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Explanation: This beautiful telephoto composition spans light-years in a natural night skyscape from the island of Crete. Looking south, exposures both track the stars and record a fixed foreground in three merged panels that cover a 10x12 degree wide field of view. The May 15 waxing gibbous moonlight illuminates the church and mountainous terrain. A mere 18 thousand light-years away, huge globular star cluster Omega Centauri (NGC 5139) shining above gives a good visual impression of its appearance in binoculars on that starry night. Active galaxy Centaurus A (NGC 5128) is near the top of the frame, some 11 million...

Archaeologists excavate Indo-Greek and Saka-Parthian structures at Bazira, Swat. -- Dawn photo Indo-Greek coins discovered during the recent excavation at Bazira, Barikot, Swat. Courtesy Italian Archaeological Mission in Swat Indo-Greek coins discovered during the recent excavation at Bazira, Barikot, Swat. Courtesy Italian Archaeological Mission in Swat Terracotta baroque female figurine, circa 3rd-2nd BC. Courtesy Italian Archaeological Mission in Swat Indo-Greek coins discovered during the recent excavation at Bazira, Barikot, Swat. Courtesy Italian Archaeological Mission in Swat

Turkey and Turkish Cyprus signed a deal on Wednesday in New York to establish a ground for offshore gas exploration in a move set to escalate the already high regional tensions over Mediterranean energy reserves and border issues. On Tuesday, the Greek Cypriot administration confirmed that drilling had begun in a southeastern offshore block, adjoining a gas field in Israeli waters reputed to be the world's largest gas reserves find of the past decade. With the latest agreement the ethnic Turkish northern half of Cyprus, Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, marked its marine borders with Turkey and will issue licenses...

Russia has sent two nuclear-powered submarines to patrol Eastern Mediterranean waters around Cyprus and enforce the island's right to explore for undersea oil and gas in its territorial seas, according to information from Defencenet.gr, citing a Russian FM spokesman.

As regional powers attempt to rise, other regional powers will react. This is particularly true in this era of globalization. Turkey is now riding a learning curve. Here is how the latest is unfolding. Turkey warned Thursday it will declare a border on the continental shelf if the island of Cyprus proceeds with offshore oil and gas drilling activities. The Foreign Ministry's announcement came a day after Cyprus President Dimitris Christofias announced that U.S. firm Noble Energy will soon begin exploratory drilling to confirm deposits beneath the sea bed off Cyprus' southern coast despite Turkey's attempts to prevent such a...

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad overshadowed his legitimacy. In a televised interview with the Al-Jazeera, Prime Minister Erdogan said, "when we came to the political power nine years ago, there was a 30-year resentment between Turkey and Syria. We made great efforts to improve relations with Syria with which we share 910 kilometres of border. We always proposed al-Assad to release political prisoners, make constitutional amendments and start multiparty system. Unfortunately, none of these reforms were made. I paid a visit to Aleppo earlier this year. I told al-Assad that we were...

Following are excerpts from an interview with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip ErdoÄŸan, which aired on the Al-Jazeera network on September 11, 2011. Recep Tayyip ErdoÄŸan: The measures we have taken are only the beginning. As you know, we have taken five measures, and we will see the results of these measures in the days, weeks, and perhaps months to come. Israel must realize that it is accountable for its actions, past and present. It will realize this. We have seen that Israel has never observed any of the resolutions issued by the UN General Assembly or Security Council. Israel...

*** The monument will be higher than the Statue of Christ the Redeemer in Brazil, the Statue of Liberty in USA and the Buddha Statue in ChinaMoscow, September 12, Interfax - 135-meter monument representing an angel with a dove will appear in southern shore of Cyprus near "fruit" capital of the island - town of Limassol. The idea of the project Good Angels of Peace symbolizing peace and charity has appeared in Russia five years ago. The monument will be higher than the Statue of Christ the Redeemer in Brazil, the Statue of Liberty in the USA and Statue of...

A majority of British voters said Thursday that the United Kingdom should leave the European Union, launching markets into turmoil as investors tried to digest what the referendum means for the U.K. and the European bloc as a whole. Although concern for the future of the EU may seem like hyperbole, nearly every member state has a political contingent in favor of leaving the union, and the successful Brexit vote may have just politically legitimized — and energized — those movements.

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...