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In 1997, archaeologists unearthed a skeleton buried in the fetal position at Toca dos Coqueiros, an archaeological site in Brazil's Serra da Capivara National Park. Based on the size and shape of the skull, they identified the remains as female and named the skeleton Zuzu. But that classification has remained steeped in controversy(opens in new tab), with many researchers claiming the deceased was actually male.Now, a new facial approximation of the 9,600-year-old skull may help put this debate to rest.Last year, researchers took dozens of photos from different angles of the skull, which is on display at the Museum of...

ALPINE, Texas (AP) — Alpine police say the reward for information leading to the whereabouts or safe return of a missing West Texas college student has increased to $200,000. Police announced the increase Monday in the disappearance of Zuzu Verk, a 22-year-old from Fort Worth who is a junior at Sul Ross State University in Alpine. Police have said her boyfriend, Robert Fabian, has been named a suspect because investigators believe he was the last person with her before she disappeared. No one has been arrested.

To many Americans, the season wouldn't be complete without at least a few scenes from "It's a Wonderful Life." The movie wasn't a box-office hit when it was released in the 1940s, but it's become a seasonal favorite since -- and even acquired some critical acclaim along the way. Years ago I read a brief analysis of "It's a Wonderful Life" by a professor of American studies at Boston University. I should have known better. Any academic field with the word "studies" in its name is suspect from the start -- as opposed to a traditional discipline like history...

Star Partners and Hummingbird Prods. are collaborating on production of a sequel to Frank Capra’s iconic 1946 movie “It’s a Wonderful Life,” which starred Jimmy Stewart and Donna Reed.The sequel, titled “It’s A Wonderful Life: The Rest of the Story,” is being financed by Allen J. Schwalb of Star Partners who will also produce along with Bob Farnsworth of Hummingbird. The duo are aiming to get the movie into theaters for the 2015 holiday season.Karolyn Grimes, who played George Bailey’s daughter “Zuzu” in the original, will return for the “Wonderful Life” sequel as an angel who shows Bailey’s unlikeable...

SENECA FALLS, N.Y. - Zuzu has a cold again. She sniffles and sucks on a cold pill as she signs autographs for fans lined up to the door in a coffee shop. Karolyn Grimes jokes that she left her coat open, like her character Zuzu Bailey in "It's a Wonderful Life." A more likely culprit is the holiday crunch of appearances by the former child actress _ from a Victorian festival in Puyallup, Wash., to the Colorado Country Christmas Show and now to Seneca Falls, which claims to be the inspiration for director Frank Capra's mythical Bedford Falls. Around...

I always had my suspicions that the Baileys were Catholic. Although George Bailey was “touched by an angel” (second class, anyway), the issue of precisely which church the Baileys of Bedford Falls attended was never specified in Frank Capra's 1946 classic It’s a Wonderful Life. Still, The Bailey family, and George in particular, exemplify the essence of Catholic social teaching. The Baileys were entrepreneurs with a definite desire to profit from their hard work, yes — but they were ethical in their practice of free enterprise. Their desire to profit from their labor was subordinate to their devotion to the...