Associated Press 16 September 2003

A handwritten copy of the Book of Psalms that British troops looted from Ethiopia in the 19th century will be returned.

A group that works to return looted treasures to Ethiopia said Tuesday that it will take the 300-year-old book to Addis Ababa, the capital of the eastern African nation, later this month.

British soldiers took the book and other treasures when they stormed the mountain fortress of Emperor Theodore II at Magdala during an invasion of Ethiopia in 1868.

The Association for the Return of the Magdala Ethiopian Treasures bought the book from a private dealer for $1,200 earlier this year.

The volume is in a leather case stamped with the words "Taken at Magdala." It is written in the ancient Ethiopian language of Geez.

A label inside describes it as "one of the few surviving manuscripts that is not in the British Museum from the enormous looting which took place after the assault on the fortress of Magdala."

This AP report appeared in news outlets across the US, including the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, the Washington Post, the Miami Herald, Newsday and the Las Vegas Sun.