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Briefs

Intelligent design trial starts in Pa.

By wire services
Published September 27, 2005

A Pennsylvania school district is undermining science education by raising false doubts about evolution and offering "intelligent design" as an alternative explanation for life's origins, a biologist testified at the start of a landmark trial. "It's the first movement to try to drive a wedge between students and the scientific process," said Brown University's Kenneth Miller, the first witness called Monday by lawyers for eight families suing the Dover Area School District. Dover is believed to be the nation's first school system to require that students be exposed to the intelligent design concept. The policy requires school administrators to read a statement before classes on evolution that says Charles Darwin's theory is "not a fact" and has inexplicable "gaps." It refers students to an intelligent design textbook.

New strain of dog flu reported in 11 states

A strain of flu virus that jumped from horses to dogs has caused sometimes deadly respiratory infections at dog tracks and kennels in at least 11 states and among some household pets as well, health officials reported Monday. While cautioning dog owners to keep their pets away from other dogs if they have a respiratory infection to try to minimize further spread of the virus, experts said most dogs recover from the infection.

THE UNUSUAL

Ancient grave of infants found

Archaeologists have uncovered the remains of two newborns dating back 27,000 years while excavating a hillside in northern Austria, the scientist in charge of the project said Monday. Last week's find near the Danube River city of Krems is important because the newborns were buried beneath mammoth bones and with a string of 31 beads - suggesting that the internment involved some sort of ritual, said Christine Neugebauer-Maresch, the project's leader at the Austrian Academy of Sciences. The burial - one of the oldest in the region - is also significant in that the children were not simply disposed of after their deaths, Neugebauer-Maresch said. The burial suggests "they were members of society," she said.

UPDATE

Gotti free on bail

A federal judge in New York agreed Monday to free the son of late mob boss John Gotti on $7-million bond, less than a week after declaring a mistrial on the bulk of the racketeering case against the son of the late Gambino crime boss. Under bail conditions approved by U.S. District Judge Shira Scheindlin, John A. "Junior" Gotti will be released but remain under house arrest in his own home on Long Island, N.Y. Gotti, 41, remained in custody while paperwork was being finalized. His lawyers said he could be home as early as today.

[Last modified September 27, 2005, 02:45:31]