Blog Heap of Links for the day 18 February 2016

…The owner of a Columbus, Ohio restaurant targeted last week in a machete attack — which the FBI is investigating as terror — says he will be closing the store and moving back to Israel, local media is reporting.

Hany Baransi, who has operated stores in the Columbus area for years, including the Nazareth Restaurant and Deli, is saying that he lives in fear after the attack…

The store reopened on Monday with many from the community crowding the restaurant and even some of the victims returning to show their support…

…South Korean officials warned that Kim Jong Un asked his military officials and intelligence agents to boost preparations for launching terror attacks in South Korea…

Pope Francis attacked Republican front-runner Donald Trump Thursday as “not a Christian.” "A person who thinks only about building walls, wherever they may be, and not of building bridges, is not Christian.…"

Trump’s response: "…really not a nice thing to say. If and when the Vatican is attacked by ISIS, which as everyone knows is ISIS’s ultimate trophy, I can promise you that the pope would have only wished and prayed that Donald Trump would have been president…"

Ben Carson joined Sen. Marco Rubio and Jeb Bush in defending Trump…

…It is intricately made with polished green stone and is thought to have adorned a very important woman or child on only special occasions. Yet this is no modern-day fashion accessory and is instead believed to be the oldest stone bracelet in the world, dating to as long ago as 40,000 years.

Unearthed in the Altai region of Siberia in 2008, after detailed analysis Russian experts now accept its remarkable age as correct.

New pictures show this ancient piece of jewellery in its full glory with scientists concluding it was made by our prehistoric human ancestors, the Denisovans, and shows them to have been far more advanced than ever realised.…

…Denisovans… were known as homo altaiensis, an extinct species of humans genetically distinct from Neanderthals and modern humans… not clear yet how the Denisovans could have made the bracelet with such skill.…

Denisovans… dated back as early as 600,000 years ago…

I was going to apologize for a small round-up, only to realize that, thanks in large part to Caped Crusader, I have a wonderful collection of cartoons and political posters …

Donald Trump says that his pledge to the Republican Party not to run as anything but a Republican is now null and void, given the RNC’s packing of debate audiences with Republican donors and other party favorites. This announcement appears to clear the way for Mr. Trump to run as an independent.

In other news, a man has been arrested in Scotland for posting insulting messages on Facebook about Syrian refugees being resettled on the Scottish island of Bute.…

…Two days after Donald Trump claimed that he “lost hundreds of friends” at the World Trade Center as a result of the 9/11 attack, his campaign continued to ignore a Daily Beast request that he name even one.

With silence comes the possibility that Trump told the most reprehensible lie of the campaign, just a few breaths from when he called both Sen. Ted Cruz and Jeb Bush liars.…