h Museum to auction mastodon to stay afloat

h Museum to auction
mastodon to stay afloat

DALLAS — A Texas museum that teaches creationism is counting on the auction of a prehistoric mastodon skull to stave off extinction. The founder and curator of the Mount Blanco Fossil Museum, which rejects evolution and claims that man and dinosaurs coexisted, said it will close unless the Volkswagen-size skull finds a generous bidder. Heritage Auction Galleries says the skull is estimated to be 40,000 years old, and projects it will fetch upward of $160,000. The artifact discovered in La Grange in 2004 is believed to be the largest of its kind, Heritage spokesman David Herskowitz said. The auction will be held Sunday in Dallas, with bids accepted on the Internet until Saturday night.

Woman to be ordained
as Catholic priest in Calif.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Elizabeth English is a mother of two, a partner in a four-year lesbian relationship, a social worker. On Saturday, she will add one more title: Catholic priest. English is a member of a small, independent Catholic church that does not recognize papal authority and ordains women to the priesthood. In an elaborate ceremony, English will be the first woman to take priestly vows at her Sacramento church. She knows this will likely upset many Roman Catholics. “That is not my goal,” says English, 58. “I believe I am answering God’s call.” English, who typically wears traditional priestly clothes, describes herself as “Catholic to the core.” She was confirmed to the faith in 2004 but left the Roman Catholic Church eight months ago to attend Good Shepherd Parish, an independent congregation. The Catholic Diocese of Sacramento will not recognize the ordination.

FEMA to offer refunds
to Katrina trailer buyers

NEW ORLEANS — The Federal Emergency Management Agency, responding to concerns about formaldehyde in trailers issued to hurricane survivors, said Thursday that it would offer refunds to people who bought them after their initial use. The federal government began selling trailers in 2006 through online auctions and to victims of the intense 2005 hurricane season. Sales were suspended in July last year because of the fears about formaldehyde, which can cause respiratory problems. Hundreds of people in Louisiana and Mississippi are suing manufacturers, accusing them of providing FEMA with trailers that contained high levels of the toxin after hurricanes Katrina and Rita, which devastated much of the Gulf Coast.

Iraq mosque blast kills 8

BAGHDAD, Iraq — A suicide bomber killed at least eight people Thursday in front of a mosque in volatile Diyala province as worshipers gathered for a Shiite holiday, another sign of continuing unrest in northern Iraq despite the launch last week of a major U.S. offensive against Sunni insurgents in the region. Elsewhere in the province, U.S. forces killed two women and injured two others during an air and ground attack on a building that armed men refused to exit, the U.S. military said in a statement.

Unrest flares in Pakistan

PESHAWAR, Pakistan — Nine people were killed and at least 25 wounded when a teenage suicide bomber blew himself up Thursday night in a crowded Shiite Muslim prayer hall in this border region. The attack marked the onset of sectarian violence that often flares during Ashoura, the annual religious holiday when Shiites mourn the death in the seventh century of Imam Hussein, a grandson of the prophet Muhammad.

Stolen boomerang is back

BRISBANE, Australia — Boomerangs really do come back — even after 25 years. Officials in an Australian Outback town were surprised when a boomerang arrived in the post. Along with it was a note from a guilt-ridden American who said he stole it years earlier from a museum in the mining town of Mount Isa, and now felt rotten about it. “I removed this back in 1983 when I was younger and dumber,” said the note, according to Mount Isa Mayor Ron McCullough. “It was the wrong thing to do, I’m sorry, and I’m going to send it back,” said the note. McCullough on Thursday gave the contrite thief’s first name as Peter but said it would be unfair to release his full identity.

Combined dispatches