Libya starts to reconnect to net

22 August 2011 Last updated at 16:52 GMT Some Twitter activity seemed to be coming out of Tripoli Libya's internet connections appear to be slowly coming back online after a six-month blackout.

The state-run internet service provider (ISP) carried a message on its website that said: "Libya, one tribe".

However, local people have reported patchy reliability with connections coming and going.

Internet traffic in Libya dropped to almost nothing in early March when Colonel Gaddafi's government pulled the plug in an attempt to suppress dissent.

With Tripoli under siege, and the rebels reportedly gaining the upper hand, the authorities' stranglehold on net connections appeared to be loosening.

Both Google's web analytics and Akamai's net monitoring service showed a spike in traffic coming from the country early on 22 August.

Akamai's director of market intelligence, David Belson, said that internet activity had increased almost 500%, although it had declined again later in the day.

Both Akamai (top) and Google (bottom) recorded a spike in web traffic on 22 August

Writing on the blog of internet intelligence firm Renesys, chief technology officer James Cowie said that Libya's Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) routing appeared to have been taken down briefly, effectively making the country's internal networks disappear from the internet.

The BGPs were later restored, although local ADSL broadband connections then became unavailable, wrote Mr Cowie.

Web monitoring companies conceded that it was difficult to know exactly what was going on inside the country to make the internet connections sporadically available.

However, it appeared that Libyans were making use of their newly restored connectivity - when available - to chronicle fast-moving events inside the country.

Groups such as the Libya Youth Movement posted Twitter messages giving regular updates on attempts to capture Colonel Gaddafi's compound.

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Pub's buried elephant dig starts

9 April 2011 Last updated at 17:03 GMT Dr Jemma Bezant explained they are hoping to find the evidence of where a carcass had once been buried.

Archaeologists having started digging up a pub beer garden in search of a legendary Victorian circus elephant.

The Tregaron Elephant has long had its place in local folklore, and is thought to have been buried behind the town's Talbot Hotel after dying on tour.

The small-scale excavation started on Saturday morning and the hunt for clues about the animal's final resting place will continue until next Thursday.

About 10 people from the University of Wales Trinity St David are taking part.

The elephant was said to have fallen ill after drinking contaminated water in the Ceredigion town in 1848.

It is believed to have been part of Batty's Travelling Menageries, a circus troupe which entertained widely in the area that year.

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There's been quite a crowd here. About 30 people have been in and out watching the dig in the beer garden”

End Quote Dafydd Watkin The Talbot Hotel, Tregaron Dafydd Watkin and his partner Tracy Batt are licensees of the Talbot Hotel, and they said about 30 people had watched the start of the dig.

Mr Watkin said the archaeologists were working in the hotel's beer garden, but had found nothing so far.

"They started digging this morning and they'll be here until next Thursday," said Mr Watkin.

"There's been quite a crowd here. About 30 people have been in and out watching the dig in the beer garden, and we're expecting more people over the weekend.

"Before the dig started the local councillor Catherine Hughes said a few words."

The dig has started in the beer garden at The Talbot in Tregaron

Mr Watkin said he was not worried about losing trade because of the dig, and added that it would probably draw in more customers.

The dig is part of a wider project by the University of Wales Trinity St David's archaeology department.

Dr Jemma Bezant of the School of Archaeology, History and Anthropology is heading it up.

She said last month that the project was about celebrating the story of the Tregaron Elephant and less about "finding out the truth".

She added that it was likely the effort would generate more questions than answers.

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