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Wreck of 18th century slave ship discovered
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• Archaeologists and divers from across continents
  believe they have struck history gold, confirming
  the first ever discovery of a sunken slave ship.
  The Sao Jose-Paquete de Africa, a Portuguese
  slave ship, sank off Cape Town on its way from
  Mozambique to Brazil in 1794, while carrying more
  than 500 slaves. The ship's crew and almost half
  of those enslaved drowned in the violent waves.
  It is believed that the surviving slaves were
  resold in the Western Cape. So far, only a few
  remnants have been retrieved from the wreck site,
  a turbulent spot located between two reefs. The
  Slave Wrecks Project, founded in 2008, uncovered
  shackles, an iron ballast which helped weigh down
  a ship that carrying human cargo and a wooden
  pulley block. Iziko Museums of South Africa are
  expected to formally announce the breakthrough in
  Cape Town on Monday. "The Sao Jose slave
  shipwreck site reverberates with historical
  significance and represents an addition to our
  underwater heritage that has the potential to
  advance knowledge and understanding of slavery,
  not only at the Cape but on a global level." The
  findings are especially poignant because a
  slave-carrying vessel has never been discovered
  before. "The Sao Jose is all the more significant
  because it represents one of the earliest
  attempts to bring East Africans into the
  trans-Atlantic slave trade -- a shift that played
  a major role in prolonging that tragic trade for
  decades," said Bunch.
• Tragedy has not just afflicted Joe Biden, it has
  shaped his political soul. In the latest personal
  devastation, the Vice President must now endure
  the torment of burying a second child, after his
  beloved son Beau died from brain cancer Saturday
  night. It's particularly heartrending because
  Beau, 46, was also a victim of an earlier
  incident that shattered Biden's life, a car crash
  at Christmas in 1972 that killed his first wife
  and an infant daughter and badly injured another
  son as well as Beau. Stricken with grief back
  then, Biden contemplated vacating the Delaware
  Senate seat, but his decision to endure became
  the foundation on which he built his political
  creed and public service. In a famous photo at
  the time, Biden was seen being sworn into the
  chamber in his sons' hospital room. Biden's daily
  commute between Washington and Wilmington to be
  with young sons Beau and Hunter became the stuff
  of political legend and earned him the nickname
  'Amtrak Joe. But in a deeper sense, his personal
  tribulations cemented in Biden an almost mystical
  reverence for family. It pulsates through his
  politics and is at the root of his love affair
  with the U.S. Senate, which sustained him when
  his home life was torn apart and where he served
  for nearly four decades. The tragedy has also
  become one of those rare moments in Washington
  where political hostilities are suspended, with
  politicians from both sides of the aisle reaching
  out.

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In Other News

• The Supreme Court ruled in favor of a Muslim
  woman who has sued retailer Abercrombie Fitch
  when the store failed to hire her because she
  wore a head scarf in observance of her religion.
  The court ruled 8-1 that the company failed to
  accommodate Samantha Elauf's religious needs when
  she was not hired on the basis that her hijab
  violated company dress policy. Justice Clarence
  Thomas dissented with part of the ruling but
  concurred with the rest.
• Lindsey Graham is aiming to buck 130 years of
  tradition. American voters haven't elected an
  unmarried president since 1885, the same year the
  Washington Monument was dedicated on the National
  Mall and the Statue of Liberty arrived in New
  York. Graham is barely registering in the polls.
  But if he were to win the White House, he would
  join an elite club that includes just two
  previous presidents unmarried at the time of
  their election. James Buchanan, who preceded
  Abraham Lincoln's presidency, never married.
  Grover Cleveland won election as a bachelor, but
  married a woman while he was in office who was
  under his care and 27 years his junior. Views of
  marriage and of those who opt out of it -- have
  evolved, of course, since the late nineteenth
  century.