Stephen: Whenever something that has previously been hidden is found, one never knows what ‘new’ light is cast and what ‘new’ history might be revealed. I expect the discovery of this ‘buried’ medieval city near Angkor Wat, Cambodia, may soon expose its secrets.

By Lindsay Murdoch, South East Asian correspondent, SMH – June 15, 2013

http://www.smh.com.au/world/lost-horizons-mediaeval-city-uncovered-20130614-2o9p3.html

Archaeologists using revolutionary airborne laser technology have discovered a lost medieval city that thrived on a mist-shrouded Cambodian mountain 1200 years ago.

An instrument called Lidar strapped to a helicopter which criss-crossed a mountain north of the Angkor Wat complex provided data that matched years of ground research by archaeologists. The research revealed the city that founded the Angkor Empire in 802AD.

The University of Sydney’s archaeology research centre in Cambodia brought the Lidar instrument to Cambodia and played a key role in the discovery that is set to revolutionise archaeology across the world.

Archaeologists and exploration and mapping experts have uncovered more than two dozen previously unrecorded temples and evidence of ancient canals, dykes and roads using satellite navigation co-ordinates gathered from the instrument’s data.

Fairfax Media recorded the discovery of the first five temples after pushing through landmine-strewn jungle, swollen rivers and bogs with the expedition on a mountain called Phnom Kulen, 40 kilometres north of Angkor Wat in north-western Cambodia.

Mahendraparvata existed 350 years before Angkor Wat, the Hindu temple that has captivated interest across the world and is visited by more than 2 million people each year.

In effect the Lidar technology peeled away the jungle canopy using billions of laser pulses, allowing archaeologists to see for the first time structures that were in perfect squares, completing a map of the city which years of painstaking ground research had been unable to achieve.

The archaeologists were amazed to see that 36 previously recorded ruins scattered across the mountain were linked by an intricate network of gridded roads, dykes, ponds and temples divided into regular city blocks.

Damian Evans, director of the University of Sydney’s centre in Cambodia, who was a co-leader of the expedition, said there might be important implications for today’s society.

“We see from the imagery that the landscape was completely devoid of vegetation,” Dr Evans said. “One theory we are looking at is that the severe environmental impact of deforestation and the dependence on water management led to the demise of the civilisation … perhaps it became too successful to the point of becoming unmanageable,” he said.

French-born archaeologist Jean-Baptiste Chevance, director of the Archaeology and Development Foundation in London, who was also a leader of the expedition, said it was known from ancient scriptures that a great warrior, Jayavarman II, had a mountain capital, “but we didn’t know how all the dots fitted, exactly how it all came together.

“We now know from the new data the city was for sure connected by roads, canals and dykes,” he said.

Over years Dr Chevance and his staff had crossed ancient roads and passed ancient structures they suspected were there but could not see because they were hidden by jungle and earth.

The foundation’s exploration and mapping expert, Stephane De Greef, has now confirmed the location of almost 30 previously unidentified temples using the Lidar data.

The discovery, to be published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in the US, will prompt scientific excavation of the most significant sites by archaeologists seeking to discover what life was like for a civilisation about which very little was known, including why it was abandoned to the forest.

It will also allow archaeologists and historians to learn more about the evolution of Angkor, the enormous political and religious empire that dominated most of south-east Asia for 600 years.

By Mary Bruce, ABC News – June 18, 2013

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2013/06/u-s-to-begin-peace-negotiations-with-taliban/

The Taliban said today that they are prepared to sit down for direct peace talks with Afghan and U.S. officials over the future of Afghanistan.

The news comes as Afghan President Hamid Karzai announced today that Afghan security forces have taken over the country’s security lead from the U.S.-led NATO coalition.

Both developments were major milestones in the 12 year war that began shortly after al Qaeda, protected by the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, launched the 9/11 terror attacks against the U.S.

Taliban officials today released a statement opposing the use of Afghan soil to threaten other countries, a critical step to breaking ties with Al Qaeda, and supporting the Afghan peace process.

These statements fulfill the requirements for the Taliban to open a political office in Doha, Qatar, for the purpose of negotiating with the Afghan government.

President Obama said today, “This is an important step towards reconciliation, although its an early step, we anticipate there will be lots of bumps in road. But the fact that the parties have talked and discussed Afghan future that is very important.”

“One thing we do believe is any insurgent group including the Taliban will need to accept an Afghan constitution that renounces ties to al Qaeda, ends violence, and is committed to protections [for] women and minorities in the country,” the president said.

A senior Obama administration official said, “We welcome this. These statements represent an important first step towards reconciliation — a process that, after 30 years of armed conflict in Afghanistan, will certainly promise to be complex, long and messy, but nonetheless, this is an important first step.”

While the U.S. will have its first direct talks with the Taliban in the coming days, administration officials stressed that the peace negotiating process must be Afghan-led.

“The core of this process is not going to be the U.S.- Taliban talks. Those can help advance the process, but the core of it is going to be negotiations among Afghans, and the level of trust on both sides is extremely low, as one would expect. So it’s going to be a long, hard process if indeed it advances significantly at all,” the official said.

In addition to encouraging the Taliban to sever ties with Al Qaeda, detainee exchanges are also expected to be on the U.S-Taliban agenda, including the return of U.S. Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl.

“Yes. Clearly, we do want to get our soldier, Sergeant Bergdahl, back. And I would expect that detainee exchanges would be an item on the U.S.-Taliban agenda,” an official said.

“That will be a discussion item. It’s not something that is agreed to at this point, so it’s a topic for the types of discussions that the U.S. will have with the Taliban,” added another official. Senior administration officials hailed today as a “milestone on the path toward peace” but also tried to temper expectations. “We need to be realistic. This is a new development, a potentially significant development. But peace is not at hand,” an official said.

By Steve Mullis, NPR – June 18, 2013

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/06/18/193196756/we-were-told-to-lie-say-bank-of-america-employees

Six former employees and one contractor say Bank of America ‘s mortgage servicing unit consistently lied to homeowners, fraudulently denied loan modifications and offered bonuses to staff for intentionally pushing people into foreclosure, according to a Salon.com report.

The allegations were made in sworn statements added to a civil lawsuit filed in federal court in Massachusetts.

One of the former employees, Erika Brown, said in her statement that the bank’s practice was to “string homeowners along with no apparent intention of providing the permanent loan modifications it promises.”

Salon explained the process in more detail:

“The government’s Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP), which gave banks cash incentives to modify loans under certain standards, was supposed to streamline the process and help up to 4 million struggling homeowners (to date, active permanent modifications number about 870,000 ). In reality, Bank of America used it as a tool, say these former employees, to squeeze as much money as possible out of struggling borrowers before eventually foreclosing on them. Borrowers were supposed to make three trial payments before the loan modification became permanent; in actuality, many borrowers would make payments for a year or more, only to find themselves rejected for a permanent modification, and then owing the difference between the trial modification and their original payment.”

The employees’ statements went on to describe a system of negligence, falsifying records and mass, systematic rejections of loan modification applications — called a “blitz” — all intended to force borrowers into foreclosure and allow Bank of America to collect additional fees from them.

The statements also described a system of cash bonuses, as well as gift cards for local retailers, offered by senior managers to employees who met quotas for pushing accounts into foreclosure.

Bank of America has said the statements paint a “false picture” of the bank’s activities and that they are “rife with inaccuracies.”

Montana court says bison transfer legal

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — The relocation of Yellowstone National Park bison to tribal lands inMontana can resume, under a Wednesday ruling from the state's Supreme Court that revives a stalled conservation initiative for the animals.

Bison, also known as buffalo, once numbered in the tens of millions across North America, before overhunting drove them to near-extinction. Government-sponsored efforts in Montana have the potential to return the burly animals to parts of their historic range, but had been on hold since last year.

That's when a lower court sided with ranchers and property rights advocates, who sued to block further transfers of the animals after Montana wildlife officials moved more than 60 bison to the Fort Peck Indian Reservation.

Critics said the move was illegal under state law. They argued wild bison damage fences, eat hay meant for cattle, and potentially could spread animal diseases to livestock.

In March of 2012, state district Judge John McKeon sided with plaintiffs and issued an order blocking future transfers of Yellowstone bison. The move effectively halted the restoration program.

In Wednesday's ruling, state high court justices came down on the side of the state, which had argued that the law in question did not apply to tribal lands.

Chief Justice Mike McGrath wrote in a 16-page opinion that the relocation program was a "reasoned and viable" alternative to past practices involving Yellowstone bison. Those have included the wholesale slaughter of thousands of bison in the name of disease control when the animals crossed into Montana during their winter migrations.

A representative of the plaintiffs said the ruling guts the Montana Legislature's attempt last session to allow public input into the bison relocation process. Chuck Denowh with United Property Owners of Montana said the group is not strictly opposed to relocating bison but wants to inject transparency into the process.

Last year's relocation, during the administration of former Gov. Brian Schweitzer, came with little prior notice.

An attorney for conservation groups that intervened on behalf of the state said the ruling most immediately allows for the transfer of several dozen bison to the Fort Belknap Reservation.

The animals once played a central role in American Indian life, providing meat for food, and pelts for clothing and shelter. They also feature prominently in many Native American religious ceremonies.

Robert Magnan, Fish and Game director for the Fort Peck Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes, said he hoped Wednesday's ruling will allow the tribe to increase the size of its small bison herd to several hundred animals. The best prospect for that is to get some of the park's animals now being held on the state's behalf at a private ranch owned by media mogul and philanthropist Ted Turner near Bozeman.

The bison spent several years in quarantine just outside the park, to make sure they were free of brucellosis. The disease can cause infected cattle to abort their young.

"It's a good, positive way of moving buffalo, not only to tribal lands, but there are other places in Montana that would be ideal," he said.

For the tribes, bison meat provides a healthier source of protein than beef, Magnan added. That could help reduce high rates of obesity and diabetes on reservations, he said.

Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks spokesman Ron Aasheim said future bison transfers to tribal lands will occur only if the receiving reservation has signed a legal agreement with the state. The document would cover issues including fencing, disease testing and established protocols in the event animals escape.

Fort Belknap Fish and Wildlife Director Mark Azure said negotiations with the state over such an agreement will resume this week.

Additional relocations to non-tribal lands would not take place until the agency completes a pending long-range bison management strategy. That statewide plan is due by the end of 2015, Aasheim said.