The Taj Mahal will collapse within five years unless urgent action is taken to shore up its foundations, campaigners have warned.
The 358-year-old marble mausoleum is India’s most famous tourist attraction, bringing four million visitors a year to the northern city of Agra.
But the river crucial to its survival is being blighted by pollution, industry and deforestation.
In danger: The Taj Mahal, near Agra in India. Experts have said it could be in danger of collapsing within five years because its wooden foundations are rotting.Architectural wonder: The 358-year-old tomb is built on mahogany post foundations sunk into wells fed by the nearby Yamuna River. That river has now run dry, and cracks appeared in the walls last year
Jacobovici holds one of the two nails alleged to have been used to crucify Jesus, presented in his new documentary film, at Tel Aviv University on April 6, 2011.
Could two of the nails used to crucify Jesus have been discovered in a 2,000-year-old tomb in Jerusalem?
And could they have mysteriously disappeared for 20 years, only to turn up by chance in a Tel Aviv laboratory?
That is the premise of the new documentary film “The Nails of the Cross” by veteran investigator Simcha Jacobovici, which even before its release has prompted debate in the Holy Land.
The film follows three years of research during which Jacobovici presents his assertions — some based on empirical data, others requiring much imagination and a leap of faith.
He hails the find as historic, but most experts and scholars contacted by Reuters dismissed his case as far-fetched, some calling it a publicity stunt.
Jacobs' Pharmacy in Atlanta, where Coca-Cola was first sold in 1886
1886: Dr John Pemberton produced the syrup for for Coca-Cola and carried a jug down the street to Jacobs' Pharmacy, where it was sold for 5 cents a glass
1906: Countries outside the US - Cuba, Canada ana Panama - began bottling the drink
1916: The iconic contour bottle - so distinctive it could be recognised in the dark - was introduced to distinguish Coca-Cola from competitors
1931: Artist Haddon Sundblom's Santa Claus first appeared in ads for Coca-Cola. This image of Santa - shown as a plump, jolly, friendly man - helped shape the modern-day image of St. Nick
1969: The Beatles name-checked Coca-Cola in their song Come Together
1982: Soft-drink history was made with the introduction of Diet Coke, the most successful new soft drink since Coca-Cola itself. Within two years, Diet Coke had become the top low-calorie soft drink in the world
1985: The drink became the first soft drink to be consumed in space when astronauts tested the Coca-Cola Space Can aboard Space Shuttle Challenger
2006: Cheryl Cole signed up to promote Coca-Cola's sugar free drink Coke Zero
Present: The world's top soft drinks maker reported a net income of £3.58bn for the fourth quarter of 2010
Russian troops line up in perfect formation for the largest-ever post-Soviet military parade on Red Square
Vintage Soviet-era T-34 tank rumble through the square
Mr Medvedev, Chinese President Hu Jintao, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin watch the celebrations begin
A mobile launcher with a Topol-M missile travels along the route of the parade
British soldiers marched on Red Square in Moscow for the first time today to mark the 65th anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany.
Seventy-six soldiers from 2 Company 1st Battalion Welsh Guards were representing the UK at the invitation of the Russian Government.
They marched alongside more than 10,500 Russian troops and others from the U.S. and France.
The event - thought to be costing £26 million - also featured a 1,000-strong military band, 161 tanks and missiles and 127 aircraft.
The hour-long parade saw six types of defence equipment on show in a display of military prowess set to dominate the city's sky and roads.
Guardsman Ian Mundy said: 'There is a sense of pride to be in this massive parade on Red Square.
'It seems that everyone is interested in us as well and I'm proud to be a part of that.'
Lance Corporal John Sanigar added: 'It's a brilliant place to be at the moment for the Army and the Welsh Guards.'The Welsh Guards are staying at the Moscow Military Academy as guests of the Russian Army.
The World War II Lockheed P38 Lightning buried under sand and waves on a Welsh beach, its location is being kept secret
A diver and experts examine the Lockheed P38 Lightning which crashed on a training exercise in 1942
The Lockheed P-38 Lightning as it would have looked, with a Spitfire flying alongside
It has been hidden under the the sands and waves since it crashed off the coast of Wales in 1942. But now this wreckage of a rare World War fighter plane may soon be back on dry land.
Described as 'one of the most important WWII finds in recent history', the location of the Lockheed P38 Lightning has been kept a secret to keep the amazing find safe.
Top of the world: Oh Eun Sun, 44, celebrates on South Korean television after reaching the top of Mount Annapurna in Nepal
Achievement: Miss Oh has become the first woman to climb all 14 of the world's mountains higher than 8,000m
Record: The climber had to turn back hundreds of yards from the top of Annapurna in a previous climb after bad weather and high winds
A South Korean mountaineer became the first woman to scale the world's 14 highest mountains, officials have said.
Oh Eun Sun, 44, was captured on live television as she reached the summit of Mt Annapurna in the Himalayas to claim the record.
But her closest rival, Edurne Pasaban of Spain, has accused her of cheating by failing to reach the highest point on one of her climbs.
Miss Oh crawled on all fours to reach the summit of Mt Annapurna yesterday, before pulling out a South Korean flag and shouting 'victory!'
Officials said the mountain was the last of the 14 peaks above 26,247ft (8,000m) she needed to climb to set the mark.
She reached the summit - 26,545ft above sea level - 13 years after she scaled her first Himalayan mountain, Gasherbrum II, in 1997. She scaled Everest in 2004.
Footage on KBS showed her breathing heavily after each step in -29C temperatures at the top of the mountain.
She said after reaching the top: 'I'm so happy, and I would like to share this joy with the South Korean people. Thank you, thank you.'
The snow-capped peak of Mt. Ararat. The discovery is said to have been made 12,000ft up the mountain which lies in eastern Turkey
Wooden beams which the explorers said they found at the site. The search for the physical remains of Noah's Ark has held a fascination for Christians, Jews and Muslims for hundreds of years. But despite various claims no scientific evidence has ever been found
This picture released by the evangelical group claims to show one of the explorers examining part of a structure which they claim might prove the existence of Noah's Ark on Mount Ararat. There are no external images of the site and the Hong Kong-based group refuse to say precisely where they made their discovery until the Turkish government designate it an archaeological site
This photo, also put out by the evangelical group, is said to show part of a wall inside the structure found by the explorers. One of the team said: 'It's not 100 per cent that it is Noah's Ark but we think it is 99.9 per cent that this is it'
In 2006, U.S. national security analyst Porcher Taylor claimed this satellite image revealed a baffling 'anomaly' on the mountain's north-west corner that he believed to be the remains of the Ark
As believers in the literal truth of the Bible, they knew it was there.
Even so, the explorers who say they found seven large wooden compartments beneath snow and volcanic debris near the peak of Mount Ararat can be forgiven their excitement.
'It's not 100 per cent that it is Noah's Ark, but we think it is 99.9 per cent that this is it,' said Yeung Wing-cheung, a filmmaker working with the 15-strong team of fundamentalist Christians exploring the Turkish mountain.They said wood taken from the site, which is more than 13,000ft above sea level, dates to 2,800BC. If it is the ark, the discovery would be the greatest in the history of archaeology and bear out one of the most famous stories in the Bible.
The team of Turks and Chinese researchers from Noah's Ark Ministries International in Hong Kong say they made the discovery on Ararat - the biblical resting place of the ark - in October.
"We were shot at in cold blood - there was no warning," recounts Ike Makiti, a survivor of the Sharpeville massacre, as he stands by the graves of the township cemetery.
It's being hurriedly spruced up in time for Sunday's 50th anniversary and the arrival of VIPs.
Mr Makiti, was just 17 at the time of the shooting, a schoolboy and an active member of the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC).
He was heading back to school just after lunch on Monday, 21 March 1960, when he heard the sound of gunfire.
"We thought it was just firecrackers at first, then it became clear when we saw the blood that they were shooting at the people. Most of them were shot in the back, as they were trying to run away. It was clear that this was something serious."
Fifteen minutes of shooting transformed the massacre into one of the most iconic moments of the liberation struggle.
It marked the start of armed resistance and the banning of both the PAC and the African National Congress (ANC).
Unemployed survivors
Thousands of protesters had gathered in Sharpeville, just south of Johannesburg, to protest at the use of the infamous passbooks, or "dompas", that every black South African was expected to carry and produce on demand.
It governed a person's movement, was a tool of harassment and was one of the most hated symbols of the apartheid state.
Sixty-nine men, women and children were gunned down on that day, killed when police officers opened fire on the crowd.
The police station - where they had gathered - is now a memorial to the dead.
As South Africa prepares to remember Sharpeville's 50th anniversary with Human Rights Day, there is unease in this run-down township.
People like Ike Makiti who subsequently served five years in jail on Robben Island for being a member of a banned organisation, are disappointed that the promises of the new democratic government are not being fulfilled.
"Most of the people who survived that massacre are not working," he says. "I'm not saying they should be fed sitting down, but they should be provided with work."
Sharpeville's small shopping precinct is in a dilapidated state and many of the buildings have been boarded up. What remains is a small fashion shop, a hair salon, a butcher and a modest bar.
Soured mood
But two schools have closed recently and there are no sports facilities for the youth.
Tsoana Nhlapo, who represents an organisation called Sharpeville First, speaks for the younger generation - descendants of those who witnessed the Sharpeville Massacre.
She is pushing for the township to be recognised as a national heritage site, for an apology from the state for what happened here and, as in many other poor areas in South Africa, for delivery of better infrastructure and services.
"When apartheid was still rife we were complaining that the four-room houses were like kennels, they're not of good quality, but what happens now they're in power is that they're building even smaller ones.
"Are we missing the point somewhere? Do we remember what we fought for?"
South Africa's ruling party, the ANC, is accused of not delivering the basics like housing and jobs to the very people who fought for liberation.
The row has soured the planned celebrations for the 50th anniversary in Sharpeville, with some events even cancelled for fear that they could spark riots.
It mirrors the mood in a society dubbed the most unequal in the world and serves as a reflection of a new type of struggle South African politicians are having to face.
Standing on top of a statue with an arm and a leg held aloft a naked young woman strikes a pose.
The rather provocative young woman in question is artist Dora Carrington, who in the early part of the 20th century was linked with the Bloomsbury Group.
Such was their impact on history that one small corner of central London - Bloomsbury - is now indelibly linked with the Bohemian circle of friends, which included Virginia Woolf, EM Forster and critic Lytton Strachey.
Today the Bohemian group of writers, artists and intellectuals are remembered as much for the complicated romantic entanglements that led to them being described as 'artistic lions' who 'lived in squares and loved in triangles'.
As these images show, members of the group did not live by more traditional constraints of the time, and were at ease in each other's company - with or without clothes.
But perhaps significantly, Woolf is invariable clothed.
The photographs are part of a remakable archive featuring hundreds of intimate letters photographs of the group, which helped define British culture in the inter-war period.
Open to the public for the first time, the unique archive comprises of thousands of pages of previously unseen correspondence between Bloomsbury luminaries and 30 albums of photographs, many of them nude shots.
The archive, on display at King's College, in Cambridge, is charted through the letters and photographs of two lesser known members of the group - the writers Frances Partridge and Rosamond Lehmann.
But through them it gives a insider's view of pivotal events such as Virginia Woolf's suicide in 1941 and that of of the artist Dora Carrington in 1932.
Woolf, author of Mrs Dalloway and To The Lighthouse filled her overcoat pockets with stones and drowned herself at the age of 59.
After her death in spring 1941 her brother-in-law, Clive Bell wrote to Partridge: 'I'm not sure whether The Times will by now have announced that Virginia is missing.
'I'm afraid there is not the slightest doubt that she drowned herself about noon last Friday ... Her stick and footprints were found by the edge of the river.
For some days, of course, we hoped against hope that she had wandered crazily away and might be discovered in a barn or a village shop.
'But by now all hope is abandoned ... the loss is appalling; but like all unhappiness that come of 'missing', I suspect we shall realise it only bit by bit.'
The archive also offers a glimpse of history in the making.
The group started as a circle of intellectuals who had studied at Trinity and King's Colleges, Cambridge, and began meeting at a salon in a house near Bloomsbury Square, central London.
Their friendships were to last a lifetime despite the complicated tangle of love affairs between them.Many of them were quite free with sex as a reaction against their Victorian upbringing and seemed to have a very selective conscience,' said archivist Patricia McGuire.
'The letters are very revealing because everyone wrote to Frances Partridge and confided their secrets and intimate thoughts.
'There are also lots of pictures and almost everyone in the group is naked at some point in a least one shot, apart from Virginia Woolf.'
Lehmann and Partridge first became friends at Cambridge University after World War I.
Lehmann, a famed beauty, became one of the most celebrated novelists of the 1920s and 1930s.
Partridge, once described as having the 'best legs in Bloomsbury', infiltrated one of the group's infamous love triangles.
She married Ralph Partridge, who was the ex-husband of artist Dora Carrington.
In a bizarre and ultimately tragic triangle, Carrington was besotted with open homosexual Strachey, who in turn was in love with Ralph.
When Strachey died of stomach cancer in 1932 a heartbroken Carrington shot herself two months later.
But the bullet missed its mark and she was still alive when her ex-husband and his wife arrived at the house hours later, a 'horror' also documented in one letter in the collection.
Miss McGuire added: 'In a way, these two women belonged to a generation that could only have existed between the wars.
'They had education, training and rights but they also had lots of free time and didn't necessarily have to keep a house.
'They had well-developed points of view, were articulate about their emotions and at the same time struggled with their bohemian lifestyles and the more conservative, older generation.'
Frances Partridge, in a picture from the rare archive
A clothed Frances Partridge (left) on her way to Cambridge in 1920 and Rosamund Lehman
The Bloomsbury group continues to fascinate and in 2002 Nicole Kidman played Virginia Woolf, right, in Stephen Daldry's film The Hours
This image shows critic Lytton Strachey (right) taking tea Rosamond Lehmann and her brother, John Lehmann, a publisher and author, at Ham Spray House in Wiltshire
From left, group members Ralph Partridge, EM Forster, Lytton Strachey, Pierre Lancel and Francis Partridge, pictured some time between 1922 and 1924
In the 1995 film 'Carrington' Emma Thompson took the role of Dora Carrington and Jonathan Pryce as the openly homosexual Lytton Strachey with whom she was in love with
A portrait of her beloved Lytton made in 1916 by Dora Carrington
Bloomsbury set member Dora Carrington naked on a statue in a picture from the archive at Kings College Cambridge
For all the fiction in which the world's fate hangs in the balance, a real event — the Second World War— may be the most dramatic of all.
"World War II was a crossroads that would spell the difference between freedom or oppression, probably forever," Steven Spielberg says. "It's not Hollywood hyperbole, just fact."
That's a big reason Oscar winners Spielberg and Tom Hanks, who collaborated on the film Saving Private Ryan and the HBO miniseries Band of Brothers, are teaming up again for a different take on that epic conflict: The Pacific (HBO, premiering Sunday, 9 ET/PT).
The $200 million, 10-part miniseries is the biggest movie to date for all involved, says Gary Goetzman, an executive producer along with Hanks and Spielberg. More than 1,000 people worked on the project, which filmed for 10 months in Australia.
Veterans, including Spielberg's father, Arnold, and uncle, Irvin, inspired the executive producers to embark on their third joint venture into WWII.
"We determined we needed to acquit the other side of the world. It was really important to us, and also based on the very positive response of veterans to Band of Brothers. Many veterans who were applauding Band of Brothers were also saying, 'But I fought in the Pacific and wonder if you are going to tell our stories,' " Spielberg says.
He and Hanks, history buffs with a strong interest in the war, didn't need much persuading. Both talk passionately about the project, which is based on a mountain of research, including two Marine memoirs. Hanks becomes animated simply by explaining the workings of a WWII-era flamethrower.
Spielberg already was pushing the idea backstage at the 2002 Emmys, when they were honored for Band, a phenomenon that has become HBO's best-selling DVD and the highest-grossing TV-on-DVD release ever.
"We're just coming off stage, and Steven turns around and says, 'Listen! Listen! We've got to do something on the Pacific, we've got to do something on the Pacific!' 'OK! OK! All right! We'll try, we'll try, we'll try,' " Hanks says.
In his urging, "I almost stabbed myself in the eye with the Emmy's wing," Spielberg says.
The Pacific touches on everything from boot camp to brutal battles on tiny islands that brought the Allied forces closer and closer to Japan. Its length allows time to show the Marines on a rare break in Australia; the mood on the U.S. mainland, where Sgt. John Basilone (Jon Seda) went on a war bonds tour; and the aftermath of the war, when servicemen tried to adjust.
Retired Marine Capt. Dale Dye, a senior military adviser who put the actors through a 10-day mini-boot camp, says Pacific raises the high bar set by Band. "It's a more psychological, emotional look at men at war," he says. "It takes (the) time to spend time with these guys when they're not on the battlefield slugging it out. ... It really gives you a look up under the helmet of what's going on."
A different 'hell'
The battle against the Japanese was a far different type of conflict from that taking place in the European theater, where Ryan and Band took place.
The war in Europe, a continent with world cities familiar to many Americans, was "oddly glamorous, strange as it is to call it that," in comparison to the Pacific, with its obscure islands, Hanks says. Both were "hell beyond hell," but in some ways the Pacific "was the opposite of what did happen in Europe."
The miniseries, told from the American point of view, details a horrific environment with seemingly endless battles on such islands as Guadalcanal, Peleliu and New Britain; rat-infested, illness-inducing living conditions in the jungle; and instances of barbaric behavior by both sides. In one episode, a Marine pulls gold-filled teeth from the mouth of a dead Japanese soldier.
"One of the things I'm really proud of is there's not a single act of gratuitous violence in the series," writer Bruce McKenna says. "Every act of violence, every horrible moment has a direct impact on the psyches of our characters."
The Pacific war, with heavy hand-to-hand combat, was a more savage conflict, he says; Japanese soldiers would fight to the death rather than be taken prisoner. There was a racial animosity that differentiated the Pacific war from that in Europe. Producers say it's their responsibility to portray the whole story.
The Marines and their stories "are what lead you to the truth. We don't make it up," Goetzman says. "They're telling you about it and facing what happened. It's our place to represent it."
The enormity takes a toll on the fighting men.
"It brought out in them the horror of war, and what they saw, and friends dying left and right and broken limbs, and all the atrocities that affected them so greatly that that hatred was built up," says actor Joe Mazzello, whose character, Pfc. Eugene Sledge, hardens over time. "War is a brutal, ugly mess, and the emotions that came out of them were whatever was going to be able to get them through it."
The Pacific is specific about the moral cost of WWII, but its themes also apply universally to war. "It was always our intention, and Tom and Steven and Gary were very clear about that: 'Yes, we're doing the Pacific war, but make sure this is as timeless and as epic as we can make it,' " McKenna says. "It should speak to the Peloponnesian War, the Gulf War, the Civil War, young men who are in the trenches and what they go through."
Real-life characters
Pacific veers from Band in how it tells its story: While Band followed one group of soldiers, Easy Company, Pacific weaves together the separate stories of three real-life Marines, two who wrote memoirs and one who received the Medal of Honor for heroism.
Pfc. Robert Leckie (played by James Badge Dale) wrote Helmet for My Pillow, and Sledge (Mazzello) wrote With the Old Breed, memoirs that are "fiercely honest," McKenna says. A detailed historical record tracks the experience of Medal of Honor winner Basilone. The three, all members of the 1st Marine Division, have passed away.
"They're very different takes on the memoir itself. Sledge is a very proper, gentle soul who ends up going through hell and never had a scratch on him," Hanks says. "And Leckie was the absolute opposite, a debauched guy who hated authority and went on his own extensive and pretty profound crisis of faith."
Sledge's best friend, Pfc. Sidney Phillips (Ashton Holmes), served in Leckie's unit, which provided the bridge to connect the stories, Hanks says. "History allowed us to bring Sledge into the story on the same battlefield, same island that Leckie leaves."
Though Pacific is not a documentary, the producers sought authenticity. In addition to the memoirs, sources included 50 books, McKenna says, and extensive interviews with veterans. It was an education for the actors.
"We all did so much research. There was so much paperwork and documentaries just from boot camp," Seda says. "We had to learn what Marine jargon was like. We had to learn weapons and about the camaraderie, too."
The Pacific also has a different look from Ryan and Band. Spielberg desaturated the color in those but oversaturates it in Pacific, reflecting a bright sky and ocean that contrast sharply with bloody island battles. "It was like hell in the middle of a lush jungle, with blue sky just poking out between palm fronds. The things we associate with vacation and relaxing is the hell they have to endure," Spielberg says.
As with the earlier projects, the look of the battle scenes was inspired by Robert Capa's famous D-Day photos. Spielberg developed the style of filming on Ryan as a contrast to depictions in earlier war films.
"If you suddenly lock the camera down the way they used to in a lot of old World War II films and shoot the explosions in slow motion, it's glorifying and beautifying the reality. We're much more likely to use handheld cameras, a device called a shaker lens, which vibrates the image, and a full-open shutter to capture pieces of debris without blurring. All this adds up to a sort of neurotic nature of combat."
If the miniseries succeeds, Spielberg would be open to another WWII project with HBO. Before that, however, he also would like to do another feature film on the war starring Hanks.
"We have an idea we've been kicking around," Spielberg says. "I don't want to go into it right now, but it's another area of World War II that I'd like to do very much with this guy."
Past and future
For the producers, Pacific, as a story about real men, transcends the usual making of a film. (Separate documentary pieces will feature interviews with surviving vets. The producers started researching the project by filming interviews conducted by late historian Stephen Ambrose. His son, Hugh, also interviewed veterans.)
"The investment we have is raised up a bit more because we're impacting generations that lived through it — hopefully, they say, 'Wow, that was pretty authentic' — and generations to come that are going to be looking at this (and saying), 'Wow, I wonder what I would do if I was in that situation,' " Hanks says.
The actors feel a bond with the individuals they portrayed. Dale, who met Leckie's wife, Vera, several times, says he feels like he has lived with the Marine for the past three years. Mazzello says it's important to get it right.
"You're playing their dad, their husband, and they're protective of his legacy," he says. "It took a big leap of faith for them to say, 'We'll let you tell the story.' "
As years pass, fewer veterans are alive to tell the story, and new generations grow more distant from the conflict. Spielberg asked his children about the island of Peleliu, which is not as well known as Okinawa and other battle sites, and they knew it as a setting for an edition of Survivor (Peleliu is part of Palau).
He and Hanks hope Pacific inspires young people to learn more about the war. "When a young person can Google Leckie, Sledge, Basilone or Bougainville, Tarawa or Peleliu, all of a sudden it has a relevance that fiction and science fiction do not have in the same way," Spielberg says.
And there was no need to add drama to make the film compelling, Hanks says. Just the sight of Sledge and company disembarking a beach-landing vehicle amid a fusillade of bombs and bullets conveys the jeopardy. "You don't have to make up something else."
War bonds: Steven Spielberg, left, and Tom Hanks are executive producers of HBO's The Pacific, premiering Sunday (9 p.m. ET/PT). They also teamed for World War II projects Saving Private Ryan and Band of Brothers.
Right from the source: PFC Robert Leckie (James Badge Dale, right, with Tom Budge) wrote a memoir that producers used for research for The Pacific, which follows three real-life Marines on and off the battlefield.
Some 65 years after their service, a group of former civilian women pilots whose unheralded work was key to helping the U.S. effort in World War II are being honored Wednesday with the Congressional Gold Medal.
Fewer than 300 Women Airforce Service Pilots are still alive. About 175 of them, along with thousands of family members, have traveled to Washington for the ceremony at the Capitol.
Jane Tedeschi is one of the WASPs who will be recognized.
"I think it is wonderful. I think it really is," she told CNN, saying it's especially meaningful because "so many of us are still alive to get this honor."
The Women Airforce Service Pilots was born in 1942 to create a corps of female pilots able to fill all types of flying jobs at home, thus freeing male military pilots to travel to the front.
As part of the commemoration, the former pilots attended a wreath-laying ceremony Tuesday at the Air Force Memorial just outside Washington to remember their colleagues killed in the line of duty.
"I think that this is important. It is hopefully something that people will remember," Tedeschi told CNN last week. "It is another thing to honor the women who lost their lives at that time and of course what it did to persuade people that women could do this."
With only about a quarter of the former 1,102 WASPs surviving and all in their late 80s or older, Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas; Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Maryland; and Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Florida, pushed a bill through Congress to honor these women by awarding them the medal, given as an expression of national appreciation for distinguished achievements and contributions, according to the House of Representatives' Office of the Clerk.
"This is a largely overlooked veterans group. They haven't gotten the medals they deserve, the recognition they deserve," Ros-Lehtinen told CNN.
Longtime dream of flight
From the time she was about 8, Tedeschi wanted to fly.
"[Charles] Lindbergh was flying across the Atlantic, and a lot of other people were flying air races and things like that." she said, "It was very romantic."
Flight was still relatively new in the 1920s and 1930s, and female pilots were few. But Tedeschi was determined.
Video: Forgotten female heroes
In 1941, she found a childhood friend who taught flying and started taking lessons. After the friend was sent off to war and the airport near her home in Bethesda, Maryland, was closed to private flying, she traveled about 40 miles to Frederick and spent nights on the floor of a farmhouse to continue her lessons.
Around the same time, Deanie Parrish was working in a bank in Avon Park, Florida, and kept seeing aviation students who were attending a flying school there.
"I asked an instructor 'Why can't I learn to fly?' and he didn't have an answer ... so I decided to find out for myself."
She found an instructor and started taking lessons.
These two women were not only fulfilling a personal dream. Along with 1,100 other women, they would become an instrumental part of the war effort during World War II, becoming the first women to fly U.S. military aircraft.
In the days after the outbreak of the war, Jacqueline Cochran, one of the country's leading female pilots at the time, went to a key general to argue that women would be just as capable pilots as men if they were given the same training.
She won the argument, and the program was launched.
At 21, Parrish joined up in November 1943.
"Everybody was doing something," she said. "I wanted to do something for my country."
Some 25,000 women pilots applied, and 1,830 were accepted. They had to pay their own way to Texas for 21 to 27 weeks of rigorous training, for which they received less pay than the male cadets in the same program, Parrish said.
Just short of requirements
Candidates had to be at least 21 and at least 5 feet, one-half inch tall.
When Tedeschi underwent a physical, she was told her height was only 5 feet.
"I frowned," she recalled. "I said 'I need that half-inch,' so he wrote it down." She was in.
Eventually the women who completed the program were assigned to one of 120 bases across the country to start their missions.
Depending on the base, they participated in a range of activities:
-- Ground-to-air anti-aircraft practice.
-- Towing targets for air-to-air gunnery practice with live ammunition.
-- Flying drones and conducting night exercises.
-- Testing repaired aircraft before they were used in cadet training.
-- Serving as instructors.
-- Transporting cargo and male pilots to embarkation points.
"We were still civilians. All of our training was to make [Army] Air Corps pilots," Tedeschi said.
They flew more than 60 million miles in every type of aircraft -- from the PT-17 and AT-6 trainers, the fastest attack planes such as the A-24 and A-25 or heavy bombers such as B-17s or B-29s.
Paid $250 a month, the women were not officially part of the military. They received no benefits, no honors.
Eventually, Parrish was sent to Florida where she flew a B-26 bomber for air-to-air target practice, training gunners for combat.
Tedeschi, who graduated in May 1944, was sent to a Selma, Alabama, base that did more engineering work.
"We did whatever they asked us," she recalled in a CNN interview. "You knew enough about flying you could adapt ... sometimes it was a little tougher."
For instance, she would take planes up after repair. That could involve acrobatic work, "which, of course, we liked to do." She could also be called to do night flying.
While the work was technically noncombat, it could be dangerous.
Thirty-eight of the pilots were killed. Parrish recalled the military would not allow the flag to be put on a colleague's coffin.
"It still bothers me," she told CNN.
End of the program
As the war was winding down in December 1944, the program was closed -- with no recognition from the government and not much help for the women who served.
"You got home the best way you could," said Parrish. "I paid my own way home."
Several of the women, however, said they were not bitter since the only reason they had signed up was to do their part for the country, pointing out that they were just like the thousands of other women who also learned new skills and went to work in the factories to replace male workers sent off to war.
"We were proud of what we did, and the war was over. It was time to get on," said Tedeschi.
But many Americans were not aware of their efforts, and that has bothered them. The WASP records were sealed for more than 30 years. In 1977, Congress voted to make them eligible for veterans' benefits.
"I didn't care for veteran status, but now I could have a flag on my coffin ... that is important to me," Parrish said.
Parrish married a pilot after the war. She and her daughter, Nancy, for over a decade have documented the work of the WASPs and worked to gain national attention for their work. Read more about the WASPs at the Wings Across America Web site.
While some of the WASPs say the medal itself is a nice gesture, more importantly they say they hope the publicity will teach younger generations about their accomplishments and remind some still skeptical men just how capable women are.
"Millions of Americans will learn about the history of these women. I think that is so important," Parrish told CNN.
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Turkey's Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan addresses members of parliament from his ruling AK Party during a meeting at the Turkish parliament in Ankara March 2, 2010
Turks are up in arms over the passing of a resolution by an American congressional committee on Thursday recognizing the killings of Armenians in 1915 as genocide.
Immediately after the 23-22 vote in favor of the resolution came in, the Prime Minister's Office released a statement warning of the consequences of the decision.
A press release by the government stated the result had been " met with sorrow" and denounced the resolution accusing the Turkish people of a crime they did not commit. Turkey's official, and popular, stance has been that no genocide was committed in 1915 and it regards the events as civil strife in wartime claiming the lives of many Turks and Armenians.
Turks have been very sensitive to genocide allegations; the president of the Human Rights Association Ozturk Turkdogan told Xinhua, "When the word genocide comes up, Turks just shut their ears."
Turkdogan added, "Turkey is an ideological nation-state, and like other ideological nation-states, it has difficulty facing up to its past."
Former Democratic Left Party (DSP) parliamentarian Teoman Akgur told Xinhua that the resolution will not pass in the long run, as "some hero will block it before it becomes a bill." Similar non- binding resolutions had been passed by the House of Representatives' Foreign Relations Committee in 2000, 2005 and 2007, but all of which had been blocked by White House pressure from going to a general House vote.
Yet the office of the prime minister warned, "We worry that the passing of this resolution by the committee despite all our admonitions might harm Turkish-U.S. relations and might halt the Turkey-Armenia normalization process."
Retired Consul General Mengu Buyukdavras told Xinhua that because Turkey and America have enjoyed a special relationship since the 1950s, "Turkey will not be quick to forgive and forget America's passing of the resolution, but it would be the Turkish- Armenian relationship that would suffer the most."
INFLUENCE ON TURKEY-ARMENIA TIES
Turkey and Armenia have been bogged down in the row over the deaths of Armenians and have no diplomatic or economic ties since Armenia declared its independence in 1991.
In October, the two countries signed historic deals on normalizing ties and reopening their borders after decades of hostilities. The agreements need to be ratified by both countries' parliaments before taking effect.
Regarding the "normalization protocols" signed in Zurich last October, writer and journalist Cengiz Aktar told Xinhua, "It is now impossible to bring them up for approval, even the (ruling) Justice and Development Party's parliamentarians might not support it. The normalization process is now in deep-freeze."
Burak Kuntay, head of the American Research Center at Bahcesehir University, told Xinhua that relations with Armenia had been progressing positively in recent years, but "being labeled murderers from the other side of the world can only hurt this process."
Kuntay is certain that the resolution would not pass. He said the close 23-22 vote was a victory for Turkey.
But according to him, this would not have much of an impact on U.S.-Turkey relations: the House of Representatives has already passed a resolution in 1974 recognizing the genocide and in 1981 former U.S. President Ronald Reagan used the word "genocide" in a speech.
"Relations might not be as they were before, but that too will settle into a routine," Kuntay added.
MEDIA FUELLING FLAMES
Turkdogan, Aktar and Kuntay agree that this affair has been blown out of proportion by the media, which has been skewing information. Kuntay said the media has been presenting the issue as if the House has already accepted genocide, when it is just a sub-committee passing a non-binding resolution similar to previous ones shot down by the administration.
As for Turkey's ambassador to Washington Namik Tan being recalled to Ankara for consultation Thursday night, Turkey also took similar action in 2007 House vote, but soon its then ambassador Nabi Sensoy returned back to duty.
Yet Kuntay admits the media plays a great role in how the public perceive this, and Aktar said "Turkey already sees this as Americans having accepted the Armenian genocide, and that this amounted to a public diplomacy disaster."
As many a courtier fatally found out, it was never a good idea to displease the Virgin Queen.
Which may explain why an artist carried out some serious alterations to his first draft portrait of Elizabeth I back in the 16th century.
Where he had drawn the Queen clutching a serpent, the painter had second thoughts and substituted a much more feminine bunch of roses.
The revisions would have remained a mystery had it not been for the ravages of time.
For yesterday, the National Portrait Gallery revealed how the image of the coiled snake had re-appeared.
Deterioration over the centuries has meant the serpent depicted in the Tudor monarch's fingers in the original version has revealed itself once more, with its outline now visible on the surface.
The portrait was created by an unknown artist in the 1580s or early 1590s.
The image has not been on display at the London gallery since 1921 but it will form part of an exhibition titled Concealed and Revealed: The Changing Faces of Elizabeth I, from March 13 to September 26.
A serpent was sometimes used to reflect wisdom, prudence and reasoned judgment, but the scaly creatures are also linked to notions of Satan and original sin.
The gallery suggested the snake's removal may have been due to the ambiguity of the emblem. An artist's impression has been created of what the snake could have looked like, with infra-red technology revealing the changes in the initial design.
A statement from the gallery said: 'The snake is mainly black but has greenish blue scales and was almost certainly painted from imagination.'
The image of the monarch covers a portrait of another woman, whose identity is unknown.
The gallery believes the unfinished portrait was by a different painter, showing how 16th century panels were sometimes recycled by artists.
Revealed once more: The image of a snake has appeared in a 16th century portrait of Queen Elizabeth I. A faint outline of the coils can be seen superimposed on her hand, while the serpent's body, - seen as dark shading - follows the line of the flowers she is holding and also passes beneath her fingers
What lay beneath: An artist's impression of what the snake may have looked like, left, and an infra-red image of the altered design. A serpent was sometimes used to reflect wisdom but they are also linked to notions of Satan and original sin
Antiquities expert Dr Zahi Hawass (right) announces today in Cairo's Egypt Museum that the mummies in front of him have been identified as Tutankhamun's father, mother and grandmother by using DNA
Dr Zahi Hawass removed King Tut from his stone sarcophagus in 2007 to study his DNA. Tests revealed the king was a sickly young adult
Technicians take DNA samples from the mummy of Boy Pharaoh Tutankhamun in the Valley of the Kings. Tests revealed his parents were siblings
The mummy of King Tut's grandmother Queen Tiye. She was the chief wife of Amenhotep III and mother of Pharaoh Akhenaten. Tiye was held in high esteem by her husband and depicted with him in pictures. There has been speculation that her eldest son Prince Tuthmose, who disappeared from royal records, was Moses
King Tut's father Akhenaten (left) and mother (right) who has been identified for the first time using DNA, were brother and sister. The royal family were seen as living deities so incest was an acceptable way of retaining the sacred bloodline
King Tutankhamun was a hobbled, weak teenager with a cleft palate and club foot. And he probably has his parents to blame.
For the mother and father of the legendary 'golden' boy pharaoh were actually brother and sister.
The startling discovery was revealed today by a team led by Egyptian antiquities expert Dr Zahi Hawass. They identified the mummies of both his parents and two of his grandparents by studying DNA samples over two years.
King Tut has fascinated the world ever since his ancient tomb was unearthed by the British archaeologist Dr Howard Carter in the Valley of the Kings in 1922.
Stunning funerary treasure was found in his tomb, including an 24.2lb solid gold death mask encrusted with lapis lazuli and semi-precious stones.
Rumours of a curse arose after Dr Carter's benefactor Lord Carnarvon died suddenly a few months after the tomb was opened, even though Dr Carter went on to live another 16 years.
King Tut was known to be the son of the 'heretic' pharaoh Akhenaten, who tried to reform the Egyptian religion during his rule from 1351 to 1344BC. But the identity of his mother had been shrouded in mystery until now.
Incest was rife among the boy king's family because pharaohs were believed to be descended from Gods.
Therefore it was an acceptable way of retaining the sacred bloodline. King Tut's own wife Ankhesenpaaten, was his half-sister as they shared the same father.
But Dr Hawass' team found generations of inbreeding took their toll on King Tut - the last of his great dynasty.
The bone disease he suffered runs in families and is more likely to be passed down if two first-degree relatives marry and have children.
They described him as: 'A young but frail king who needed canes to walk.' This explains the presence of more than 100 canes in his tomb, which he would have needed in the afterlife.
Tut, who became pharaoh at the age of 10 in 1333 BC, ruled for just nine years until his death. He was the last of the royal line from the eighteenth dynasty of the New Kingdom.
The sickly teenager was not murdered but died from complications arising from a broken leg exacerbated by malaria, according to the study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association today.
The theory he was assassinated stemmed from the fact that he was the last ruler of his dynasty and had a hole in the back of his head.
In 2005 Dr Hawass announced his team had found no evidence for a blow to the back of the head, and the hole was from the mummification process.
The cause of King Tut's death has long been disputed among historians, with many speculating that he was murdered.
Theories that he was assassinated stemmed from the fact that he was the last ruler of his dynasty and had a hole in the back of his head.
However, in 2005 Dr Hawass announced his team had found no evidence for a blow to the back of the head, and the hole was from the mummification process.
King Tut was succeeded by the high priest Ay for four years - who also married his widow Ankhesenpamon.
Ay was followed by the military leader Horemheb who ruled for 26 years until he ceded power to Ramses, founder of the 19th dynasty.
The researchers studied 16 mummies from the Valley of the Kings. They revealed that beneath the golden splendour in which they lived, ancient Egypt's royals were as vulnerable as the lowliest peasant to disease.
Three other mummies besides Tut's showed repeated malaria infections and incestuous marriages only worsened their maladies.
However, analysis of King Tut's family disproved speculation his family suffered from rare disorders that gave them feminine attributes and misshapen bones, including Marfan Syndrome, a connective tissue disorder that can result in elongated limbs.
The theories arose from the artistic style and statues of the period, which showed the royal men with prominent breasts, elongated heads and flared hips.
'It is unlikely that either Tutankhamun or Akhenaten actually displayed a significantly bizarre or feminine physique,' the team said.
One of the most impressive-looking mummies who was studied was King Tut's grandmother, Queen Tiye. She was the chief wife of Amenhotep III and mother of King Tut's father Akhenaten. She was the first queen to figure so prominently beside her husband in statues and temple reliefs.
Queen Tiye held much political influence at court and acted as an adviser to her son after the death of her husband. A lock of her hair was found in a miniature coffin in King Tut's tomb.
Her tomb was identified by matching the labelled hair in Tut's tomb with the well-preserved hair on her mummy.
The ancient Egyptians were very concerned with maintaining their hair to promote their social status. They devised remedies for baldness and graying and regularly washed and scented their hair. Adults sometimes wore hairpieces, and had elaborate styles.
Hair does not continue to grow after death, instead the skin retracts around the follicles as it dries, making the hair jut out more prominently.
INCEST AND ROYALTY
King Tut (pictured below) belonged to the 18th dynasty of Egyptian kings during the period of the New Kingdom. His genealogy is complex as there was considerable inter-marriage within his family.
The pharaohs believed they were descended from the gods and incest was seen as acceptable so as to retain the sacred bloodline. King Tut was born c.1341 BC. His father was Akhenaten, first known as Amenhotep. Tutankhamun's mother has been confirmed as Mummy KV35YL, a sister of Akhenaten. Tut's stepmother was Nefertiti, the chief wife of Akhenaten. In c.1348 BC Ankhesenamun was born to Akhenaten and Nerfertiti, making her Tut's half-sister. At the age of ten Tut married her. He died at the age of 19.
