Ancient mystery of red hats on giant Easter Island statues solved

September 18th, 2009 WASHINGTON - A team of scientists has solved a longstanding mystery about a pair of stars called DI Herculis whose peculiar rotation had remained a mystery for three decades. The shift in the orbit of DI Herculis was a mystery till now.

September 12th, 2009 WASHINGTON - In a new study, scientists have determined that the role of a predator, before humans colonized New Zealand about 750 years ago, was filled by a giant, extinct raptor known as Haast's eagle. Although the bones of Haast's eagle have been known for well over a century, the behavior of these giants has been a point of debate.

September 9th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Italian archaeologists have unearthed a 1st century A.D. colossal statue of Apollo, the Greek god of the sun, light, music and poetry, from white calcified cliffs in southwestern Turkey.

July 14th, 2009 SANTIAGO - A team of experts has discovered a six-kilometer-long lava cave system on Easter Island thought to have been used as a refuge by the island's inhabitants during the 16th century. According to a report in The Santiago Times, the team confirmed that it is the largest cave on the island and the 11th-largest in the world in terms of area.

July 10th, 2009 LONDON - The murder mystery of a 1,700-year-old Graeco-Roman mummy has deepened, with CT scans revealing that a 'metallic' object stuck in its neck is in fact one of three or four fragments lodged in the base of the skull. According to a report by Sky News, the 1,700-year-old mummy was scanned along with two other Egyptian mummies from Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, in a quest for more information on the circumstances surrounding their deaths.

July 9th, 2009 WASHINGTON - A team of astrophysicists has solved a mystery that led some scientists to speculate that the distribution of certain gamma rays in our Milky Way galaxy was evidence of a form of undetectable "dark matter" believed to make up much of the mass of the universe. In two separate scientific papers, the astrophysicists show that this distribution of gamma rays can be explained by the way "antimatter positrons" from the radioactive decay of elements, created by massive star explosions in the galaxy, propagate through the galaxy.

June 25th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Archaeologists have unearthed a hoard of ancient Roman treasures, including a marble head of the Roman emperor Titus, during an excavation outside the southern Italian city of Naples. The long-term digging effort in Rione Terra, a cliff in the port town of Pozzuoli, has yielded remains of 12 ancient statues, columns and fragments bearing inscriptions from what appear to be monuments from the Republican and Imperial periods of ancient Roman history.

June 17th, 2009 ROME - Archaeologists have unearthed a number of ancient Roman treasures during excavation outside the southern Italian city of Naples. Twelve ancient statues, columns and fragments bearing inscriptions from what appear to be monuments from the Republican and Imperial periods of ancient Roman history have been uncovered.

June 11th, 2009 WASHINGTON - An archaeologist, along with his team, is searching for Afghanistan's third giant Buddha statue, one which is reclining and is believed to stretch 1,000 feet (300 meters) long underground. According to a report in National Geographic Magazine, the archaeologist in question is Zemaryalai Tarzi, who was Afghanistan's Director of Archaeology in the 1970s.

June 8th, 2009 TEHRAN - Archeologists have unearthed 65 statues of human and animal figures in Burnt City, located in Iran's southeastern province of Sistan and Balouchestan. According to a report in Press TV, the discovery, which comes along last winter excavations, included 65 small statues of human and animal figures.

May 28th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Researchers at Rice University and Harvard University, US, have developed a new model to explain how noble gases - elements like helium, neon and argon - are lost from the Earth's interior during mantle convection. The research takes aim at a question that has vexed geoscientists for years: how to reconcile leading theories about the convection of Earth's mantle with observations of ancient noble gases in volcanic rocks.

April 27th, 2009 LONDON - A team of researchers at the University of Portsmouth, UK, has claimed to have solved the ancient Mediterranean mystery of how 2 feet deep tracks were cut into the rock of Malta. According to a report in The News, the research team was led by Professor Derek Mottershead, of the university's geography department, who followed generations of scholars to unravel the mysteries of the Maltese landscape.he team claims that the tracks, or ruts, were almost certainly caused by carts because the rock was not strong enough to support the wooden wheels of loaded carts.

April 12th, 2009 LONDON - Jade Goody ordered Easter eggs for her little sons just days before she lost her life to cancer, it has emerged. The late 27-year-old, who battled cervical cancer before passing away on March 22 - Mother's Day, had reportedly told her jailbird hubby Jack Tweed to get Bobby, five and Freddie, four, huge white chocolate eggs.

April 2nd, 2009 LONDON - Archaeological excavations in the ancient region of Baktria in Afghanistan have revealed a unique marble slab with the image of Alexander the Great and a passage of an inscription. The slab represents an ancient king on a horse heading Macedonian cavalry and Macedonian phalanx at the background.

April 1st, 2009 LONDON - A scientist has solved the 'mystery' behind belly button fluff after gazing at his own navel for three years! Georg Steinhauser, a chemist, has discovered a type of body hair that traps stray pieces of lint and draws them into the navel. After studying 503 pieces of fluff from his own belly button, the expert reached the conclusion.