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12,000-Year-Old Rock Paintings Found in Xinjiang, China 2011-04-29 12:04
Ancient colored rock paintings dating back 12,000 years have been found in a cave in the Altai area of China’s Xinjiang region. The paintings found are mainly handprints, spot images and figures. All of them are colored, mostly painted with red ocher. The cave belongs to the Duogate rock-painting area. The paintings have been designated as a cultural relic site under county-level protection. Seven large-scale rock painting groups have been found in the area. Most of these rock paintings feature cows, horse, sheep, camels and male and female dancers, which are closely related to nomads’ life in ancient times.
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Pope John Paul II: social teaching reinvigorated the faith
Pope John Paul II: social teaching reinvigorated the faith By Stephen F. Schneck This Sunday, May 1, we celebrate the beatification of Pope John Paul II. May 1 is also the traditional feast of St. Joseph the Worker. Even more specially, this year May 1 is Divine Mercy Sunday, an observance inaugurated by John Paul II himself. The confluence of coincidence is perhaps more than coincidence and I’m confident that the former pontiff would be charmed. The Feast of St. Joseph the Worker honors the vocation of working men and women, with particular attention to the contribution of the working class to the common good of all. Traditionally, it’s a…
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Simplicity Wears the Crow
Kate Middleton’s Dress Is a Flawless Success – NYTimes.com April 29, 2011 By CATHERINE SAINT LOUIS AFTER months of feverish speculation about who would design Kate Middleton’s wedding dress, there were few surprises in the end. British designer, check. Smaller train than Princess Diana’s 25-footer in 1981, check. Sarah Burton of Alexander McQueen created a lace gown with a V-neck satin bodice flowing into a skirt with delicate folds on a nearly nine-foot train. Her ivory tulle veil, fixed by a Cartier 1936 “halo” tiara lent to her by the queen, was modest. Simplicity reigned. “It’s the kind of gown that will stand the test of time,” said Mark Badgley, part of the…
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St Joan of Arc Biography
Biography.com (born 1412, Domrémy, Bar, France—died May 30, 1431, Rouen; canonized May 16, 1920; feast day May 30; French national holiday, second Sunday in May) national heroine of France, a peasant girl who, believing that she was acting under divine guidance, led the French army in a momentous victory at Orléans that repulsed an English attempt to conquer France during the Hundred Years’ War. Captured a year afterward, Joan was burned by the English and their French collaborators as a heretic. She became the greatest national heroine of her compatriots. Her achievement was a decisive factor in the later awakening of French national consciousness. Joan was the daughter of a…
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After Storms Kill Hundreds, South Tries to Regroup
After Storms Kill Hundreds, South Tries to Regroup By CAMPBELL ROBERTSON and KIM SEVERSON TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — As President Obama prepared to visit Alabama on Friday, which was at the epicenter of a region that endured storms that killed hundreds across the South, people from Texas to Virginia searched through the rubble of their homes, schools and businesses for survivors. Nearly 300 people across six states died in the storms, with the vast majority — 213 people — in Alabama. This college town, the home of the University of Alabama, has in some places been shorn to the slab, and accounts for at least 36 of those deaths. Thousands have…