Our ancient world continues to become more mysterious by the day, as 10,000 year old rock paintings depicting possible extraterrestrials and UFOs have been found in Chhattisgarh, India. These can be added to the long list of mysterious and unexplained "ancient art" that seems to lend to the belief that our ancient world and the people who lived at that time had contact with beings that did not originate from this planet.

"The findings suggest that humans in prehistoric times may have seen or imagined beings from other planets which still create curiosity among people and researchers. Extensive research is needed for further findings. Chhattisgarh presently doesn't have any such expert who could give clarity on the subject. The paintings are done in natural colours that have hardly faded despite the years. The strangely carved figures are seen holding weapon-like objects and do not have clear features. The nose and mouth are missing, and in a few pictures they are even shown wearing spacesuits. We can't refuse the possibility of imagination by prehistoric men but humans usually fancy such things." - JR Bhagat (source)

The illegal drug trade is an essential component of global politics, playing a central role in the proliferation of arms used to destabilize countries and unseat unfavorable regimes in the geopolitical quest to create favorable conditions for oil ventures while bolstering the banking industry.

Peter Dale Scott, a Canadian born scholar, poet and former diplomat, is the world's foremost researcher into the inner workings of government conspiracy (conspiracy meaning organized plans and programs). He has for decades been exposing the shadow elements operating under the cover of government, deep politics and big oil,

This underworld of influence is described in detail in Scott's latest book, The American Deep State: Wall Street, Big Oil, and the Attack on U.S. Democracy (War and Peace Library).

"He marshals convincing evidence that the deep state is partly institutionalized in non-accountable intelligence agencies like the CIA and NSA, but it also includes private corporations like Booz Allen Hamilton and SAIC, to which 70 percent of intelligence budgets are outsourced. Behind these public and private institutions is the traditional influence of Wall Street bankers and lawyers, allied with international oil companies beyond the reach of domestic law." [Source]

The story of the late Father Carlos Crespi Croci is one of mystery and controversy, including purported evidence of unknown civilizations, strange golden artifacts, a subterranean cave system containing a metallic library, depictions of strange figures connecting America to Sumeria, symbols depicting an unknown language, evidence of extraterrestrial contact, and a Vatican conspiracy involving thousands of missing artifacts.

But how much of the story is true? Ancient Origins set out to find the answers and was given exclusive access by the Central Bank of Ecuador to the private artifact collection of Crespi, tucked away in hidden vaults and storerooms, including the controversial carved metal plates, which had not been seen or photographed for decades.

Google the name "Crespi" today and you will find dozens of websites telling the bizarre story of a humble priest in Ecuador and his connection with a mysterious collection of artifacts. When myself and Dr. Ioannis Syrigos of Ancient Origins moved to Cuenca, Ecuador, and were visited by researchers Hugh Newman, founder of Megalithomania.co.uk; and Jim Vieira, who has starred on several History Channel programs, we had an opportunity to explore the account in more depth and find out what is really behind the story of Crespi.

The Law of Moses placed limitations on the king that are "without parallel in the ancient Near East. Nowhere do we find legal curbs on the size of the military, the treasury, and the harem." (Berman, 53) From the law in Deuteronomy 17:14-20 we learn that:

• The King was to be elected by an assembly of the citizens
• The King was subject to written laws that had been prepared by the priests

That is remarkable enough. But elsewhere in Deuteronomy we find other powers that your typical ancient Near Eastern king assigned to others so that according to the same book of law the king had

• no judicial powers; he was not even the judge of final appeals
• no religious function; he was not the guardian of the cult or temple
• no military role, not even in wartime
• no responsibility for economic relief of his subjects (e.g. debt remission, manumission)

(Levinson, 529)

Archaeologists have uncovered fragments of an ancient Egyptian palace complex. The researchers found a mortar pit embedded with the footprints of children that lived 3,000 years ago.

They also uncovered mysterious rare wall painting fragments which may have come from Ancient Greece. The team made the find while working at a site of Qantir-Piramesse at the eastern side of Egypt's Nile Delta.

Between 1300 and 1100 BC, 'Pi-Ramesse' was the capital of Egypt and a rich and powerful city. It was the home of Pharaoh Ramesses the Great, who was king of Egypt from 1279 to 1213 BC.

The last week of January holds special significance for Cubans, and indeed for the progressive men and women around the world. This year, January 25 marks the second month since the passing of Fidel Castro (who can forget November 25, 2016?). On January 28, which marks José Marti's day of birth, Cubans pay a special tribute to his legacy.

On December 27, 2016, the Cuban National Assembly of People's Power held a debate on how to legislate the will of Fidel to reject any tendency toward the "cult of personality." The law expressly bans the use of Fidel's name "to denominate institutions, plazas, parks, streets, avenues and other public places, as well as any type of decoration, recognition or honorary title."

Likewise, it is forbidden to use denominations or images of, or allusions of any nature to, his figure "to erect monuments, busts, statues, commemorative strips and other similar forms of homage," as well as to use it as a trademark or for other distinctive signs, domain name and designs for commercial or advertising purposes, except when it comes to the use of his name to denominate any future institution that might be created according the law to study his invaluable trajectory in the history of the nation. [1]

Most readers interested in Jewish history know something about the conversos, the Spanish and Portuguese Jews forced to convert to Christianity in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. In recent decades, historians have come to see their story not just as a tragic or heroic one—an affair of Jews forced to give up their faith, or contriving to remain faithful in secret—but as an important episode in the evolution of the modern world. Yirmiyahu Yovel argued last year in The Other Within: The Marranos that these "New Christians" were the first large group in European history to be effectively post-religious—free to define the world and its meaning for themselves, instead of accepting the definitions of rabbinic Judaism or medieval Catholicism. That Spinoza and Montaigne, those skeptical modern minds, were both descendants of conversos, and that New Christians played a major role in the economy of the New World, is seen as evidence that these Jewish converts helped to invent the secular world we live in.

Much less is known, however, about a later, smaller, but perhaps even more intriguing group of Jewish converts, who emerged in the Ottoman empire in the late seventeenth century. They were followers of the arch-heretic Sabbatai Zevi, who proclaimed himself the Messiah and set about abolishing major Jewish laws and customs. Despite, or because of, the blasphemous nature of his innovations—for instance, he declared that Tisha B'Av, the greatest day of mourning in the Jewish calendar, would henceforth be a day of celebration—Zevi attracted a large following across the Jewish world. But in 1666, Zevi was arrested by the Ottoman authorities and given the choice of converting to Islam or being executed. When he chose to convert, he left thousands of disillusioned believers behind him. Glückel of Hameln, the author of a famous autobiography, compared the experience to being pregnant for nine months, and then, instead of giving birth, only breaking wind.

The CIA's covert war in Laos - in the 1950-60's - has remained a model for U.S. proxy wars through today's "war on terror," but the forgotten lesson was the conflict's destructive failure, recalls war correspondent Don North.

In the first of many mistakes of the Vietnam War, President Dwight Eisenhower said in 1954, "You have a row of dominoes set up, you knock over the first one, and what will happen to the last one is the certainty that it will go over quickly."

By January 1961, Eisenhower had warned his successor John F. Kennedy that Laos was the most pressing foreign policy issue in the world and he had initiated Operation Momentum in Laos, for the CIA to train and arm a small force of Hmong tribesmen to fight the communist Pathet Lao and their North Vietnamese supporters.

But history would prove the "domino theory" in Southeast Asia was a misconception of tragic proportions. Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines would all confidently resist communist influence and would have surely have done so without the bloodbath of millions of deaths across Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos.

In one weekend, the swastika appeared in public places in three U.S. cities — Houston, Chicago and New York. The sight was so offensive, average New Yorkers pulled out hand sanitizer and tissues to wipe the graffiti from the walls of the subway where it had been scrawled.

"Within about two minutes, all the Nazi symbolism was gone," one subway rider who was there said. "Everyone kind of just did their jobs of being decent human beings."

That sentiment was reflected in a tweet from New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo:

"This is what New Yorkers do — we turn hate into love. And we won't back down — not now, not ever."

That two-minute incident on a northbound No. 1 train underneath Manhattan is a blip in the swastika's 6,000-year history. The plus-sign symbol with four hooked arms all pointing either clockwise or counterclockwise appeared in Asian, African, North and South American cultures millennia before Adolf Hitler and the Nazis made the clockwise version of it the emblem of their murderous aggression for 25 years.

Yet the Nazis' brief but horrendous association with the swastika managed to divorce the symbol from its original ties to religion and spirituality, at least for Western cultures, though it is still used and revered by Buddhists, Hindus, Jains and others.

How did the swastika travel from prehistorical India to a New York City subway last week? Can it ever be restored to its original place as a sign of fertility, good fortune and hope?

And in a broader sense, how likely is it in this age of globalization and rapid-fire social media that an ancient hooked cross, a sad-faced frog or the name of an Egyptian goddess can be reclaimed from their hate-related associations?

"The swastika is the most complex symbol of any civilization," said Steven Heller, a graphic designer who teaches at New York's School of Visual Arts and is the author of "The Swastika: Symbol Beyond Redemption?" "For some, it has a great history that was perverted for only 25 or 30 years. For others, that perversion nullifies it."

Excavations in a cave on the cliffs west of Qumran, near the northwestern shore of the Dead Sea, prove that Dead Sea scrolls from the Second Temple period were hidden in the cave, and were looted by Bedouins in the middle of the last century. With the discovery of this cave, scholars now suggest that it should be numbered as Cave 12.

The surprising discovery, representing a milestone in Dead Sea Scroll research, was made by Dr. Oren Gutfeld and Ahiad Ovadia from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem's Institute of Archaeology, with the help of Dr. Randall Price and students from Liberty University in Virginia USA.

The excavators are the first in over 60 years to discover a new scroll cave and to properly excavate it.

The excavation was supported by the Civil Administration of Judea and Samaria, by the Israel Nature and Parks Authority, and the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA), and is a part of the new "Operation Scroll" launched at the IAA by its Director-General, Mr. Israel Hasson, to undertake systematic surveys and to excavate the caves in the Judean Desert.

Excavation of the cave revealed that at one time it contained Dead Sea scrolls. Numerous storage jars and lids from the Second Temple period were found hidden in niches along the walls of the cave and deep inside a long tunnel at its rear. The jars were all broken and their contents removed, and the discovery towards the end of the excavation of a pair of iron pickaxe heads from the 1950s (stored within the tunnel for later use) proves the cave was looted.