Taj Mahal could collapse within five years because wooden foundations are rotting

The Taj Mahal will collapse within five years unless urgent action is taken to shore up its foundations, campaigners have warned.

The 358-year-old marble mausoleum is India’s most famous tourist attraction, bringing four million visitors a year to the northern city of Agra.

But the river crucial to its survival is being blighted by pollution, industry and deforestation.

In danger: The Taj Mahal, near Agra in India. Experts have said it could be in danger of collapsing within five years because its wooden foundations are rotting.Architectural wonder: The 358-year-old tomb is built on mahogany post foundations sunk into wells fed by the nearby Yamuna River. That river has now run dry, and cracks appeared in the walls last year





Campaigners believe the foundations have become brittle and are disintegrating.

Cracks appeared last year in parts of the tomb, and the four minarets which surround the monument are showing signs of tilting.

The Taj Mahal was built by Mogul emperor Shah Jahan, who was grief-stricken by the death of his wife Mumtaz Mahal in childbirth.

Its romantic image has attracted film stars and royalty, including Princess Diana, who posed in front of the building after the breakdown of her marriage to Prince Charles.

A campaign group of historians, environmentalists and politicians say time is running out to prevent a 'looming crisis'.

Ramshankar Katheria, the MP for Agra who is leading the campaign, said: 'If the crisis is not tackled on a war-footing, the Taj Mahal will cave in between two and five years.

'The architectural wonder of the world is losing its shine, and if this persists the minarets may also collapse since the wooden foundation - beneath the wells - is rotting due to lack of water.

'No one has been allowed to go into the foundations for the last three decades. If everything is fine, what have they got to hide?'

Professor Ram Nath, a historian who is one of the world's leading authorities on the Taj, said: 'The Taj stands just on the edge of the river Yamuna which has now dried up.

'This was never anticipated by its builders. The river is a constituent of its architectural design and if the river dies, the Taj cannot survive.'


The Yamuna River has fallen victim to India's soaring growth.

Large numbers of businesses draw water from the Yamuna upstream of the Taj.

Pollution has increased as trees have been cut down to make way for new roads.

The trees also protected the city from the worst effects of regular dust storms which now blow over the Taj unimpeded.

Mr Katheria said: 'The Taj has been enveloped by a smokescreen of dust for the past few years.

'Every year, the water level is coming down by five feet, raising fears of turning the entire area barren.

'Besides, there is an acute shortage of drinking water in Agra. Around 70 per cent of the population is drinking impure water, and consequently suffering from several health hazards.'

The Taj is built on a raised platform on top of a hillock, which is based on wells underneath.

The four 40ft high minarets balance the platform, and are designed to tilt slightly outwards, to prevent them crashing on top of the tomb in an earthquake.

Mr Katheria said around £71million is needed to construct a barrage on the river.

Environmental campaigners also believe a tree-planting campaign and a water pipeline may improve the situation.

The sinking water level is also affecting India's capital, New Delhi, which is at risk of suffering water shortages.

The Indian government has set up body to deal with the Taj Mahal's preservation.

Officials connected with eight projects say the national and state governments are now working together to deal with the issue.

BB Awasthi, regional officer of the Uttar Pradesh Pollution Control Board, said: 'These projects have been held up since 2003 for want of funds.'

He said he expected the projects 'would receive top priority treatment'.

Film claims discovery of nails from Jesus’s cross

Jacobovici holds one of the two nails alleged to have been used to crucify Jesus, presented in his new documentary film, at Tel Aviv University on April 6, 2011.


Could two of the nails used to crucify Jesus have been discovered in a 2,000-year-old tomb in Jerusalem?

And could they have mysteriously disappeared for 20 years, only to turn up by chance in a Tel Aviv laboratory?

That is the premise of the new documentary film “The Nails of the Cross” by veteran investigator Simcha Jacobovici, which even before its release has prompted debate in the Holy Land.

The film follows three years of research during which Jacobovici presents his assertions — some based on empirical data, others requiring much imagination and a leap of faith.

He hails the find as historic, but most experts and scholars contacted by Reuters dismissed his case as far-fetched, some calling it a publicity stunt.



Many ancient relics, including other nails supposedly traced back to the crucifixion, have been presented over the centuries as having a connection to Jesus. Many were deemed phony, while others were embraced as holy.

Jacobovici, who sparked debate with a previous film that claimed to reveal the lost tomb of Jesus, says this find differs from others because of its historical and archaeological context.

“What we are bringing to the world is the best archaeological argument ever made that two of the nails from the crucifixion of Jesus have been found,” he said in an interview, wearing his trademark traditional knitted cap.

“Do I know 100 per cent yes, these are them? I don’t.”

The film begins by revisiting an ancient Jerusalem grave discovered in 1990 which was hailed by many at the time as the burial place of the Jewish high priest Caiaphas, who in the New Testament presides over the trial of Jesus.

The grave, along with a number of ossuaries, or bone boxes, was uncovered during construction work on a hillside a few kilometres south of the Old City. It has since been resealed.

Caiaphas is a major figure in the Gospels, having sent Jesus to the Romans and on to his death, and one of Jacobovici’s assertions is that the high priest was not such a bad guy.

Two iron nails were found in the tomb, one on the ground and one actually inside an ossuary, and, according to the film, mysteriously disappeared shortly after. Jacobovici says he tracked them down to a laboratory in Tel Aviv of an anthropologist who is an expert on ancient bones.

And if they are indeed the same nails — eaten away by rust and bent at the end, almost purposefully — was their disappearance a conspiracy or a logistical slip-up?

No definite answer is offered.

Either way, Jacobovici shows why those nails could have been used in a crucifixion, which was a common practice 2,000 years ago. He then offers his theory about why they may have been used in the most famous crucifixion in history.

“If you look at the whole story, historical, textual, archaeological, they all seem to point at these two nails being involved in a crucifixion,” he said. “And since Caiaphas is only associated with Jesus’s crucifixion, you put two and two together and they seem to imply that these are the nails.”

The Israel Antiquities Authority, which oversaw the Jerusalem excavation, said in reaction to the film’s release that it had never been proven beyond doubt that the tomb was the burial place of Caiaphas. It also said that nails are commonly found in tombs.

“There is no doubt that the talented director Simcha Jacobovici created an interesting film with a real archaeological find at its centre, but the interpretation presented in it has no basis in archaeological findings or research,” it said.

HISTORY OF THE WORLD'S MOST POPULAR SOFT DRINK Coca Cola

Jacobs' Pharmacy in Atlanta, where Coca-Cola was first sold in 1886

1886: Dr John Pemberton produced the syrup for for Coca-Cola and carried a jug down the street to Jacobs' Pharmacy, where it was sold for 5 cents a glass

1906: Countries outside the US - Cuba, Canada ana Panama - began bottling the drink

1916: The iconic contour bottle - so distinctive it could be recognised in the dark - was introduced to distinguish Coca-Cola from competitors

1931: Artist Haddon Sundblom's Santa Claus first appeared in ads for Coca-Cola. This image of Santa - shown as a plump, jolly, friendly man - helped shape the modern-day image of St. Nick

1969: The Beatles name-checked Coca-Cola in their song Come Together

1982: Soft-drink history was made with the introduction of Diet Coke, the most successful new soft drink since Coca-Cola itself. Within two years, Diet Coke had become the top low-calorie soft drink in the world

1985: The drink became the first soft drink to be consumed in space when astronauts tested the Coca-Cola Space Can aboard Space Shuttle Challenger

2006: Cheryl Cole signed up to promote Coca-Cola's sugar free drink Coke Zero

Present: The world's top soft drinks maker reported a net income of £3.58bn for the fourth quarter of 2010

SO IS THIS HOW TO MAKE THE FAMOUS DRINK?

Fluid extract of Coca 3 drams USP
Citric acid 3 oz
Caffeine 1oz
Sugar 30 (it is unclear from the markings what quantity is required)
Water 2.5 gal
Lime juice 2 pints 1 qrt
Vanilla 1oz
Caramel 1.5oz or more to colour

7X flavour (use 2oz of flavour to 5 gals syrup):
Alcohol 8oz
Orange oil 20 drops
Lemon oil 30 drops
Nutmeg oil 10 drops
Coriander 5 drops
Neroli 10 drops
Cinnamon 10 drops

Custer’s last flag: Little Bighorn banner to go under the hammer... and it could sell for more than £3m

The American flag was retrieved from under the body of a fallen soldier, following the Battle of the Little Bighorn in 1876

An American flag found at the site of the carnage of the Battle of the Little Bighorn is expected to fetch over £3million at auction.

The flag was retrieved from the Black Hills of Montana, where Lt Col George Custer and more than 200 men were massacred by Indian warriors in 1876.


Lt Col George Custer (left) and more than 200 men were massacred by Indian warriors led by Sitting Bull (right)

Nearly all the military artefacts of the 7th Cavalry Regiment were carried away by the victorious Lakota Sioux, but the single swallowtail flag was found days later under the body of a fallen soldier.
Since 1895, the silk American flag, called a guidon, has been the property of the Detroit Institute of Arts, which has decided to sell it and use the proceeds to build its collection.

The guidon, discovered by Sgt. Ferdinand Culbertson while on a burial detail of the battlefield, has been valued at $2 million to $5 million and is to be auctioned in October, Sotheby's auction house announced on Friday, the 134th anniversary of the battle.

The current auction record for any textile is $12.3 million, for an American flag captured by the British in a 1779 battle in Bedford, New York. Sotheby's was sold it in 2006.

The Battle of the Little Bighorn, also known as Custer's Last Stand, resulted in the deaths of 210 soldiers, including Custer, as several thousand warriors led by Sitting Bull fought for their land near what's now Crow Agency, Montana.

The Black Hills in southeastern Montana (present-day South Dakota) were declared Indian land in the late 1860s. The conflict erupted when the government tried to drive the Indians off the land after white settlers discovered gold there.

The 1876 battle's devastating loss came as a great shock to the nation as it prepared to celebrate its centennial.

The battle was a pivotal moment in American history, told and retold in books, in film, on stage, and in song as mystical portrayals of Custer's bravery. Custer was a native of eastern Ohio, but moved with his family to Monroe at age 10 and considered that his home.

Although the view of Custer as a hero has changed over time, anything associated with the battle still resonates, Sotheby's said.'It's still one of those truly legendary events of 19th-century American history, and I suppose for a reason it was this extraordinary clash between the two cultures of America,' David Redden, Sotheby's vice chairman, said.

'However you look at it, it's still an extraordinary and tragic encounter. Anything connected with that, particularly something that's as significant as a battle flag, also has that kind of iconic stature.'

The guidon measures 32 1/2 inches by 26 1/2 inches. One star and a patch of the white and red stripes are missing, cut from it as souvenirs, a common 19th-century practice, Sotheby's said.

'It means the flag was considered a sacred relic,' Redden said.

'Literally, it was absolutely par for the course to take small snippets of extraordinary objects, whether it's the dress of Martha Washington, which was snipped to pieces, or the Star-Spangled Banner.'

The 7th Cavalry had five guidons and one regiment flag. Three of the guidons have vanished, and the fourth, known as the Keogh guidon, is in very poor condition, eaten by moths, Redden said.

The regiment flag was on a train en route to the battlefield when the 7th Cavalry was annihilated. That flag and the Keogh guidon are owned by the Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument in Crow Agency.

Company guidons at Little Bighorn were abbreviated versions of the American flag, said John Doerner, the monument's historian.

Each had a V-shaped cutout at the end to reduce wind drag, and they 'served as beacons on the battlefield because they actually marked company positions,' he said.

He called the guidon Culbertson found a 'national treasure.'

'It's part of American history and heritage that's being sold,' he said.

'It would be nice to have that guidon returned to the Little Bighorn Battlefield Monument. It could be enjoyed by the public coming to this very hallow ground.'

Graham W.J. Beal, director of the Detroit Institute of Arts, said that because the guidon doesn't fit the criteria for a work of art, the museum hopes 'to exploit it for our real mission, which is to collect and interpret art.'

British troops march through Russia's Red Square for the first time during Victory Day parade

Russian troops line up in perfect formation for the largest-ever post-Soviet military parade on Red Square

Vintage Soviet-era T-34 tank rumble through the square

Mr Medvedev, Chinese President Hu Jintao, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin watch the celebrations begin

A mobile launcher with a Topol-M missile travels along the route of the parade

British soldiers marched on Red Square in Moscow for the first time today to mark the 65th anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany.

Seventy-six soldiers from 2 Company 1st Battalion Welsh Guards were representing the UK at the invitation of the Russian Government.

They marched alongside more than 10,500 Russian troops and others from the U.S. and France.
The event - thought to be costing £26 million - also featured a 1,000-strong military band, 161 tanks and missiles and 127 aircraft.

The hour-long parade saw six types of defence equipment on show in a display of military prowess set to dominate the city's sky and roads.

Guardsman Ian Mundy said: 'There is a sense of pride to be in this massive parade on Red Square.

'It seems that everyone is interested in us as well and I'm proud to be a part of that.'

Lance Corporal John Sanigar added: 'It's a brilliant place to be at the moment for the Army and the Welsh Guards.'The Welsh Guards are staying at the Moscow Military Academy as guests of the Russian Army.


World War Two veterans salute as they watch troops march through Red Square

Russian Su-25 fighter jets fly over St. Basil's Cathedral

Russian military aircraft add to the spectacle in the skies above Red Square

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev speaks before the start of a military parade in Red Square in Moscow today

The crowds cheer as Russian soldiers, wearing replica uniforms, march to Palace Square in Saint Petersburg

Members of the French Army carry bayonets attached to their rifles

Polish troops make their way across the square, witnessed by crowds of thousands

U.S. military personnel were also among those to march

The British troops are staying at the Moscow Military Academy as guests of the Russian Army

Seventy-six soldiers from 2 Company 1st Battalion Welsh Guards represented the UK during Victory Day celebrations in Moscow's Red Square today

They were given a guided tour of the Kremlin, invited to concerts and took part in a cultural tour of the city via a boat trip up the Moscow River.

The Welsh Guards served in Afghanistan six months ago and lost its commanding officer, Lieutenant Colonel Rupert Thorneloe, during the tour.

Lt Col Thorneloe - the most senior British army officer to die in action since the Falklands conflict - was killed alongside Trooper Joshua Hammond by a roadside improvised explosive device.

'It was an emotional tour,' said Guardsman Thomas James, whose grandfathers both served in the Second World War.
'This is the first time I've been on official parade in my tunic since we've been back. It's an honour to be here.'

Commanding Officer of the Welsh Guards, Lieutenant Colonel Charlie Antelme, said the parade was a 'surreal' experience.

'(It is) a historic moment for the Welsh Guards and the British Army, and, of course, for the Russian people,' he added.

Foreign leaders including President Hu Jintao of China and German Chancellor Angela Merkel also watched the celebrations.
But Russia's Communists, still the country's biggest opposition party, pledged to hold a protest march in central Moscow after the parade.

They will chant slogans against NATO forces for marching over a hallowed square which is also home to the embalmed body of their revolutionary hero, Vladimir Lenin.

'Foreign troops have never appeared on Red Square. It's a violation of tradition,' said Sergei Obukhov, a member of the party's Central Committee.

'The presence of foreign troops with weapons in their hands is...an unnecessary reminder that we lost the Cold War'.

Obama, unable to come to Moscow because of a scheduling clash, praised the invitation to NATO troops.

'President Medvedev has shown remarkable leadership in honouring the sacrifices of those who came before us, and in speaking so candidly about the Soviet Union's suppression of elementary rights and freedoms,' he said in a statement.

Most Russians seem to back Medvedev's invitation to the NATO forces.

A poll by the independent Levada Centre last month showed that 55 percent viewed the presence of NATO troops at the parade as wholly or partly positive, with only 28 percent opposing it.

The result may reflect markedly better relations between Moscow and Washington since Obama's election and his 'reset' of relations. This has already brought a new treaty cutting nuclear weapons and a deal on helping supply NATO forces in Afghanistan.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi cancelled their attendance at the last minute, citing the need to deal with the crisis surrounding the euro currency.

Continuing a tradition begun by Stalin, Soviet and then Russian troops have marched in Red Square every year on May 9 to mark the capitulation of Nazi forces in Berlin.

Russian leader Vladimir Putin revived two years ago a Soviet-era tradition of parading tanks, missiles and military vehicles across the square and flying helicopters, fighters and bombers low overhead.

While Medvedev greeted war veterans on Saturday, accompanied by Ukraine President Viktor Yanukovich and Belarus leader Alexander Lukashenko, Putin hosted a special meeting and dinner at his country retreat outside Moscow for China's Hu.

The Kremlin, which is eager to shore up its influence and tighten ties two decades after the Soviet breakup, is using this year's parade to stress bonds among the former republics, many of whose leaders will attend.

Among the weaponry on show this year will be Russia's latest S-400 air defence system, which claims to be capable of shooting down up to six missiles or aircraft simultaneously at a distance of up to 400 km (250 miles).

China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, South Korea and the United Arab Emirates are said to be interested in buying the system.

Meanwhile Russian police are on alert for possible attacks ahead of the celebrations, following a car bomb explosion near a military base in the southern Dagestan region this morning.

Two people were killed in the blast, while another soldier has been killed in a separate blast in the city.

Buried by a Welsh beach for 60 years, the World War II fighter that has emerged from the seas

The World War II Lockheed P38 Lightning buried under sand and waves on a Welsh beach, its location is being kept secret

A diver and experts examine the Lockheed P38 Lightning which crashed on a training exercise in 1942

The Lockheed P-38 Lightning as it would have looked, with a Spitfire flying alongside

It has been hidden under the the sands and waves since it crashed off the coast of Wales in 1942. But now this wreckage of a rare World War fighter plane may soon be back on dry land.

Described as 'one of the most important WWII finds in recent history', the location of the Lockheed P38 Lightning has been kept a secret to keep the amazing find safe.


Second Lieutenant Robert F Elliott, USAAF the pilot of the crashed World War II fighter

Parts of the plane poke up above the waves at low tide on the remote beach

Known as the Maid of Harlech the United States Army Air Force (USAAF) fighter crashed on the Gwynedd coast when it was taking part in training exercises and its engines cut out.
Amazingly pilot Lt Robert Elliott walked away from the incident without a scratch but tragically went missing in action just three months later serving in the American's Tunisia campaign in North Africa.

These incredible pictures show how the previously undetected Lightning suddenly appeared on a Wales beach in 2007. Shifting water displaced sand which had hidden it for 60 years and revealed a gem find for aviation buffs.

But now a charity has announced plans to next year retrieve the wreckage. The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery are looking for support and a British museum who will accept the fascinating American machine as a gift to display at their venue for history lovers.

TIGHAR are the only non-profit organisation of their kind in the world and work tirelessly retrieving plane wrecks of historical importance and donate them to museums for the public to enjoy.
Led by Ric Gillespie, the team are preparing to journey next month to Gardner Island in the Pacific to find clues of missing American aviation legend Amelia Earhart.

Following that project, TIGAHR will turn their attention to 'The Maid' and are trying to secure funding to pull the buried plane from the Welsh sands.

The group have been in discussions with the Imperial War Museum who were on site in 2007 as they performed an analysis of the Maid. The aim was to determine if it could be safely retrieved and how they can stop the aged machine disintegrating when they do.

Ric said: 'The world's beaches, bays and oceans are rich repositories of rare aircraft but they remain largely untapped because of the corrosive effects of immersion in sea water.

'Museums have raised historic aircraft from salt water in good condition and at great expense only to see them crumble to white powder in a matter of months.

'Techniques for conserving and stabilising metals recovered from nautical environments have been developed and tested but have never been applied to a complete aircraft.

'One of the proven processes involves partially dismantling the aircraft and submerging the pieces in tanks of a special solution through which a mild electric current is passed. Detox can take a year or more but the end result is a relatively stable historic artefact that would otherwise have been lost.
We are working closely with the Centre for Maritime Archaeology and Conservation at Texas A&M University to develop a recovery and conservation plan that will enable the Maid of Harlech to be truly conserved.

'We're also building a coalition of US and UK archaeological and aviation historical groups that will make it possible to fund and carry out the recovery and begin the conservation process before the whims of nature once more expose the aircraft to the destructive force of the sea and what the 17th century British antiquarian John Aubrey called, "the hands of mistaken zeal."

'We invite and encourage anyone who shares our goals to join us.'

And TIGHAR feel the fascinating find could go down in the history books. With the help from other individuals and organisations they have worked hard to protect her.
It is one of the most significant WWII-related archaeological discoveries in recent history,' added Ric.

'We call her the Maid of Harlech after the magnificent 13th century Welsh castle, but until she is can be rescued from the sands of time, her actual location must remain confidential.

'Although the aircraft is covered by the Protection of Military Remains Act and disturbing the site in any way carries heavy penalties, the looting of historic wreck sites by unscrupulous souvenir hunters is, nonetheless, a major problem worldwide.

'Nature has done a good job hiding the wreck.'

South Korean becomes first woman to climb world's 14 highest mountains

Top of the world: Oh Eun Sun, 44, celebrates on South Korean television after reaching the top of Mount Annapurna in Nepal

Achievement: Miss Oh has become the first woman to climb all 14 of the world's mountains higher than 8,000m

Record: The climber had to turn back hundreds of yards from the top of Annapurna in a previous climb after bad weather and high winds

A South Korean mountaineer became the first woman to scale the world's 14 highest mountains, officials have said.

Oh Eun Sun, 44, was captured on live television as she reached the summit of Mt Annapurna in the Himalayas to claim the record.

But her closest rival, Edurne Pasaban of Spain, has accused her of cheating by failing to reach the highest point on one of her climbs.
Miss Oh crawled on all fours to reach the summit of Mt Annapurna yesterday, before pulling out a South Korean flag and shouting 'victory!'

Officials said the mountain was the last of the 14 peaks above 26,247ft (8,000m) she needed to climb to set the mark.

She reached the summit - 26,545ft above sea level - 13 years after she scaled her first Himalayan mountain, Gasherbrum II, in 1997. She scaled Everest in 2004.

Footage on KBS showed her breathing heavily after each step in -29C temperatures at the top of the mountain.

She said after reaching the top: 'I'm so happy, and I would like to share this joy with the South Korean people. Thank you, thank you.'


Dispute: Spanish climber Edurne Pasaban claims Miss Oh failed to reach the top of Mt Kanchenjunga

South Korean president Lee Myung-bak said the country was 'awakened to her great spirits of challenge'.

He added: 'She is really great and I'm proud of her.'
Ang Tshering, president of the Nepal Mountaineering Association, said the South Korean deserved the title.

She said: 'We recognise her achievement as the first woman climber to scale all the highest mountains in the world.

'We are all happy and proud of her achievement.'But Ms Pasaban has publicly questioned whether she had in fact reached the top of Mt Kanchenjunga - the world's third-highest peak - which is partly in Nepal.

She told The Times last week that Miss Oh's sherpas had told her that she did not reach the highest point during the climb last year.

She claims photos taken of that trek did not clearly prove she had reached the top.

She said: 'All I want is one thing - that people should tell the truth. This kind of thing - I don't like it.'

Ms Pasaban has only the 26,330ft Mount Shisha Pangma left to climb to achieve the feat.

Expedition coordinator Song Hea-kyong said the Ms Oh's team was in good health and was making its way down to the base camp. They are expected back in Katmandu by the weekend.

Miss Oh tried to climb Mt Annapurna last year, but turned away just hundreds of yards from the top because of bad weather. Snow and high winds also stopped her from making the trek last weekend.

She said she would be carrying a photograph of Ko Mi-young, a lifelong rival who fell to her death last year while descending from Nanga Parbat, the world's ninth-highest peak.

'We've found Noah's Ark!'... claim evangelical explorers on mission to snow-capped Ararat (but British scientists say 'show us your evidence')

The snow-capped peak of Mt. Ararat. The discovery is said to have been made 12,000ft up the mountain which lies in eastern Turkey

Wooden beams which the explorers said they found at the site. The search for the physical remains of Noah's Ark has held a fascination for Christians, Jews and Muslims for hundreds of years. But despite various claims no scientific evidence has ever been found

This picture released by the evangelical group claims to show one of the explorers examining part of a structure which they claim might prove the existence of Noah's Ark on Mount Ararat. There are no external images of the site and the Hong Kong-based group refuse to say precisely where they made their discovery until the Turkish government designate it an archaeological site

This photo, also put out by the evangelical group, is said to show part of a wall inside the structure found by the explorers. One of the team said: 'It's not 100 per cent that it is Noah's Ark but we think it is 99.9 per cent that this is it'

In 2006, U.S. national security analyst Porcher Taylor claimed this satellite image revealed a baffling 'anomaly' on the mountain's north-west corner that he believed to be the remains of the Ark

As believers in the literal truth of the Bible, they knew it was there.

Even so, the explorers who say they found seven large wooden compartments beneath snow and volcanic debris near the peak of Mount Ararat can be forgiven their excitement.

'It's not 100 per cent that it is Noah's Ark, but we think it is 99.9 per cent that this is it,' said Yeung Wing-cheung, a filmmaker working with the 15-strong team of fundamentalist Christians exploring the Turkish mountain.They said wood taken from the site, which is more than 13,000ft above sea level, dates to 2,800BC. If it is the ark, the discovery would be the greatest in the history of archaeology and bear out one of the most famous stories in the Bible.

The team of Turks and Chinese researchers from Noah's Ark Ministries International in Hong Kong say they made the discovery on Ararat - the biblical resting place of the ark - in October.






At a press conference yesterday to announce the discovery, another team member, Panda Lee, said: 'I saw a structure built with plank-like timber.

'Each plank was about eight inches wide. I could see tenons, proof of ancient construction predating the use of metal nails.

'We walked about 100 metres to another site. I could see broken wood fragments embedded in a glacier, and some 20 metres long.'

The structure had several compartments, some with wooden beams, the team said.

The wooden walls of one compartment were smooth and curved while the video shown by the explorers revealed doors, staircases and nails.

The team said the wood appeared to be cypress although, according to the Bible, the ark was built from gopher.

The group ruled out identifying the find as a human settlement, saying none had been found so high up in that area. They are keeping the exact location secret.

Four years ago and following a decade of research, U.S. national security analyst Porcher Taylor claimed a satellite image revealed a baffling 'anomaly' on the mountain's north-west corner that he believed to be the remains of the Ark.

But Mike Pitt, a British archaeologist, said the evangelical explorers had yet to produce compelling evidence.

He added: 'If there had been a flood capable of lifting a huge ship 4km up the side of a mountain 4,800 years ago, I think there would be substantial geological evidence for this flood around the world. And there isn't.'
Nicholas Purcell, a lecturer in ancient history at Oxford University, said the claims were the 'usual nonsense'. He added: 'If floodwaters covered Eurasia 12,000ft deep in 2,800BC, how did the complex societies of Egypt and Mesopotamia, already many centuries old, keep right on regardless?'

According to Genesis, the first book in the Old Testament, Noah was told to build the ark by God, who wanted to flood the world to punish sinners.

The story was widely seen as fact until the 19th century, when scientists began to question the evidence for a worldwide flood.

GOD'S COMMAND

In the Bible, the story of Noah's Ark appears in chapters six to nine of the Book of Genesis.It tells how God, spurred by the wickedness and corruption of man, vows to send a great cleansing flood. Deeming Noah to be the only righteous man worth saving, God commands him to build a vast ship, the ark - capable of saving himself, his family and a representation of the world's animals.

When Noah has completed his task, and God has sent 'two of every sort' of animal to the Ark, the flood waters rise until all mountains are covered and life (except fish) is destroyed. When the flood subsides, the animals leave the Ark and God vows to never again send a flood to destroy man. The story can also be found in the texts of Judaism and Islam. Although considered a historical event, most scholars and archaeologists do not believe in a literal interpretation of the Ark story. The vessel was said to measure '300 cubits, by 50 cubits, by 30 cubits', which translates to up to 515ft long, 86ft wide and 52ft high.

South Africa's Sharpeville recalls 1960 massacre

---------------


"We were shot at in cold blood - there was no warning," recounts Ike Makiti, a survivor of the Sharpeville massacre, as he stands by the graves of the township cemetery.

It's being hurriedly spruced up in time for Sunday's 50th anniversary and the arrival of VIPs.

Mr Makiti, was just 17 at the time of the shooting, a schoolboy and an active member of the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC).

He was heading back to school just after lunch on Monday, 21 March 1960, when he heard the sound of gunfire.

"We thought it was just firecrackers at first, then it became clear when we saw the blood that they were shooting at the people. Most of them were shot in the back, as they were trying to run away. It was clear that this was something serious."

Fifteen minutes of shooting transformed the massacre into one of the most iconic moments of the liberation struggle.

It marked the start of armed resistance and the banning of both the PAC and the African National Congress (ANC).

Unemployed survivors

Thousands of protesters had gathered in Sharpeville, just south of Johannesburg, to protest at the use of the infamous passbooks, or "dompas", that every black South African was expected to carry and produce on demand.


It governed a person's movement, was a tool of harassment and was one of the most hated symbols of the apartheid state.


Sixty-nine men, women and children were gunned down on that day, killed when police officers opened fire on the crowd.

The police station - where they had gathered - is now a memorial to the dead.

As South Africa prepares to remember Sharpeville's 50th anniversary with Human Rights Day, there is unease in this run-down township.

People like Ike Makiti who subsequently served five years in jail on Robben Island for being a member of a banned organisation, are disappointed that the promises of the new democratic government are not being fulfilled.

"Most of the people who survived that massacre are not working," he says. "I'm not saying they should be fed sitting down, but they should be provided with work."

Sharpeville's small shopping precinct is in a dilapidated state and many of the buildings have been boarded up. What remains is a small fashion shop, a hair salon, a butcher and a modest bar.

Soured mood

But two schools have closed recently and there are no sports facilities for the youth.

Tsoana Nhlapo, who represents an organisation called Sharpeville First, speaks for the younger generation - descendants of those who witnessed the Sharpeville Massacre.

She is pushing for the township to be recognised as a national heritage site, for an apology from the state for what happened here and, as in many other poor areas in South Africa, for delivery of better infrastructure and services.

"When apartheid was still rife we were complaining that the four-room houses were like kennels, they're not of good quality, but what happens now they're in power is that they're building even smaller ones.

"Are we missing the point somewhere? Do we remember what we fought for?"

South Africa's ruling party, the ANC, is accused of not delivering the basics like housing and jobs to the very people who fought for liberation.

The row has soured the planned celebrations for the 50th anniversary in Sharpeville, with some events even cancelled for fear that they could spark riots.

It mirrors the mood in a society dubbed the most unequal in the world and serves as a reflection of a new type of struggle South African politicians are having to face.

Laid bare: the Bloomsbury set revealed in fascinating collection of documents and nude photos

Standing on top of a statue with an arm and a leg held aloft a naked young woman strikes a pose.

The rather provocative young woman in question is artist Dora Carrington, who in the early part of the 20th century was linked with the Bloomsbury Group.

Such was their impact on history that one small corner of central London - Bloomsbury - is now indelibly linked with the Bohemian circle of friends, which included Virginia Woolf, EM Forster and critic Lytton Strachey.
Today the Bohemian group of writers, artists and intellectuals are remembered as much for the complicated romantic entanglements that led to them being described as 'artistic lions' who 'lived in squares and loved in triangles'.

As these images show, members of the group did not live by more traditional constraints of the time, and were at ease in each other's company - with or without clothes.

But perhaps significantly, Woolf is invariable clothed.

The photographs are part of a remakable archive featuring hundreds of intimate letters photographs of the group, which helped define British culture in the inter-war period.

Open to the public for the first time, the unique archive comprises of thousands of pages of previously unseen correspondence between Bloomsbury luminaries and 30 albums of photographs, many of them nude shots.

The archive, on display at King's College, in Cambridge, is charted through the letters and photographs of two lesser known members of the group - the writers Frances Partridge and Rosamond Lehmann.

But through them it gives a insider's view of pivotal events such as Virginia Woolf's suicide in 1941 and that of of the artist Dora Carrington in 1932.

Woolf, author of Mrs Dalloway and To The Lighthouse filled her overcoat pockets with stones and drowned herself at the age of 59.

After her death in spring 1941 her brother-in-law, Clive Bell wrote to Partridge: 'I'm not sure whether The Times will by now have announced that Virginia is missing.

'I'm afraid there is not the slightest doubt that she drowned herself about noon last Friday ... Her stick and footprints were found by the edge of the river.
For some days, of course, we hoped against hope that she had wandered crazily away and might be discovered in a barn or a village shop.

'But by now all hope is abandoned ... the loss is appalling; but like all unhappiness that come of 'missing', I suspect we shall realise it only bit by bit.'
The archive also offers a glimpse of history in the making.

The group started as a circle of intellectuals who had studied at Trinity and King's Colleges, Cambridge, and began meeting at a salon in a house near Bloomsbury Square, central London.

Their friendships were to last a lifetime despite the complicated tangle of love affairs between them.Many of them were quite free with sex as a reaction against their Victorian upbringing and seemed to have a very selective conscience,' said archivist Patricia McGuire.

'The letters are very revealing because everyone wrote to Frances Partridge and confided their secrets and intimate thoughts.

'There are also lots of pictures and almost everyone in the group is naked at some point in a least one shot, apart from Virginia Woolf.'

Lehmann and Partridge first became friends at Cambridge University after World War I.

Lehmann, a famed beauty, became one of the most celebrated novelists of the 1920s and 1930s.

Partridge, once described as having the 'best legs in Bloomsbury', infiltrated one of the group's infamous love triangles.

She married Ralph Partridge, who was the ex-husband of artist Dora Carrington.

In a bizarre and ultimately tragic triangle, Carrington was besotted with open homosexual Strachey, who in turn was in love with Ralph.

When Strachey died of stomach cancer in 1932 a heartbroken Carrington shot herself two months later.

But the bullet missed its mark and she was still alive when her ex-husband and his wife arrived at the house hours later, a 'horror' also documented in one letter in the collection.

Miss McGuire added: 'In a way, these two women belonged to a generation that could only have existed between the wars.

'They had education, training and rights but they also had lots of free time and didn't necessarily have to keep a house.

'They had well-developed points of view, were articulate about their emotions and at the same time struggled with their bohemian lifestyles and the more conservative, older generation.'

Frances Partridge, in a picture from the rare archive

A clothed Frances Partridge (left) on her way to Cambridge in 1920 and Rosamund Lehman

The Bloomsbury group continues to fascinate and in 2002 Nicole Kidman played Virginia Woolf, right, in Stephen Daldry's film The Hours

This image shows critic Lytton Strachey (right) taking tea Rosamond Lehmann and her brother, John Lehmann, a publisher and author, at Ham Spray House in Wiltshire

From left, group members Ralph Partridge, EM Forster, Lytton Strachey, Pierre Lancel and Francis Partridge, pictured some time between 1922 and 1924

In the 1995 film 'Carrington' Emma Thompson took the role of Dora Carrington and Jonathan Pryce as the openly homosexual Lytton Strachey with whom she was in love with

A portrait of her beloved Lytton made in 1916 by Dora Carrington

Bloomsbury set member Dora Carrington naked on a statue in a picture from the archive at Kings College Cambridge