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Egypt announces find of ancient cat goddess temple
By HAMZA HENDAWI || Yahoo News : CAIRO – Archaeologists have unearthed a 2,000-year-old temple that may have been dedicated to the ancient Egyptian cat goddess, Bastet, the Supreme Council of Antiquities said Tuesday.
The ruins of the Ptolemaic-era temple were discovered by Egyptian archaeologists in the heart of the Mediterranean port city of Alexandria, founded by Alexander the Great in the 4th century B.C.
The city was the seat of the Greek-speaking Ptolemaic Dynasty, which ruled over Egypt for 300 years until the suicide of Queen Cleopatra.
The statement said the temple was thought to belong to Queen Berenice, wife of King Ptolemy III who ruled Egypt in the 3rd century B.C.
Mohammed Abdel-Maqsood, the Egyptian archaeologist who led the excavation team, said the discovery may be the first trace of the long-sought location of Alexandria's royal quarter.
Haiti aid flow grows; feuds over reaching victims
By ALFRED de MONTESQUIOU || Yahoo News : PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – Hungry, haggard survivors clamored for food and water Saturday as donors squabbled over how to get aid to Haiti and rescuers waged an increasingly improbable battle to free the dying before they become the dead.
Haiti's government alone has already recovered 20,000 bodies — not counting those recovered by independent agencies or relatives themselves, Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive told The Associated Press. He said a final toll of 100,000 dead would "seem to be the minimum."
There were growing signs that foreign aid and rescue workers were getting to the people most in need — even those buried deep beneath collapsed buildings — while others struggled to cope with the countless bodies still left on the streets.
Crowds of Haitians thronged around foreign workers shoveling through piles of wreckage at shattered buildings throughout the city, using sniffer dogs, shovels and in some cases heavy earth-moving equipment.
Bible Possibly Written Centuries Earlier, Text Suggests
By Clara Moskowitz || LiveScience.com : Scientists have discovered the earliest known Hebrew writing - an inscription dating from the 10th century B.C., during the period of King David's reign.
The breakthrough could mean that portions of the Bible were written centuries earlier than previously thought. (The Bible's Old Testament is thought to have been first written down in an ancient form of Hebrew.)
Until now, many scholars have held that the Hebrew Bible originated in the 6th century B.C., because Hebrew writing was thought to stretch back no further. But the newly deciphered Hebrew text is about four centuries older, scientists announced this month.
"It indicates that the Kingdom of Israel already existed in the 10th century BCE and that at least some of the biblical texts were written hundreds of years before the dates presented in current research," said Gershon Galil, a professor of Biblical Studies at the University of Haifa in Israel, who deciphered the ancient text.
Thousands feared dead in Haiti quake; many trapped
By JONATHAN M. KATZ || PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti - Haitians are piling bodies along the devastated streets of their capital after a powerful earthquake flattened the president's palace and the main prison, the cathedral, hospitals, schools and thousands of homes. Untold numbers are still trapped.
President Rene Preval says he believes thousands of people are dead even as other officials give much higher estimates - though they were based on the extent of the destruction rather than firm counts of the dead.
His prime minister, Jean-Max Bellerive, tells CNN: "I believe we are well over 100,000," while leading senator Youri Latortue tells The Associated Press that 500,000 could be dead. Both admit they have no way of knowing.
The magnitude-7 quake struck Tuesday afternoon.
Bird-plane collisions may pass 10,000, a first
By JOAN LOWY || Associated Press Writer - WASHINGTON - Reports of airplanes hitting birds and other wildlife surged last year, including serious accidents such as birds crashing through cockpits and crippling engines in flight, according to an Associated Press analysis of new government data. More than a dozen states across two migration routes from Minnesota to Texas have seen the highest increases.
"Birds and planes are fighting for airspace, and it's getting increasingly crowded," said Richard Dolbeer, an expert on bird-plane collisions who is advising the Federal Aviation Administration and the Agriculture Department.
The government's tally for all bird strikes last year could reach or even exceed 10,000 for the first time - which would represent about 27 strikes every day. There were at least 57 cases in the first seven months of 2010 that caused serious damage and three in which planes and a corporate helicopter were destroyed by birds. At least eight people died, and six more were hurt.
The destroyed planes include the Airbus A320 that, with 155 passengers and crew, went into the Hudson a year ago this week after hitting a flock of Canada geese. No lives were lost in that dramatic river landing.
Egypt discovers new workers tombs near pyramids
By PAUL SCHEMM || Associated Press Writer - CAIRO - Egyptian archaeologists discovered a new set of tombs belonging to the workers who built the great pyramids, shedding light on how the laborers lived and ate more than 4,000 years ago, the antiquities department said Sunday.
The thousands of men who built the last remaining wonder of the ancient world ate meat regularly, worked in three months shifts and were given the honor of being buried in mud brick tombs within the shadow of the sacred pyramids they worked on.
The newly discovered tombs date to Egypt's 4th Dynasty (2575 B.C. to 2467 B.C.) when the great pyramids were built, according to the head of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, Zahi Hawass.
Graves of the pyramid builders were first discovered in the area in 1990, he said, and discoveries such as these show that the workers were paid laborers, rather than the slaves of popular imagination.
Pope visits prelate hurt in basilica incident
ROME - The Vatican says Pope Benedict XVI has paid a call on an elderly, hospitalized cardinal who broke a hip when a mentally disturbed woman knocked the pontiff down in St. Peter's Basilica on Christmas Eve.
The Vatican did not immediately give details about the Saturday afternoon visit to Rome's Gemelli Polyclinic. The visit by Benedict to French Cardinal Roger Etchegaray had not been announced.
Benedict was shaken but unhurt Dec. 24 when a young Italian-Swiss woman climbed over a barrier during his procession to the altar. The woman, who is being treated at a psychiatric clinic, grabbed at the pope's vestments, bringing the 82-year-old Benedict to the ground. The cardinal fell during the commotion as security guards rushed to Benedict's aid.
Chilean zoo celebrates birth of 5 white tigers
SANTIAGO, Chile - The Chilean National Zoo is celebrating the birth of a rare litter of five white tigers.
Zoo director Mauricio Fabry said Thursday that the zoo will build a special habitat to accommodate the tigers born on Dec. 28.
He said that the new enclosure will include a large expanse of grass and waterfalls and will be without bars.
On Wednesday, zoo officials implanted subcutaneous chips in the pups to identify them.
The tiger's father is Pampa, who arrived from Argentina in 2007. The mother is Luna, who arrived at the zoo from Mexico in 2004.
The couple produced a litter of three white tigers in December 2007, but the zoo hasn't seen a litter of five in 82 years.
The tiger's white fur is the result of a rare gene mutation. Fabry says there are only 200 such tigers on the planet.
1,000 people homeless on Solomons after tsunami
HONIARA, Solomon Islands - Landslides and a tsunami destroyed the homes of about one-third of the population on a Solomon Island, but lives were likely spared as residents with memories of previous disasters fled quickly to higher ground, officials said Tuesday.
From the air, extensive damage could be seen on a remote western island after a 7.2-magnitude temblor triggered the landslides in the Pacific Solomon Islands on Monday, said disaster management office director Loti Yates.
No injuries have been reported some 30 hours after the biggest in a series of quakes churned a tsunami wave that was up to 10 feet (3 meters) high as it plowed into the coast, officials said.
However, more than 1,000 people have been affected after some 200 houses were destroyed on Rendova, an island some 190 miles (300 kilometers) from the capital Honiara. Only 3,600 people live on Rendova.
Plane comes off runway at Dortmund airport
By JAMEY KEATEN, Associated Press Writer
BERLIN - A jet veered off the runway at a western German airport Sunday, but no one was injured, authorities said.
The pilot of the Air Berlin Boeing 737-800 had braked to abort the takeoff from Dortmund airport because of a "technical irregularity," but the plane left the runway in wintry conditions, airline spokeswoman Diane Daedelow said.
It came to rest with its nose pointing down a slight, snow-covered slope.
None of the 165 passengers and six crew members was hurt, and the plane was undamaged, Daedelow said. Passengers left the aircraft normally using steps, and were taken to nearby Paderborn airport where another plane flew them to their destination of Las Palmas, in Spain's Canary Islands.
Goodbye 2010! World ready for a more hopeful 2010
By JAMEY KEATEN, Associated Press Writer
PARIS - Fireworks exploded over Sydney's famous bridge and the Eiffel Tower prepared for its own colored-light spectacle as the world celebrated a New Year that many hope will be more prosperous and peaceful than 2010.
Revelers across the globe at least temporarily shelved worries about their future prospects to bid farewell to the first decade of the 21st century.
The financial downturn hit hard in 2010, sending many industrial economies into recession, tossing millions out of work and out of their homes, as foreclosures rose dramatically in some countries.
Germany's leader warned her people that the start of the new decade won't herald immediate relief from the global economic ills. South Africa's president was more ebullient, saying the World Cup is set to make 2010 the country's most important year since the end of apartheid in 1994.
Egypt announces find of ancient cat goddess temple
By HAMZA HENDAWI || Yahoo News : CAIRO – Archaeologists have unearthed a 2,000-year-old temple that may have been dedicated to the ancient Egyptian cat goddess, Bastet, the Supreme Council of Antiquities said Tuesday.
The ruins of the Ptolemaic-era temple were discovered by Egyptian archaeologists in the heart of the Mediterranean port city of Alexandria, founded by Alexander the Great in the 4th century B.C.
The city was the seat of the Greek-speaking Ptolemaic Dynasty, which ruled over Egypt for 300 years until the suicide of Queen Cleopatra.
The statement said the temple was thought to belong to Queen Berenice, wife of King Ptolemy III who ruled Egypt in the 3rd century B.C.
Mohammed Abdel-Maqsood, the Egyptian archaeologist who led the excavation team, said the discovery may be the first trace of the long-sought location of Alexandria's royal quarter.