In an operation that would put Indiana Jones to shame, a huge anti-looting dig carried out in the Judean Desert has unearthed historical finds of great significance, including fragments of ancient biblical scrolls, the 6,000-year-old skeleton of a young child, coins used by Jewish rebels and the oldest woven basket known to mankind. The operation began in 2017, when the Israel Antiquities Authority, government agencies and volunteers set to survey 50 miles of caves in the Dead Sea area using drones, rappelling and mountain climbing techniques to access the almost unreachable caves. The climatic conditions in these caves enabled the…
Author: zenger.news
While excavating an ancient cesspit from the Islamic period (about 1,000 years ago), Israel Antiquities Authority archaeologists in Yavneh found a rare, unbroken chicken egg. The large-scale excavations, part of an urban expansion project in the city about 15 miles south of Tel Aviv, uncovered an extensive and diverse industrial area dating from the Byzantine period. “Eggshell fragments are known from earlier periods, for example in the City of David and at Caesarea and Apollonia, but due to the eggs’ fragile shells, hardly any whole chicken eggs have been preserved. Even at the global level, this is an extremely rare…
DELHI, India — Eighteen wild elephants lay strewn on a hill in the Kondoli proposed reserve forest in the Nagaon district of India’s northeastern state of Assam after a night of intense thunderstorm on May 12. “A lot of trees were burnt due to the lightning strike, but we didn’t know that elephants have died and that too so many,” Binod Dulu Bora, field director, Hati Bondhu, Nagaon, told Zenger News. The non-governmental organization, called Friends of the Elephants, is based in Nagaon and works to mitigate human-elephant conflict in Assam and improve elephant food security through its plantation programs. “I…
Maxim, a 13-year-old genius with socialization and communication difficulties due to autism spectrum disorder, had made excellent progress during two years of sessions at the Israel National Therapeutic Riding Association (INTRA). But months of the pandemic seclusion plunged Maxim into distress. “Without INTRA or school, it reached a point where his mother was afraid he’d lost his ability to speak. It was heartbreaking,” said Yotam Sheffy, executive director of INTRA. As soon as INTRA was permitted to resume sessions last November, Maxim got back on his beloved blue-eyed pinto, Starlight. “We were sure the therapeutic process would bring him back…
A decision to abandon the Keystone XL oil pipeline leaves Canada with an export problem, analysts said, but it may be a broader sign of an inevitable energy transition and evolution. In one of his first acts since taking office, President Joe Biden rescinded a permit for the cross-border Keystone XL pipeline, a long-planned artery that would take Canadian and North Dakota crude oil to the U.S. Gulf Coast for export. Six months later, pipeline developer TC Energy said it was abandoning the project and dissolving its multi-billion-dollar partnership with the provincial government in Alberta, which became a major investor…
CANBERRA, Australia — Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has got off to a flying start on a three-nation tour by reaching a deal with Singapore to work on the conditions for a travel bubble. Morrison made a brief visit to Singapore on June 10 for talks with his counterpart Lee Hsien Loong. It was the first stop on his way to Cornwall for the G7 leaders’ summit, as well as trade and security talks in London and Paris. Over the past week, Singapore has recorded an average of just four local COVID-19 cases a day, with its vaccine rollout well underway, restrictions easing, and rapid test…
BRISBANE, Australia — Brisbane 2032 Olympic Games “finishing line is just in front of us”, Annastacia Palaszczuk, the premier of northeast Australian state Queensland, has said. The executive board of the International Olympic Committee on June 10 proposed the Queensland capital as the host of the 2032 Games, with the choice to be put to a vote next month. Brisbane was chosen as the preferred host in February, and the board’s proposal now goes to the International Olympic Committee session, which will take place before the Tokyo Olympics next month. The Australian Olympic Committee tweeted: “Date is set! The International Olympic…
SYDNEY — The Australian state of New South Wales has become the first state in Australia to automatically ban anyone convicted of serious animal abuse from ever owning or working with animals again. A government bill introducing tougher penalties for animal cruelty and bestiality passed the state parliament on the night of June 10, after two years of advocacy by Animal Justice Party MP Emma Hurst. A psychologist and survivor of domestic violence, Hurst says human, and animal abuse often go hand in hand. The new penalties are a significant step towards addressing both crimes, she said in a statement. “We have witnessed some…
CANBERRA, Australia — Medical experts say blood clots linked to Covid-19 vaccines remain extremely rare and Australians should continue to roll up their sleeves for the jab. The Therapeutic Goods Administration reported a 52-year-old New South Wales woman died from a blood clot in the brain — the second person to do so out of 3.6 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine delivered. Of the 48 confirmed and probable cases of people who have developed clots after receiving the vaccine, 31 have been discharged from hospital and are recovering. Fifteen remain in hospital. It was unclear whether the woman had any…
CAIRNS, Australia — Australia’s Queensland government will invest a further AU$270 million ($209 million) into protecting the Great Barrier Reef and regenerating land as part of the state budget next week. The multimillion-dollar injection will build on AU$400 million ($310 million) already invested into the reef since 2015. Environment Minister Meaghan Scanlon also announced an extra AU$60 million ($46 million) would be allocated to the Australian Land Restoration Fund to “turbocharge carbon farming” in the state. Scanlon says the large investment is part of the government’s continued push to move the dial further in protective measures for the reef. “The AU$270…