Free Republic

An ancient mouth harp belonging to the Huns that dates back to around 1,700 years ago has been unearthed in Siberia - and it is still capable of making music. Also known as a jaw or 'Jew's harp', the reed is placed in the performer's mouth and plucked with the finger to produce the note. The instrument - 4 inches in length - was made by a craftsman from the ribs of a cow or horse and dates from the time the nomadic Huns controlled southern Siberia 1,580 to 1,740 years ago.

ISIS in Libya have released pictures of armed fighters burning musical instruments as the extremist group continues its propaganda assault in the north African country. Pictures of the heavily armed masked militants watching while a pile of drums burnt in the Libyan desert were released earlier today - purportedly by the 'media wing' of the local group. It is understood the brightly coloured instruments had been confiscated by the religious police, and were destroyed near the port city of Derna, in eastern Libya. A message released with the pictures explains: 'Hesbah seized these un-Islamic musical instruments in the state of...

When police raided a home in Luleå in northern Sweden last November they discovered a small arsenal of weapons, including a shot-gun built into a guitar. The police had received a tip off that the 54-year-old man was hoarding a bevy of unlicensed firearms in his house and performed a raid. "They are therapy to keep off the drink," the man told police interrogators, according to the local Norrländska Demokraten (NSD). Aside from the six more conventional weapons found in the apartment and a quantity of ammunition, police discovered that a wall-mounted guitar was not quite as it first appeared....

North Korea, the world's most heavily militarised state, has resisted beating swords into ploughshares despite years of famine. But communist leader Kim Jong-il suggested on Wednesday the world's fifth largest army might at least augment its swords with saxophones. "It is very gratifying that servicemen are making lots of good quality musical instruments by their own efforts," the North's official Korea Central News Agency (KCNA) quoted Kim as saying on a tour of a museum of army gifts to him and his father. "More musical instruments of various kinds should be produced and sent to units so that all the...