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AIRO (AP) - The voice and data recorders from the EgyptAir plane that crashed into the Mediterranean nearly a month ago are "extensively damaged" and will need repairs before they can be analyzed, an Egyptian official said Friday, dampening hopes for quick answers as to what caused the disaster. The official didn't elaborate on how long the repairs would take but said if this cannot be done in Egypt, the so-called "black boxes" would be sent abroad. The official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to speak to the media. With the wreckage of the Airbus...

A chunk of worked limestone unearthed at a dig came from to the lost throne of Agamemnon, the ancient Greek hero revered by Homer in The Iliad, his epic story of the Trojan War, according to an archaeologist. Christofilis Maggidis, who leads excavations in Mycenae, in the north-eastern Peloponnese, said that the 110lb (50kg) slab was found two years ago in a streambed metres from a palace that collapsed during an earthquake in about 1200 BC. “This is one of the most emblematic and significant finds from the Mycenaean era,” Mr Maggidis said after an elaborate, year-long study of the...

A second flight recorder with information on crashed EgyptAir Flight MS804 has been retrieved, Egyptian investigators said on Friday. The Egyptian investigation committee said preparations were under way to transfer the two flight recorders to Alexandria where they will be received by an official from the general prosecutor's office and investigators.

Egypt's investigation committee said a doomed plane's cockpit voice recorder was found and pulled from the Mediterranean Sea on Thursday. ADVERTISEMENT Egypt on Wednesday said that it spotted and obtained images from the wreckage of the EgyptAir plane flying from Paris to Cairo that crashed into the Mediterranean last month, killing all 66 people on board, according to a statement by the country's investigation committee. The committee said in a statement that a vessel, the John Lethbridge, contracted by the Egyptian government to join search efforts for the data recorders and the wreckage "had identified several main locations of the...

Cockpit voice recorder of crashed EgyptAir flight found in Mediterranean, Egyptian investigators say

Danish and Greek archaeologists have discovered the remains of one of the largest building complexes of the ancient world -- a naval base that 2,500 years ago housed Athens's enormous fleet. Featuring massive harbor fortifications and sheds designed to hold hundreds of war ships called triremes, the base played a key role in the most decisive naval battle of antiquity. The remains lay hidden under the water of the Mounichia fishing and yachting harbor in the Piraeus. University of Copenhagen archaeologist Bjørn Lovén, who led the expedition as part of the Zea Harbor Project, identified and excavated six ship-sheds that...

<p>Egypt says it has spotted the wreckage of the EgyptAir plane that crashed into the Mediterranean last month, killing all 66 people on board.</p> <p>An investigation committee said in a statement late Wednesday that a vessel "the vessel contracted by the Egyptian government to join the search efforts for the data recorders and the wreckage of the doomed A320; had identified several main locations of the wreckage, accordingly the first images of the wreckage were provided to the investigation committee."</p>

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte today (13 June) admitted a referendum called by euroskeptic groups on whether to back closer ties between Ukraine and the EU had been “disastrous” after voters soundly rejected the pact. “I’m totally against referenda, and I’m totally, totally, totally against referenda on multilateral agreements, because it makes no sense as we have seen with the Dutch referendum,” Rutte told a conference of European MPs. “The referendum led to disastrous results,” he added. …

... "The fact is that in Spain and elsewhere in Europe, voters have come to associate the centre-left with many of the (unpopular) policies traditionally championed by the right: austerity, deregulation, liberalisation, free trade." ...

The yield on the 10-year benchmark German bund fell into negative territory for the first time ever on Tuesday morning, amid global growth concerns and jitters over the U.K.'s upcoming referendum on its European Union membership. At around 8.30 a.m. London time, the yield hit zero and briefly fell into negative territory as investors continued to flock to safe-haven assets. Bond prices and yields move in opposite directions and a negative yield implies that investors are effectively paying the German government for the privilege of parking their cash. By the end of the European trading day, the yield was still...

After the Battle of Marathon ten years earlier, in 490 BCE, the Athenian statesman Themistocles outlined a military defensive program against the Persian invaders that was based entirely on sea power. As Plato put it, "Themistocles robbed his fellow-citizens of spear and shield, and degraded the people of Athens to the rowing-pad and the oar." Construction work in Piraeus had already begun in 493 BCE (also on Themistocles advice).  Now, recent underwater excavations conducted by ZHP Project, which combines land and underwater archaeology of the ancient Zea and Mounichia harbors in Piraeus, have uncovered naval bases and huge fortifications that...

The headlines go from bad to worse for the UK and EU establishment as yet another new poll this weekend, by Opinium, shows "Brexit" leading by a remarkable 19 points (52% chose to leave the EU against 33% choosing to keep the status quo). This result comes after 2 polls Friday night showing a 10-point lead for "leave" which sparked anxiety across markets. This surge in "leave" probability comes despite an additional 1.5 million voters having registered this week (which many expected to increase "remain" support). Further anger towards EU was exposed when former cabinet minister Iain Duncan Smith warned...

The Israeli Left has a serious flag problem. Well, a problem with the Israeli flag to be precise. The one with the six-pointed blue star. Not the ISIS flag. The Left intensely dislikes people who wave Israeli flags, although I think it would be okay with those radical anti-Trump protesters waving Mexican and Iranian flags. At the Israeli Left's own rallies, like one widely reported recently, one sees oodles of Stalinist red flags, lots of PLO flags, and sometimes one may see Hamas flags, but no Israeli flags. In a few famous cases, the Left's contempt for the flag goes...

Tbilisi, June 10, Interfax - The Georgian Orthodox Church will not participate in the Pan-Orthodox Council in Crete which is slated for June 16-27. "This decision was adopted during today's session of the Holy Synod of the Georgian Orthodox Church in which the Catholicos-Patriarch Ilia II of All Georgia participated," the report of the Georgian Patriarchate said. Ilia II said in February that the Holy Synod rejected the document 'The relation of the Orthodox Church towards the rest of the Christian world' which was prepared for discussion at the Pan-Orthodox Council. The Synod also opposed a number of other documents...

Documents on the upcoming Great and Holy Council 1. Communication of the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia to the Clerics and Faithfulhttp://www.synod.com/synod/eng2016/Holy%20Synod%20Response%20to%20Preconciliar%20Documents%20en.pdf2. OBSERVATIONS ON THE TEXT PREPARED FOR THE PAN-ORTHODOX COUNCIL: “RELATIONS OF THE ORTHODOX CHURCH WITH THE REST OF THE CHRISTIAN WORLD” by Dr. Demetrios Tselengideshttp://www.pravoslavie.ru/english/90489.htm3. A SECOND INTERVENTION-CONFESSION OF FAITH: ON THE DOCUMENT "ORGANIZATION AND WORKING PROCEDURE OF THE HOLY AND GREAT COUNCIL" by Dr. Demetrios Tselengideshttp://www.pravoslavie.ru/english/90694.htm4. METROPOLITAN OF LIMASSOL: "WHAT UNITY ARE WE TALKING ABOUT? THOSE WHO DEPARTED FROM THE CHURCH ARE HERETICS AND SCHISMATICS"http://www.pravoslavie.ru/english/90619.htm5. A WORD ABOUT THE "COMMON CUP" AND...

Nicosia, June 10, Interfax - The Orthodox Church of Cyprus opposed the idea to postpone the convocation of the Pan-Orthodox Council, which has been prepared for over half a century and has been slated to take place on Crete in late June, the message of the Archbishop Chrysostom of Cyprus said. "We invite all of the local Orthodox Churches to participate in the work of the Holy and Great Council with a spirit of love, humility, and common mind, so that our witness to the world may be fruitful and effective," the message said. The document said that earlier the...

A ten-year project to decipher inscriptions on the ancient Greek “Antikythera mechanism” has revealed new functions, including the first hint that the device was used to make astrological predictions. The writings also lend support to the idea that the gadget, often called the world's first computer because of its ability to model complex astronomical cycles, originated from the island of Rhodes. Until now, scholars have focused on decoding the sophisticated array of gearwheels inside the 2000-year-old artifact. The new publication tackles instead the lettering squeezed onto every available surface. “It’s like discovering a whole new manuscript,” says Mike Edmunds, emeritus...

The work stoppages have extended to refuse collections. Police removed blockades outside rubbish collection depots around Paris, but workers inside subsequently walked off the job. As rubbish piled up on the streets of several cities one Parisian restaurant owner said: “Customers can smell this rubbish, so they avoid the place. Can you imagine drinking coffee around this stink? They just walk away.” A woman driver said she saw a plague of “huge rats.”

"Unity is an objective, not a given," says the Rev. John Chryssavgis, an archdeacon and theological adviser to Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople. "It may be there spiritually and liturgically and sacramentally, but to make it visible is hard, painful, slow work, and it takes time." In a sense, the “Great and Holy Council of the Orthodox Church”, conceived as a gathering of all the heads of the 14 independent Orthodox churches around the world in Crete June 16-27, has been at least a millennium in the making. More proximately, planning has been underway since 1961, meaning more than a half-century....

Belgrade, June 9, Interfax - The Serbian Orthodox Church joined a number of local Churches which do not consider participation in the Pan-Orthodox Council slated for late June on Crete possible. "Our Church sees obstacles to participation in the Holy and Great Council and proposes to postpone it for the time being," the letter of the Serbian Orthodox Church Synod to the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople, who is responsible for coordination of the preparations of the Council, said. Before holding this historical event it is necessary to resolve the differences between the local Churches, reach a consensus and revise...