Breaking News

Vladimir Putin diving discovery was staged, spokesman admits

In an uncharacteristically unguarded admission, the Russian prime minister's spokesman conceded that the amphorae had been planted in shallow water for Mr Putin to find by well-meaning archaeologists keen to please the Russian strong man."Putin did not find the amphorae on the sea bed that had been lying there for thousands of years," said Dmitry Peskov, the spokesman. "That is obvious. They were found during an (archaeological) expedition several weeks or days beforehand. Of course they were then left there (for him to find) or placed there. It is a completely normal thing to do."The archaeologists had wanted the 58-year-old politician to experience what it was like to be on an expedition, he added....

Monument to U.S. president Wilson unveiled in Prague

A monument to former US President Woodrow Wilson was unveiled in central Prague on Wednesday, 70 years after the occupying Nazis tore down a nearby statue during World War II.About five hundred people gathered outside Prague's main railway station -- once dubbed Wilson Station -- for the unveiling of the 3.5-metre (12-foot) statue commissioned by the American Friends of the Czech Republic society."Much of the damage that the Nazis caused can never be undone, but returning the monument of Woodrow Wilson to its proper place is a direct reply to Hitler," Prague-born former US secretary of state Madeleine Albright said at the unveiling.Wilson, born in 1856, was US president from 1913 to 1921. He died in 1924.

Black and white WW II vets meet up

NBC features a reunion of black Tuskegee airmen and white soldiers who met by accident in World War II. (Video)

Washington Monument external earthquake inspection complete

For days, inspectors dangling from ropes pored over the weathered marble of the Washington Monument, gently “sounding” the stone with mallets, like doctors checking an elderly patient. They studied every block — each of which is numbered — for damage from the Aug. 23 earthquake that rattled the East Coast. On Wednesday morning, they finished the examination. Initial diagnosis: substantial cracks here and there, with minor displaced stone. Overall, the usual aches and pains of a 127-year-old who has just come through an earthquake.

Bible manuscripts from Damascus go on rare display

JERUSALEM (AP) — Precious Bible manuscripts originating in the Jewish community of Damascus, Syria, went on display for several hours Wednesday, offering a rare glimpse at a collection that includes books spirited to Israel in clandestine operations before the ancient community disappeared at the end of the 20th century.The books are held at Israel's national library. Because of security and conservation concerns, most of the collection has been on display just once before, also for just a few hours, more than a decade ago.The collection includes 11 volumes. Three, including the oldest and most important book in the collection, were brought out of the library's vaults and displayed during a symposium Wednesday evening....

An uneven battle in the field kitchens of Gallipoli

A SIMPLE Ottoman kitchen - complete with brick oven - discovered during a survey of Gallipoli has highlighted the extremes of life on the 1915 battlefield.While the Anzac Diggers were surviving on bully beef and other canned and processed food, their Turkish opponents ate fresh produce prepared in a terraced kitchen.The field kitchen, where researchers also found ceramic roof tiles as evidence of other permanent structures, was built much closer to the front line than the allied food area, which was littered with tins and jam jars. Located during the second phase of a five-year joint Australian, New Zealand and Turkish project to survey the famous battlefield for the first time ahead of the 2015 centenary, the Ottoman kitchen was among the most revealing discoveries made last month, according to survey archaeologist Tony Sagona, from Melbourne University....

New technology helps Hispanics trace their roots

MIAMI (AP) — Programs such as NBC's "Who Do You Think You Are?" and PBS' "Faces of America" are helping fueling the trend in genealogy. But for many Hispanics, tracing the family tree hasn't been so easy.Now that's changing for America's largest minority group as a wealth of genealogical data, including a landmark 1930 census in Mexico, is going online. Discovering information about one's great-great grandparents and other relatives could be keystrokes away for many of the nearly 32 million Mexican-Americans — a group long left out of the sleuthing done largely by European-Americans and some African-Americans.The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, long America's largest aggregator of genealogical records, this year completed its more than three-year-old project to create a searchable digital index of Mexico's massive 1930 census. It has also made the information available to the Internet genealogy company, Ancestry.com....

Germany reopens investigations into Nazi death camp guards

Prosecutors in Germany have reopened hundreds of investigations of former Nazi death camp guards and others who might now be charged under a precedent set by the conviction of John Demjanjuk, a guard at Sobibor camp in Poland in 1943.Given the advanced age of the suspects – the youngest is in his 80s – the head of the German prosecutors' office dedicated to investigating Nazi war crimes said authorities would not wait for the Demjanjuk appeal process to finish. "We don't want to wait too long, so we've already begun our investigations," Kurt Schrimm said.The Simon Wiesenthal Centre's chief Nazi-hunter, Efraim Zuroff, said he would launch a campaign in the next two months – a successor to his Operation Last Chance – to track down the remaining war criminals.He added that the Demjanjuk conviction had opened the door to prosecutions that were never thought possible. "It could be a very interesting final chapter," he said by telephone from Jerusalem. "This has tremendous implications, even at this late date."...

Nevern Castle ancient inscriptions to 'ward off evil'

Experts believe rare 12th Century slate inscriptions found on a castle were probably made to protect against evil.The dozen scratchings were uncovered during a three-week excavation at Nevern in Pembrokeshire.Archaeologists think the stars and other designs were made by a serf, labourer or soldier some time between 1170 and 1190 when the castle was built.They say they also give an insight into the beliefs of medieval working men....

Queen Anne's expedition under way

CARTERET COUNTY — A four-week fall expedition at the Queen Anne’s Revenge shipwreck site is under way, and the first look at the wreck site since Hurricane Irene brought good news.The hurricane swept the North Carolina coast in late August without causing major disruption to the shipwreck site, said QAR Project Director Mark Wilde-Ramsing.A sand berm placed near the site several years ago seems to be helping protect the site from storm damage, including minimizing scour, where sand is washed away and exposes artifacts.“Last week we did a check of the site. We were very concerned after Hurricane Irene, but the site seems to have weathered the storm pretty well,” Wilde-Ramsing said. “It was not scoured out and, also, it was not completely covered up (by sand).”...

Apology demanded for black teenager executed in South Carolina in 1940s

History favours Romney in Republican race

...You might call it, "The Inevitability of the Second Place Elephant." Simply stated, here's how it works. You may not have noticed, but Republicans ALWAYS nominate the candidate who finished second in the last great nomination struggle.This has been the case throughout the modern era. Flash back to 1976, when presi-dent Gerald Ford narrowly held off Ronald Reagan, in the last time a nomination was decided at a convention.Four years later, the party turned to Reagan, after he fought off a spirited challenge from former CIA director George H.W. Bush.Bush served loyally as Mr. Reagan's vice-president for eight years, then won the nomination for himself - after overcoming a challenge from Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole. Eight years later, in 1996, it was Bob Dole's turn. That race was different in that Dole didn't really have a major challenger for that nomination; the other two men in the race, Pat Buchanan and Steve Forbes, were not major figures in the Republican Party. So four years later, the GOP did the next best thing: They turned to a familiar name, if not face: George W. Bush, the son of the former president. After losing some early primaries, including Michigan's, he managed to overcome John McCain.Guess who got the nomination eight years later?...

West Germany wanted to buy the East from USSR

The American files show that chancellor Ludwig Erhard, despite being credited as one of the men behind West Germany's post-war economic miracle, was prepared to hand over a huge sum of money to Moscow for the prize of reunification.A document seen by the German news magazine Der Spiegel records a conversation between a German government official and George McGhee, the US ambassador to Bonn, in October 1963. The American was told Germany was prepared to pay over $2 billion a year for a decade to Moscow in return for East Germany: a sum which then amounted to about a quarter of West Germany's GDP.The conversation ties in with a CIA report from the same year, which said Mr Erhard had "suggested he was willing to offer 'substantial' sacrifices by West Germany perhaps in the form of economic aid in return for Soviet concessions on reunification".Under the so-called "Erhard plan", in return for the money Nikita Khrushchev, the Soviet leader, would agree to a phased withdraw from East Germany, leading to self-determination and eventual reunification....

Burial site discovered in Ireland dates back to the 7th-century

A graveyard dating back to the 7th century has been discovered just of Dublin. The site was uncovered as part of construction on an underground electrical line in the village of Rush by Eirgrid, Ireland’s state-owned electric power transmission operator.The burial site was discovered in June and tests conducted at Queen’s University, Belfast date the graveyard to between 617 to 675 AD, the pre-Viking era which saw the conversion of the country to Christianity.John Fitzgerald, project director with Eirgrid, said: “It is an interesting historical discovery for the project, local archaeologists and the local community. We are working with Fingal County Council and the National Monuments Service, and will provide more detailed information to the public about the archaeological site as soon as we know more.”...

New Connecticut law restricts access to privileged records

An amendment to Connecticut open record laws now allows state agencies to refuse to release records which are covered by a legal confidentiality privilege, regardless of whether such a privilege existed when the materials were created. For example, agencies may refuse to release records containing communications which are protected from disclosure by the doctor-patient or therapist-patient privileges.Previously, Exemption 10 to the Connecticut open records law allowed agencies to withhold, among other things, records which are covered by only one privilege: the one between attorneys and their clients. The amendment expands this language to include records which fall under other privileges, such as those existing between doctor-patient and therapist-patient. However, the amendment also exempts records covered by “any other privilege established by the common law or the general statutes,” and even those “made prior to the establishment of the applicable privilege.”

Beheaded Archbishop's Face Revealed

The face of a 14th-century former Archbishop of Canterbury has been revealed 630 years after he was beheaded by angry peasants.Resembling a character out of a science fiction movie, the medieval cleric Simon of Sudbury now stares at visitors in St. Gregory's Church at Sudbury in Suffolk, where the 3-D model is on permanent display alongside the original skull."There was a gasp when people saw what he looked like as his sculpture was unveiled. He was compared to characters such as Spock and Shrek, and some were surprised by the size of him. Indeed, he is quite a big guy," forensic artist Adrienne Barker from the University of Dundee told Discovery News.Simon of Sudbury, who was Chancellor of Salisbury and Bishop of London before becoming Archbishop of Canterbury in 1375, crowned King Richard II at Westminster Abbey in 1377....

Human Crises Linked to Climate Change, Study Suggests

Historically, changes in climate have not only been tied to increased food prices, but also economic crises, social upset and wars, new research suggests.

Effort to repeal gay history law prompts complaint

SAN FRANCISCO—California's largest gay rights group on Monday accused the backers of a ballot measure seeking to repeal a law requiring gay history to be taught in public schools of deliberately hiding the size and source of campaign contributions. Two conservative groups behind the Stop SB 48 campaign "may have engaged in an unlawful scheme" to violate campaign reporting rules, Equality California Executive Director Roland Palencia said in a complaint filed with the state Fair Political Practices Commission. Palencia's group accuses Capitol Resource Institute and Pacific Justice Institute, the organizations that have taken the lead on undoing the first-of-its kind law, of raising and spending money to qualify the repeal referendum for the June 2012 ballot without registering as campaign committees.Under California's strict campaign finance laws, political entities that receive more than $1,000 in contributions are required to register with the secretary of state, said Cary Davidson, an election law lawyer on the Equality California board....

A year after opening, Jewish history museum steps up call for donations

PHILADELPHIA - Nearly a year after its celebrity-packed opening, the National Museum of American Jewish History has sharply reduced its attendance expectations and stepped up the call for donations to support its day-to-day operations.The slumping economy and a cold, snowy launch season combined to depress ticket sales at the $142 million gallery overlooking Independence Mall. In addition, officials say, the initial projection of 250,000 visitors annually was unrealistic. They have set a new benchmark of 125,000, which they anticipate reaching by the first anniversary on Nov. 26....At the same time, though, Rosenzweig noted in an interview how precarious those successes may be, given the institution's unusually heavy reliance on philanthropy, large and small, to keep the doors open. Half of its $10 million operating budget has come from donations - well above the national average of 37 percent, according to a 2009 survey by the American Association of Museums....

Hitler letter offers first glimpse of anti-Semitic passions

  LOS ANGELES - Ten months after World War I ended, a 30-year-old German army veteran wrote a two-page letter in which he explained the "Jewish question" on a “rational” and “scientific” basis.“An anti-semitism based on reason must lead to a systematic combating and elimination of the privileges of the Jews,” he wrote. “The ultimate objective must be the irrevocable removal of Jews in general.”Signed “Respectfully, Adolf Hitler,” the letter received high marks for the author from his superiors in a military propaganda unit bitterly opposed to the newly established Weimar Republic as the perceived handiwork of Bolsheviks, Socialists and Jews.As the first written political statement of the future Fuehrer, the letter is considered a document of immense historical value.It will be shown to the public for the first time on October 4 by the Simon Wiesenthal Center at its Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles....