Newsdesk Archive

Minister of Culture Farouk Hosni opens in early November the Luxor Museum annex, the first museum to tell Thebes' military history and the wars entered by Pharaonic Egypt. The inauguration will take place in celebrations of Luxor National Day on November 4. Zahi Hawas, Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), said during a visit to Luxor that the museum will contain 120 archaeological pieces collected from different museums and sites related to the military history of Thebes, one of the most important capitals of ancient Egypt.

The tourist and archaeological site at the Pyramids area will see extensive development works at investments worth L.E. 1 million. Al-Batran squatter settlements were turned into a clean place through non-governmental efforts at a cost of L.E. 500,OOO.The area was re-planned and afforested, said Giza Governor Mahmoud Abul-Leil during a tour of the area. The governor appropriated a sum of L.E. 150, 000 to beautify the western Sphinx street.

Reports by Egyptian anthropologists describing a mummy claimed to be that of Queen Nefertiti, say that it is actually that of a male in his late teens! This refutes British archaeologist Dr. Joann Fletcher's claim that x-rays had proved that the mummy found in the side chamber of the burial chamber of King Amenhotep II in Luxor, could be that of Queen Nefertiti. Dr Zahi Hawas, Secretary-General of the Supreme Council for Antiquities (SCA), said that the issue was opened last February when Dr. Fletcher based her analysis on the outer shape of the mummy.

It is an illusion that has bedazzled people since Aristotle described it 2000 years ago. If you look at a waterfall for a short time, then look at the bank beside it, the bank will appear to drift upwards. Now an experiment that monitors brain activity has explained how the "waterfall effect" arises. It confirms a hypothesis proposed in the 19th century by the German psychologist Sigmund Exner. He said the waterfall illusion was caused by neurons tuned to opposite directions of motion. While watching a waterfall, the brain cells that detect downward motion become tired. When the eyes look away, the cells that detect upward motion are more active and a stationary object appears to be moving up.

What would it be like to stand atop the tallest mountain on Earth? To see a full panoramic vista from there, scroll right. Visible are snow peaked mountains near and far, tremendous cliffs, distant plateaus, the tops of clouds, and a dark blue sky. Mt. Everest stands 8.85 kilometers above sea level, roughly the maximum height reached by international airplane flights, but much less than the 300 kilometers achieved by a space shuttle. Hundreds of people have tried and failed to climb the behemoth by foot, a feat first accomplished successfully in 1953.

Scientists working in the jungles of Venezuela have discovered 10 new species of fish and a previously unknown species of shrimp. Among the new discoveries, revealed by US-based Conservation International, was an armoured catfish whose spiky head earned him the nickname "punk" and a piranha that eats fruit as well as flesh. The group are now calling on the Venezuelan Government to protect the Caura River Basin, where the species were found, designating the 4,500-hectare (11,115-acre) area a wildlife reserve. "For its size, it's incredible what the area has. It's a hot spot that should be protected," said zoologist Antonio Machado, who helped direct the research.

Reported sightings of basking sharks in Scotland have taken a huge leap, according to scientists. There have been 37 sharks sighted north of the border this year - a massive increase on the single sighting 12 months ago. UK-wide research conducted by the Wildlife Trust this year has so far yielded over 255 new basking shark images on its new database. The Scottish Wildlife Trust research aims to identify sites of importance and help safeguard the threatened species.

Centuries-old theories that the herb sage can improve memory appear to be borne out by modern research. Scientists at the Universities of Newcastle and Northumbria tested 44 people, who were either given the herb or a dummy placebo pill. They found that those given the sage oil tablets performed much better in a "word recall test". Experts believe the active ingredient may boost levels of a chemical that helps transmit messages in the brain. The Medicinal Plant Research Centre (MPRC) at the universities are testing many old-fashioned claims about the healing powers of herbs and flowers.

The international conservation body, the WWF, has called for urgent action to protect the hippopotamus. A survey conducted in one of the animals former strongholds, the Virunga National Park in the Democratic Republic of Congo, found that only 1,300 of the animals remain in the park, a drop of 95% in 30 years. The WWF, formerly known as the World Wide Fund for Nature, says the steep decline is due to demand for hippo teeth sold in the illegal global ivory trade. Wildlife groups have only recently gained access to the park which has suffered from years of interfactional fighting during the country's civil war.

As Fiordland recovers from the magnitude 7.1 earthquake which shook the region last week, a research breakthrough could soon make it possible to predict quakes before they happen. Professor Frank Evison from Victoria University's school of earth sciences and Dr David Rhoades from the Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences have analysed seismographic records on 60 big earthquakes around the world. Earth movements in the years before those big shakes exhibited a strikingly similar pattern - a pattern that was repeated with last week's quake.

In 1994, Lance Milbrand traveled to Clipperton Island, a coral atoll in the Eastern Pacific 700 miles (1,100 kilometers) off the coast of Acapulco, Mexico, on a scientific expedition. Film equipment failure and heatstroke prevented him from shooting a planned documentary about the island. Milbrand returned to the remote island in April of 2003 to shoot his film, funded in part with a grant from the National Geographic Expeditions Council. For 41 days, he lived on the island among thousands of bright orange crabs and millions of seabirds, mapping the atoll for National Geographic Maps and shooting documentary footage.

An investigation is underway to find the cause of electricity blackout in London that left the city in chaos during Thursday evening's rush hour. Power was restored within 40 minutes, but the failure left more than 250,000 London Underground users stranded as 60 per cent of the network ground to a halt. Many trains were stranded in tunnels between stations for as long as 90 minutes.

Archaeologists and their teams working through the spring-summer excavation season, which lasted from March through July, made many important discoveries at sites around the country. At Abu Sir necropolis, 45 kilometres west of Alexandria, a Hungarian archaeological team from Pàzmàny University, Budapest stumbled upon a cache of gold items from the Byzantine era while conducting routine cleaning near the acropolis which Ptolemy II had built during the fourth century BC. The newly discovered treasure-trove consists of five gold coins minted in Constantinople and a gold bracelet decorated with nine crosses.

FORT LARAMIE, Wyo. (AP) - Archaeological research at Fort Laramie National Historic Site has revealed what appears to be the region's only known Civil War-style defensive entrenchment. The ditch was discovered through the use of an electronic surveying technique called remote sensing. Historians believe the trench was dug quickly and without much planning after a battle between Sioux Indians, soldiers and civilians at Mud Springs, southeast of present-day Bridgeport, in February 1864.

A SECTION of Roman road, ancient pottery and defensive ditches have been discovered near an ancient settlement in Edinburgh. Archaeologists discovered the large cobbled area and three ditches during an excavation of the old Moray House site in Cramond Road North in the north-west of the city. A number of artefacts such as shards of amphora - narrow-necked jars commonly used for storing wine, oil and water - were also found at the site, along with pottery and metal work. Experts believe the area marked the outer "suburbs" of a Roman settlement and surrounded the 1800-year-old Roman fort.

Kabul - Afghanistan's legendary 2 000-year-old Tillya Tepe Bactrian gold hoard is safe and sound after lying hidden in a bank vault for the past 14 years, President Hamid Karzai said on Friday. The priceless collection of gold ornaments dating back about 2 000 years was safely stored in a presidential palace vault throughout the civil war and Taliban regime. "Fortunately the gold exists. We opened one box and saw the gold," Karzai told reporters minutes after the vault was opened on Friday morning for the first time in more than a decade.

HAMILTON, Bermuda, Aug. 27 (UPI) -- Unlicensed shipwreck divers in Bermuda waters now face a year in jail and a $25,000 fine, a report said Wednesday. Under legislation passed in 2001, but just now coming into effect, the Bermuda government claims ownership rights of the wrecks and historic artifacts, the Bermuda Sun reported. Anyone already in possession of artifacts has to inform the curator -- yet to be appointed -- if they want to keep them. Once that's done and the treasure's been documented, the Crown government will renounce all ownership rights. Bermuda has more than 400 known wrecks, but some treasure hunters claim there are more.

Despite its palm-lined boulevards, Hollywood was just miles from glaciers as little as 5,000 years ago, according to California geologists. Using a new technique to measure how long glacier-strewn boulders have been ice-free, geologist Lewis Owen of the University of California at Riverside and colleagues have discovered there were several glacial periods on San Gorgonio Mountain immediately northeast of Los Angeles.

It is difficult to look at modern-day Phoenix and imagine what it was like here centuries ago, when prehistoric Hohokam people lived in the area. But residents and tourists can get a glimpse of the city's past at the Pueblo Grande Museum and Archaeological Park in east Phoenix, north of Sky Harbor International Airport. Operated by the city parks department, Pueblo Grande is at the ruins of a 1,500-year-old Hohokam village. Visitors can take a self-guided tour of the 102-acre park and explore an 800-year-old platform mound possibly used by the Hohokam for ceremonies or as an administrative center.

When the Aswan High Dam was built across the Upper Nile in the 1960's, international teams managed to rescue ancient temples and other monuments from the rising waters upstream. They were moved and restored to dry land. A less grand but important Aswan site avoided submersion but not the neglect of years. Only recently have Egyptian archaeologists begun work on a major quarry that yielded the black granite for the sarcophagi, statues and obelisks. Sediment and debris buried the quarry floor. Once it was cleared, archaeologists found pits in the shapes of the extracted obelisks and materials for removing and finishing the stone. They also uncovered remains of the harbor where boats picked up the stones. On a visit to the United States this month, Zahi Hawass, director of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, reported that the discoveries were expected to provide new insights into the technology behind the splendor of the pharaohs. Hawass is also a visiting professor at the University of California at Los Angeles.

Kon Tum, August 27 (VNA) - The Central Highlands province of Kon Tum has discovered 43 sites of archaeological potential with most dating back to the New Stone Age, about 3,000 years ago. The discovery was made in a recent survey jointly conducted by the Institute of Archaeology and the provincial Cultural Service from May until August. The findings have served as background for the province's map on archaeological sites recently compiled by the Institute of Archaeology.

SOFIA (bnn)--Archaeologists uncovered in downtown Sofia on Wednesday a unique early Christian tomb dating from the 4th century A.D. Workers repairing the city's steam heating network came across the tomb by chance during excavations to lay down new pipes, architect Vasil Kitov said. "The tomb is unique because it contains incredible accumulations of cultural and historical information," Kitov said. He would not immediately divulge details about the objects that researchers found inside.

An ancient stone circle, buried for thousands of years, has been uncovered by archaeologists at a site in the Outer Hebrides. Experts say the discovery is second in importance only to Stonehenge. The find was made close to the four other existing stone circles at the famous standing stones of Callanish, on the Isle of Lewis. The discovery of the 30m circle - which is at least 3,000 years old and predates Stonehenge - was made by a team of archaeologists from Manchester University.

British stargazers have stayed up all night to get the best view of the Red Planet during their lifetime. Mars and Earth passed closer together than at any time in almost 60,000 years during Wednesday morning. The historical event happened at 1051 BST (0951 GMT), when the two planets were 56 million kilometres (35 million miles) apart - about the closest they can get. Robin Scagell, from the Society of Popular Astronomy, said those with telescopes would have got a unique view of Mars.

Britain's honeybees are facing another serious threat to their survival. Hives across the country are being routinely inspected for the small hive beetle that has devastated colonies in North America and Australia. In a colony the beetle larvae multiply to huge numbers, eat young bees, ruin honey stores and wax comb and, if untreated, will completely destroy a hive. The small hive beetle is not thought to be present in the UK yet but beekeepers fear it is only a matter of time before it reaches Britain.

Astronomists in Egypt spotted the union of planets Earth and Mars before the sun disk, a phenomenon that takes place once every 60,000 years. Ali Te'lab, chief of the National Institute for Astronomical and Geophysical Research, said the rare phenomenon was observed at 8:5l:47, adding this incident offers a chance to benefit from studying Planet Mars.

The trial has begun in the Brazilian city of Belem of five members of a satanic sect accused of sexually mutilating and murdering young boys in Altamira, a town in the Amazon. One of the five, Valentina Andrade, is the leader of an occult sect based in Argentina and two are doctors. The crimes were practised over 10 years ago, but only now are the accused being brought to trial. Between 1989 and 1992, the Amazon town of Altamira suffered a reign of terror, as one after another, 19 boys aged between eight and 14 were abducted.

Thousands of people who attended the funeral of a Romanian priest believe they saw a miracle when a halo appeared over the church. Scientists say it was a rare type of circular rainbow that appeared as the priest's body was taken for burial. A believer told Evenimentul Zilei: "I am sure it was a sign. It looked like a rainbow but it was circular as a fire aura. It was the father's saint aura." Constantin Galeriu, 85, died on August 10 at the hospital in Bucharest after suffering a stroke almost a month before. Patients of the hospitals and visitors came by hundreds to see the priest.

You say tomato, I say Lycopersicon esculentum. You say potato, I say Solanum tuberosum. But Carl Linnaeus was the real plant buff. Often called the father of classification, Swedish naturalist Linnaeus established the familiar dual Latin names by which all creatures are now known. This week, botanists met in Uppsala, Sweden to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the publication of this influential idea in his seminal 1753 book, Species Plantarum. Before Linnaeus, people described living things in dialect or rambling paragraphs with little consistency. "Just about everything under the Sun was used," says Tod Stuessy of the University of Vienna, Austria, who led one of the Uppsala sessions.

The youngest children in a school year group have a higher risk of developing mental health problems than the oldest children, according to a new study. A survey of more than 10,000 British schoolchildren aged five to 15 years old, found that those with birthdays in the last three months of the school year were more prone to psychiatric problems, such as hyperactivity and behavioural difficulties, compared to those born in the earlier in the school year.

Even if the Moon really were made of green cheese it probably wouldn't look this bizarre. Still, this mosaic of 53 images was recorded by the Jupiter-bound Galileo spacecraft as it passed near our own large natural satellite in 1992. The pictures were recorded through three spectral filters and combined in an exaggerated false-color scheme to explore the composition of the lunar surface as changes in mineral content produce subtle color differences in reflected light. Familiar to earthdwellers, the lunar near side is on the left, but the space-based view looks down on the Moon's north pole located in the upper half of the image near the shadow line. Blue to orange shades indicate volcanic lava flows. The dark blue Mare Tranquillitatis at the lower left is richer in titanium bearing minerals than the green and orange maria above it. Near the bottom of the image and to the right of Tranquillitatis is the dark oval-shaped Mare Crisium surrounded by shocking pink colors indicating material of the lunar highlands.

JAMESTOWN, Va. (AP)--Seven years after archaeologists discovered evidence of the fort built when Jamestown was founded in 1607, they finally know how big the triangle-shaped log enclosure was. Based on the finding in 1996 of the fort's east corner and on historical documents, archaeologists had been searching for the outlines of a fort that covered 1.75 acres, said William Kelso, director of archaeology for the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities.

The discovery in Hampshire of a 2,000-year-old die has provided valuable evidence about coin production in Britain before the Roman invasion. The ancient die, used to stamp the design on gold coins in the Iron Age, was found near Alton. A member of the public handed it to the county museums and archives service whose staff immediately recognised it as something special. Kay Ainsworth, keeper of archaeology, sent it to the curator for Iron Age Coins at the British Museum, who confirmed her belief that the object was indeed the genuine article, dating to around 100BC.

Evidence for the earliest known dwelling in the vicinity of Las Vegas suggests that the current casino and nightclub hotspot was first settled around A.D. 400 by Native Americans who may have come from the Virgin Branch of Anasazi (early Puebloans), the Mojave, the Paiutes or another unidentified group. The Virgin Branch of Anasazi is suspected because at around the same time, they were present along the nearby Virgin River, the Muddy River and parts of the Colorado River. Archaeologists found the prehistoric structure, a Native American pit house, along the banks of the Las Vegas Wash. The Wash is upstream from the city development.

The number of cod in the North Sea has fallen to a critical low point, a senior fisheries scientist says. Unless the surviving fish can reproduce successfully, he believes, the area's cod fishery will soon be a memory. The cod are now at the lowest level ever seen, according to his observations. But Scottish fishermen say their catches prove there are ample fish left. The scientist is Dr Robin Cook, head of the Scottish Fisheries Research Service, based in Aberdeen, in north-east Scotland.

Australian officials and South African seamen have swooped on a Uruguayan trawler suspected of poaching rare Patagonian toothfish in Antarctic waters and detained its crew. The arrests of the 40 sailors aboard followed a 20-day chase, Phindile Makwakwa, spokeswoman for South Africa's Environmental Affairs Ministry said. A British ship had joined the Australian and South African vessels pursuing the long-line trawler Viarsa, believed to be carrying up to A$5m (US$3.3 m) worth of the rare and valuable fish. The Viarsa was first sighted on 7 August in Australia's fishing zone, 4,000 kilometres (2,200 nautical miles) south-west of the mainland.

It starts as a shadow. But Marc A. Dewerth sees a legend. On that day in 1997 near Coshocton County's Wills Creek, Dewerth knows he saw the elusive Bigfoot. He looks at the shaky videotape he shot that day and eagerly points out the shadow in the middle of the screen. It sits between two trees. If you're not looking for it, you'd miss it. Then, just as you're ready to dismiss it and laugh it off, the shadow disappears behind one of the trees, leaving brush where it had been. The shape appears again. This time, you'd swear there was a black, pointy head, sunken eyes, brown, tough skin outlined with tufts of hair. You'd swear it's Bigfoot. But it's the end of the tape that really gets him excited -- the part he didn't even notice until primate experts at the Cleveland Zoo pointed it out to him: Two very apelike creatures sitting among the brush in the upper right-hand corner of the screen. While it's easy to jump to conclusions, even Dewerth remains skeptical of what he saw. "It may or may not be a Bigfoot," he said. "But it's something."

Baroness Susan Greenfield, Fullerian Professor of Physiology and Comparative Anatomy at Oxford University, heads a team of scientists who are focused on the genetics of Parkinson's and Alzheimer's diseases. She is the first female director of the 204-year-old Royal Institution of Great Britain and a cofounder of two biotech start-ups that specialize in brain diseases. She holds a seat in the House of Lords, has hosted a BBC series on the brain, and wrote The Human Brain: A Guided Tour. Her next book will be titled Tomorrow's People. Why are there so few women in prominent biotech positions? Baroness Susan Greenfield: "This is a particularly savage world. I think it's a particularly alpha-male type of environment. In biotech, people's body language is different, the way they talk, the way they walk. They are very aggressive. Women especially do have a problem working with the men. I'm happy doing that, because I'm a naturally aggressive type of person. But men have a problem too. Men at my company say I'm a difficult person to get along with, and I say, wait, if I were a man you wouldn't be saying this."

A flood of interstellar dust is breaching the sun's weakened magnetic shield and drifting into the solar system, according to European astronomers. The interstellar dust particles measure about one-hundredth the diameter of a human hair. The bits are thought to supply the building blocks of all solid bodies in the galaxy, including the planets and humans. "All atoms in Earth were in interstellar grains before the solar system formed," said Donald Brownlee, an astronomer at the University of Washington in Seattle. The dust is believed to be composed of heavy elements such as carbon, magnesium, iron, and calcium.

The brightest flash of radiation ever recorded from a young star has been spied accidentally by a new radio telescope. Twisting magnetic fields crackling violently on the star's surface caused the dramatic outburst. "The influence that such energetic flares might have on the formation of planets and their atmospheres may be tremendous," says Manuel Güdel, who studies the atmospheres of stars at the ETHZ Institute of Astronomy in Zurich, Switzerland. The million-year-old star is in the Orion Nebula. In January this year it burned at five times its usual brightness, outshining its neighbours. This surprised researchers surveying the nebula with the Berkeley Illinois Maryland Association (BIMA) telescope array in Hat Creek, California. BIMA looks for wavelengths between 1 and 3 millimetres; most radio telescopes spot only centimetre waves. By a stroke of luck, the startling outburst was also caught by NASA's orbiting Chandra X-ray Observatory, which happened to be scanning the Orion Nebula at the same time.

NASA immediately accepted the findings of the damning Columbia Accident Investigation Board's report on Tuesday. The report said that the failings of NASA's managerial culture were as much to blame for the loss of the shuttle as the falling foam that fatally damaged Columbia's wing. In a statement, NASA chief Sean O'Keefe said: "The findings and recommendations of the CAIB will serve as NASA's blueprint. We have accepted the findings and will comply with the recommendations to the best of our ability." He will respond to the report in greater detail at a press conference on Wednesday.

An earthquake rattled a rural area in west-central New Jersey on Tuesday afternoon, shaking buildings and knocking curtains off windows. There were no reports of injuries or serious damage. The U.S. Geological Survey in Colorado said the magnitude-3.8 quake hit at 2:24 p.m. and was centered about 8 miles south of Milford in Hunterdon County, about 30 miles northwest of Trenton. "At the top of the Milford hill, it felt like an explosion," said Emergency Management Coordinator Henry Schepens. "In town it felt more like a shaking." Milford town clerk Nora Lei said she was fielding calls from residents who reported plates and curtains being knocked down. Some residents reported a sonic boom-like sound, and thought there was an explosion at the local papermill, the James River Corp., Schepens said.

Despite conquering the known world, it seems the Romans had a very different idea of what constituted sartorial chic. Evidence for what, by modern standards, would be considered a lack of style has been uncovered at a major archaeological dig in south London, where a foot from a bronze statue appears to be adorned with both socks and sandals. The discovery was made during the excavation of a three-acre Romano-Celtic temple complex at Tabard Square in Southwark. Last month, a 2,000-year-old pot of cream, with its contents still intact, was found at the site.

The bitter dispute between Hindus and Muslims over a religious site at Ayodhya in northern India has been renewed by the release of a controversial new report by Indian state archaeologists. But the report's publication on Monday was overshadowed by two bomb blasts in India's financial capital Mumbai that left 52 dead and 140 injured. It is not yet known if the two events are linked, but observers have pointed out that Mumbai was bombed before at a time of high tension over Ayodhya.

hen the Aswan High Dam was built across the Upper Nile in the 1960's, international teams managed to rescue ancient temples and other monuments from the rising waters upstream. They were moved and restored to dry land. A less grand but important Aswan site avoided submersion but not the neglect of years. Only recently have Egyptian archaeologists begun work on a major quarry that yielded the black granite for the sarcophagi, statues and enormous obelisks. Sediment and debris buried the quarry floor. Once it was cleared, archaeologists found pits in the shapes of the extracted obelisks and materials for removing and finishing the stone. They also uncovered remains of the harbor where boats picked up the stones. On a visit to the United States this month, Dr. Zahi Hawass, director of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, reported that the discoveries were expected to provide new insights into the technology behind the splendor of the pharaohs. Dr. Hawass is also a visiting professor at the University of California at Los Angeles.

MERV, Turkmenistan -- Genghis Khan's hordes couldn't wipe the great city at Merv from the earth when they killed thousands here in their bloody wave of conquest. Centuries later, though, modern man's meddling with Mother Nature threatens to obliterate the remains of the metropolis. Merv enjoyed a golden age during the 11th and 12th centuries, when the Sultan Kala fortress was the eastern capital of the Turkish Seljuk Empire and one of the world's biggest cities. Legend says the blue dome of the Sultan Sanjar mausoleum was visible a day's journey away. Even when Mongolian warriors led by Genghis Khan's son sacked the city in 1221, killing what a 13th century historian claimed were 1.3 million people, the city still stood.

Archaeologists digging at San Francisco's Presidio believe they have found the remains of the home of Marcos Briones, the patriarch of one of the Bay Area's earliest and most prominent families and possibly the region's first suburban trailblazer. Researchers from Stanford University, UC Berkeley, the Presidio Trust and the Golden Gate National Recreation Area discovered the foundation of the old adobe structure earlier this summer, about a third of a mile southeast of the old Presidio walls.

SYDNEY, Australia (Reuters) -- The ozone hole over the Antarctic is growing at a rate that suggests it could be headed for a record size this year, Australian scientists said on Friday. A study by Australian Antarctic bases attributed the development to colder temperatures in the stratosphere where the ozone hole forms. "The growth at the moment is similar to 2000 when the hole was a record size," Australian Antarctic Division scientist Andrew Klekociuk told Reuters on Friday. Ozone is a protective layer in the atmosphere that shields the Earth from the sun's rays, in particular ultraviolet-B radiation that can cause skin cancer, cataracts and can harm marine life.

With Pyramids standing aloft in the background and a hope for peace to prevail in the world, prolific Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli will give a concert Wednesday. Amid an international fanfare, the concert which comes as part of the Cairo International Song Festival, is to be attended by 3000 people, the full capacity of the theater set up beside the Pyramids. Under the motto of "Concerto of Hope in Peace", Bocelli will give the concert with a call for international peace to be made at the Pyramids. Such major events aim at highlighting Egypt's true cultural image, Minister of Tourism Mamdouh El-Beltagi said.

Bat specimens dating back more than 50 years may help scientists understand high rates of a killer disease on a Pacific island. Guam is known for incredibly high rates of a degenerative disease which has some of the hallmarks of motor neuron, Parkinson's and dementia, but cannot be firmly identified as any of them. Among the Chamorro people on the island, rates of the mysterious condition run at between 50 and 100 times the "normal" rate of motor neuron disease found in other communities. Many theories have been put forward as to the cause of the disease, but the mystery has yet to be solved.

At a lonely bend on Wisconsin's Wolf River, Jane and Lloyd Merkel balance on some rocks and peer down into the tea-brown water. "Look, Lloyd!" Mrs. Merkel says. "Isn't she a beauty?" A gray fish as long as a fence post swims past, its big tail making slow undulations. There are dozens and perhaps scores of the big fish in the river. They appear and disappear, rising out of the deep to nuzzle and splash in the shallows. They have spiky backs, barbed snouts, and mouths like vacuum cleaners. They are like nothing else the Merkels have ever seen.

The descendants of Moctezuma II, the last Aztec emperor of Mexico, are trying to recover the pensions granted them in 1550 and suspended in 1934. The pensions, paid in gold, are now worth 90,000 dollars per person a year. Moctezuma's descendents are demanding the Mexican government resume the payments, claiming they were illegally suspended. "We intend to rescue this inheritance, so that first and foremost we are recognized as direct descendents of the last Aztec emperor and his daughter, independent of the monetary amounts," said Guillermo Acosta, a 14th generation descendent of Moctezuma through his daughter, Princess Isabel Moctezuma.

Jesus might have been the son of God but he was also a top bloke who threw ripper barbies, according to a version of the Bible released Thursday that translates the Christian holy book into Australian slang. In the Aussie Bible the Virgin Mary is "a pretty special sheila" who gets knocked up with the Big Boss' son wraps him in a bunny rug and tucks him up in a feed trough in the back shed because the local pub is full to bursting.

Mars and Earth are about to pass closer together than at any time in almost 60,000 years. On Wednesday at 1051 BST (0951 GMT) the two planets will be 56 million kilometres (35 million miles) apart - about the closest they can get. Mars has been visible as a bright orange object in the night sky for many weeks. It currently outshines any other celestial body except the Moon and Venus. Sir Patrick Moore, presenter of the BBC's Sky at Night, said: "You can find it easily, it is so bright, in the south at midnight, you can't mistake it, bright and red." The event will be a feast for astronomers who, with a small telescope, will be able to pick out surface details on the planet such as its southern ice cap. It will be a treat even with the naked eye but could provoke a crop of spurious UFO sightings.

As if executing a cosmic air kiss, Earth and Mars will come as close as they desire in the wee hours of Wednesday during an historical event that has captivated the attention of skywatchers around the globe. The two planets will be separated by 34,646,418 miles (55,758,006 kilometers) at 5:51 a.m. ET (1051 GMT) on Aug. 27. Not since the Neanderthals shared this planet with early humans have the two worlds been so close. The span of space is small only in the cosmic sense, however. Despite rumors, there will be no chance of collision and no unusual or dangerous gravitational effects. It is just a wonderful opportunity for anyone to enjoy a slice of astronomical history and to see Mars as bright as it can be.

At about 10 am Universal Time today, Mars and Earth will pass closer than in nearly 60,000 years. Mars, noticeably red, will be the brightest object in the eastern sky just after sunset. Tonight and through much of this week, many communities around the world are running a public Mars Watch 2003 campaign, where local telescopes will zoom in on the red planet. In Earth orbit, the Hubble Space Telescope plans to return prompt pictures of the event. The best views of Mars, however, will continue to be from the robot spacecraft currently orbiting Mars: the Mars Global Surveyor and the Mars Odyssey. The current pass sparked the launching of four new spacecraft toward Mars, some of which will deploy landers early next year and likely return even more spectacular views of our planetary neighbor.

Recent finds at the ancient settlement of Archontiko, near Pella in northern Greece, have shed further light on the wealth, heroic culture, commerce and burial rituals of ancient Macedonians, following the discovery of 396 unlooted tombs and 5,000 objects, dating between the 7th and 4th centuries BC. Among recent finds were 80 pit graves of warriors richly adorned in gold, carrying weapons and near their wives, who were also adorned with gold, Kathimerini reported yesterday. They date from the second half of the 6th century BC. The ancient cemetery is expected to yield many more treasures, as the necropolis of the ancient site covers an area of 200 stremmas (20 hectares), of which less than one hundredth has been excavated.

An independent report into the fatal break up of the Columbia space shuttle is expected to be highly critical of the US space agency Nasa. The report could have far-reaching implications for Nasa and the future of its human space flight program. The shuttle disintegrated as it attempted to re-enter the Earth's atmosphere on 1 February, killing its crew of seven astronauts. In July, the investigation board said "the most probable cause" of the break up was a piece of foam insulation hitting the shuttle's left wing.

Every few years, astronomers who study asteroids are accused of crying wolf. In 1998, one group predicted that an asteroid was headed toward a collision with Earth in 2028. A day later, another group said the estimate was based on faulty data and there was no chance of a disaster. In April 2002, astronomers announced that they'd found an asteroid a half-mile wide that has a 1-in-300 chance of hitting Earth. But it turned out that Asteroid 1950 DA, as it's formally known, won't arrive until March 16, 2880. Hollywood has done its part, too. Movies such Deep Impact and Armageddon have entertained millions with tales of death-dealing rocks that are heading Earth's way.

National Forest officials flummoxed by millions of unwanted tui chub fish in this popular southwest Oregon lake are taking off the gloves. Draining it or using explosives are now on the table. The illegal stocking of the fish has caused an environmental imbalance that triggered summer water-quality problems, recreational closures and damage to this once-popular trout fishery in Douglas County. Umpqua National Forest officials are looking into the feasibility of using pumps and more than 14 miles of pipe to drain most of the lake's 68,100 acre-feet of water to nearby Lemolo Lake. But that would require a 4-foot-wide pipe blocking deer and elk migration for up to three months, said Sherri Chambers, who is leading the team looking at the lake.

A mysterious, 41-foot by 19-foot (12.4-meter by 5.4-meter) gelatinous mass of flesh that washed ashore in southern Chile this June came from a sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus), not a giant octopus (Octopus giganteus) as some sleuths suspected. "Two independent DNA analyses confirmed the identification as belonging to a sperm whale," said Elsa Cabrera, director of the Center for Cetacean Conservation in Santiago, Chile. The blob washed ashore on the beach of Pinuno, near Puerto Montt, on June 23. Cabrera and colleagues investigated the mass and made the initial conclusion it was of the wrong texture and smell to be a whale skin. The team suspected the peculiar smelling blob might be a giant octopus, a species only known from legend. As images of the blob spread across the Internet, scientists from all corners of the world weighed in on the fleshy mass' identity.

TEQUESTA, Fla. (AP) -- An artificial reef created to improve marine life is attracting bull sharks to the water off Coral Cove Park, forcing officials to close the beaches almost daily. "These sharks are territorial," lifeguard Rick Moore said Sunday. "What's happened is you have an accumulation of tropical fish." The limestone-boulder reef was created earlier this summer to draw fish to the area just south of Coral Cove Park. Since then, lifeguards have called swimmers out of the water for periods ranging from 30 minutes to all day because of the sharks. Palm Beach County Ocean Rescue officials said the county's parks had previously closed sporadically for shark sightings but never as consistently as in the past month at Coral Cove.

More eyes are glued to Mars this week than has probably been the case since Orson Welles and his Mercury Players scared folks with his radio rendition of H.G. Wells' War of the Worlds. This is a good week to take a look: Mars will be closer on Wednesday, Aug. 27 than ever in recorded history. The buzz has been elevated to mania as all manner of media -- from the New York Times to Entertainment Weekly -- have latched onto a story first reported last November by SPACE.com. Telescopes are selling so fast there's a shortage at many stores. Great. Go out, gaze heavenward and soak up some red light from our planetary neighbor during this historical event. But don't kid yourself. The dusty world you'll see remains more mysterious than a North American power grid.

Johannes Kepler, the 17th century astronomer and mathematician, once exclaimed that 'there are more comets in the sky than there are fishes in the sea'. In 1990, a NASA astronomer observed that 'there are more professionals working in a single fast-food restaurant than there are professionals scanning the sky for asteroids.' The search for earth-bound space debris has traditionally received only minimal funding and although improvements are planned they may be too little and too late. With inadequate technology and personnel, it is frighteningly unlikely that our lookouts will spot an earth-bound object in sufficient time for us to do anything about it. The developed world is in a complacent slumber, and neither fantastical Hollywood movies nor dry probability estimates can awaken it to the reality of impending disaster.

Mars won't look this good. Tonight and over the next few days, when Mars is at its closest approach to Earth in nearly 60,000 years, you might get your best view ever of our planetary neighbor. Please, though, don't expect to see this much structure, or expect to see Mars rotate so much in so brief a period. The 20-frame movie was created from 1000 frames of a backyard webcam that were meticulously aligned, added, and digitally sequenced. Pictured, Mars appears to rotate in a time-lapse sequence, with each frame separated by 30 minutes of real time. In reality, one full Martian rotation -- a Martian day -- is only about 40 minutes longer than an Earth day.

ANN ARBOR -- Plucked from the dirt, the small clay fragment looks a lot like a piece of broken brick. But looking at the rounded rim on one side, Scott Beld makes a very educated guess: This scrap of humble, utilitarian 1800s redware looks like the base of a mug. A workman could well have been sipping from it 150 years ago, when the historic house nearby was new. Beld is helping with an archaeological survey at the Lund House this summer in Ann Arbor. He can hold this unglazed earthen pot fragment, or the blue-and-white piece of an elegant bowl or cup found nearby, and tell you more about when and how they were made -- and even who made them -- than you'd ever dream anyone could know.

The belief that the Catholic Church persecuted Galileo Galilei for pointing out that the earth goes round the sun was quite wrong, the new secretary of the Vatican's Doctrinal Congregation, Archbishop Angelo Amato, has claimed. Citing a letter recently discovered in the Vatican's archive, Archbishop Amato, who heads the body formerly known as the Holy Office or the Inquisition, said it proved that the church had treated him very well. The letter, sent by the Commissioner of the Holy Office to Cardinal Francesco Barberini in 1633, expressed the pope's concern that the trial of the scientist accused of heresy be concluded quickly as his health was poor.

IT lay beneath the waters of the River Almond for 1500 years before being dragged from the mud and put on display in the Museum of Scotland. But now the Cramond Lioness is set to be returned to its rightful home as part of a £2 million vision for an exhibition to showcase the Roman ruins near where it was found. The statue is expected to form the centrepiece of the new attraction under plans unveiled by city leaders today. The blueprint, which is expected to be approved by councillors on Tuesday, will also see the 1800-year-old Roman fort near Cramond Kirk and the nearby bath house restored.

Ethiopia is old, even older than Egypt, but its antiquity is somewhat different. While Egypt was the world's first indisputable nation-state, unique in its complex politico-religious system augmented by magnificent material remains and a corpus of epic literature, in Ethiopia, the very cradle of mankind, the material evidence of its ancient civilisation alone attests to its former glory. The Ancient Egyptians, from the earliest times, kept records of their kings and this chronology is central to the chronological structure of the early Aegean, Levantine and Mesopotamian civilisations. It is, however, of no import to Ancient Ethiopia. If the Ethiopians did keep records, these have either been lost for ever or not yet discovered.

The Chinese government is investing 45 million yuan (about 5.4 million US dollars) to protect the largest group of mausoleums of ancient Tibetan kings, located in Khyonggyal County in the Tibet Autonomous Region. Covering a total area of 385 sq m, the nine mausoleums are the last resting places of the 29th to 40th (and last) Tibetan kings, their wives and senior officials of the Tubo Kingdom (700-900). Among these mausoleums is that of Songtsan Gambo, the most famous Tibetan king because of his epoch-making marriage with Princess Wencheng of the early Tang Dynasty (618-907) when Tibet was a dependency under the jurisdiction of the dynasty. According to Puncog-Wangdue, head of the county, the projects for the tomb's protection have already been launched, and a planned road running through the area has been re-routed so as to preserve the harmony of the scenery.

Mahmoud Taymour is a leading pioneer of modern novel in Egypt and the Arab world. He made significant contributions to the literary realm, as well as the theater, short story, travel literature and linguistic research. Many of his writings were translated into several European languages including French Italian and German. He was born on June 16, 1889 to an aristocratic family, interested in literature and learning. His grandfather; Ismail Pasha Taymour was a a man of letters and an enthusiastic collector of books.

A chemical found in red wine can mimic the life-extending effect of calorie-restricted diets in yeast, researchers have found. The findings could provide a new explanation for beneficial effects of red wine. And replication of the results in mammals - although still a long way off - would raise hopes that the compound could one day be used to slow age-related diseases in humans. "Seventy years ago we found that caloric restriction in rats increased lifespan. And over the last 70 years people have been looking for ways to explain it," says lead researcher David Sinclair, at Harvard Medical School in the US. "Now we have shown we can control the longevity pathway with a small molecule."

When a system of writing begins to die, people probably don't even notice at first. Maybe the culture that spawned it loses its vitality, and the script decays along with it. Maybe the scribes or priests decide that most ordinary people aren't able to learn it, so they don't teach it. Or a new, simpler system may show up -- an alphabet, perhaps -- that can be easily learned by aggressive upstarts who don't speak the old language and don't care to learn its fancy pictographic forms. Or perhaps invaders take over. They decide the old language is an inconvenience, the old culture is mumbo jumbo and the script that serves it is subversive. The scribes are shunned, discredited and, if they persist, obliterated. In the first study of its kind, three experts in the study of written language have described the common characteristics that caused three famous scripts -- ancient Egyptian, Middle Eastern cuneiform and pre-Columbian Mayan -- to disappear.

Although the historic close proximity of Mars this week is for a limited time only, skywatchers with Martians on the brain can continue feeding their red planet hunger with a variety of popular culture mediums available on Earth. Over the last century or so, Mars has been viewed many ways in books, film and music. Writers and filmmakers have made it the home of antagonistic aliens and the next New World for human pioneers. At least one movie has credited the planet for seeding Earth with life as we know it. So here's a rundown of Mars fun. The following list stems from a NASA compilation, another from Ames Research Center planetary scientist David Catling and SPACE.com. It is by no means comprehensive, but may interest those with Mars at heart:

The Hephaestus Fossae are a series of collapsed pits and troughs in central Elysium Planitia. This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) provides a high resolution view of the floors, walls, and terrain surrounding a few of the pits and troughs in this region. The image is located near 23.0°N, 239.4°W and is about 3 km (1.9 mi) wide. Sunlight illuminates the scene from the lower left. Malin Space Science Systems and the California Institute of Technology built the MOC using spare hardware from the Mars Observer mission. MSSS operates the camera from its facilities in San Diego, California. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Mars Surveyor Operations Project operates the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft with its industrial partner, Lockheed Martin Astronautics, from facilities in Pasadena, California and Denver, Colorado.

Many of the stars in our home Milky Way Galaxy appear together as a dim band on the sky that passes nearly over the Earth's north and south poles. Pictured above is the part of our Galaxy that passes closest over the north pole. Placing your cursor over the image will bring up the names of several constellations and bright stars. The diffuse white Galaxy glow is created by billions of stars, while red patches are large emission nebulas, usually marking areas where bright stars have recently formed. In the north, all of the lights visible at night and all lights that created this image were emitted within the past few thousand years from within the Milky Way Galaxy -- except one. to reach

A unique ancient workshop for bone articles which had no parallel in antique Thrace was unearthed in the vicinity of village Sveshtari in northeast Bulgaria which is famous for the royal tomb discovered there a few years ago. The team of archaeologist Dr. Totko Stoyanov from the Sofia University came across exceptional finds which date back to the fourth and the beginning of the third century B.C. In the unique workshop, the expedition unearthed elements used to make weapons and decorations together with amphorae with preserved stamps from the Greek islands of Rhodes, Thasos and Sinope.

Archaeologists in Germany have found what they believe is the oldest male statue discovered in Europe, dating back 7,000 years to the Neolithic period. Previously only female statues have been known. The statue, dubbed the Adonis of Zschernitz, was found on Monday during work on a gas pipe outside the town of Zschernitz, near the Polish border. Only the torso, from around the navel to the top of the thighs, remains intact. Judith Oexle, state archaeologist for the state of Saxony, said the piece, which has been presented to archaeologists in Dresden, measured 3in. "We think the figure was originally 25cms [10in] tall," she said.

LOUP CITY, Neb. - University of Nebraska archeologists are uncovering a series of prehistoric sites described as "pit houses" along the banks of the Sherman Reservoir. The discovery was made in 1997, when university museum personnel were doing a survey of the reservoir. Since the discover, no digging had been done at the site until this summer. Archeologists hope the house pits will reveal a better understanding of life in prehistoric times. A group of museum employees and university students began excavating two of eight known house pits in June, museum research professor Alan Osborn said. They have found arrowheads, corn cobs, animal bones and pieces of pottery, Osborn said. However, the limited finds indicate the people likely did not stay long at the site. Osborn said they may have been experiencing a drought much like the area is seeing now.

Trapani, Italy, Aug. 22 - After the discovery of the bronze dancing Satyr in Mazara del Vallo, by Greek sculptor Prassitele, Sicily reveals a new rarity: two marble heads dated 4th, 5th c. AD discovered in Pantelleria inside a cistern located in the Roman acropolis. The official presentation is scheduled tonight at the Arenella museum and will be attended by Sicily's Governor Salvatore Cuffaro, and Regional Heritage Councillor Fabio Granata. The event will also be attended by the Speaker of the Lower House Pier Ferdinando Casini, who has been spending his holidays on the island. According to experts the busts portray emperor Claudius and his wife Agrippina.

JERUSALEM - Israeli archeologists have unearthed an 8,000-year-old Bronze Age settlement and the remains of a 1st century A.D. Jewish homestead, close to a town named for Biblical giant Goliath's birthplace. The Israel Antiquities Authority said Monday that contractors working on a new trans-Israel highway asked the authority to carry out an exploratory dig at Ptora, in the archeologically rich region east of the town of Kiryat Gat, before earthmovers started ripping into the ground. Founded in 1955, Kiryat Gat was named after the Philistine city of Gath, said to be the birthplace of Goliath and believed to lie nearby. Today, most archeologists believe Gath was sited some distance to the northeast, near the coastal town of Ashdod.

An historic bridge which was destroyed during the Bosnian war, has reached the final stage of its reconstruction. The 16th Century bridge, part of a Unesco world heritage site, had its keystone laid into place in a special ceremony attended by local politicians and community leaders. Hundreds of people watched and cheered as a crane slowly lowered the final stone slab into place, bringing together the two halves of the 30-metre-long arch. "The Old Bridge will once again be the symbol of coexistence and a united Mostar," said the city's mayor, Hamdija Jahic.

THE amount of material recovered at a Bronze Age archaeological dig in Mid-Ulster was today described as "phenomenal" by the man leading the recovery project. As bulldozers prepare the ground for the new £1.9m Mid-Ulster Sport Academy at the Loughry Estate, Cookstown, a team of archaeologists are using more modest shovels to delve deep into the area's past on the edge of the site. Galway man Robert Chapple, site director of excavations for Northern Archaeological Consultancy, is stunned at the find. "The fact we've got 2,500 finds from a prehistoric landscape is incredible. I have been in archaeology for going on 15 years and I've never come across a site that has produced so much material. It's phenomenal," he said.

Mars will make its closest approach to Earth for almost 60,000 years on Wednesday. Dr Robin Catchpole, senior astronomer at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, London, explains how to witness the event. Every 26 months, the Earth overtakes Mars on the inside track as they both orbit the Sun. Every 15 to 17 years, this happens when Mars is closest to the Sun. On 27 August this year they will pass at a distance of 55,760,000 km or 0.3727 AU (1 AU is the distance of the Earth from the Sun), closer than any time during the last 60,000 years.

President Hosni Mubarak is due during the coming few days to inaugurate Alexandria National Museum which comprises 1800 pieces of antiquities from the different Pharaonic, Greek, Roman, Coptic, Islamic and modern ages. The setup of the new museum costs about L.E. 13 million, said Culture Minister Farouk Hosni during his inspection of the final arrangements for opening the museum. The Minister added that the museum includes Pharaonic pavilion set up on a space of 500 meters and comprises a collection of rare pieces that dates back to the old, Middle and Modern Kingdoms such as Akhenaton's head, Hatshepsut statue and the Egyptian writer Amon statute.

Amr lbn al-Aas Mosque is the first and oldest mosque ever built on the land of Egypt. Erected in the year 642 AD (21 AH) by Amr Ibn al Aas, the commander of the Muslim army that conquered Egypt, the mosque is also known as Taj al-Jaamie (Crown of Cairo Mosques). The mosque, said to have been built on the site of Amr Ibn al-Aas's tent at Fustat, is the oldest existing mosque, not just in Cairo, but in the entire African continent.

Europe may be breathing a sigh of relief as its record-breaking heatwave eases, but there is still plenty to worry about. Temperature changes caused by global warming are likely to transform agriculture on both sides of the Atlantic. While the heatwave claimed thousands of lives in France, started bush fires in Portugal and toppled temperature records from London to Baghdad, the European Commission (EC) issued a little-noticed bulletin. It showed a prolonged drought was causing drastic changes in agricultural output, especially in southern Europe. And the changes almost perfectly match predictions of the effects of global warming over the next century. Meanwhile in the US, the latest forecasts are confirming that, whatever the prevarications of the Bush administration, climate change will have a very real impact on the country.

The largest canyon in the Solar System cuts a wide swath across the face of Mars. Named Valles Marineris, the grand valley extends over 3,000 kilometers long, spans as much as 600 kilometers across, and delves as much as 8 kilometers deep. By comparison, the Earth's Grand Canyon in Arizona, USA is 800 kilometers long, 30 kilometers across, and 1.8 kilometers deep. The origin of the Valles Marineris remains unknown, although a leading hypothesis holds that it started as a crack billions of years ago as the planet cooled. Recently, several geologic processes have been identified in the canyon. The above mosaic was created from over 100 images of Mars taken by Viking Orbiters in the 1970s.

Roswell city workers made an unusual discovery while clearing an illegal dumping ground on the city's southwest side. Amid the broken appliances and mounds of colored glass, they found human remains and pottery shards. Anthropologists with the Office of the Medical Investigator in Albuquerque say the bones are indeed ancient..An archaeologist from the Roswell Museum and Art Center agrees, saying the artifacts likely came from a Hondo Valley Pueblo village dating from between 1200 and 1400 A.D.

One of Wales' oldest farms dating back thousands of years is believed to have been discovered in a field in Ceredigion. Archaeologists were called in to investigate the site near Llandysul, after workmen clearing farmland for a new Welsh Development Agency industrial estate noticed dark circles in the soil. Cambria Archaeology workers then identified several large circular graves from the Bronze Age. And about 200 yards away they found the foundations of a farmyard wall which could have been built 5,000 years ago.

AVELLA, Pennsylvania (AP) -- Evidence that humans inhabited western Pennsylvania some 16,000 years ago -- thousands of years earlier than most scholars believe -- is still dividing archaeologists, 30 years after blade tools and materials to make beads were found in a rock shelter. Archaeologist J.M. Adovasio and his crew began to unearth the artifacts in the summer of 1973 at the Meadowcroft Rockshelter, about 25 miles southwest of Pittsburgh. Those findings challenged for the first time a belief cemented in the 1950s that humans had crossed the Bering Strait and first settled near Clovis, New Mexico, about 12,000 years ago.

FRANKFURT, Germany - An ancient clay figure of the lower half of a male body believed to date back to the Stone Age has been discovered in eastern Germany, archeologists said Thursday. Workers digging on Monday for a new gas pipeline outside of Dresden came across the figure, which measures eight centimeters (three inches), said Judith Oexle, an archaeologist for the state of Saxony. The figure, which details a male body from the waist to the calves, is the first such representation of a man to be found in the area, believed to date from 5,000 B.C., Oexle said. Previous finds have been representations of women. "We believe that the entire figure originally measured 25 centimeters (10 inches) long," Oexle told reporters in Dresden Thursday, adding she believed it symbolized fertility and was created by farmers who settled middle Europe during the Stone Age.

Hopes that Mars once had vast oceans of water and perhaps microbial life have suffered a setback. A US space agency (Nasa) spacecraft has failed to find evidence that the Red Planet was once a warm, watery world like the Earth. Scientists have been searching for decades for signs of water-related carbonate minerals on the Martian surface. Mars Global Surveyor, which is orbiting the planet, has at last come up with the goods. But it has found only traces of carbonates in dust, which probably came from the atmosphere rather than rocky outcrops deposited by oceans.

An earthquake the size of which "makes the whole earth ring" shook the South Island of New Zealand and was felt as far away as Sydney overnight. New Zealand's Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences said the quake measured 7.1 on the Richter scale and was centred 70km west of Te Anau, at a depth of 20km. Geoscience Australia put it at 7.5. The area was struck by several aftershocks since the quake at 12.12am today (2212 AEST Thursday), the biggest being a 6.2 shake at 2.12am. There had been no reports of injury, a factor National Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences duty seismologist Ken Gledhill put down to the sparse population in the area.

Adélie penguins have been breeding on Antarctica's Torgersen Island for thousands of years, but today the clacking and squawking of 20,000 birds hides a relatively new sound: camera shutters. A dozen tourists wander through the colony, having arrived by Zodiac rubber raft from their cruise ship. "For me the noise of the penguin colonies is the real surprise," says Peter Vutz, stepping away from the wildlife paparazzi. "And the smell," adds his wife, Doris, swaddled in a bright parka. In a few months Antarctic summer will begin, and these two 71-year-old Californians add to a surge in ship-based adventurers here that's doubled and redoubled in less than a decade: over 14,000 in the 1999-2000 season, up from 2,500 only ten years earlier. Millennium-related cruises accounted for some of the upsurge and numbers tapered after 9/11, but totals are expected to return to this rate in the 2003-2004 season.

A team of archaeologists, students and amateur historians has found the remains of two children in the Milford burial plot believed to be Pond's, but so far there is no sign of the 18th century explorer-entrepreneur. The team headed by State Archaeologist Nick Bellantoni opened the Milford Cemetery grave, next to the marked plot of Pond's mother, Mary, on Wednesday, and worked through Thursday on a meticulous search. The eight-member team is expected to wrap up its work today. Bellantoni squatted inside the 4-foot excavation, using paintbrushes, a whisk broom and a magnifying glass to search for artifacts and remains, while assistant Renee Petruzelli plotted the dig on graph paper.

Plans to drill into an ancient lake deep under ice in Antarctica may lead it to erupt in a massive geyser-like explosion, scientists have warned. Lake Vostok in Antarctica has spent 15 million years under 4 km of ice, its waters sealed off from air and light for all that time under the tremendous pressure of the continental ice sheet. The 14,000 km2 lake, about 1,300 km from the South Pole, is one of the world's largest and scientists believe that it could offer unique research opportunities. But despite opposition from environmentalists who fear drilling into the lake could destroy it, Russian scientists plan to cut through the ice until they come close to the surface of the lake. U.S. scientists are also interested in drilling into the lake to see if any life forms can exist there, a finding which could lend weight to theories that life exists in other extreme environments such as other planets.

The Alchemy Key travels through conventional as well as arcane territory to reveal theories never before identified in this incisive context. It begins with water alchemy, modern patents and follows the trail back to the royal priests of Egypt who manufactured the water of Ammon, or ammonia, at the Oasis of Siwa. Alchemy is a major unifying theme of anthropology. Alchemy, initiation and religion are intertwined. An understanding of any one necessitates an appreciation of the other two. Download whole book in one PDF file (4.2MB)

THE secrets of 14 people who lived and died on Rathlin Island more than 1,000 years ago were buried with them yesterday. Mystery surrounds the skull remains which were unearthed by workmen carrying out renovation work at St Thomas' church. The tradesmen were stopped in their tracks when they unearthed the skulls beneath a wooden floor. Archaeologists from Queen's University were brought in to probe the findings and the skulls - which could be more than 1,400 years old - were taken away for analysis.

The origin of one of the British Museum's greatest Roman treasures has been thrown into confusion after a scholar claimed it was actually made in the 16th Century. Dr Jerome Eisenberg, one of the world's leading authorities on ancient art, is "convinced" that the Portland Vase was made during the Renaissance. The vase is described by the museum as "the most famous cameo-glass vessel from antiquity" and was a widely accepted to have been made circa 30-20 BC. A museum expert said the vase was still believed to be Roman because of the techniques used to make it.