Εξάρθρωση μεγάλου κυκλώματος αρχαιοκαπηλίας στη Βουλγαρία

Τμήμα σαρκοφάγου με την χαρακτηριστική απεικόνιση της Μέδουσας Γοργούς, αποτελεί ένα από τα εντυπωσιακά αρχαιολογικά ευρήματα που βρέθηκαν στα χέρια των αρχαιοκάπηλων.

Η αστυνομία συνέλαβε τέσσερα άτομα ύποπτα για παράνομη κατοχή και εμπορία αρχαιοτήτων στη βορειοανατολική περιοχή Shumen της Βουλγαρίας.

Η αστυνομία βρήκε 19 μαρμάρινα και πέτρινα ανάγλυφα και γλυπτά, αρχαία νομίσματα αλλά και καλούπια για την παραγωγή πλαστών νομισμάτων σε έρευνα που διενεργήθηκε στα σπίτια των υπόπτων.

Ο ένας από τους τέσσερεις, είναι Τούρκος υπήκοος που διαμένει μόνιμα στη Βουλγαρία και του απαγορεύθηκε η έξοδος από τη χώρα καθώς βρέθηκαν στο σπίτι του αρχαία νομίσματα και μέρος ενός λίθινου αγάλματος. Η αστυνομία εκτιμά ότι τα αρχαία αντικείμενα προορίζονταν προς πώληση σε χώρες της ΕΕ.

Βωμός που απεικονίζει πιθανότατα μια οικογένεια και  φέρει επιγραφή στα αρχαία ελληνικά είναι ένα από τα εντυπωσιακά ευρήματα που διασώθηκε από τα χέρια των αρχαιοκαπήλων.

Κεφάλι λιονταριού, προφανώς μέρος αρχαίου γλυπτού, ανάμεσα στα αρχαία αντικείμενα
που κατασχέθηκαν από την αστυνομία.

Περισσότερα από 9.000 νομίσματα βρέθηκαν στα σπίτια των αρχαιοκάπηλων.

Στο σπίτι του 56χρονου Βούλγαρου στο Shumen ανακαλύφθηκαν μαρμάρινα και πέτρινα ανάγλυφα καθώς και τμήματα αγαλμάτων. 9.000 αρχαία νομίσματα, που χρονολογούνται στην εποχή της Ρωμαϊκής Αυτοκρατορίας αλλά και καλούπια για την χύτευση πλαστών νομισμάτων βρέθηκαν στο σπίτι του έτερου 52χρονου Βούλγαρου στην κοντινή πόλη Novi Pazar, 30 χλμ περίπου από το Shumen. Τέλος, μεταλλικά αντικείμενα και περίπου 80 νομίσματα βρέθηκαν στο σπίτι του τρίτου Βούλγαρου στο χωριό Ivanovo.

Οι τρεις Βούλγαροι συνελήφθησαν στις 11 Μαρτίου και κατηγορήθηκαν για κατοχή μη καταγεγραμμένων έργων πολιτιστικής κληρονομιάς. Αντιμετωπίζουν ποινές φυλάκισης από ένα έως έξι χρόνια καθώς και πρόστιμα της τάξεως των 1.000 έως 20.000 BGN.

NASA’s ‘Greased Lightning’ drone merges helicopter and plane technology

Is it a helicopter? Is it a plane? NASA has developed a 10-engine electric vehicle that can take off like a helicopter but fly a plane.

The prototype, dubbed ‘Greased Lightning,’ or ‘GL-10’ is initially being developed as a drone, according to NASA but could eventually become a manned vehicle.

"We have a couple of options that this concept could be good for," said Bill Fredericks, NASA aerospace engineer, in a statement. "It could be used for small package delivery or vertical take off and landing, long endurance surveillance for agriculture, mapping and other applications. A scaled up version -- much larger than what we are testing now -- would make also a great one to four person size personal air vehicle."

The drone, which was developed by a team at NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va., has a 10-foot wingspan, eight electric motors on the wings, two electric motors on the tail and weighs 62 pounds at take off.

Greased Lightning has successfully transitioned from hovering like a helicopter to plane-style wing-borne flight during tests.

Much quieter than a traditional aircraft, NASA engineers say that Greased Lightning is quieter than a neighbor mowing the lawn with a gas-powered motor.

Greased Lightning is on show at this week’s Unmanned Systems 2015 show in Atlanta.

The latest and greatest drone technologies have been on show in Atlanta this week. The Federal Aviation Administration also unveiled its Pathfinder program, which will study how drones are used for newsgathering, as well as in the agriculture and transport industries.

#Victory70 Red Sq Parade Flyover (ft. cockpit footage)

Δημοσιεύτηκε στις 9 Μαΐ 2015

143 planes and hilicopters flew over Red Square during military parade to celebrate 70 years since WW2 victory over Nazi Germany.

Yemen Al Qaeda Leader Who Claimed Credit for Charlie Hebdo Attack Killed in U.S. Drone Strike

A senior al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula leader who claimed the group's responsibility for the Charlie Hebdo massacre and the murder of an American hostage during a botched raid in December has been killed in a U.S. drone strike in Yemen, it was announced Thursday.

Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) announced the death of leader Nasr bin Ali al-Ansi and other operatives by a U.S. drone strike in a video, which was verified by security consulting firm and NBC News partner Flashpoint Intelligence.

Al-Ansi had appeared in several militant videos for the group,including one claiming responsibility for the Paris attack on the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo on Jan. 7, which left 12 people dead.

In the 11-minute video titled "Message regarding the blessed raid in Paris," al-Ansi said AQAP "chose the target, laid the plan and financed the operation," according to a translated transcript of the video put out by the group's official media wing.

Al-Ansi had also previously claimed the group was responsible for killing American hostage Luke Somers following a botched U.S. raid in December, according to Flashpoint.

Somers, 33, had been held by the group for a year before U.S. military forces set out to rescue him in an initial, failed first attempt. AQAP then released a video threatening to kill Somers within three days if their demands were not met.

In a second commando raid, the U.S. military failed to rescue Somers after his captors were alerted to their presence — possibly by a barking dog. The group shot and killed Somers along with a South African hostage. Six militants were also killed during the operation.

AL-MALAHEM MEDIA

Yemen's top al Qaeda leader, Nasr al-Ansi, claims responsibility for the Charlie Hebdo massacre in a video released Wednesday.

'Ransacked' Roman Temple Has Hidden Medieval Secrets

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Despite damage from war, looters and agricultural activity, a Roman temple and settlement high in the Lebanese mountains still hold clues about the ancient and medieval people who once lived there, a new study finds.

Until now, little was known about Hosn Niha, a Roman-Byzantine village located in the Bekaa Valley in Lebanon, the researchers said. Built in approximately A.D. 200, the village was home to a Roman temple and a small settlement, they said.

In the early 1900s, German archaeologists studied the remains of the temple but paid little attention to the neighboring settlement, which they described in a 1938 study as "a picture of complete ransacking," adding that hardly a trace remained of the settlement's inhabitants. [See Images of the Roman Temple and Remains at Hosn Niha]

During the Lebanese Civil War (1975 to 1990), military activity and looting took a heavy toll on the remains of Hosn Niha. In the late 1980s, treasure hunters riding bulldozers scraped through the village, moving and damaging ancient clues buried in the ground, according to the new study.

But "even though the core of the village has been irreparably damaged, a significant amount of the site remains in situ [in its original place] and with enough surviving features and structural evidence to warrant further investigation," the researchers wrote in the new study, detailed in the April issue of the journal Antiquity.

Their diligence paid off. An analysis of pottery shards scattered around the village shows evidence of a large Greco-Roman settlement and a later medieval occupation, likely during the 13th or 14th centuries, the researchers said.

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This photo shows the area south of the Roman temple. It was once a central part of a village, but wa …

"What we were trying to do is show that sites that have been quite badly damaged by conflict shouldn't just be ignored and forgotten," said study researcher Ruth Young, a senior lecturer of archaeology at the University of Leicester in England. "I think that what we have now is a lot more knowledge about how villages operated and [their] connection with the temple."

'Blimey, what a mess'

When the researchers arrived at Hosn Niha, they found bulldozed piles — some reaching 13 feet high (4 meters) — of pottery fragments mixed with dirt, the researchers said.

"When you first look at the site, you think, 'Blimey, what a mess. Where do we even start?'" Young told Live Science.

But the bulldozers hadn't pushed the pottery fragments far from their original spots, usually less than 164 feet (50 m), the researchers said. They quickly got to work, using a precise form of global positioning system (GPS) called differential GPS to map architectural fragments, such as door thresholds, columns and stone walls.

The researchers' understanding of the settlement grew as they carefully mapped the structures and dated the pottery fragments. They suggest a settlement was firmly in place by A.D. 200, with a dense area of dwellings in the central village and more dispersed courtyard dwellings skirting the village, the researchers said.

The village likely diminished by the 600s during the early Islamic period, though it's unclear why, they said. Today, the most complete remains of the site belong to the Roman temple, which still has walls standing 33 feet (10 m) high, the researchers said. [Gallery: Aerial Photos Reveal Mysterious Stone Structures]

The early inhabitants likely farmed in the valley, possibly growing grapes for wine, the researchers said. "This might explain why they were able to build such big temples," said study co-author Paul Newson, a professor of history and archaeology at the American University of Beirut in Lebanon. "If they were doing wine, they could do it as a cash crop."

The researchers also found glazed pottery shards, characteristic of the early medieval period, scattered around a stone structure, suggesting the structure was a medieval development, he said.

Looters had robbed a cemetery to the east of the settlement, but the archaeologists still studied the tomb types, including stone sarcophagi, individual cist (stone-lined) tombs and communal rock-cut tombs, they said.

The study is a "very good piece" of survey work "that could have been carried out at any archaeological site/landscape that had been damaged, or partially damaged," said Peter Stone, a professor and head of arts and cultures at Newcastle University in the United Kingdom, who was not involved with the study.

Many archaeological sites have been damaged over the ages. "So there is a positive that shows that sites believed to have been made totally useless specifically as a result of conflict do, or at least might, in fact still have valuable information to provide," Stone said.

China pursuing huge South China Sea land reclamation: US

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China has dramatically ramped up its land reclamation efforts in the South China Sea this year, building artificial islands at an unprecedented pace to bolster its territorial claims in the disputed area, US officials said Friday.

"China has expanded the acreage on the outposts it occupies by some four hundred times," said a US defense official.The rapid construction of artificial islands in the strategic waters comes to 2,000 acres (800 hectares), with 75 percent of the total in the last five months, officials said.

The United States did not endorse land reclamation by any of the countries with territorial claims in the South China Sea, but "the pace and scale of China's land reclamation in recent years dwarfs that of any other claimant," the official said.

The South China Sea is home to strategically vital shipping lanes and is believed to be rich in oil and gas. Washington is concerned China's efforts carry a military dimension that could undermine America's naval and economic power in the Pacific.

The commander of the US Pacific Fleet, Admiral Harry Harris, said in March that China is "creating a Great wall of sand."

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Graphic on the disputed claims in the South China Sea (AFP Photo/)

US officials released the reclamation estimate as the Pentagon issued its annual report to Congress on the state of China's military, which repeated accusations that Beijing was staging cyber attacks to scoop up information on American defense programs.

The report also warned that China has made major strides with a range of satellites as well as anti-satellite jammers, saying it now had "the most dynamic space program in the world today."

Previous reports have noted China's focus on cyber and space weapons but this year's document included a special section on the country's massive dredging and island building in the strategic South China Sea.

At four reclamation sites, China has moved from dredging operations to "infrastructure development" that could include harbors, communications and surveillance systems, logistics support and "at least one airfield," the report said.

The Chinese have excavated deep channels that could accommodate larger ships to the outposts, it said.

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A China Coast Guard ship (top) and a Philippine supply boat engage in a stand off near the Second Th …

The ultimate purpose of the effort remains unclear but analysts outside China say Beijing is "attempting to change facts on the ground by improving its defense infrastructure in the South China Sea," the report said.

- Fiery Cross -

Unlike other countries making claims in the area, China at the moment does not have an airfield or "secure docking" at its outposts and the reclamation operations may be aimed at ending that disparity, it said.

The Pentagon report covered a period ending in December 2014 and it said China had reclaimed 500 acres in the disputed waters up to that point. But since then, China has conducted reclamation covering 1,500 acres, officials said.

Satellite images taken last month and shown on the website of the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) showed Chinese island-building in several locations, including construction of a runway on Fiery Cross Reef in the Spratly Island chain, estimated at 3.1 kilometres (1.9 miles) in total and more than one-third complete at the time.

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Satellite images of the Fiery Cross Reef in the Spratly Islands - January 22, 2006 (top) and on Apri …

This week CSIS also unveiled images of Vietnamese island-building in the Spratlys.

Beijing asserts sovereignty over almost the whole of the South China Sea, including areas close to the coasts of other littoral states, using a nine-segment line based on one that first appeared on Chinese maps in the 1940s.

China has repeatedly defended its construction work as taking place within its own territory and intended to help with maritime search and rescue, navigation and research.

"The scale of China's construction work should be commensurate with its responsibility and obligation as a major country and meet actual needs," foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told a regular briefing Friday, before the US comments.

The Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan all have overlapping claims to the sea, but reclamation work by China's neighbors has proceeded at a slower pace. Vietnam has reclaimed about 60 acres of land since 2009 and Taiwan has reclaimed about five acres near Itu Aba island.

Taiwan: Asia's Next Mighty Military Power?

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Geopolitical strategists see Taiwan as an ultimate test of Chinese and American resolve. But how strong is Taiwanese resolve?

Taiwan has been a relative oasis of Asian geopolitical calm in recent years, with cross-strait ties improving gradually. American observers like Kurt Campbell see Taiwan as a rare case of quiet Sino-American diplomacy (see video). In a relationship where, as Campbell says, competition far exceeds cooperation, an uneasy Taiwan consensus has been achieved. Still, circumstances can change quickly and unexpectedly, especially when Taiwanese elections loom.

Michael Cole and Hugh White both see Taiwan's eventual fate as a contest of American and Chinese resolve, though they differ mightily on the prescription. Less prominent in their debate is the question of Taiwan's own resolve. How strong is its will? Does Taiwan even have a national consensus about its sovereignty? Might it stumble unwittingly into provoking China and America to quarrel? Other authors have warned that it is Taipei's own actions which are likely to be the precipitate factor in a conflict.

The clearest signal of Taiwan's resolve is its defense policy. There are other examples of small, rich, besieged states in hostile neighborhoods. Singapore, Sweden, Switzerland, Finland and the Gulf emirates come to mind. What they do is simple: they arm themselves to the teeth. Suffering from limited strategic depth and an unfavorable power asymmetry, they defend themselves to the extent that a potential attacker would face unappealing casualty rates or even the prospect of outright defeat. By contrast, unwisely governed countries, when faced with such a power imbalance, disarm, neglect economic development, become corrupt, and throw themselves on the tender mercies of powerful neighbors. The reader is invited to think of examples.

Taiwan did once take its defense seriously. It built a network of combat jet shelters and quick-repair airstrips on its highways. A long time ago when I worked there, remnants of the KMT's martial culture were still visible. They held regular air-raid drills and once we had to assemble in an underground civilian shelter. Back then the idea of a “BOOB” was laughable, but today things have radically changed to Taiwan's disadvantage. Not only does the mainland's power massively outmatch Taiwan's, its influence is so mighty that the island can no longer buy advanced weapons from friendly suppliers.

China has attracted the money, talent and affections of much of Taiwan's entrepreneurial class too. Yet it is not clear that Beijing has earned their true loyalty; nor does the rest of Taiwanese society easily accept reunification. Things could still go badly awry.

If things get really desperate, eventually Taiwan may find itself in another category: the security state. Israel, Pakistan and North Korea all have astutely and covertly sought strategic assistance from abroad, and have exerted desperate effort ('internal balancing') to defend themselves. But those three countries also have something else in common. A Taiwanese nuclear capability would cross Beijing's redline and provoke its immediate action.

Therefore Taiwan's only real choice, other than reunification, is to make itself truly unpalatable for Chinese expeditionary forces. Like Singapore or Israel, it must become a “poisonous shrimp” or a “porcupine.” Of course, it can still be harmed in other ways – missile barrages, a coup, a cyber-strike, embargo, and so on – but Taiwan's physical security must be its paramount concern. It is reported to be working on the same sort of “anti-access” systems that China itself deploys along its coast.

Taiwan today could prosecute a fearsome independent self-defense doctrine, if it wanted to. Despite a small population and limited strategic depth, Taiwan punches way above its weight in techno-economic terms. It has excelled at electronics and semiconductors, critical to modern warfare. Its largest company TSMC, is one of the three most advanced semiconductor manufacturers in the world (alongside giants Intel and Samsung). Beyond electronics, Taiwan has developed excellence in precision mechanical industries and optics, and its firms are leaders in surprising sectors like auto parts and specialty chemicals. It has a large nuclear generation sector and a bullet train network. So it has the industrial infrastructure to develop serious military systems.

More significantly, Taiwan has the financial muscle to do so. Taiwan has quietly pursued probably the most ruthless mercantilist agenda of any modern state. To encourage exports and discourage imports, Taiwan pursued financial repression and a currency debasement that make today's currency interveners look like free-market liberals. During the 1980s and 1990s, one expert marveled that the Taiwan central bank's “volume of sterilization instruments reached 40 percent of total bank deposits...and more than twice the size of the monetary base.”

Iraq launches Sunni anti-IS force in Anbar

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Amriyat al-Fallujah (Iraq) (AFP) - More than 1,000 Sunni fighters from Anbar joined Iraq's Popular Mobilisation force Friday as part of government efforts to make the fight against the Islamic State group a cross-sectarian drive.

"Your country has been stolen by a bunch of thieves and thugs and you must fight to take it back," Anbar Governor Soheib al-Rawi said at the event.Political, security and tribal leaders attended a large parade at a base in Amriyat al-Fallujah in a bid to give new momentum to the province's homegrown anti-IS fightback.

"Let this day be the day when we declare a massive revolution against Daesh... kick Daesh out of our homes, fight their extremist ideology and tighten the noose around them," he said, using an Arab acronym for IS.

Parts of Anbar province have been under jihadist control since before the nationwide June 9 offensive by IS, and the capital Ramadi has been on the brink of falling completely for months.

The counter-offensive has so far been spearheaded by Shiite militias, some of which are now operating under a government-controlled umbrella known as the Hashed al-Shaabi -- or Popular Mobilisation Brigades.

However, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has been keen to deflect criticism of the organisation as a Shiite-only body, and has defied challenges within his own camp to push for the inclusion of Sunni fighters in their home provinces.

Hundreds of Sunni tribal fighters had already been fighting under the Popular Mobilisation banner in Anbar in recent weeks, but Friday marked their official recruitment.

Sunni fighters in the troubled western Iraqi province had so far been using their own weapons and not receiving payment. The new recruits are due to receive a monthly salary of around $650.

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Iraqi Sunni volunteers from the Anbar province take part in their first training session at a traini …

- Rebuilding trust -

The new system comes with an organised vetting process designed to avoid the lack of accountability that prevailed under previous attempts to enlist Sunni fighters in recent years.

A vetting committee including representatives of the governor's office, the Iraqi military and the Popular Mobilisation has been set up.

"There will not be the same randomness and chaos as before," Rawi told reporters on Thursday.

He said that, according to Abadi's executive order, the plan was for the Sunni force with the Popular Mobilisation units in Anbar to reach 6,000 men.

What officials said were the roughly 1,100 men recruited on Friday will receive weapons at a base in Habbaniyah, another government-controlled area in eastern Anbar, in the coming days.

"I am confident we will be able to wipe them (IS) out, but we need weapons because so far we have been using our personal weapons," said Omar Mamduh Fayadh, a 24-year-old fighter from the Amriyat al-Fallujah area.

Several of the new recruits who paraded on Friday were teenagers, some of them as young as 15 and 16.

Shiite volunteers proved they were an essential part of the military fightback against IS over recent months, most recently when the city of Tikrit was retaken last month.

Abadi announced that Anbar was the next target for his government, but suggestions that militia groups accused of sectarian abuses would come to fight deep in the Sunni stronghold of Anbar had created widespread unease.

With support from the United States, which has been sending weapons to the defence ministry destined for Sunni fighters, the Iraqi government has accelerated efforts to raise a local force in Anbar.

The United States, which leads a 60-nation international coalition conducting daily air strikes, plays a key role in the fight against IS and has hundreds of military advisers in Anbar.

Mistrust runs deep between Iraq's Sunni and Shiite politicians, but tensions have eased since Nuri al-Maliki made way for Abadi at the helm and the tone of Friday's speeches was conciliatory.

"We found in you a dear, proud, and generous brother who carries the burden of Iraq, all of Iraq," Rawi said.

Friday's inaugural battalion was named Nahrawan after a 7th century battle near Baghdad which is seen as a unifying symbol in Islamic history.