Free Republic

Since 2009, archaeologists have been slowly excavating the ancient town of Magdala—thought to be the home of Mary Magdalene—near the Sea of Galilee. Among their finds has been a first-century synagogue where, experts say, Jesus likely preached. Image: Israel Antiquities Authority Although Jerusalem and Bethlehem are the sites most commonly associated with Jesus, Father Eamon Kelly—vice president of Israel's Magdala Center and vice chargé of the Pontifical Institute Notre Dame of Jerusalem Center—points out that Jesus spent almost his entire life in what is now northern Israel. "Eighty percent of Jesus' public life was here," he tells the Israeli...

We know that history holds many surprises. One doesn't expect to learn more about the secret history of of the Gulag than we already know from both Solzhenitsyn's "Gulag Acrcipelago" and Anne Applebaum's "Gulag: A history." This feat, however, is exactly what author Tim Tzouliadis has accomplished: the previously unknown story of the thousands of Americans who, during the Depression, sought employment and a better future in the "worker's paradise" built by the Bolsheviks. All kinds of Americans joined the exodus. Some of them were Communists or fellow-travelors but the majority were average Americans - skilled workers promised paid passage,...

A Russian governor assassinated in full center of Moscow Friday October 18, 2002 - 7h07 GMT MOSCOW, Oct. 18 (AFP) - the governor of the area of Magadan (the Far East), Valentine Tsvetkov, was assassinated Friday by balls in the center of Moscow by two unknown, announced police sources contacted by the AFP. He was killed towards 09H00 (05H00 GMT) close to a restaurant of the avenue Novii Arbat, according to the Interfax agency. Its assassins used a silencer, according to the same source. The killers also aimed his assistant but this one was not wounded, according to television...