A radical Islamic faction has gained control of three towns in northern Mali, including Timbuktu, where they have used axes and shovels to destroy historic mausoleums that they claim do not comply with Islamic law. Timbuktu was a center of Islam in Africa in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. “It is a tragedy for Africa because […]

Researchers say they have found an intact section of a bow made of yew that is more than 5,000 years old at the La Draga site in Spain. Part of the site is submerged in Lake Banyoles; other sections of the site on the lake’s shores offer anaerobic conditions, which favor the preservation of organic artifacts. […]