Newsdesk Archive

The most distant known planet has been detected orbiting a star some 17,000 light-years away, say astronomers. It was found because, as seen from the Earth, it passed in front of a more distant star and its gravity amplified the background star's light. This "gravitational lensing" effect was predicted by Albert Einstein in his General Theory of Relativity.

US scientists believe they have made an important breakthrough in the mystery of how migrating birds manage to navigate thousands of kilometres and arrive at exactly the same spot each year. Laboratory experiments in the past have suggested the birds may use a number of cues, including sunlight, stars and the Earth's magnetic field, which they can detect inside their bodies. But this new study, reported in the journal Science, involved tracking a group of thrushes across hundreds of miles in the American Midwest and finding out what happened when they were deliberately confused by a man-made magnet and knocked off course.

While the Falklands Government and International Fishing Companies bemoan the current lack of commercial squid in the Falklands Economic Zone, considerable excitement has been created in the Islands by the catching of a 'giant' squid weighing 200 kilos. The 'giant' squid, which is of the Architeuthis dux species has a mantle length of 2.7 meters and an overall length of 10 meters, and was caught during a regular trawl by the Fishing Vessel 'John Cheek' which is owned by the Fortuna Fishing Company of Stanley and which has a licence to catch fin fish in the Falklands Zone'. The ship is named after a founder member of the Company, the late Councillor, John Cheek who died several years ago.

For Celts who have long felt they are a breed apart from the English, help is at hand from an Oxford University academic. In a new book, The Real Eve: Modern Man's Journey Out of Africa, Professor Stephen Oppenheimer suggests the distinction between the two peoples goes back 10,000 years - far further than thought. Traditionally the difference between the English and Scots, Welsh, Irish and Cornish was attributed to the influence of invaders such as the Anglo-Saxons, Celts and Vikings settling in the UK hundreds of years ago. But Professor Oppenheimer says the Celts are descended from an ancient people living on the Atlantic coast when Britain was attached to Europe. The English are more closely related to the Germanic peoples of the interior.

At first they thought it was flat. Then that it was shaped like a football. But now, scientists believe the universe could be shaped like a flat-sided trumpet. That would lead to strange effects in some parts of the universe, where time and light would be so curved that you could see the back of your own head. Also, a long-held theory about the universe - that it looks much the same anywhere - would have to be abandoned. And finally, the universe would be finite, rather than extending in every direction forever.

Ethiopia is to allow "Lucy" its world-famous, 3.2-million-year-old skeleton to travel abroad for the first time for an exhibition in the United States that it hopes will encourage more visits by American tourists. The fossil's discovery in 1974 was a landmark in the history of uncovering the origins of humanity, representing the most complete human-like fossil to have been found until that time. Lucy, stored in a vault in an Ethiopian museum, and other Ethiopian artifacts including crowns and scepters of ancient monarchs are due to be put on display at the Houston Museum of Natural Science in Texas in 2006.

Leading Chinese archaeological experts have selected 10 finds made last year that have far-reaching significance, as Wen Jiao finds out. A panel of leading archaeologists and historians have announced the 10 most important archaeological finds made last year. The decision, made on Sunday, was difficult because all of the 20-odd candidates made discoveries that add new and important dimensions to the history of the localities and the nation.

Scholars who believe the Kensington Runestone is a 19th-century prank -- and not concrete evidence that Norsemen beat Columbus to America by 100-plus years -- say they have found the smoking gun to prove it. The latest in the century-old controversy centered in Minnesota came in documents written in 1885 by an 18-year-old Swedish tailor named Edward Larsson. He sometimes wrote in runes -- an ancient Scandinavian language that differs from the English alphabet. But Larsson's runes were not the usual runes used over the centuries. The scholars contend that parts of his documents seem to be written in a secret runic alphabet used by tradesmen in Sweden in the late 1800s, rather like codes that tramps have used over time to leave secret messages for one another.

Archaeologists say that they have discovered pottery handles that are 2,500 years old, during the excavation of the Yanghai Tombs in Shanshan County, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. Two pieces were found, one with a wild sheep head shaped handle while the other was a handle shaped like a ram's head, said Zhang Yuzhong, deputy director of the local archaeological institute. "This is the first sheep head shapes pottery handle ever discovered in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region," said Zhang.

Tongwan, the capital of the Daxia Kingdom, has lain buried beneath the desert sands for more than 1,000 years. Located in today's Jingbian County, Shaanxi Province, this ancient city was built in 419 by Helianbobo, chief of the Huns. It bears testimony to the prosperity once enjoyed by these nomadic people on China's northern frontiers. Extending to nearly 20,000 square kilometers, Tongwan is on the southern edge of the Ordos Plateau just north of the vast Mu Us Desert, both of which are in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. It was laid out on an east-west axis with what have been termed the outer city, inner city and palace city. The outer city was for the homes of ordinary folks. Government offices and the residences of the nobility were located in the inner city. Inside the palace city was the inner sanctum of the imperial city where Helianbobo himself lived.

When astronomers announced the discovery last month of Sedna, the most distant known object in the solar system, they were nearly certain it had an unseen satellite. New observations by the Hubble Space Telescope find no moon, however, deepening the mystery surrounding this already strange object. Sedna is about three-fourths the size of Pluto. It is so far away that it takes 10,000 years to orbit the Sun. Its discovery has astronomers arguing over whether to call it a planet or a planetoid, and whether to count it as one of many objects in the Kuiper Belt, where Pluto roams, or the first known example of an expected halo of more distant objects called the Oort Cloud.

Computer software developed in California's Silicon Valley, as well as autonomous robotic assistants, may prove indispensable to future astronauts charged with the monumental job of exploring an entire planet. Embedded in a backpack-mounted laptop, smart software responds to voice commands, links astronauts to mission control and their planet-side habitat. It even communicates with robotic assistants that might be roving nearby.

Raymond Rogers is a retired physical chemist and former leader of the explosives research and development group at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. He proposes that the samples used to date the shroud in 1988 were flawed and the experiment should be repeated. His conclusion is based on a recent chemical analysis of the shroud and previous observations made during a 1978 examination.

Scientists have come up with a computer program which lets you find out if an asteroid hurtling towards the Earth is heading in your direction. The Earth Impact Effects Program will reveal whether you should jump in the car and drive for your life or relax and finish your lunch. It will calculate the crater size, the energy released by the impact, and the effect on the surrounding area. The program can be found at the website www.lpl.arizona.edu/impacteffects. Users are asked to type in their distance from the predicted target zone, size and composition of the object, and information such as impact velocity and angle.

Britain's first ever robot football championship is about to get under way. The players may not look very formidable, consisting of 7.5cm plastic cubes on wheels. But like real soccer stars they can work as a team, recognise rules and score goals. The opening match will between two squads from the universities of Plymouth and Warwick, the home side.

A team of archaeological scientists in the United States and Germany say they have developed a technique to accurately determine the age of stone tools and artifacts between 50,000 and 100,000 years old, a period that has proved particularly tricky to map with other methods. If it's accepted by archaeologists and anthropologists, the technique could result in a clearer picture of the era and even lead to new discoveries about the civilizations that thrived in that period.

Thanks in part to dynamite and the gold-seeking Mexican fishermen who detonated it in the late 1970s, archaeologists have discovered the remains of a 5,000-year-old shell mound. Constructed of cement-like floors, the mound, researchers say, is the oldest known platform intentionally built in Mesoamerica, the cultural region comprising Mexico, Belize, Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador, and it could completely change our understanding of the prehistoric people who once inhabited this area.

The epic romance between Egyptian queen Cleopatra and the Roman general Marc Antony was immortalized on a Roman vase that is now housed at the British Museum, according to an expert in classical art. Susan Walker, former deputy keeper of Greek and Roman antiquities at the British Museum who is now the head of a similar department at the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford, believes the Portland Vase shows Cleopatra seducing Antony, while cupid and Anton, the son of Greek mythological hero Hercules, look on. Marc Antony's family claimed they had descended from Anton.

LIMA, Peru -- Grave robbers destroyed a 1,000-year-old mural at an ancient Peruvian ceremonial site, a museum archaeologist said Monday. The thieves entered the Huaca Bandera site, 425 miles northeast of Lima, sometime over the past few days, Marco Fernandez, from the Bruning Museum in Peru's Lambayeque region, told The Associated Press. He said they probably used picks or wooden poles in a futile effort to steal the mural -- a black, yellow and white dragon in sculpted relief on a painted red background -- but only succeeded in destroying it. The mural design was characteristic of the Lambayeque group, which ruled Peru's north Pacific coastal region hundreds of years before the rise of the Incan empire.

Robert Cohon strode through the classical galleries of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. The light was low. The room was quiet. A spotlighted statue in a display case stopped Cohon in his tracks. The barbarian was only 7 inches tall, but, Cohon says, "it was spectacular." The nude figure had muscular legs and a cape. It held one hand high, the other low, as if carrying a shield and a weapon. The dark bronze surface was mottled with tiny patches of red and green patinas. With its twisted posture, the look on its face and a bandaged leg, the barbarian appeared wounded and in pain. To someone steeped in the art of ancient cultures, this small bronze statue of a warrior was quite a prize. Its presence at the museum helped Cohon decide to take a job as the Nelson's curator of antiquities. Yet, within a couple of years, his elation turned to doubt amid questions about the figure's authenticity.

A device that could be the forerunner of a creativity-boosting 'thinking cap' has been built and tested by scientists. The machine applies a magnetic pulse to the left frontotemporal lobe of the brain. In tests it produced notable effects in four of 11 volunteers, New Scientist magazine reports. They appeared to be able to draw more 'natural' pictures of people and animals.

Stone Age beads revealed by archaeologists on Wednesday could be the strongest evidence yet that humans developed sophisticated symbolic thought much earlier than once thought. The ostrich egg beads and numerous other artefacts, including ochre pencils, carved bone and stone tools, were recovered from the Loiyangalani River Valley, in Serengeti National Park in Tanzania. The archaeologists who discovered the relics have yet to date them precisely, but believe they originate from the African Middle Stone Age - between 280,000 and 45,000 years ago. This is because they were found in a sedimentary layer along with many items characteristic of the Middle Stone Age.

Astronomers estimate there could be about 50 Earth-like planets with the potential to harbour life orbiting in other solar systems in our galaxy. They say that space telescopes will be capable of observing these planets and investigating them to see if they support life in about 15 years' time. Astronomers have recently discovered more than 100 planets orbiting stars other than our Sun.

South African botanists say they have failed to explain the mysterious round patches of bare sandy soil found in grassland on Namibia's coastal fringe. They looked into possible causes of the "fairy circles" - radioactive soil, toxic proteins left by poisonous plants, and termites eating the seeds. But tests do not support any of these theories for the rings which are 2-10m across, New Scientist magazine reports. For now, the botanists are left with "fairies" to explain the phenomenon.

The prospect of a revolution in air travel has been raised by Nasa's successful test of a 5,000mph plane. But are we likely to see similar advances in other forms of transport? The way we get about has a profound impact on the way we live - affecting where we set up home, work and holiday. Nasa scientists say their experimental X-43A jet has the potential to make the world a much smaller place. It has already led to predictions that passenger planes will one day fly from the UK to Australia in two hours.

Saturn's moon Titan might be one of the most out-of-this world places to hang ten, according to new computer modeling that suggests wind could generate waves there that are seven times taller than on Earth. Scientists aren't sure if Titan has seas, but they suspect it does based on hard-to-interpret telescopic observations. The oceans would be made mostly of ethane and methane, studies show.

Archaeologist Steven Tieken of Quincy spent five years carefully excavating material from a 30- by 60-foot patch of ground near Lima Lake in the northwest corner of Adams County. Now, for the first time, he has scientific evidence to back up his contention that the site was occupied nearly 2,000 years ago by a Middle Woodland culture. The evidence is in the form of carbon-14 dating performed by scientists with the Illinois State Geological Survey's Radiocarbon Department at the University of Illinois. Tests conducted on material taken from two trash pits at the Lima Lake site showed one pit dates back to 78 A.D. and the other to 540 A.D.

Chinese archeologists have unearthed two skeletons and over 1,000 ancient coins from five tombs of the Tang Dynasty (618-907) in Sichuan Province, southwest China. The tombs, with well-preserved outer coffins inside that were built of stone, were found in early March at a construction site in Mianyang City and excavation work was completed last week, saidSong Jianmin, head of the city's archeological team.

Bones unearthed near Okinoshima in Tateyama show that between about 6,500 B.C. and 7,500 B.C., dolphins were being fished off the coast of what now is part of Chiba Prefecture. As well as indicating that dolphins were being fished for about 1,000 years in the early Jomon period (ca 10,000 B.C.-ca 300 B.C.), objects found at the site gave researchers clues about the natural environment 8,000 years ago. "We found lots of valuable data, as well as learning lots about the natural environment during the early Jomon period, when the climate was Chinese archeologists have unearthed two skeletons and over 1,000 ancient coins from five tombs of the Tang Dynasty (618-907) in Sichuan Province, southwest China.

A ROW has erupted over relics unearthed from the site of the Battle of Bannockburn. Historians have long regarded three sharpened wooden stakes as the only known artefacts recovered from the battlefield where King Robert the Bruce famously defeated the army of Edward II in 1314. The stakes, discovered in 1923, were thought to be remnants of spikes planted in shallow pits by Robert the Bruce on which the charging English cavalry impaled themselves and their horses.

On Monday night, Venus is queen, riding high in the sky and clearly visible above the western horizon. To the Venus-worshipping Maya, that sentiment would have been toxic. "For us Venus is a curvaceous dame. For them Venus was a very dangerous warrior," said Harvey Bricker, a Tulane anthropologist. Close to its highest point in the cycle, Monday the planet sits farther from the sun than at any other time in its eight-year cycle. Ancient Mayan astronomers carefully tracked the planets and the sun, but Venus was a particularly closely watched god. Called Chac Ek -- translated as Red Star or Wasp Star -- Venus was second only to the sun among gods.

A pioneering project has been launched to explore the historic landscape within Norfolk's ancient woodlands. Norfolk Archaeological Services has already pushed ahead with a pilot project to survey a few sites, hoping the results could significantly add to county and national records. It aims to find, record and characterise the oldest woods and use that information to help manage the sites. And if it is successful, it will be rolled out across the county.

Germany's most primitive teeth have gone missing from the Neanderthal Museum, and embarrassed staff admitted on Monday they had not noticed at first, but thought the dentures were out of the display case to be cleaned. The milk tooth from a 12-year-old (Neanderthals were late developers) and an adult molar were discovered in 2002 during an archaeological dig at Mettmann, near Dusseldorf, on the spot where the first Neanderthal skeletal remains were discovered in 1856.

Archaeologists have confirmed that the Dashigu cultural relics of the Xia Dynasty (21 century B.C-16 century B.C.) in the suburb of Zhengzhou, capital of Central China's Henan Province, date to a large city site of the middle and later Erlitou Culture, part of the Bronze Age from 21 century B.C. to 17 century B.C. Covering an area of 510,000 square meters, the Dashigu city site lies near Mangshan Mountain and the Yellow River.

The next civilian to be rocketed into orbit at his own expense won't just be enjoying the ride: Gregory Olsen, a scientist who made a fortune with optics inventions, plans to do some research during his $20 million trip to the International Space Station. Olsen, the founder of Sensors Unlimited, Inc. in Princeton, N.J., has hired the company that brokered the first space tourist trip, millionaire Dennis Tito's flight aboard a Russian spacecraft in 2001.

Methane has been found in the Martian atmosphere which scientists say could be a sign that life exits today on Mars. It was detected by telescopes on Earth and has recently been confirmed by instruments onboard the European Space Agency's orbiting Mars Express craft. Methane lives for a short time in the Martian atmosphere so it must be being constantly replenished.

Mysterious sub-atomic particles from another galaxy could be raining down on planet Earth, according to a collaboration of astronomers. If so, it could explain controversial results from a particle-detection experiment deep inside mountains to the east of Rome. The story concerns Wimps - standing for weakly interacting massive particles - which astronomers think may make up the bulk of the Universe.

NASA has made aeronautics history by launching an experimental jet that reached a record velocity of just over seven times the speed of sound. Fifty-seven years after test pilot Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier, NASA on Saturday launched the unpiloted research jet, in a development some observers say could change the future of space travel.

So-called "dead zones" - oxygen-starved areas of the world's oceans that are devoid of fish - top the list of emerging environmental challenges, the United Nations Environment Program warned today in its global overview. The spreading zones have doubled over the last decade and pose as big a threat to fish stocks as overfishing, UNEP said in its Global Environment Outlook Year Book 2003, released at the opening of the agency's 8th summit for the world's environment ministers.

The Earth has only one true Moon, but astronomers have found that we also have a "quasi-moon" - a travelling companion through space that is circling the Earth while actually orbiting the Sun. The object, the only quasi-moon discovered so far, is an asteroid called 2003 YN107 which circles the Sun in an orbit almost identical to Earth's, but follows a corkscrew path that from time to time means that it appears to orbit Earth.

"Nasca mayor Daniel Mantilla says he worries about the lines, but like many local officials he has found himself blocked by Peru's underfunded and overstretched culture institute. He says he was forced to dump litter inside the protected zone because the culture institute failed to approve another site. "If we don't unite, the situation is going to go from bad to worse and that's what the culture institute and the tourism ministry need to understand."

"Astronomers have completed their most sensitive search yet for radio signals from intelligent life in space. They believe the best way to find ET is to look for a radio signal. Such signals can travel vast distances. The Arecibo radio telescope in Puerto Rico, supported by Jodrell Bank, searched over a period of 10 years. The scientists looked at 800 nearby stars with no evidence of a signal from ET. They say they have learned a lot, and plan another search next year.

Odd spiraling gorges etched deep into the polar ice caps of Mars have stumped scientists for decades. The huge arcing troughs radiate outward like arms of a pinwheel, creating an overall shape that visually and mathematically resembles hurricanes, spiral galaxies and even some seashells.

British Royal Navy divers have led to safety all six explorers trapped in a warren of caves in eastern Mexico. But Mexican officials, angry that they were not informed of the British explorers' expedition, detained the rescued men while questions over their visas are sorted out. Among the cavers were four members of the British navy.

Robert Bauval has released his complete spring tour schedule. Follow the link to Robert's site for details.

Life as we know it is likely to exist on Mars - because we put it there, a scientist has claimed. There is a good chance that bugs hitched a ride to Mars on probes from Earth and could still be living on the planet, said Andrew Schuerger, from the University of Florida. Only the two Viking craft that landed on the Red Planet in 1976 were adequately sterilised, he told a meeting of planetary scientists in Houston, Texas. The procedures used for all missions since then, including Nasa's twin rovers and Europe's ill-fated Beagle 2, would have left some microbes aboard.

Archeologists have discovered ruins where descendents of the founding king of Silla Kingdom (57 B.C.-935), who is largely believed to be a mythic character, may have held ancestral rites for him at a sanctuary. The ritual site, located in Kyongju, North Kyongsang Province, the ancient capital of Silla, is presumed to have been used for holding memorial rituals for King Pak Hyokgose, the founder of the Silla Kingdom and the Pak clan, the Joongang Research Center of the Cultural Heritage said Wednesday.

Iraqi culture minister Mufid al-Jazairi says Iraqis should first have a chance to view the archeological treasures held by a reopened National Museum before they are sent abroad. "The reopening of the museum will take place within a year to show Iraqis the treasures of Nimrod, which the people have never seen because Saddam Hussein hid them," Jazairi said. The treasures of the ancient city of Nimrod are among the world's finest collections.

A 7,400-year-old pottery jar stamped with the design of two flying phoenixes has been excavated recently in central China's Hunan Province, helping archaeologists unveil the secret of the "birth" of the sacred bird. The two phoenixes have the typical characteristics of the legendary phoenix, which has a crest on its head, a long beak, a long neck and a long beautiful feathered tail.

Investigators for the Israel Antiquities Authority have been informed that a precious Ivory Pomegranate, on display at the Israel Museum since 1988, is a forgery. On the basis of an inscription it had been dated from the period of the First Temple, 10th century BCE. However, it is information on the origin of the inscription that has raised doubts about the authenticity of the item. The Antiquities Authority refused to reveal the origins and nature of the information it holds.

Students in Professor Michael Kolb's archeology course this summer face a single assignment - digging through a hilltop for a lost city. In May, the Northern Illinois University professor will lead students to western Sicily to search of artifacts of indigenous people. For the monthlong trip, the students get six credit hours. They also get experience they couldn't find in a textbook. "You get to learn what it's like to be a real archeologist, working with your interpretive skills," said master's student Michael Kamin of Hanover Park, who went to Sicily twice as an undergraduate.

Igniting a scientific furor, scientists say they may have found the genetic mutation that first separated the earliest humans from their apelike ancestors. The provocative discovery suggests that this genetic twist toward smaller, weaker jaws unleashed a cascade of profound biological changes. The smaller jaws would allow for dramatic brain growth necessary for tool-making, language and other hallmarks of human evolution on the plains of East Africa.

In an effort to find the remaining genes that govern myosin--the major contractile protein that makes up muscle tissue--researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have made a discovery that may be central to answering key questions about human evolution.

Particle physicists have seen a rare happening that may force a rethink of current theories of sub-atomic matter. After watching more than seven trillion disintegrations of the kaon particle they have seen three peculiar events when they expected to see just one. At present physicists at the Brookhaven National Laboratory in the US do not know if this is a fluke or points the way to a deeper theory of matter.

A scientist says one of the most sought after particles in physics - the Higgs boson - may have been found, but the evidence is still relatively weak. Peter Renton, of the University of Oxford, says the particle may have been detected by researchers at an atom-smashing facility in Switzerland. The Higgs boson explains why all other particles have mass and is fundamental to a complete understanding of matter.

A rare Buddha statue has been jointly acquired by two British museums and will be the first of its kind to be displayed in a European collection. The British and Victoria and Albert museums acted together to bring the 7th Century metal Indian artwork to the UK. It will be on display in the British Museum for three months before touring the UK after being exhibited at London's Victoria and Albert.

European heritage experts have met in Scotland to mark the start of a bid to win World Heritage Site status for the Antonine Wall, the most northerly boundary of the Roman Empire. Culture Minister Frank McAveety, who hosted a reception for the delegates, wished the team luck in what will be the first ever bid to involve more than one country.

The tomb of King Tutankhamun has given up the key to uncovering the origins of enology, Spanish researchers report in the current issue of the journal Analytical Chemistry. While analyzing the dark brown deposit found inside a wine jar retrieved from the tomb of King Tut, Rosa M. Lamuela-Raventós and colleagues from Barcelona University developed the first technique that can determine the color of wine in archaeological samples.

Work is getting under way to restore a "lost castle" in Northern Ireland. Excited archaeologists in Newry have been given a grant to bring Bagenal Castle back to its former glory. The 12th Century building was hidden under a former bakery in the County Down city.

Scientists have found further evidence that there may once have been life on Mars - the legacy of a salty sea. Researchers examining pictures taken by one of the Mars rovers, currently scouring the red planet, said they believed they had reached what used to be a sea shore. "We believe that Opportunity is on the shore line, or what was the shoreline, of a salty sea," said Cornell University astronomer Steve Squyres, the mission's main scientist.

LUXOR, Egypt (Reuters) - First it was the Greeks wanting their Elgin Marbles back. Now Egypt wants the British Museum to return one of its ancient treasures too. Egypt's antiquities chief said on Sunday he wanted the British Museum to return the carved face of pharaoh Ramses VI, now that his smashed stone coffin has been largely reassembled.

China is preparing for filing an application to add its ruins of an ancient Tibetan kingdom on the world cultural and natural heritage list of the United Nations Education, Culture and Science Organization (UNESCO). Preparatory work is well underway on the Zhada Clay Forest and Guge Kingdom Ruins in Ngari Prefecture, western China's Tibet Autonomous Region, according to the region's cultural authorities.

One of the greatest artworks of all time is scattered in fragments across Europe. But there is now a way to view the surviving Parthenon sculptures together for the first time - a virtual reconstruction. They're still magnificent nearly 2,500 years after being carved, but the sculptures of the Parthenon are a bit like sad ghosts - pale, battered, half-lost and spread far and wide. The fragments are strewn across 10 museums in eight countries. The Greeks are keen to reunite these in a purpose-built museum within sight of the ruined temple the frieze once adorned.

The US space agency has announced that its robotic Mars rover Opportunity is parked on what was once the shore of a salty Martian sea. There is multiple evidence that the surface of Mars was awash with liquid water at some time in its past. But the latest findings from Nasa's robot explorers on the Red Planet are fleshing out a picture of what Mars must have been like when it was wet.

People of a village in Madhya Pradesh are facing hostility from an unseen and a mysterious enemy. The people of Ratria village in Neemuch, a district in western Madhya Pradesh, for the last one week have been coping up with unexplained fires and stone pelting. And they do not know who is behind them. Not only the villagers, even the district administration and the police have till now failed to provide any solace to the villagers.

Five planets are arrayed across the evening sky in a spectacular night show that won't be back for another three decades. For the next two weeks, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn -- the five closest planets -- should be easily visible at dusk, along with the moon. "It's semi-unique," said Myles Standish, an astronomer at Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. "They're all on the same side of the sun and stretched across the sky and that's what is kind of pretty."

Spanish authorities have uncovered an illegal archaeological museum featuring more than 5,000 priceless artefacts looted from Phoenician, Iberian, Roman and Islamic sites in the southern region of Andalusia, the civil guard announced on Monday.

More than 100 volunteers, consisting of historians, archaeologists and villagers have conducted a detailed analysis of the landscape around Bugbrooke, Flore, Harpole, Nether Heyford and Weedon in the last three years. Although nine Roman settlements were found in total, they have successfully identified six Roman villas dating from the third and fourth centuries.

Human-like species living in Africa up to 1.5 million years ago may have known how to control fire, scientists say. US and South African experts analysed burnt bones from Swartkrans, just north of Johannesburg, using the technique of electron spin resonance. It showed the bones had been heated to high temperatures usually only achieved in hearths, possibly making it the first evidence of fire use by humans.

PASADENA, California (AP) -- NASA's Mars rover Opportunity on Monday managed to climb up and out of the crater that it explored for nearly two months, overcoming a slippery slope that left the vehicle spinning its wheels during an earlier attempt.

The highest resolution image obtained by the Stardust spacecraft as it flew by Comet Wild 2 in January has just been released by the US space agency. The image shows a pockmarked "flying mountain" strewn with jets of gas and dust that billow in the solar wind.

Amateur astronomer Jay McNeil made a lucky discovery last month when he noticed a new smudge of dust in the constellation of Orion using his 3-inch telescope - it turned out McNeil had discovered a nebula surrounding a newborn star that was illuminated when the star flared up. After his discovery, observatories around the world turned their larger instruments on "McNeil's Nebula" to get a better understanding of what's happening in this stellar nursery. This latest image was taken by the 8-metre Gemini observatory in Hawaii.

The world's real dragons were smarter fliers than even modern birds, say a paleontologist and an aeronautical engineer who have joined forces to uncover the secrets of pterosaur flight. Ranging from the size of a robin to a Lear Jet, pterosaurs not only perfected flight with membranous, bat-like wings, but also the larger lizards had ways of controlling their that flight birds don't possess, said Texas Tech University paleontologist Sankar Chatterjee.

The day after scientists confirmed a vast reserve of frozen water at Mars' south pole, a new piece of the puzzle about what happened to water elsewhere on the planet fell into place. Chemical analysis of tiny spherical objects found throughout a rock outcrop near where NASA's Opportunity rover touched down indicates they are laced with a mineral called hematite, which most often forms in the presence of water.

Mars holds huge reserves of frozen water in its southern pole, according to the first detailed assessment of the data sent back by Europe's Mars Express spacecraft earlier this year. Astrophysicists pored over information sent back by the orbiter's imaging spectrometer, which is able to detect elements in a planet's surface or atmosphere thanks to the spectrum of light that is reflected from the sun. Reporting in Thursday's issue of Nature, the British weekly science journal, the French-led team say they have spotted frozen water in three forms in the Martian south pole.

India is helping Cambodia restore the 12th century sandstone temple of Ta Prohm in the Angkor region. Ta Prohm, which was consecrated in 1186 and has been home to more than 2,700 monks, was rediscovered in the 19th century. The chief of the Indian restoration team, KT Narasimhan, is quoted as saying it will take a decade to complete the project. He says owing to weather conditions, the work can be only be carried out between November and April. However, Mr Narasimhan says the work is made easier because Ta Prohm is similar to one of India's largest Hindu temples, the Lord Ranganathaswamy temple in the southern state of Karnataka. India has agreed to provide about $US5 million along with technical know-how and material for the restoration.

Antiquities Authority excavations in Tiberias may have uncovered the site of a structure used by the Sanhedrin, researchers believe. The excavations began in March in the central part of the city and in recent days have moved eastward toward route 90. The main finding in the new excavation area is a basilica structure.

CHONGQING, March 22 (Xinhuanet) -- Archaeologists claim that an oracle tortoise shell of the Tang Dynasty (618-917) they discovered in west China's Chongqing Municipality on Saturday extends China's history of oracle shell divination by hundreds of years. The tortoise shell with a diameter of 15-20 centimeters was unearthed in the Tangfang Pier cultural relic site of Yunyang County, a historical site in the Three Gorges Reservoir area.

A BIRDWATCHER who unearthed the 4000-year-old cremated remains of a young man has given archaeologists fresh insight into the close, superstitious bonds between humans and animals in prehistoric society. Experts have conducted a detailed analysis of the discovery of a Bronze Age burial urn which contained the remains of a male aged between 25 and 40, found within a boulder shelter at Glennan, Kilmartin, in Argyll.

The bat-eating rocker pipped Tony Blair and TV presenters Ant and Dec as the face people want to represent them to alien life. The poll of 1,000 Internet users was carried out following the discovery of signs of water on Mars. George W Bush and Jordan came level in the Yahoo! News survey - with just 9% of the votes. Osbourne, the 55-year-old former lead singer with Black Sabbath, who is still recovering from a near fatal fall from a quad bike, won 26% of the vote.

Archaeologists have rediscovered a huge rock art site in southern India where ancient people used boulders to make musical sounds in rituals. The Kupgal Hill site includes rocks with unusual depressions that were designed to be struck with the purpose of making loud, musical ringing tones. It was lost after its discovery in 1892, so this is the first fresh effort to describe the site in over a century.

Pluto is more than 5.75bn km from Earth. Not many people can visualise that kind of distance. So a project to bring the size of the Solar System down to Earth - or rather to the UK - has been launched. Spaced Out, as it is called, aims to create the world's largest scale model of the Solar System.

State-of-the art underwater technology is helping researchers to unlock the secrets of the deep blue sea. The University of Ulster's Centre for Maritime Archaeology has acquired detection equipment which was once the preserve of navy personnel. The CMA's work at the university's Coleraine campus involves ancient shipwrecks and shifting sands. Archaeologists record details of the thousands of shipwrecks along the British and Irish coasts. The ultra modern equipment is aiding the process of recording the ships' location, state of preservation and to predict how long they will last, before the elements destroy them.

With their primary goal of finding signs of water on Mars achieved, NASA's twin robot-geologists soon will make tracks across the Red Planet's barren surface until their batteries run out, NASA officials said on Thursday. The rovers, each carrying a suite of scientific tools, were finishing tests in and around two craters on opposite sides of the planet where scientists have found hoped-for clues that liquid water played a part in forming rocks and soil.

Could the gods of the Ancient Egyptians have been invoked by a plant? Some researchers have surmised over the years that the anthropomorphic gods - a classic shamanistic trait - of the great civilization may have originated through the use of entheogenic chemicals. However, while the New World has an assortment of hallucinogenic plant life - from the psilocybin containing mushrooms, to the mescaline cacti and plants such as Psychotria viridis which hold the astonishing chemical DMT - there has been little insight into which plants the cultures of the Ancient Near East may have employed in a similar manner.

Billionaire Paul Allen has committed $13.5 million to support the construction of the first and second phases of the Allen Telescope Array. Construction of the array is now underway at the Hat Creek Observatory, 466 km northeast of San Francisco; the first phase will include the development of 32 6.1-metre radio telescopes. The second phase will see an additional 174 built. Eventually there will be a total of 350 identical dishes built. Once the first 32 dishes are completed, the array can begin scientific operations.

Metahistory is the quest for a new myth about humanity, a story of our own making that aligns our hearts and minds to intimacy with Gaia, the living earth. Going beyond history, the path we realize is not ours alone, not a human prerogative, but the way of all sentient beings united in Gaia whose purposes we hold sacred. The shift for the human species now is less a change of events than a change in how events are told, a turn toward mythmaking that can create a future worth living. Our Quest is to free ourselves of the separatist beliefs encoded in the stories that define and direct our lives, and weave together the strands of a new story...

Astronomers are keeping a close eye on a space rock as it makes the closest approach to Earth ever recorded. The 25 metre rock, called 2004 FH, will pass within 43,000km of Earth just after 10pm tonight but scientists say there's no danger of a collision, reports the BBC. Such close approaches probably occur quite frequently but go unnoticed. If it were to strike the Earth it would burn-up in the atmosphere, say experts. The asteroid will make its closest approach over the southern Atlantic Ocean. It should be visible through binoculars to stargazers across the southern hemisphere, as well as throughout Asia and Europe.

Scientists believe the Earth may be on the brink of its sixth mass extinction. Five other mass extinctions have punctuated the planet's history and a British study suggests Butterfly extinction could be on the way. Butterflies in Britain are going extinct at an even greater rate than birds, according to the most comprehensive study ever of butterflies, birds, and plants, reports Science. Concern was already growing over the rate at which species were disappearing but until now the evidence came mainly from studies of birds.

An archaeological survey into the wild landscape around Dunstanburgh Castle has uncovered its wartime secrets and new evidence of its medieval past. Owned by the National Trust and managed by English Heritage, Dunstanburgh was built in 1313 by Earl Thomas of Lancaster and sits dramatically on the North East coastline. Back in November 2003, archaeologists from both English Heritage and the National Trust spent three weeks conducting a high-tech survey of the area around the castle.

SAMAWAH, Iraq (Kyodo) Japan plans to help prevent the theft of precious artifacts from being stolen from the ruins of Sumer in southern Iraq, site of the world's oldest known city-state system, government sources said. Because valuable artifacts continue to disappear from the ruins, Japan will help local authorities tighten security at the sites, providing them with patrol vehicles and other equipment, according to the sources. The government is considering extending such assistance to Iraq through UNESCO, using $600,000 in grant aid, the sources said.

A post road built during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) was discovered in southwest China's Guizhou Province. The post road used to connect Huangping, a town of military and commercial importance in the Ming Dynasty, and Guiyang, capital ofGuizhou province, according to experts with the provincial archaeological institutions. The post road runs parallel to south Guizhou's Qingshui River and was about three meters wide, archaeologists said.

NASA has developed a computer program that comes close to reading thoughts not yet spoken, by analyzing nerve commands to the throat. It says the breakthrough holds promise for astronauts and the handicapped. "A person using the subvocal system thinks of phrases and talks to himself so quietly it cannot be heard, but the tongue and vocal cords do receive speech signals from the brain," said developer Chuck Jorgensen, of NASA's Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, California.

Astronomers are to rethink the way they classify planets following the discovery of what some claim is the Solar System's 10th planet. A working group of the International Astronomy Union will consider whether objects such as Sedna should be classed as planets. The IAU says the group will consider the definition of a minimum size for a planet, reports the BBC. But in the meantime Sedna will not be considered one.

CHONGQING, March 17 (Xinhuanet) -- Archaeologists have unearthed three stone tools, dating back 80,000 years, in Hechuan City of Chongqing Municipality, southwest China. The three tools, unearthed recently at a Paleolithic site near Weituo Town, to the west of Hechuan City, include two chopping tools and one scraper. Lin Bizhong, one of the leaders of the archaeological excavation, said the stone tools advanced the history of human activities in the area to over 50,000 years earlier. He said the discovery also provided important clues to the studyof ancient human activities in the area and to the study of the sequencing of Paleolithic culture in the area and in the Yangtze River Valleys, one of the cradles of the Chinese civilization.

TEOTIHUACAN, Mexico - Remnants of space dust that constantly shower the world are helping unlock the secrets of a 2,000-year-old Mexican pyramid where the rulers of a mysterious civilization may lie buried. Deep under the huge Pyramid of the Sun, north of Mexico City, physicists are installing a device to detect muons, subatomic particles that are left over when cosmic rays hit Earth. The particles pass through solid objects, leaving tiny traces which the detector will measure, like an X-ray machine, in a search for burial chambers inside the monolith.

ANCIENT Aboriginal rock art in Kakadu has been defaced by visitors, under the noses of tour operators. The Northern Territory News has learned rock art at Ubirr in Kakadu - believed to be up to 25,000 years old - has been affected. National Parks director Peter Cochrane said there had been many incidents of damage to rock art at Ubirr. "There has been defacing of the rock art," he said. "That has involved some level of graffiti." Mr Cochrane said investigations suggested the damage had been done by people brought into the park by tour operators.

A group of investors from Syracuse are helping raise a 242-year-old shipwreck off the northern coast of Nova Scotia, a find that's yielded gold and silver coins, jewelry and silverware. More importantly, says Norman Miles, a dramatic episode in North American history is being fleshed out. "Our duty is to teach the world what happened there," Miles said. "And as we teach the world, this collection will grow in value because it will become sought after by those that have an interest in this time and place in history."

New scientific research adds to growing evidence that the Anglo-Saxons did not replace the native population in England as history books suggest. The data indicates at least some areas of eastern England absorbed very few Anglo-Saxon invaders, contrary to the view in many historical accounts.

The soil on Mars could be identical almost everywhere showing that, like on the Moon, its composition is unrelated to the immediately underlying rocks. Study by the US rovers which touched down in January would suggest the soil has been mixed up by wind and impacts.