Free Republic

A 40,000-year-old archaeological site in northern China has unearthed the earliest evidence of ochre processing in east Asia, researchers say. The site was discovered at Xiamabei in the Nihewan Basin, in the northern Chinese province of Hebei. Ochre pieces and tools found in the area suggest that the clay earth pigment was processed there, via grinding and pounding, to produce powders of different colours and grain sizes. Near lumps of ochre, archaeologists unearthed a hammer stone as well as a flat limestone slab that showed signs of battering. In a study published in the journal Nature, the team has dated...

An ancient Greek Corinthian helmet was found in a fifth century BC grave in the Taman Peninsula, southwest Russia. Made of bronze, ancient Greek Corinthian helmets covered the entire head and neck, with slits for the eyes and mouth, protruding cheek covers (paragnathides) and a curved protrusion in the back to protect the nape of the neck. The helmet has a padded interior made of fabric or leather to protect the warrior’s skull. These helmets were essential for the Greek hoplites, the famous foot soldiers of the phalanxes.

Russian lawmakers approve bill making Holocaust denial illegal Russian lawmakers approved a bill that would make Holocaust denial illegal. The lower house of the Russian Parliament, or Duma, passed the measure Friday on its first reading, the Voice of Russia reported Monday, making it illegal to deny the verdict of the Nuremberg Tribunal and punishing the “rehabilitation of Nazism.” Those found guilty of the crime could be fined up to $8,300 or imprisoned up to three years. Public officials or media personalities would be fined nearly double or face up to five years in prison. The bill also needs the...

KRASNOYARSK, April 3 (RIA Novosti) Andrei Marmyshev - Fragments of a US bomber that crashed near the Russian city Krasnoyarsk in southern Siberia during World War II have been delivered to San Francisco, where they will form part of a memorial commemorating pilots who lost their lives in the war, a historian in Krasnoyarsk told RIA Novosti. "San Francisco is planning to set up a memorial to pilots who died during the Second World War. The fragments of the Boston bomber will also be used," said Lt. Col. Vyacheslav Filippov, an aviation officer and historian. "For example, they are going...

MOSCOW, March 26. /ITAR-TASS/. Russia will allocate $4.1 million to the Russia-NATO Council Helicopter Maintenance Trust Fund in 2014. Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev signed the relevant decree, according to a statement placed on the government’s website on Wednesday. This measure is targeted “at training ground support personnel for technical maintenance and repair of Mi-17 and Mi-35 helicopters of Afghanistan’s army and delivery of spare parts to them,” the statement reads. These funds are envisaged by the Russian Finance Ministry in the federal budget for 2014 for international relations and international cooperation.

For perhaps the first time, a minister in Binyamin Netanyahu's government has admitted that the Prime Minister plans to give away most of Judea and Samaria to an incipient Arab state, with Israel retaining only the settlement blocs. During a tour of Gush Etzion, Michael Eitan, whose title is Minister for Improvement of Government Services, said that “enacting the Prime Minister's policies will lead to the annexation of the settlement blocs, including Gush Etzion, with the intent of giving up other parts of Judea and Samaria for the benefit of a Palestinian state.” Gush Etzion Council head Shaul Goldstein, who...