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An archaeology crew excavated what its members think is a prehistoric skeleton from the banks of Lake Travis on Sunday. Evidence at the site indicates that the skeleton is between 700 and 2,000 years old, most likely dating back about 1,000 years, members of the excavation crew said. The nearly intact skeleton is being donated to the University of Texas for further study. The skeleton was found Aug. 9 by an Austin man riding a personal watercraft on Lake Travis. David Houston had pulled onto the sloped southern bank, admiring a nearby house, when he saw a jawbone, teeth and...

An alleged hit-and-run driver who police say struck a 20-year-old man was chased down and beaten by the victim’s older brother Thursday night in South Waco. Michael Campbell, 26, was in front of his house in the 3000 block of Mildred Street as his younger brother and two friends were walking home about 9:25 p.m., Waco Police Department spokesman Steve Anderson said. As they got closer to home, Michael Campbell saw a Chevrolet Cavalier driven by 20-year-old Arturo Martinez speeding down the road. The two friends jumped over a parked car to get out of the Cavalier’s way, Anderson said....

A rape suspect who was shot by Federal Way police last week while fleeing an apartment where he allegedly assaulted two teenage sisters has been released from Seattle's Harborview Medical Center and booked into jail. Though Anthony Casper Dias, 26, has been charged in King County with two counts of first-degree rape and three other felonies, he was booked into the Pierce County Jail on Saturday afternoon, said Maj. William Hayes, a spokesman for the King County Department of Adult and Juvenile Detention. The decision was made because at least one of Dias' alleged victims is related to a King...

Enrique Iglesias has shocked his female admirers - by announcing he wants to release his own range of extra-small condoms. The Latin heartthrob admitted he can't find sheaths to fit the smaller man, and wants to save people who aren't well-endowed any embarrassment. The 30-year-old, who is dating stunning tennis pin-up Anna Kournikova, is quoted in America's Houston Press newspaper as saying: "The next product I'm gonna put my name on is extra-small condoms. "I can never find extra-small condoms, and I know it's really embarrassing for people - you know, from experience. "Hopefully people won't be ashamed when I...

The public will get a chance tomorrow to weigh in on a proposal to add the Waco Mammoth Site to the national park system. A team of National Park Service officials is kicking off its study of the mammoth park idea with a public hearing at 6:30 p.m. Thursday at Baylor University's Mayborn Museum. Officials with Baylor and the city of Waco are trying to rally community support for the project. “It's important for us to have a good turnout,” said Mayborn director Ellie Caston. “We need to be able to show the team that the community is concerned about...

Coffee cups featuring a quote by a gay author about growing up homosexual have been pulled from Baylor University's on-campus Starbucks. Aramark, which as the contractor for Baylor dining services oversees the coffee outlet, pulled cups from the campus store earlier this month after a university staff member sent out an e-mail complaining about the appropriateness of the quote at a Baptist university, Baylor officials said. The e-mail was sent on to Baylor dining services, which consulted with Starbucks' district office, which said it fully supported a decision to take the cup out of circulation to avoid offending others, Baylor...

SPOKANE -- It's been a year of staggering news for a region that likes to bill itself as a good place to raise a family. The Spokane area seems awash in pedophiles. Local residents were already reeling from months of revelations about pedophile Catholic priests when a judge ruled last week that individual parishes, parochial schools and other church property may be sold to pay off victims and their lawyers. This spring, the local newspaper reported that Mayor Jim West used the Internet to seek dates with young men and allegedly molested boys as a sheriff's deputy decades ago. West...

SAN MARCOS, Mexico - The Volcano of Fire has rumbled back to life with its strongest eruptions in 20 years, spewing lava and ash clouds that had some residents who remained in their homes Wednesday casting nervous glances at the peak. The volcano, which straddles the line between Colima and Jalisco states 430 miles west of Mexico City, has had six spectacular eruptions in the past three weeks. The largest, late Monday, shot glowing lava three miles above the crater of the 12,533-foot volcano and showered ash over the nearby city of Colima. “The ground shook, and there was this...

Happy Easter! Last week the subject theme for the photography thread was Sunrise, wherein someone suggested that sunrises are better than sunsets. That sounds like a challenge to me! Let's see if we can top the sunrise thread with some beautiful sunset shots. Please post your bestest sunset photos here - your own work, please.

BUNIA, Congo — She's known in the community as a "one-dollar U.N. girl." At night, she sleeps on the cracked pavement outside a storefront. In the mornings, she sashays through the dusty streets, clutching a frayed parasol against the blinding sun. Yvette and her friends are also called kidogo usharatis, Swahili for small prostitutes. They loiter outside the camps of U.N. peacekeepers, hoping to sell their bodies for a mug of milk, a cold soda or — best of all — a single dollar. .....Yvette's story is not uncommon. The United Nations is investigating 150 instances in which 50 peacekeeping...

Hello shutterbug FReepers and photo enthusiasts. Two weeks ago I started a weekly photography thread with TEXAS WINDMILLS, but last Saturday night my computer crashed, so I had to skip a week. Sorry about that. The theme now is SUNRISE/DAYBREAK. I am not usually an early bird, but I have managed to get a few sunrise shots despite my preference to sleep in. Please post your own favorite sunrise photos here -- not someone else's work, but your very own. No cheating with sunsets. ~ValerieUSA

I noticed an arts/photography topic in the general forum, so I'll take advantage of this and post a photo theme thread every Sunday. Texas Windmills

OLYMPIA, Wash. -- A verdict will be announced Monday in the trial of a man charged with intentionally exposing 17 women to HIV, a Thurston County Superior Court judge says. "Sex machine," "Russian roulette" and "sex addiction" were among the phrases lawyers used Thursday in 2 1/2 hours of closing arguments in the case of Anthony E. Whitfield, 32, of Lacey. Whitfield, formerly of Oklahoma City, is charged with 17 counts of first-degree assault with sexual motivation, witness tampering and violating a court protection order. He could be sentenced to 137 to 182 years in prison if convicted on all...

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Descendants of English mutineers living on remote Pitcairn Island in the South Pacific have been ordered to surrender their guns amid fears that a trial for alleged child sex offences could lead to violence. Tiny Pitcairn has a population of 45 people, who have about 20 guns between them. The deadline for them to surrender their weapons is Sept. 7. The island's governor, the British high commissioner in New Zealand, has ordered that the weapons be handed in to the British colony's two policemen, a commission spokesman said on Wednesday. "We thought it prudent to take the...

MONROE — A man who last night shot and killed his 5-year-old grandson before turning the gun on himself suffered from depression and previously alluded to hurting himself, Monroe Police Chief Tim Quenzer said. The Snohomish County Medical Examiner's Office identified the man as Roy Bryan Hetherwick, 58, and the boy as Roy Brennan Hetherwick, 5. According to Hetherwick's wife, Quenzer said, Hetherwick took medication for depression but had never talked of injuring the child. In a release issued this afternoon, Monroe police said officers responded to the house on July 2, when they found Hetherwick "despondent and feeling suicidal."...

Ken Saucier, the blunt, often controversial head of the Seattle Police Officers Guild, died early this morning when his pickup crashed near the Idaho border. He was 40. ...Saucier, a Seattle police officer since 1986, was known for steadfastly defending rank-and-file patrolmen. Seattle Police Sgt. Deb Nicholson, a guild board member who began working with Saucier almost 19 years ago, said he "stood up for the rights of officers, he did whatever he had to do. It wasn't always the prettiest how he did it, or as eloquent as it could be. Maybe people took offense to it, but he...

CARSON -- Detectives found the bodies of two young girls at a southwestern Washington rock pit after their mother called police to say she had killed them, authorities said. Charlene A. Dorcy, 39, told officers Saturday evening that she had taken her two children -- 2-year-old Brittany and 4-year-old Jessica Dorcy -- to the Wind River recreation area, where she shot and killed them, Skamania County Undersheriff Dave Cox said yesterday Cox said Dorcy led detectives to an abandoned rock pit, approximately 33 miles northeast of Carson, where they found the bodies. The Carson area is near the north banks...

Seattle police detectives are on the verge of solving a killing in 1968 that sickened the community and have found their suspect sitting in a state prison cell, where he is serving time for killing two other women. The death of 16-year-old Sandra Bowman, a pregnant newlywed at the time, could soon be one of the longest-unsolved slayings brought to a Washington courtroom and is believed to be one of the oldest cases in the nation showing such promise.... ... Police have tied the Bowman slaying to a man serving more than 100 years in prison for two 1969 murders...

Hi FReepersWe had a wonderful time meeting Jim and Sheila Robinson and entourage at Basil's lovely home on Lake Travis near Austin this evening. I'll let other write the report, while I work on photos to post -- here are a few for starters, many more to come: Sheila Texas Cowboy TxBubba's little girl, Lydia

LONGWOOD, FLA. - A woman accused in the poisoning deaths of her three children was returned to Florida from North Carolina and had her first court appearance Sunday morning. Andrea Williams, 32, of Longwood had initially fought extradition but changed her mind Friday, Catawba county Sheriff Dave Huffman said. She arrived at the Seminole County Jail just before midnight Saturday, officials said. She made a first appearance in a courtroom at the jail Sunday morning before County Judge John Sloop. She will be arraigned June 22 before Seminole Circuit Judge Kenneth Lester Jr., according to the Seminole County Jail. Ms....