1,000-Year-Old Massacre Uncovered in England
By Rossella Lorenzi
Fri Mar 12, 2010 02:31 PM ET
A macabre and forgotten episode from the Dark Ages has been uncovered by British researchers after they examined dozens of beheaded skeletons.
Mystery surrounded the identity of the victims since they were discovered by accident last June near Weymouth, Dorset, England, when workers at a 2012 building site, stumbled across a burial pit.
The grave contained a mass of bones and 51 skulls neatly stacked in a pile.
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Motherhood Takes a Blessed Turn at the Taronga Zoo (Sydney, Australia)Things are really crappy out there in the world right now, but this is a great feel good story. The elephant piece in Chaturanga - Chatrang - Shatranj (and let us not forget Xiang Qi which some call "Elephant Game") is the venerable ancestor of the Bishop in western chess. Elephants pods are governed by the oldest females - a matriarchal society. Goddesschess holds elephants in very high regard.
It all started out with this sad story:
A mother's heavy burden as baby elephant dies
DEBORAH SMITH
March 9, 2010
PERHAPS the other female elephants could tell that things were going seriously wrong.
Early on Sunday morning, when Taronga Zoo's 18-year-old Asian elephant, Porntip, was in the deepest throes of labour, their behaviour suddenly changed and they lost interest in the birth.
A day later, the keepers and veterinarians providing round-the-clock care to the first-time mother reached the sad conclusion that her baby had died after a difficult and protracted labour.
The zoo's senior vet, Larry Vogelnest, said the calf had presented in an ''upside-down'' position never seen by vets before, which made birth impossible.
Its front feet were coming first, and its heavy head was pulled down by gravity, trapped up against the pelvis.
A caesarean section on a 3000-kilogram elephant was never an option, because of the very high risks.
''And there is very little we can do to manipulate the calf,'' said Dr Vogelnest, adding that the 100-kilogram baby was surrounded by another 150 kilograms of fluid and tissue.
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Elephant mum 'told' herd baby had died MILES GODFREY
March 9, 2010
It was the dead of night, the baby's heart had stopped and all those present knew it only too well. A low subsonic rumble, entirely inaudible to human ears, drifted out across Sydney Harbour, heralding the tragic news.
Nobody quite knows the exact message communicated.
No one quite knows the emotions it contained.
But it is certain that when an unborn baby elephant at a Sydney zoo died last Sunday, the rest of its herd instantly knew and fully understood what had happened.
Amazingly, the group of six elephants would have heard the baby's heartbeat stop - even though it was still inside its mother, a leading elephant breeding expert says.
The calf's death at Taronga Zoo is a tragic blow to Australia's fledgling breeding and conservation program. But it offers a rare insight into the psychology and physiology of these highly intelligent creatures, some aspects of which we still don't fully understand.
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Alive and kicking: the 100kg miracle they'll never forget 
March 11, 2010
HE is set to rewrite the textbooks.
Sydney's ''miracle'' Asian elephant calf, born alive two days after he was declared dead in the womb, is the first elephant known to have survived such a protracted and difficult labour as his mother, Porntip, underwent.
He apparently confounded his keepers and veterinarians - and fellow elephants - by going into a coma during the nine-day ordeal.
The newborn was showing encouraging signs of doing well yesterday, following his surprise arrival at Taronga Zoo at 3.27 am, but was still under round-the-clock intensive care in the heated elephant barn.
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Taronga's 'miracle' elephant 'doing well' DEBORAH SMITH
March 11, 2010
The "miracle" Asian elephant calf who was born alive after he was believed to have died in his mother’s womb is making good progress today.
The calf, who was monitored by the zoo's keepers throughout the night and today weighed 116 kilograms, has started to suckle from his mother, Porntip, without help and tried to run.
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