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Michael and Lynne carried out much of the renovation themselves. (Pictures: Homes.com) A former bank building in Detroit, Michigan that sat vacant for about a decade has been turned into a two-bedroom home after a couple spent years restoring it by hand. The unusual property, built in 1925, is now on the market for $1.3 million.Lynne Savino and her husband, Michael, bought the abandoned building in 2013 through an estate sale, according to Homes.com. The purchase price was $66,000 and included the neighbouring property, a former bar at 3415 Michigan Ave. The couple had sold their home in Detroit’s Green Acres area to fund the purchase and the work that followed.The former People’s State Bank had already gone through several changes before the couple bought it. It was later used as an after-hours club, and the building had suffered from scrapping and graffiti. Still, Savino saw potential in the structure and wanted to turn it into a home.The renovation became a major project. The couple..

Portsmouth Island When the federal government began bringing the windswept barrier islands of eastern North Carolina under protected parkland, a quiet property deal near Pamlico Sound helped bring the story of a once-thriving coastal community to an end. In 1967, Henry Pigott agreed to sell his property on Portsmouth Island to help create Cape Lookout National Seashore. As part of the deal, he received a life estate, allowing him to remain in his ancestral home for the rest of his life. The land purchase, recorded in historical narration scripts and administrative records published by the National Park Service (NPS), marked an important step in creating the national seashore. It also made Pigott the last male resident of Portsmouth Village, an isolated 18th-century settlement that was already slowly disappearing.Portsmouth Village was established by the North Carolina Colonial Assembly in 1753 as an important “lightering” port. Heavy ocean-going ships would unload their cargo onto smal..

Chinese archaeologists will carry out their first joint field project in South America by exploring sites dating back thousands of years in Peru as Beijing steps up its efforts to deepen cultural ties with the region.
The Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences said it had signed a cooperation agreement with the Caral Archaeological Zone of the Peruvian Ministry of Culture and the Professional School of Archaeology at the National University of San Marcos to explore…

Indonesian authorities arrested 72 people suspected of starting some of the forest and peatland fires as huge blazes in central and west Indonesia triggered choking haze.
Indonesia has been battling fires driven by an intensifying El Nino pattern and a prolonged dry season, generating dense smoke that crossed into Malaysia, according to Indonesia’s National Disaster Management Agency, or BNPB.
Fires are a regular problem in Indonesia that strain relations with neighbouring countries.
Plantation…