U.S. Fears Iraq Won't Keep Up Rebuilt Projects

Nov 21, 2009 - BAGHDAD — In its largest reconstruction effort since the Marshall Plan, the United States government has spent $53 billion for relief and reconstruction in Iraq since the 2003 invasion, building tens of thousands of hospitals, water treatment plants, electricity substations, schools and bridges. But there are growing concerns among American officials that Iraq will not be able to adequately maintain the facilities once the Americans have left, potentially wasting hundreds of millions of dollars and jeopardizing Iraq’s ability to provide basic services to its people. The projects run the gamut — from a cutting-edge, $270 million water treatment plant in Nasiriya that works at a fraction of its intended capacity because it is too sophisticated for Iraqi workers to operate, to a farmers’ market that farmers cannot decide how to share, to a large American hospital closed immediately after it was handed over to Iraq because the government was unable to supply it with equipment, a medical staff or electricity. - 6 Comments

Italy collector finds Galileo's lost tooth, fingers

Nov 20, 2009 -   Source   Fri Nov 20, 2009 12:17pm EST ROME (Reuters) - An art collector has found a tooth, thumb and finger of the renowned Italian scientist Galileo Galilei who died in the 17th century, Florence's History of Science museum announced on Friday.   The body parts, along with another finger and a vertebrae, were cut from Galileo's corpse by scientists and historians during a burial ceremony held 95 years after his death in 1642.   Giovanni Targioni Tozzetti, a science historian who cut away the parts and wrote about the ceremony, "confessed he had found it hard to resist the temptation to take away the skull which had housed such extraordinary genius," the museum said. - 11 Comments

Big wedding: 20,000 gather for mass nuptials

Oct 14, 2009 - ASAN, South Korea - Brides in white gowns and Japanese kimonos joined grooms in black suits and red ties Wednesday for the Unification Church's biggest mass wedding in a decade — a spectacle church officials say involves 40,000 people around the world. The "blessing ceremony" is the church's largest since 1999, and may well be the last on such a grand scale officiated by the 89-year-old Rev. Sun Myung Moon, the controversial founder of the Unification Church. - 3 Comments

High Court Weighs Legality Of Memorial Cross

Oct 07, 2009 - A white cross erected on a rock outcropping on federal land in California's Mojave Desert is at the heart of a Supreme Court case about the government's display of religious symbols. Critics say the cross violates the Constitution's ban on government establishment of religion. The case will be argued Wednesday. - 44 Comments

Bill to Allow Same-Sex Marriage Introduced in DC

Oct 06, 2009 - (Patricia Hawkins, 69, a psychologist who works in Washington, wipes a tear as a bill allowing same-sex marriage in the District of Columbia is introduced at a city council meeting in Washington, on Tuesday, Oct. 6, 2009. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)) Same-sex couples would be allowed to marry in the nation's capital under a bill introduced Tuesday by a District of Columbia councilman. - 8 Comments