Free Republic

Chinese archaeologists said that a tomb unearthed in east Jiangsu Province might be the final resting place of an emperor known for his tyrannous reign about 1,500 years ago. The 20-square-meter tomb in Yangzhou City might belong to Yang Guang, or Emperor Yang of Sui, the second and last monarch of the short-lived Sui Dynasty (AD 581-618), according to the city's cultural heritage bureau. A gravestone excavated from the tomb confirmed the emperor's identity, while an inscription about the year of his death concurred with historical accounts, said Shu Jiaping, head of Yangzhou's institute of archaeology. "But we're still not...

VENICE (Reuters Life!) – Venetians woke up on Monday to find that one of the symbols of their world famous lagoon city -- the Grand Canal -- had been stolen. "The Grand Canal has been snatched," was the way several newspaper headlines put it. It seems that a new national law intended to get rid of old, out-of-date provisions that have been on the books since Italy was a monarchy also transferred ownership of the canal from the city to the national government. Worse still, it was part of a package promoted by Roberto Calderoli -- whose title is Simplification...