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TORONTO (CP) - It could take half a century or more for someone infected with prions - the cause of mad cow-like diseases - to start showing symptoms, say researchers, who drew that conclusion after studying a similar illness among Papua New Guinean people who once feasted on their dead. Their findings suggest that the number of human cases of variant Creutzfeld-Jacob disease (vCJD) could end up being much larger than originally suspected, say the researchers, whose study is published in Friday's edition of The Lancet. With 160 cases, the United Kingdom has the highest number of recorded cases in...

Massive mummy fraud discovered after 2,000 years Maev Kennedy Wednesday June 21, 2006 Not quite what it seems ... Roman period mummy at the Fitzwilliam Museum Modern medical science has exposed the villainy of the crocodile mummy sellers of Hawara, more than 2,000 years after they defied the edict of a Pharaoh and turned neatly bandaged bundles of rubbish into a nice little earner. Before the reopening this month of the Egyptian Galleries at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, curators took their animal and human mummies to the city's Addenbrooke's Hospital, as part of a £1.5m re-display of the internationally...

Front garden yields ancient tools Only one other handaxe of this type has been found that is bigger The Britons of 250,000 years ago were a good deal more sophisticated than they are sometimes given credit for, new archaeological evidence suggests. It comes in the form of giant flint handaxes that have been unearthed at a site at Cuxton in Kent. The tools display exquisite, almost flamboyant, workmanship not associated with this period until now. The axes - one of which measured 307mm (1ft) in length - were dug up from old sand deposits in a front garden. "It is...

WASHINGTON (June 15, 2006) -- Immeasurable heartache seared into Linda Lorenz as she experienced an act no parent wants to endure; burying an only child. Her son, Pfc. Hans J.R. Lorenz, died in 1966 as a result of an accident near Da Nang, Vietnam, making Linda one of the thousands of grieving parents who lost children during the Vietnam War. However, when the Vietnam Veterans Memorial was dedicated in 1982, her son’s name wasn’t inscribed on the monument. For 20 years, she fought to have her son’s sacrifice recognized and was denied at every attempt. Her struggle ended happily when...

Basques were fishermen more than 8,000 years ago 06/13/2006 The Basques that settled 8,300 years ago in the Jaizkibel Mountain near the Basque coast were skillful enough to go fishing two kilometres out to sea. The human beings that lived in the Basque Country in the Mesolithic, more than 8,000 years ago, set sail out to sea fishing, something which meant 50 percent of their diet, Aranzadi society of sciences reported Tuesday after examining archaeological remains found in Gipuzkoa. They did not hunt whales, as their descendants many years after, neither tuna nor anchovy as the current Basque fishermen but...

US 'planning to keep 50,000 troops in Iraq for many years' By Francis Harris in Washington (Filed: 12/06/2006) America plans to retain a garrison of 50,000 troops, one tenth of its entire army, in Iraq for years to come, according to US media reports. The revelation came as George W Bush summoned his top political, military and intelligence aides to a summit on Iraq's future today at the presidential retreat at Camp David. America has indicated that it may raise troop levels in Iraq in the short-term Tomorrow the Americans will talk by video link to Nouri al-Maliki, Iraq's prime...

MARINE CORPS AIR GROUND COMBAT CENTER TWENTYNINE PALMS, Calif. (May 26, 2006) -- Mexican newspapers inadvertently planted a seed in a small boy, born in 1960 in the town of Cananea, Mexico, not far from the Arizona border. “In the newspapers in Mexico, they are more graphic than they are here,” said Guadalupe Denogean, a retired master gunnery sergeant. “I couldn’t read, but I could see the pictures.” So he would ask his brother to read the stories to him, and they were always about the Marines, he said. As that seed sprouted, Denogean, who moved to the U.S. but...

Dutch told to return land they won from the sea By David Rennie in Zaamslag (Filed: 27/05/2006) A photograph of a grinning boy, riding a toy tractor, has pride of place in the kitchen of Aarnout and Magda de Feijter, the owners of a 148-acre farm in the Dutch province of Zeeland. The picture is of their first grandson, Louis, and the de Feijters have always dreamed that he will one day take over the expanse of wind-rippled flax fields that has been in their family since 1835. The de Feijters on the dyke protecting their farm But there are...

London - Iran could be able to produce between 20 and 25 kilos of highly-enriched uranium for a nuclear weapon by 2010, the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) in London said Wednesday. 'The IISS estimate of 2010 remains valid,' the institute said in its report The Military Balance 2006 published Wednesday. Other estimates of an Iranian nuclear weapons capacity by 2009, or even 2008, were 'within the margin of error, given the number of unknowns', the report said. It stressed that the limited access of the IAEA nuclear watchdog to Iran's facilities required policymakers 'to rely on worst-case assumptions...

Ancient city reveals life in desert 2,200 years ago (Xinhua) Updated: 2006-05-22 14:58 Chinese and French archaeologists claim to have discovered the ruins of an ancient city which disappeared in the desert in Northwest China more than 2,200 years ago. The ancient city, shaped like a peach, is located in the center of the Taklimakan Desert, the second largest shifting desert in the world, covering a total area of 337,600 square kilometers, in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. The perimeter of the city walls is 995 meters, with the height ranging from three meters to 11 meters. Archaeologists found traces...

Murals reveal aristocrats' lives 1,500 years ago Some well-preserved murals have been discovered in a tomb of more than 1,500 years old in Datong, North China's Shanxi Province, supplying rich first-hand evidence for the research of early ethnic apparel and rituals. The tomb was identified to belong to a general's mother who died in AD 435. Taking up an area of 24 square metres, it was found in a cemetery of 12 tombs excavated last summer by local archaeologists. Lying on a plateau in the rural suburbs of Datong, the cemetery dates back to the Northern Wei Dynasty (AD 386-534)....

War on terrorism will last 20 years, West told By Isambard Wilkinson in Kundi Ghar (Filed: 01/05/2006) "The West cannot expect quick results in the war on terrorism," said a young Pakistani major as he surveyed the restive Afghan province of Paktika from a bunker 10,000ft up in the mountains. "It took 20 years to create this situation and it will take the same to resolve it. The tribesmen here have a medieval mind-set and foreign fighters are entrenched in the community." Pakistani soldiers watch the border with Afghanistan It has been eight years since America first launched cruise missiles...

BANI DA HAR, Iraq (April 26, 2006) -- It was pitch dark when four insurgents were captured in this town of 3,000 nestled along the Euphrates River in Iraq’s Al Anbar Province. With the prisoners secured and on their way to a detention facility; Iraqi soldiers celebrated the achievement with stoic professionalism. They’re proud of the fact more insurgents are off the streets of this small town, and that they captured the bandits without the assistance of the U.S. Marines – which has been an uncommon occurrence in the few years since the end of Saddam Hussein’s regime in 2003....

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Archaeologists find 10,000 years of history at Lowcountry site 12:51 PM EDT on Thursday, April 13, 2006 HILTON HEAD ISLAND, S.C. -- Archaeologists reviewing a site for a highway bridge over the Combahee River have found nearly 10,000 years of history art the location. The archaeologists are reviewing the site before work begins to build a wider bridge to take U.S. 17 across the river, which marks the boundary between Beaufort and Colleton counties. The new bridge will be named for Harriet Tubman, who in 1863 led black Union soldiers on a raid that freed 700 slaves from plantations in...

WASHINGTON, April 13, 2006 – Three years after Saddam Hussein's statue, along with his regime, was toppled in Baghdad, an Army planner who served there at the time said he's optimistic about Iraq's progress in forming its government, repairing its infrastructure and establishing its security forces. Army Lt. Col. E.J. Degen works with 6th Iraqi Army Division before their validation exercise during his recent deployment to Iraq. About a month later, the Iraqi division assumed battlespace inside Baghdad. Courtesy photo    Army Lt. Col. E.J. Degen brings unique insights into Operation Iraqi Freedom. He was chief of plans for...

WASHINGTON, April 12, 2006 – Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice accepted the credentials of Iraq's first ambassador to the United States in 15 years yesterday at the State Department. Ambassador Samir Shakir Mahmood Sumaidaie told Rice he was "honored and delighted to be here today as the first ambassador for the state of Iraq in 15 years and the first ambassador since we got rid of the regime of Saddam Hussein with your help." Sumaidaie, who was appointed Iraq's permanent representative to the United Nations in August 2004, said he looks forward to working with the United States on behalf...

WASHINGTON, April 11, 2006 – Three years after his brigade seized control of Baghdad's international airport from Iraqi forces' control, Army Col. William Grimsley said he believes that country is taking the critical first steps toward reclaiming its past greatness. Grimsley, commander of the 3rd Infantry Division's 1st Combat Brigade Team during the opening days of Operation Iraqi Freedom, said history - not current events - will tell the true story of Iraq's metamorphosis. And that story will show how Iraq ultimately emerged from almost 40 years of a regime that ignored the people's needs and undermined its potential, Grimsley,...

Researchers Describe How Natural Nuclear Reactor Worked In Gabon The Oklo natural nuclear-reactor site in Gabon. St Louis MO (SPX) Nov 01, 2004 To operate a nuclear power plant like Three Mile Island, hundreds of highly trained employees must work in concert to generate power from safe fission, all the while containing dangerous nuclear wastes. On the other hand, it's been known for 30 years that Mother Nature once did nuclear chain reactions by her lonesome. Now, Researchers at Washington University in St. Louis have analyzed the isotopic structure of noble gases produced in fission in a sample from the...

10 years after Ron Brown Sunday, April 9, 2006 WASHINGTON On April 3, 1996, 35 people died in the crash of a U.S. Air Force plane in Croatia. Among them was Commerce Secretary Ron Brown, whom then-President Bill Clinton claimed as a close and dear friend. There are many indications that could suggest Ron Brown was killed before or during the crash to protect not only the Clinton presidency but also Hillary Clinton's future. **SNIP** Let's start at the beginning, a decade ago. **SNIP** The meeting between two rogues took place in the White House family quarters and Ron Brown...