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The Royal Navy sank the galleon in 1708 during the War of the Spanish Succession, but its resting place had been a mystery for more than three centuries. Today its contents could be worth billions. ...Experts speculate that the ship was loaded with at least 200 tons of treasure, including millions of high-purity gold doubloon coins, as well as many silver coins and emeralds that the Spanish empire had plundered from South America, worth up to $17bn (£13.5bn) today. The salvage rights have been subject to decades of litigation and are contested by a professional salvage company that claims to...

I will be there in a couple of months, first trip to South America.

The dig is taking place underneath one of the walls of the disused bull ring, a wall which has been reinforced specifically so that the archaeologists could begin their work beneath it, and the opinion of the experts is that these rooms were used to hold gladiators and animals captive before they were released to do battle in the arena itself. Their existence was documented in the 18th century, well before the construction of the bull ring, and the roofs were re-discovered in 1999, but until now no-one was aware of how well they have survived the passing of two...

A Long Prairie man with a suspended driver's license was pulled over on Highway 27 after reaching speeds of nearly 130 miles per hour with a blood alcohol concentration over the legal limit and with a teenage boy who was riding in the vehicle with him, according to authorities. Pedro Emmanuel Reyes Cartagena, 32, was charged in Todd County District Court Aug. 20 with two gross misdemeanor counts of driving under the influence of alcohol. According to the criminal complaint: At 2:29 a.m. on Aug. 19, an Osakis police officer followed a blue sedan on Highway 27 and saw it...

A more than 300-year-old Spanish shipwreck carrying treasure that might be worth up to $17 billion was discovered with the help of an underwater robot. It's called the Remus 6000 and it can dive nearly four miles and is loaded with sensors and cameras. Bronze cannons confirmed "the holy grail of shipwrecks" had been found at the bottom of the Caribbean Sea. They are engraved with dolphins — a telltale sign they belong to the Spanish galleon San Jose, lost more than 300 years ago. "I just sat there for about 10 minutes and smiled," said Jeff Kaeli, a research...

Spanish galleon San Jose sank more than 300 years ago in battle with British, while carrying vast cargo of gold and precious stones Colombia’s discovery of the 300-year-old, shipwrecked galleon San Jose, thought to be loaded with some $10 billion in gold and precious stones, could shed light on an important period in Spanish colonial history but also spawn legal battles over the valuable cargo. Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos said his country spent two years studying historical maps, meteorology and used the latest sea-searching technology to locate the Spanish vessel, which sank during a battle in 1708 in the...

With the Secret Service still smarting from its 2012 prostitution scandal in Cartagena, Colombia, another federal law agency is in hot water over an even more salacious sex scandal—in the same country. The Administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration, Michelle Leonhart, Tuesday faced a grueling three-hour inquisition from the House Oversight Committee over an Inspector General’s report that found DEA agents in Bogota, Colombia engaged in “sex parties” with prostitutes and that the parties were paid for by the very drug cartels the DEA was sent to fight. “This behavior is not acceptable,” Leonhart said in her opening statement. “It...

The father of a White House advance team member connected to the Secret Service prostitution scandal was refunded a hefty Obama campaign donation, records show, around the same time additional details about that possible link were made public. The $20,000 donation was made by Leslie Dach -- whose son Jonathan has been linked to the scandal -- on Sept. 19, 2012, to the Obama Victory Fund.

The White House had information two years ago indicating that one of their advance travel volunteers, the son of a major Democratic donor with ties to the White House, was involved in the Secret Service prostitution scandal. That former aide now works for the State Department's Office on Global Women's Issues. State recommends a "zero-tolerance" government policy on prostitution even when, as in this case, it is legal in the country in question. The Washington Post published a blockbuster story Wednesday night which alleges that 25-year-old Jonathan Dach, a White House volunteer working on the advance travel team for the...

As nearly two dozen Secret Service agents and members of the military were punished or fired following a 2012 prostitution scandal in Colombia, Obama administration officials repeatedly denied that anyone from the White House was involved. But new details drawn from government documents and interviews show that senior White House aides were given information at the time suggesting that a prostitute was an overnight guest in the hotel room of a presidential advance-team member — yet that information was never thoroughly investigated or publicly acknowledged. The information that the Secret Service shared with the White House included hotel records and...

At first, this story from the Washington Post seems impossible to believe. After all, the White House insists that they were cleared of any involvement in the Cartagena prostitute scandal by, er, their own internal investigation — a claim that White House aide Eric Schultz repeated to the Post’s Carol Leonnig and David Nakamura. That settles it, right? Wrong: But new details drawn from government documents and interviews show that senior White House aides were given information at the time suggesting that a prostitute was an overnight guest in the hotel room of a presidential advance-team member — yet that...

What the Secret Service could learn from drunken sailors Roberto Loiederman, a merchant seaman from 1966 to 1974, is a writer in California. He co-authored “The Eagle Mutiny,” an account of the 1970 mutiny on a U.S. vessel. What happened in Cartagena, Colombia, with the Secret Service seems unsavory to me, but not for the reasons you might think. I make no judgments about men spending a night with escorts. As far as I’m concerned, those who take a holier-than-thou attitude about this are like Inspector Renault in “Casablanca” when he says he’s “shocked, shocked” to discover there is gambling...

The investigation into the Colombia prostitution scandal has broadened to include the White House Communications Agency, Nextgov has learned. Laura Williams, a spokeswoman for the Defense Information Systems Agency, which manages the White House office that provides the president with secure communications, confirmed that one individual from WHCA is under investigation, but could not provide any more details at this time.

Secret Service Colombian Hooker Prostitute Brought to Light By Paula Reid, South American Chief & Rising Black Star in AgencyThe Secret Service officer responsible for the recall of 11 agents in a dispute with Colombian prostitutes over payment to Dania Suarez, has been revealed as Paula Reid, a rising black star in the agency. She recently became the head of the agency’s Miami office after 21 years on the force. Ms. Reid uncovered the scandal and alerted her superiors about the “egregious behavior” of the agents. Paula Reid was in Cartagena ahead of President Obama’s trip, laying the groundwork for...

f Six Secret Service agents quit the force over scandalPresident personally briefed on state of the investigationColombian prostitute at the hear of affair has gone into hidingSays she was eventually paid $225 for the eveningClaims to fear retaliation by the U.S. government The prostitutes involved in the Secret Service scandal that cost six agents their jobs may have been underage, according to a new report.A Colombian government official told a newspaper group that investigators from the Colombian attorney general’s office have questioned employees of the hotel in question, and the taxi driver who drove home the woman who triggered the...

Ms. Sandra Fluke is attached to an organization with high moral values, that places an emphasis on ethics, honesty and integrity. There is in fact not only a student code at Georgetown University, there also an ETHOS CODE , and there is also the history, tradition and mission statement of the Catholic university guiding certain behaviors (both on and off campus as stated and each student is to be aware of this).It is this very essence and aspect of core institutional values which "15-Minutes-of-Fame Sandra" very publicly whined about, mocked and assailed on national TV and also asserted that the...

Grassley Wants To Know If White House Aides Were Connected To Prostitution Scandal April 21, 2012 GOP Sen. Chuck Grassley, the ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, is asking the Secret Service whether members of the White House advance team are connected to the Colombian prostitution scandal, considering their “close working relationship” with federal agents. Grassley, R-Iowa, sent the letter Friday to agency Director Mark Sullivan and acting Inspector General Charles Edwards. He also asked in the letter if the Secret Service is looking at whether the White House communications office also could be involved. The scandal involving at...

Sarah Palin joined FOX News tonight to discuss the Secret Service prostitution scandal as well as the GSA spending scandal. Palin also reacted to news that broke this afternoon about another Secret Service scandal, this time involving her. "Well check this out, bodyguard -- you're fired. And I hope his wife sends him to the doghouse. As long as he's not eating the dog, along with his former boss. Greta, you know, a lot of people will just, I guess say that this is boys being boys. And boys will be boys, but they shouldn't be in positions of authority."

Conservative commentator Ann Coulter told radio host Hugh Hewitt on Thursday that Democratic attempts to highlight presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney’s wealth are not only unfair, but likely to backfire. Earlier this week, President Barack Obama said that he and his wife Michelle were not born with a “silver spoon” in their mouths, a comment which was widely considered to be a jab at Romney, the son of a successful CEO. Although Obama’s spokesman Jay Carney denied that was the case, the Democratic Party has been attacking the former Massachusetts governor in an effort to paint him as out-of-touch...

The Secret Service this week fired supervisors David Chaney and Greg Stokes following the incident immediately preceding President Barack Obama’s trip to Colombia for the Summit of the Americas. One of the agents, David Chaney, joked on Facebook that he checked out former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin while on assignment during the 2008 campaign. On his Facebook page, former Secret Service agent David Chaney admitted checking out former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin during the 2008 campaign. (CNN)