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UR, Iraq (AFP) - Dhia Mhesen rattles off fact after fact about this ancient mud brick city, the site of a giant ziggurat and the reputed birthplace of Abraham -- the prophet revered by Judaism, Christianity and Islam alike. "The ziggurat was the temple of the moon god," said Mhesen. "And over there is the house of Abraham. The bible calls this place Ur of the Chaldeans." Mhesen, 46, is the third generation caretaker at Ur, a 4,000 year-old city located near Nasiriyah, 375 kilometers (235 miles) southeast of the Iraqi capital. The site is also known as Tell Muqayyar....

1. The garden of Eden was in Iraq. (it sure doesn't look much like Paradise on earth today thanks to Saddam). 2. Mesopotamia which is now Iraq was the cradle of civilization! 3. Noah built the ark in Iraq. 4. The Tower of Babel was in Iraq. 5. Abraham was from Ur, which is in Southern Iraq! 6. Isaac's wife Rebekah is from Nahor which is in Iraq. 7. Jacob met Rachel in Iraq. 8. Jonah preached in Nineveh - which is in Iraq. 9. Assyria which is in Iraq conquered the ten tribes of Israel. 10. Amos cried out...

University of Richmond hosts speaker series featuring: Nathan Long, "The Space between 'Boy' and 'Girl': Facts and Fictions," March 29, 4 p.m., Brown-Alley Room, Weinstein Hall. Long is a professor, poet, essayist, playwright and short story writer whose work has appeared in such journals as The Sun, Indiana Review and Glimmer Train. He will talk about intersexuality -- having sexual characteristics between those of a typical male and a typical female -- and the plurality of sexes. He also will read from his novel-in-progress about an intersexual person growing up in rural mid-America.

What there was in the beginning, in the world of the Bible, is what there was in the land now called Iraq. There is nothing left of the Garden of Eden, no artifact at the confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers where myth has placed the Temptation and the Fall. But the great cities and empires from the Books of Genesis and Kings and Chronicles have left their traces: Ur, where Abraham was born; rapacious Assyria with its capital, Nineveh, and Babylon, where the ancient Israelites were carried into captivity and where, as the psalm tells us, they wept...

<p>Scott Erwin came from his job in Iraq to walk across the stage with his University of Richmond graduating class on May 9.</p> <p>Last year Scott Erwin put his college education on hold to go to Iraq and teach democracy.</p> <p>He risked his life because he wanted to help.</p>

More than one million copies of a poetry anthology by Pope John Paul II have been published in 20 languages, the Vatican has announced. The pontiff first published the poems in 2003 but the print run was expanded after sales topped 300,000 in his native Poland. An aide said the Pope worked alone on his poems though he was given advice by his friend and poet Marek Skwarnicki. Many of his verses are about nature, including river poem The Stream. The collection, titled Roman Triptych, has been translated into languages including Romanian, Korean and Japanese. About 600,000 copies have been...

<p>A Christmas tree in the company lobby may send the wrong message, said University of Richmond professor Douglas A. Hicks. It could alienate workers not from Christian backgrounds.</p> <p>"America is the most religiously diverse country in the world," he said, and U.S. companies should convey respectful pluralism.</p>

Talk about a senior trip. Scott Erwin, a senior at the University of Richmond, is spending this academic year in one of the most dangerous places in the world - Baghdad - where bullets fly, trucks explode and heavily armed helicopter gunships skim the rooftops. It's a long way from the tall pines on the UR campus. In e-mail exchanges recently, the 21-year-old Erwin discussed what he's doing in Iraq and how he got there. Erwin, now a civilian employee of the U.S. Department of Defense, is a budget adviser for the Coalition Provisional Authority's Ministry of Interior. The authority...

IRONWOOD -- A brief tour of duty in Iraq was an eye-opener for physician's assistant Jim Potter. "Our generation is good, but I found out we're in great hands with the next generation," said 1st Lt. Potter, who served with the 1st Infantry Division in the early 1970s, but only joined the U.S. Army Reserve in 1999. "They did all they were called to do, and more." Conditions were rough when Potter arrived in Iraq in April. "I first worked out of a foxhole, then from a sleeping bag, to a tent, from the tent to the back of an...

Looters are systematically stripping many of Iraq's 10,000 archaeological sites and should be shot on sight by coalition forces, an expert said yesterday. Gangs of up to 400 people are stealing antiquities for the international market and some sites have been largely destroyed, said Elizabeth Stone, an American archaeology professor. "I would like to see helicopters flying over there shooting bullets so that people know there is a real price to looting this stuff," said Prof Stone, of Stony Brook University, New York. "You have got to kill some people to stop this." Prof Stone, who has been at the...

Tablets that may reveal El Niño secrets are feared lost in Iraq By Ben Russell, Political Correspondent 09 June 2003 The secrets of El Niño, one of the most mysterious and destructive weather systems, could be unlocked by hundreds of thousands of ancient clay tablets now feared lost or damaged in the chaos of Iraq. Researchers believe the tablets, written using a cuneiform text, one of the earliest types of writing, form the world's oldest records of climate change and could give vital clues to understanding El Niño and global warming. Academics are demanding that ministers act to protect the...

<p>Carolyn McIntyre can hardly wait to go back to Iraq.</p> <p>The Middle East director for San Francisco adventure travel company Geographic Expeditions last saw Baghdad in the late 1970s, just as Saddam Hussein was taking over and long before the first Gulf War and trade sanctions put Iraq off-limits for U.S. companies.</p>

<p>UR, Iraq — Shortly after the 392nd U.S. Infantry Brigade captured this desolate flatland in southern Iraq, soldiers were dispatched to guard monuments and archeological sites older than the rocks themselves.</p> <p>The infantry surrounded the Ziggurat of Ur, a famous pyramid temple to the moon god Nanna, and the purported birthplace of Abraham. There was no disturbance in this sparsely populated area, but U.S. commanders decided to ensure that U.S. forces protected these sites — revered by major religions and cherished by the Iraqi people — from sabotage and vandals.</p>

UR, Iraq (AP) - This is the place where civilization arose, where an ingenious race of people irrigated fields, forged agricultural tools and devised the written word. Some 6,000 years after this glorious beginning, U.S. forces drove sophisticated machines of war through the cradle of mankind. But the fighting, which was heavy in the nearby city of Nasiriyah, spared the sand-swept ruins of Ur and the two families who remain the site's guardians and guides. "We are proud," said Dhief Nauos of his job as custodian of one of Iraq's greatest historic treasures. Five other men standing outside two humble...

REBUILDING PLAN AGREED Free Iraqis have drawn up a 13-point plan to rebuild their country following the collapse of Saddam Hussein's regime. The plan was agreed at US-hosted talks at Ur, the birthplace of the biblical prophet Abraham. The delegates also voted to meet again in 10 days' time. In a statement they said a future Iraqi government must be democratic, no leader must be imposed from outside, and the Baath party must be dissolved. As the meeting began, hundreds marched through the streets of nearby Nasiriyah protesting about US involvement in their country's future. They were concerned that the...

U.S. Marching in the Footsteps of Abraham By ROBERT H. REID .c The Associated Press DOHA, Qatar (AP) - As the U.S.-led coalition rolls by the rivers of Babylon, American troops are marching through the cradle of Western civilization, following in the footsteps of Biblical prophets and ancient conquerors. The modern names - Karbala, Afak, Nasiriyah - may be unfamiliar to most Americans. But the history written around those towns resonates throughout Western civilization thousands of years later. Take Nasiriyah, a Euphrates River crossing where U.S. Marines have been battling Iraqi troops and militiamen for nearly a week. About 20...

<p>The U.S. military expedition into Iraq has skirted ancient sites named in Jewish and Christian scriptures and apparently avoided sacred turf where Shi'ite Muslims had their historic and bloody showdown with rival Sunnis.</p> <p>Troops that invaded from the south crossed territory called the cradle of civilization and traditionally considered the site of the Garden of Eden. The troops passed by Abraham's birthplace of Ur and the heart of ancient Sumer, whose poetry told of a creation and flood like that in the book of Genesis.</p>

VATICAN CITY, JULY 22, 2002 (Zenit.org).- In a message addressed to Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, John Paul II said he prays for peace in that country and in the region. According to a report of the official agency INA, the Holy Father's message was sent on the 34th anniversary of the Baath Party's coming to power. In his message, the Pope said that he "implores God to bless Iraq and its people, and to make peace reign in the region." On numerous occasions, John Paul II has urged the United Nations to end the embargo imposed on Iraq since 1990....