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Japanese scientists seek quake secrets in Parthenon design

Japanese scientists will next month look into seismic resistance secrets in the design of the 2,500-year-old Parthenon which has withstood scores of quakes, a senior Greek archaeologist said on Friday."The Parthenon had great resilience to earthquakes, as did most classical Greek temples," Maria Ioannidou, the archeologist in charge of conservation on the ancient Acropolis citadel where the Parthenon stands, told AFP."The ancient Greeks apparently had very good knowledge of quake beha

Prague Spring Ignored In Post-Communist Society

Forty years ago, Warsaw Pact countries invaded Czechoslovakia and crushed the democratization process known as the Prague Spring. Today, Prague is a primary stop on the grand European tour. Throughout the year, millions of visitors wander through this jewel of medieval, baroque and art-deco architecture. The central Wenceslas Square — where Soviet troops clashed with citizens in August 1968 — is now lined with elegant shops and pricy restaurants. But tourists are not l

Spanish DNA bank to identify Franco victims

Descendants of refugees who fled Spain during the 1936-39 civil war or the ensuing dictatorship are contributing to a DNA bank to help identify bodies in mass graves believed to be victims of General Franco's forces. Spaniards from France, Switzerland, Italy and Brazil, where many had emigrated during the war, gathered this past week in the cultural centre in the town of Aranda de Duero, in Burgos province north of Madrid. All believe that relatives who disappeared duri

Portal to Maya Underworld Found in Mexico?

A labyrinth filled with stone temples and pyramids in 14 caves—some underwater—have been uncovered on Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula, archaeologists announced last week. The discovery has experts wondering whether Maya legend inspired the construction of the underground complex—or vice versa. According to Maya myth, the souls of the dead had to follow a dog with night vision on a horrific and watery path and endure myriad challenges before they could rest in the afterlife.

Founding Fathers' dirty campaign

Negative campaigning in America was sired by two lifelong friends, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. Back in 1776, the dynamic duo combined powers to help claim America's independence, and they had nothing but love and respect for one another. But by 1800, party politics had so distanced the pair that, for the first and last time in U.S. history, a president found himself running against his vice president. Things got ugly fast. Jefferson's camp accused President Adams of having a"hideou

Aborigine wants boomerang to return from Britain

An Aboriginal leader said Friday he wants a boomerang to return to Australia more than 300 years after it was taken as a souvenir by celebrated British explorer Capt. James Cook. The boomerang will be auctioned in London on Sept. 25. Auctioneer Christie's director Nick Lambourn expects the unmarked 22-inch (56-centimeter) wooden artifact will fetch up to $113,000. Cook, who led the first Europeans to discover Australia's fertile east c

For McCains, a Public Path but Private Wealth

When Senator John McCain is in Washington, he lives in a luxury high-rise condominium in Arlington, Va., owned by his wife, Cindy Hensley McCain. Mrs. McCain also owns their condos in Phoenix, San Diego and Coronado, Calif., and their vacation compound near Sedona, Ariz. And it is the beer business, Hensley & Company, she inherited from her father that is the source of the McCain family fortune. That fortune makes Mr. McCain one of the richest members of the Senate. Yet barely a

Though Obama Had to Leave to Find Himself, It Is Hawaii That Made His Rise Possible

On weekday mornings as a teenager, Barry Obama left his grandparents' apartment on the 10th floor of the 12-story high-rise at 1617 South Beretania, a mile and half above Waikiki Beach, and walked up Punahou Street in the shadows of capacious banyan trees and date palms. Before crossing the overpass above the H1 freeway, where traffic zoomed east to body-surfing beaches or west to the airport and Pearl Harbor, he passed Kapiolani Medical Center, walking below the hospital room where he was born

Pavilion where WG Grace once played saved by birds' nest

A 140-year-old pavilion where cricketing legend W G Grace once strapped on his pads has avoided demolition after a birds' nest built there allowed a city council to save the landmark. The pavilion at Cinderella Sports Ground, Worcestershire, hosted the batsman when he was 20-years-old, during one of his appearances for Worcestershire XI in 1870. And when the famous Australian side of 1878 first came over to play in England they also used the quintessential English pavi

Simon Weston, Falklands hero, reunited with crewman who came to his aid

Bill Tuttey, a naval aircrewman at the time, picked Mr Weston off the beach after he suffered severe burns in the bombing of the RFA troop carrier, the Sir Galahad, in the 1982 conflict. He gave the Welsh Guardsman morphine to relieve the pain, issued words of comfort, and offered him a cigarette. The two men did not meet again until this week when Mr Weston was signing copies of his latest book in Helston, Cornwall.

Bergen-Belsen survivor learns of sisters' fate 64 years on

Until two weeks ago, British holocaust survivor Eugene Black assumed his sisters had died in Auschwitz. "When we arrived at Auschwitz I was immediately separated from my mother and two sisters," he said yesterday, from his home near Leeds."Five minutes later I was separated from my father. I never saw any of them again." After accessing the files at Bad Arolsen in central Germany however, Mr Black, a Czech Jew deported to the Nazi's most notorious camp in May 1944, discovered that his sisters

US barters for Alexander Hamilton's home

The U.S. government is bartering for Alexander Hamilton's boyhood home — offering land to build a public high school in return for control of the property owned by the U.S. Virgin Islands. U.S. Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne proposed the deal during a visit Thursday to the Virgin Islands to announce environmental preservation grants. Hamilton's boyhood home is located on the island of St. Croix. The majority of land on St. John, where officials want to build the sch

PR Push for Iraq War Preceded Intelligence Findings

The U.S. intelligence community buckled sooner in 2002 than previously reported to Bush administration pressure for data justifying an invasion of Iraq, according to a documents posting on the Web today by National Security Archive senior fellow John Prados. The documents suggest that the public relations push for war came before the intelligence analysis, which then conformed to public positions taken by Pentagon and White House officials. For example, a July 2002 draft of the &quo

Unsung Holocaust hero celebrates 100th

Andre Steiner was the muscle behind one of the most daring — and overlooked — missions to save Jews during the Holocaust. In his youth, before he became a renowned architect, he helped engineer a plan to stave off the deportation of Slovakia's Jews through a network of work camps and a series of bribes that likely helped save the lives of thousands. The last living member of the underground network that devised the plan, Steiner marked his 100th birthday Friday in a ret

Environmental disaster yields prehistoric remains

A devastating moorland fire has exposed archaeological remains in North Yorkshire on an unprecedented scale. The six-day fire in September 2003 destroyed the plants and soil covering Fylingdales Moor to reveal over 100 rock art depictions and Bronze Age field boundaries. English Heritage will now make the area, which covers two-and-a-half square miles and was abandoned around 1000BC, open to the public. Stone Age flint tools, 18th century industrial tracks, Second World War training foxholes and

Environmental disaster yields prehistoric remains

A devastating moorland fire has exposed archaeological remains in North Yorkshire on an unprecedented scale. The six-day fire in September 2003 destroyed the plants and soil covering Fylingdales Moor to reveal over 100 rock art depictions and Bronze Age field boundaries. English Heritage will now make the area, which covers two-and-a-half square miles and was abandoned around 1000BC, open to the public. Stone Age flint tools, 18th century industrial tracks, Second World War training foxholes and

The Nazis, the Jewish banker, and the battle for two priceless Picassos

The paintings are not only priceless, but they have been among the star attractions at New York's Museum of Modern Art and the city's equally renowned Guggenheim Museum for more than four decades. Both are early Picassos painted at the beginning of the 20th century – before the two world wars that would engulf Europe and ultimately lead to the current blockbuster of a legal battle. One of the canvases is Le Moulin de la Galette, a Picasso painted in 1900 that, unlike the artis

The West was caught by surprise when Soviet tanks crushed the Prague Spring

Forty years ago [in August] the Soviet Union ended the so-called Prague Spring with a massive invasion of troops and tanks. Intelligence files from that era show that the largest military operation in Europe since 1945 took the West by surprise. When it was over, Western officers, awkwardly, seemed surprised. Against their will they had to admit the camouflage hiding the march of Warsaw Pact troops into Prague had been "good," and the speed of their divisions "impres

A brief video history of conventions

Federal appeals court panel supports Tenn. school's confederate flag ban

A federal appeals court panel ruled Wednesday in favor of a Tennessee school system that banned the clothing that displayed the Confederate battle flag because of concerns the symbol could inflame racial tensions at a high school. Students Derek Barr, Chris White, Roger Craig White and their parents said in a lawsuit their free speech rights were violated by the 2005 flag ban at William Blount High School in Maryville, about 15 miles south of Knoxville.