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Typhoid May Have Caused Fall of Athens, Study Finds Nicholas Bakalar for National Geographic News February 27, 2006 An ancient medical mystery—the cause of a plague that wracked Athens from 426 to 430 B.C. and eventually led to the city's fall—has been solved by DNA analysis, researchers say. The ancient Athenians died from typhoid fever, according to a new study. Scientists from the University of Athens drew this conclusion after studying dental pulp extracted from the teeth of three people found in a mass grave in Athens' Kerameikos cemetery. The mass grave was first discovered in 1994 and was dated...

ATHENS (AFP) - Its austere white is on every postcard, but the Athens Parthenon was originally daubed with red, blue and green, the Greek archaeologist supervising conservation work on the 2,400-year-old temple said. "A recent cleaning operation by laser revealed traces of haematite (red), Egyptian blue and malachite-azurite (green-blue) on the sculptures of the western frieze," senior archaeologist Evi Papakonstantinou-Zioti told AFP. While archaeologists had found traces of the first two colours elsewhere on the temple years ago, the malachite-azurite colouring was only revealed in the latest restoration process, Papakonstantinou-Zioti said. Given the testimony of ancient writers, it is not...

Secret of ancient Athens plague is being unraveled Kerameikos, Athens’s ancient cemetery, has yielded conclusive evidence as to the nature of the plague that decimated a third of the population of the ancient city and influenced the outcome of the Peloponnesian Wars. Scientists at Athens University’s School of Dentistry have used molecular biology to help solve the riddle of one of history’s biggest mysteries.Greek scientists find typhoid after excavating graves By Dr Manolis Papagrigorakis (1) Recent findings from a mass grave in the Ancient Cemetery of Kerameikos in central Athens show typhoid fever may have caused the plague of Athens,...

strong earthquake occurred at 11:34:52 (UTC) on Sunday, January 8, 2006. The magnitude 6.7 event has been located in SOUTHERN GREECE. The hypocentral depth was estimated to be 38 km (23 miles). (This event has been reviewed by a seismologist.) Magnitude 6.7 Date-Time Sunday, January 8, 2006 at 11:34:52 (UTC) = Coordinated Universal Time Sunday, January 8, 2006 at 1:34:52 PM = local time at epicenter Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones Location 36.250°N, 23.498°E Depth 37.7 km (23.4 miles) Region SOUTHERN GREECE Distances 95 km (60 miles) NNW of Chania, Crete, Greece 150 km (95 miles) SE of...

US vows to track down hijacker freed early By Anton La Guardia, Diplomatic Editor (Filed: 23/12/2005) The United States has vowed to track down and bring to trial a Lebanese hijacker who has been secretly released after serving 19 years in a German prison for seizing an airliner in 1985 and killing a US navy diver. The Bush administration said it had asked Germany not to release Mohammed Ali Hamadi, who was jailed for life for his role in the hijacking of TWA's Flight 847 from Athens to Rome and the shooting of one of the passengers, Robert Stethem. Despite...

The main square in Athens has been rocked by a bomb explosion, police say. The blast occurred at about 0600 (0400 GMT), in or just outside a post office in Syntagma Square, near the Greek finance ministry building. It was not immediately known if there were any casualties from the blast. TV pictures showed damaged to nearby cars, cafes and shops. A Greek daily newspaper received a bomb warning 30 minutes before the blast, state television said. Police say the device was apparently made from several gas canisters. No group or individual was known to have claimed responsibility for the...

MARINE CORPS BASE CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C. (Nov. 16, 2005) -- An Athens, Ga. native was presented the Purple Heart Medal here Nov. 10 for wounds received in combat in Iraq. Lance Cpl. John T. Shepard, a 31-year-old boat mechanic formerly with Small Craft Company, Headquarters Battalion, 2nd Marine Division, and several members of his unit had been conducting a foot patrol through Ramadi’s streets in August when they were ambushed by several insurgents. The capital city of western Iraq’s Al Anbar province is located approximately 100 kilometers west of Baghdad, and has been a focal point of resistance against U.S....

E-mail Author Author Archive Send to a Friend Version November 07, 2005, 11:15 a.m. Ruin? Was is death or renewal in Athens? EDITOR'S NOTE: Victor Davis Hanson's latest book, A War Like No Other: How the Athenians and Spartans Fought the Peloponnesian War has recently been released by Random House. This week National Review Online will be excerpting Chapter 10 of the book. Below is the first part. Check back tomorrow for part two and click on Amazon to purchase A War Like No Other here. Was Athens — or Greece itself — destroyed by the war? An entire...

Paris - A confusing series of alarm signals and the lack of an effective common language between its pilots doomed a Cypriot airliner that crashed near Athens last month, killing all 121 people on board, the daily International Herald Tribune said on Wednesday, quoting investigators. An air system knob that had been incorrectly set during maintenance on the ground prevented the Helios Airways Boeing 737 from pressurising properly, but the crew failed to notice the problem during their preflight checks, people connected to the investigation told the newspaper. Then, as the aircraft ascended through 3 000m, a pressurisation alarm -...

Archeologists uncover ancient coins in the heart of Athens Thu Aug 11,11:46 AM ET ATHENS (AFP) - Scores of silver coins dating back well over two millennia have been unearthed in the heart of Athens, officials announced. More than five kilos (11 pounds) of silver pieces dating primarily from the 4th century BC were discovered in an excavation project of the American School of Archeology, a statement from the ministry of culture said. Some 45 of the silver pieces are believed to date back to the 5th century BC. The discovery at the Athens Agora -- the chief marketplace and...

Archaeologists in the capital’s southern coastal suburb of Palaio Faliro have uncovered what appear to be traces of ancient Athens’s first port before the city’s naval and shipping center was moved to Piraeus, a report said yesterday. A rescue excavation on a plot earmarked for development has revealed artifacts and light structures dating, with intervals, from Mycenaean times to the fifth century BC, when the port of Phaleron — after which the modern suburb was named — was superseded by Piraeus, according to Ta Nea daily. “This is a port associated with two myths — Theseus and the Argonauts —...

Mycenaean port of Athens found? Archaeologists in the capital’s southern coastal suburb of Palaio Faliro have uncovered what appear to be traces of ancient Athens’s first port before the city’s naval and shipping center was moved to Piraeus, a report said yesterday. A rescue excavation on a plot earmarked for development has revealed artifacts and light structures dating, with intervals, from Mycenaean times to the fifth century BC, when the port of Phaleron — after which the modern suburb was named — was superseded by Piraeus, according to Ta Nea daily. “This is a port associated with two myths —...

Venues rot as Greece loses its Olympic gains Helena Smith in Athens Sunday March 6, 2005 The Observer Six months after the Athens Olympics, all is not well. Around the canoe-kayak course, in the city that hosted the world's 'unforgettable, dream games', lights that illuminated the site now swing, hopelessly, from cords of broken wire. It is hard not to miss the galloping necrosis enveloping so many of the 36 venues either purpose-built or upgraded for the Games. For the neglect does not end here. On the other side of the Olympic facility, in the inner sanctum of the world-class...

Lord, Keep our Troops forever in Your care Give them victory over the enemy... Grant them a safe and swift return... Bless those who mourn the lost. . FReepers from the Foxhole join in prayer for all those serving their country at this time. .................................................................. .................... ........................................... U.S. Military History, Current Events and Veterans Issues Where Duty, Honor and Countryare acknowledged, affirmed and commemorated. Our Mission: The FReeper Foxhole is dedicated to Veterans of our Nation's military forces and to others who are affected in their relationships with Veterans. In the FReeper Foxhole, Veterans or their family members should...

As international attention remains occupied with the terror murder of Dutch film-maker Theo van Gogh by an Islamic extremist, and the long-term implications of the spread of Islamic fundamentalism within Europe, Greece continues to be roiled by a debate over the proposed construction of the first state-recognized mosque in the vicinity of Athens in modern times. The Islamic Center in the Athenian suburb of Peania, more than 15 miles northeast of Athens near the new international airport, will be financed directly by the King Fahd Foundation of Saudi Arabia. According to the Arab News, an English-language Saudi daily, some 8.5...

The 2004 Athens Games has cost Greece more than seven billion euros making them the most expensive Olympics of all time, the Greek government warned on Sunday. The final cost of bringing the Olympics back home will not be known until the end of the month, but Greek Economics minister Georges Alogoskoufis was preparing the ground on Sunday for some painful news. "The total will be greater than forecast," he predicted in an interview with Ethnos. The last official estimate given by the Greek finance minister Petros Doukas in August put the cost at over seven billion euros compared to...

London — After a summer of fun, Games and frantic spending on the world's largest party, the people of Greece are waking up this week to an Olympic hangover of truly gold-medal proportions. Greeks were proud of an Olympics that took place on schedule and without any serious security or organizational threats, but they are now learning the true cost of all that last-minute construction and street cleaning: a bill that could cripple the country's economy for a generation. Greek Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis conceded yesterday that the country's deficit has soared faster and higher than that of any European...

An apology -- and thank you, before leaving DAVE BARRY ATHENS -- I'm leaving the Olympics and heading home, assuming the plane can lift me. This is a concern because I've gained many kilometers of mass from eating Greek food, especially ``baklava,'' which is the Greek word for ``carbohydrates.'' But before I leave I have something to say to Greece: Dear Greece, I owe you an apology. Every negative thought I had about you before I got here -- every worry, every concern -- turned out to be wrong. When I got to Greece, I thought you wouldn't be ready...

Medal counts - top 20 countries COUNTRY GOLD SILVER BRONZE TOTAL United States 29 35 27 91 Russia 17 23 30 70 China 28 17 13 58 Germany 14 15 18 47 Australia 17 13 16 46 Japan 15 10 10 35 France 11 7 12 30 Italy 9 8 10 27 Britain 7 8 12 27 South Korea 8 10 8 26 Netherlands 4 8 10 22 Ukraine 8 4 7 19 Spain 3 11 5 19 Romania 8 5 5 18 Hungary 8 7 3 18 Cuba 3 7 9 17 Greece 6 4 4 14 Belarus...

Low blow : Egypt's Tamer Hussein employs an unorthodox maneuver against Austria's Tuncay Caliksan during their taekwon-do mens -67kg featherweight match during the Olympic Games in Athens. (AFP/Marco Longari)