman: My Father Was the Zodiac Killer

A California woman has come forward to claim that her late father was the elusive Zodiac Killer and that she accompanied him on many of his shooting sprees in the late 1960s when she was only 7-years-old, KTVU.com reported. Kevin Mclean, a California-based attorney, has led a 2-year long investigation into claims made by Deborah Perez that her father, Guy Ward Hendrickson, was the Zodiac Killer and urged her to come forward when he heard that another investigator was planning on pre

Is FDR-Era Yardstick Still Relevant?

It was March 4, 1933, and Franklin D. Roosevelt was being sworn in as president after his Democratic Party assumed control of the levers of power in a country deeply troubled by a historic economic collapse. Over the next 3 1/2 months, he would amass a slew of legislative victories, help set in motion the recovery from the Great Depression and establish a new yardstick for chief executives. Roosevelt accomplished so much during his first 100 days in office, presidential

$2M at Ohio auction for rare coin of Siam

The coin world is abuzz over the auction of a rare silver dollar, one of the most valuable in the world and one of only 15 known to exist from a never-circulated group made for the likes of the King of Siam and the Sultan of Muscat. The 1804 Adams-Carter silver dollar fetched more than $2 million in a private sale two years ago and is expected to top that again this week. The coin has been owned by a Boston banker, a Texas publishing mogul and by a collector who sold everything to h

Pope apologizes for abuse of Indian school children in Canada

Pope Benedict XVI apologized Wednesday to native Canadians who were physically and sexually abused at church-run boarding schools they were forced to attend, saying he was sorry for their anguish and was praying they would heal. Benedict met with a group of former students and victims and told them of his "personal anguish" over their suffering, they said. They emerged from the meeting happy and comforted, said Phil Fontaine, national chief of the Assembly of First Nations

Rep. Bachmann blames FDR for 'Hoot-Smaley' Tariff

Time Mag's top 10 party switchers of all time

1. Specter 2. TR 3. Wendell Willkie 4. Hillary Clinton 5. Reagan 6. Strom Thurmond 7. Condi Rice 8. Richard Shelby 9. Michael Bloomberg 10. Jim Jeffords

The 100-Day Benchmark: It All Started with Napoleon

The 100-day timeline can be traced back to Napoleon Bonaparte, because that's how long it took him to return from exile, reinstate himself as ruler of France and wage war against the English and Prussian armies before his final defeat at the Battle of Waterloo. (It actually took 111 days, but we'll give him a mulligan.) Napoleon reclaimed power in 1815, however; Americans didn't start assessing their Presidents in 100-day increments until Franklin Delano Roosevelt came along more than a century

Shrinking Like It’s 1958

How bad have the last two quarters been? Over the last six months, the economy shrank at its fastest rate since late 1957 and early 1958. That’s the only decline, in fact, that was worse than the current one, since the government began keeping quarterly records just after World War II. Here are the worst six-month declines in economic activity since 1947: 3rd quarter, 1957 - 1st quarter, 1958: -3.7 percent 3rd quarter, 2008 - 1st quarter, 2009: -3.2

Nazi-loving priest?

A priest has shocked parishioners by welcoming them to church wearing a swastika armband. Fascist Father Angelo Idi, 51 - who once saw off a charity box thief with a truncheon at his church in Vigevano, Italy - confessed: "I am proud of my right wing beliefs. But people shouldn't care about my politics, they should care about how good a priest I am." In northern Italy where former dictator Benito Mussolini comes from the far right Italian LEGA NORD (Northern L

Nazi 'hangman' dies after life of liberty in Germany

Herbertus Bikker, a wanted Dutch Nazi war criminal known as 'the hangman of Ommen', has died aged 93. Although he died last year, German police have only now confirmed that he was buried in the Ruhr city of Hagen after dieing peacefully, aged 93, at home. Bikker, a member of the Waffen SS, became infamous as De Beul van Ommen for his cruelty while serving as a prison guard at the Erika concentration camp, in the Dutch province of Overijssel.

Pope asked to find Jews raised Catholic

Yad L'Achim, a haredi anti-missionary organization, called Monday on Pope Benedict XVI to help find thousands of European Jews who as young children were saved from the Holocaust by Catholic clergy and laymen and were never told of their Jewish origins. "During his visit here, we want the pope to call on all members of the Catholic Church to reveal the identities of thousands of Jews saved by the church from the Nazis," said Rabbi Shalom Dov Lipshitz, who heads the organiz

Roman glass dish found in grave

A rare Roman millefiori dish has been unearthed by archaeologists from the grave of a wealthy Londoner. The dish, which has gone on display at the Museum of London in Docklands, was found during excavations in Prescot Street, in Aldgate, east London. It was pieced together from its many fragments. It is made up of hundreds of translucent blue indented glass petals, bordered with white embedded in a bright red glass background.

Fishkill land confirmed to be Revolutionary War gravesite: Planned shopping plaza is dropped

Graves, very likely those of hundreds of Revolutionary War soldiers, have been found, at long last, on undeveloped land in the Town of Fishkill that was proposed to be a shopping center. Archaeological digs and a survey using ground-penetrating radar confirmed existence of long-suspected remains in the historic site known as the Fishkill Supply Depot, according to letters from state historic officials. Historians deem the depot to have been a major resource in the Ameri

Acropolis museum to open in June: minister

The ultra-modern Acropolis museum, situated below the ancient landmark that defines the Greek capital Athens, will belatedly open in June, Greek Culture Minister Antonis Samaras said Sunday. The three-level museum, with a total area of 25,000 square metres (270,000 square feet), includes a section reserved for the disputed Parthenon Marbles, currently at the British Museum in London. Greece is pursuing a campaign for the return of the priceless friezes, removed in 1806