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Digging up clues to history at San Fransisco's Presidio

A dirt-encrusted button, some shards of terra cotta and the buried remnants of a mysterious rock circle were fresh treasures unearthed in the Presidio last week by archaeologists probing the ground at El Polin Springs, where soldiers of the Spanish-American War once slaked their thirst. The scientists' high-tech tools and their sweaty digging - plus siftings from a jury-rigged wire screen - had uncovered new evidence that the meadow could once have held the homes - or perhaps the ra

New Details Emerge on C.I.A.'s Jails

In March 2003, two C.I.A. officials surprised Kyle D. Foggo, then the chief of the agency’s main European supply base, with an unusual request. They wanted his help building secret prisons to hold some of the world’s most threatening terrorists. Foggo went on to oversee construction of three detention centers, each built to house about a half-dozen detainees, according to former intelligence officials and others briefed on the matter. One jail was on a busy street in Bucharest, Roma

In Beijing, a Brand-New Old Quarter

This is a city conspicuously unfriendly to pedestrians. Six-lane ring highways cut through old neighborhoods, making places that are rather close as the crow flies very far apart if you walk, since you’ve often got to navigate long cloverleaf intersections and widely spaced overpasses simply to cross the street. And that’s one of the things, in a city far more oriented toward the car than shoe leather, that makes the recent opening of a big pedestrian-only network of streets in the

Presidential Vacations Carry Heavy Baggage

Summer vacations say a lot about a president. Ronald Reagan spent up to a month each season at his beloved Rancho del Cielo near Santa Barbara, Calif., much of the time on horseback. George H.W. Bush retreated to the family's compound in Kennebunkport, Maine, while his son, George W. Bush, preferred clearing brush at his ranch in Crawford, Tex. Then there was Bill Clinton, always restless and without a home, who often borrowed the compound of a wealthy Democratic donor on Martha's V

Timber Structure Older than Stonehenge Found in London

Archaeologists have unexpectedly uncovered London's oldest timber structure, which predates Stonehenge by about 500 years. The structure, apparently a platform or trackway used to make a boggy area more navigable, was found during the excavation of a prehistoric peat bog adjacent to Belmarsh Prison in Plumstead, Greenwich, in advance of the construction of a new prison building. Radiocarbon dating has shown the structure to be nearly 6,000 years old, well before Stone

Mystery ends in Australia WWII disaster

The Australian cruiser met the disguised German vessel in the waters off western Australia two years after the two became enemies in World War II. What resulted was Australia's worst naval disaster: the sinking of the Australian ship and the loss of its entire crew of 645. The wreckage wasn't found until last year, leading to decades of conspiracy theories about what actually happened. On Wednesday a long-awaited report on the sinking of the Sydney II ended the mystery

Afghan Banker Who Risked His Life to Save Treasure From the Taliban Finally Gets His Due

Adolf Hitler's war record among hundreds of thousands published online

Adolf Hitler's war record is among hundreds of thousands of First World War documents to be published on an online archive. Ancestry.co.uk said the records detail the full military careers of 1.5 million Bavarian soldiers and were originally held by the Bavarian State Archives. Individual records detail the name, rank, date and place of birth, service record, religion, occupation and other information. Among the soldiers named are 25-year-old Lance Corporal

Forty Years After Woodstock, A Gentler Generation Gap

Forty years after the Woodstock music festival glorified and exacerbated the generational fractures in American life, the public today says there are big differences between younger and older adults in their values, use of technology, work ethic, and respect and tolerance for others. But this modern generation gap is a much more subdued affair than the one that raged in the 1960s, for relatively few Americans of any age see it as a source of conflict -- either in society at large or

Who are the Taliban?

"Life and death in the Taliban" provides a rare look and sheds new light on this secretive and formidable enemy. Through compelling video, audio, photography and written reports, GlobalPost tells the story of the Taliban and examines America’s struggle to confront it. Through interviews with former Taliban insiders as well as high-level U.S. military officials, this gripping interactive presentation dissects an extraordinarily complex situation that is key to America’s security.

Lockerbie: Britons back convict's release but US families outraged

Families of the Americans killed in the Lockerbie bombing expressed outrage yesterday that the Scottish government could be on the verge of sending the convicted Libyan bomber home. However, relatives of the British dead, many of whom have long doubted the guilt of Abdul Baset Ali al-Megrahi, backed his release from jail in Scotland. Jim Swire, whose 24-year-old daughter Flora was on Pan Am Flight 103, said: “I would be delighted if he went home to his family, as it is inhumane to

Peltier: A Refresher on American Indian History

Today Native Americans are awaiting the Parole decision for Leonard Peltier. Leonard’ was falsely convicted of killing two FBI Agents in 1975 at the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. Leonard Peltier (born September 12, 1944) was an American activist and member of the American Indian Movement (AIM) who was convicted and sentenced in 1977 to two consecutive terms of life imprisonment for the murder of two Federal Bureau of Investigation agents who were killed during a 1975 shootout on the Pine Ridge

Historical analysis looks for storm activity trends

Atlantic hurricanes have developed more frequently during the last decade than at any point in at least 1,000 years, a new analysis of historical storm activity suggests. The new study, published today in Nature, attempts to reconstruct Atlantic hurricane activity back to the year 500. In doing so the authors found one era, a medieval period around the year 1000, when storm activity matched or exceeded recent hurricane seasons that included storms such as Katrina and Rita...

Bush's faith-based initiative more contentious than Obama's

When he took over the White House in January 2009, President Barack Obama quickly adopted much of the "faith-based initiative" put into place by his predecessor, President George W. Bush. The initiative was designed to expand the role of faith-based and community organizations in the delivery of social services. But a new study by the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism and the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life finds that Obama's faith-based in

With the disappearance of the Arctic Sea, has piracy returned?

The disappearance of the Russian-crewed Arctic Sea, which last made radio contact in the Dover straits, has raised fears of the first significant case of piracy in Europe in living memory. According to some experts, piracy originated more than 2,000 years ago when sea robbers threatened the trading routes of ancient Greece, but in recent times it has been largely been confined to developing countries. The International Chamber of Commerce's (ICC) live piracy map illustrates how the Gulf of Aden

Colonial Soldiers Want More From France

France has a long tradition of drawing on colonial troops to help fight in its wars. As long ago as end of the 18th century, Napoleon used troops from the French colonies in his Egypt campaign. More recently, soldiers from countries like Senegal, Morocco, Mali, Algeria and Cambodia have fought under the Tricolore, either during the two world wars or in subsequent campaigns in places like Indochina and Algeria. But in the wake of France’s painful postwar decolonization,

Piano that survived atomic bomb plays on for peace

A 77-year-old piano that survived the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and has become a symbol for peace is heading to New York next year as the city marks the ninth anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks. When the United States dropped the bomb on the Japanese city on August 6, 1945, the Yamaha upright piano was in the blast radius. It still retains very low levels of radiation and shards of glass are forever embedded in the black lacquer. "During the bombing of

Terracotta army 'may have belonged to empress'

China's famed ancient terracotta army which surrounds the tomb of the nation's first emperor actually belonged to a female ancestor, a historian told a state-owned newspaper Wednesday. The army of life-sized figures discovered near the northern city of Xi'an is usually thought to be guarding the burial site of Qin Shihuang, who presided over the unification of China in 221 BC and declared himself the first emperor. But historian Chen Jingyuan told the Global Times he be

A gift from 5,000 years ago (US)

Jordan Emmett, 8, was walking past a street construction project near his Safety Harbor home when he saw something red sticking out of the dirt. It was this roughly 5,000-year-old spear point. A striking find by an 8-year-old boy proves this city was an active hunting ground after the last ice age. When a public works crew was replacing a storm sewer line on Joyce Street and First Avenue N last month, Jordan Emmett, a budding archaeologist, went to have a look.

Report: Cheney Felt Bush 'Had Gone Soft on Him'

Former Vice President Dick Cheney believes his old boss, President George W. Bush, gradually turned away from his advice during their second term in the White House, showing a surprising independence as he started taking more flexible positions on a range of issues, The Washington Post reported Wednesday. Cheney, often described as the most influential vice president in U.S. history, has been discussing his years in office in informal talks with authors, diplomats, policy experts an