Digital Journal

Egyptologists have unearthed twelve ancient sphinx statues at Luxor. The sculptures were found at a newly discovered part of the Avenue of Sphinxes, an ancient road that leads from the temple at Karnak to the temple of the goddess Mut at Luxor. The discovery was made as part of excavation and restoration works at the site by the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), according to Egypt's Minister of Culture, Farouk Hosni. The statues of the mythical creatures, inscribed with the name of Pharaoh...

Astronomers, for the first time, believe they have witnessed the birth of a black hole. The black hole is believed to be a remnant of a supernova, 50 million light years from Earth, which was spotted by an amateur astronomer in 1979. NASA announced this on Monday. According to NASA researchers, although the information they have collected is consistent with the birth of a baby black hole, they cannot rule out other possibilities. "If our interpretation is correct, this is the nearest example...

Yahoo is all set to jump on to the content bandwagon. The Internet giant on Tuesday launched the Yahoo Contributor Network, hosting 400,000 freelance writers, photographers and videographers from Associated Content, a firm that it bought over in May. Yahoo said in a statement that the Yahoo! Contributor Network would give freelance content creators access to popular destinations such as Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Finance, Yahoo! Sports and the Yahoo! homepage. Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz said in the...

More than 400,000 unlicensed copies of articles from major US news websites were republished online between March and July this year, according to new research published this week by copyright tracking service Attributor. Attributor's Graduated Response Trial for News monitored 70,101 news articles during the period and discovered that in more than 400,000 cases 80 per cent of the original article had been illegally copied. In all, 44,906 websites were involved in republishing content, the...

Scientists in the US are more likely to publish fake research than their colleagues from other countries, a study has revealed. The findings appear in the November 16 online issue of the Journal of Medical Ethics. R Grant Steen, Medical Communications Consultants, delved through the PubMed database for every scientific research paper that had been withdrawn in the 2000-2010 period. Research papers that are withdrawn are usually removed from public records. The PubMed database is the only...

Hollywood and Bollywood, two of the largest film industries in the world, agreed to strengthen their cooperation Wednesday with the signing of a historic agreement. As part of the pact signed Wednesday, Hollywood and Bollywood have agreed to “develop and strengthen motion picture production, distribution, technology, content protection and commercial cooperation.” The two industries also supported the creation of a Los Angeles-India Film Council to encourage Indian film production in Los Angeles...

The Indian Ministry of Tourism has announced a travel bonanza for att medal winners at the recent Commonwealth Games 2010. Though the ministry had announced its plans during the Games itself, the announcement came only on Thursday. The best of the packages is being offered by the Ministry in association with the state governments of Rajasthan and Karnataka, and the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC). This would be in the form of complimentary travel packages for the medal...

The extraordinary biodiversity seen in the Amazon rainforest — one of the most species-rich ecosystems on Earth — may have evolved mainly due to the rise of the Andes. And it is older than earlier thought. An international team of scientists, including a leading evolutionary biologist from the Academy of Natural Sciences, says that the origin of rich biodiversity in the Amazon likely goes back more than 20 million years when the Andean mountains were rising. The findings of the study, which is...

A Russian court has convicted of slander a journalist who is confined to a wheelchair and brain damaged after a savage attack two years ago. He has, however, been spared the punishment. According to Agence France-Presse (AFP), Mikhail Beketov, editor of the weekly, Khimkinskaya Pravda, was on trial for slander for accusing the local mayor of being involved in an abortive attempt to blow up his car. Beketov had made the allegations against the mayor of Khimki, Vladimir Strelchenko, in September...

The Japanese journalist detained for illegally entering Myanmar (Burma) has been deported. Toru Yamaji, a journalist with the video and photo agency APF News, had been arrested during Sunday's election in Myawaddy on the eastern border with Thailand. An unnamed official told Agence France-Presse (AFP), "We released him and deported him. We did not take any action against him because of the complicated situation." Yamaji, who had initially be charged under the Immigration Act, crossed over back...