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Digging deep for a clue to a global mysteryThe search for the ancient skulls of Peking Man, missing since 1941, sits firmly on Beijing's agenda, GEOFFREY YORK writes GEOFFREY YORK ZHOUKOUDIAN, CHINA -- For more than two decades, Yang Shoukai had hoarded his secret, unsure what to do with a possible clue to one of China's most baffling mysteries. As construction supervisor on the site of an abandoned U.S. military barracks in Tianjin in 1982, he had discovered a strange cement box in the basement of the old wartime barracks. He tried to dig it up, but lacked the proper...

Background Cancer is a major medical problem in modern societies. However, the incidence of this disease in non-human primates is very low. To study whether genetic differences between human and chimpanzee could contribute to their distinct cancer susceptibility, we have examined in the chimpanzee genome the orthologous genes of a set of 333 human cancer genes. Results This analysis has revealed that all examined human cancer genes are present in chimpanzee, contain intact open reading frames and show a high degree of conservation between both species. However, detailed analysis of this set of genes has shown some differences in genes...

NOVATO, Calif. - An 82-year-old animal lover was arrested this week on allegations he grabbed and brandished a trapper's revolver during a scuffle over the skunk. Lou Kessler was arrested Tuesday. He was released on his own recognizance Wednesday after being charged with misdemeanor counts of using a firearm in a fight and disturbing the peace. The victim, Ron Bailey, 52, told The Press Democrat in a phone interview that he simply was doing his job as a state-licensed trapper and he believes Kessler disobeyed the law and attacked him. The scuffle allegedly began when Kessler and his wife went...

NEW YORK -- An Indonesian man found dead in the blood-spattered basement of his country's consulate on the Upper East Side took his own life by repeatedly stabbing himself with various knives in a gruesome fashion, authorities said Monday. The man, identified by officials in Indonesia as Bambang Welianto, 36, of Jakarta, was found Sunday with a kitchen knife in his chest and his left wrist almost severed. Several more knives, including a meat cleaver, were found around him inside the four-story Beaux-Arts mansion on East 68th Street, off Fifth Avenue. A spokeswoman for the medical examiner's office, Ellen Borakove,...

VIENNA, Austria - A man plummeted 130 feet from a helicopter Monday but escaped injury because deep snow cushioned his fall. The 42-year-old was suspended from the helicopter by a rope to make repairs when the knot came undone and he slipped free, police in the Upper Austria town of Hallstatt said in a statement. Although a fall from that height normally would result in death or serious injury, the deep snow drifts broke the man's fall, officials said. He was taken by rescue helicopter to a nearby hospital for a medical checkup as a precaution but appeared to have...

They already use basic tools, have rudimentary language and star in TV commercials, but now scientists have proof that chimpanzees are more closely related to humans than other great apes. Genetic tests comparing DNA from humans, chimps, gorillas and orang-utans reveal striking similarities in the way chimps and humans evolve that set them apart from the others. The finding adds weight to a controversial proposal to scrap the long-used chimp genus "Pan" and reclassify the animals as members of the human family. The move would give chimps a new place in creation's pecking order alongside humans, the only survivor of...

Riders wait at 34th St. stop for Q train, the same line Eugene Reilly caught for the last time Thursday around 1 a.m. Patricia Reilly grieves for her husband. The lifeless body of a 64-year-old Brooklyn man rode the subway unnoticed for hours - making up to six complete runs of the Q line before a straphanger finally noticed.

God's Guide to Sex Everyone knows about the similarities between animal and human sexuality, but what about the differences? And what are the implications of those differences? by David Treybig God cares deeply about your sex life. What? You've got to be kidding, right? After all, doesn't God say don't do it while most people do? Does He know what we've been doing? Surprising to many, God is quite concerned about our sexuality and wants us to have the best sex possible. And yes, He does know what each of us has been doing. And He's disappointed that so...

What struck Jim Wier first, as he entered the Wal-Mart vice president's office, was the seating area for visitors. "It was just some lawn chairs that some other peddler had left behind as samples." The vice president's office was furnished with a folding lawn chair and a chaise lounge. And so Wier, the CEO of lawn-equipment maker Simplicity, dressed in a suit, took a seat on the chaise lounge. "I sat forward, of course, with my legs off to the side. If you've ever sat in a lawn chair, well, they are lower than regular chairs. And I was on...

Police questioned high school students about suspects caught on video beating a homeless man and said they expect to make an arrest soon.Fort Lauderdale police were questioning current and former students from South Plantation High School late Friday as detectives closed in on an arrest in the bludgeoning death of a homeless man and the brutal beating of two others. Police were investigating a tip that one suspect -- thought to be one of three males seen on a surveillance video savagely swinging baseball bats or sticks -- is a former student who graduated last year. ''Our friend knows...

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (Army News Service, Jan. 6, 2005) -- NASA and its international partners have selected U.S. Army astronaut Col. Jeffrey Williams and Russian cosmonaut Pavel Vinogradov as the next crew for the International Space Station in March. Williams, a veteran of one space flight already, will be the first Army astronaut ever aboard the International Space Station. Retired Col. William S. McArthur is currently crewing the space station, but Williams will be the first active-duty Soldier. Willams will serve as Expedition 13 flight engineer and NASA science officer. Williams flew aboard the Space Shuttle Atlantis as a mission...

MARINE CORPS RECRUIT DEPOT SAN DIEGO (Jan. 6, 2006) -- Ticket donations from a nonprofit public benefit corporation allowed depot Marines to attend the Pacific Life Holiday Bowl, Oklahoma Sooners vs. Oregon Ducks, at Qualcomm Stadium, Dec. 29. Jim Dillon, the founder and president of the Dillon Foundation, donated 25 Holiday Bowl tickets to the Marines, as well as 127 Poinsettia Bowl tickets the previous week. "I look at it as an opportunity for people - men, women, young, old-to go out and experience. I'm just trying to create happy memories for these people. You're not putting somebody on the...

The Japan Times, March 9, 1997Descendant of Stone Age skeleton found LONDON (Reuter) British scientists Saturday celebrated their feat of tracing a living descendant of a 9,000-year-old skeleton and establishing the world's oldest known family tree. In an astonishing piece of detective work, they matched mitochondrial DNA material extracted from the tooth cavity of Britain's oldest complete skeleton with that of a 42-year-old history teacher, Adrian Targett. The genetic material showed without doubt that Targett is a direct descendant through his mother's line of the skeleton known as Cheddar Man, which was found in 1903 in caves in Cheddar Gorge...

MILWAUKEE -- It's the latest in a series of mob beatings in Milwaukee. This time, according to police, at least 15 young people dragged a man out of his car and kicked and punched him -- after the man honked at them to get them to move out of a street. The beating left the 50-year-old man with severe head trauma. He's hospitalized in critical condition and police said it's not clear if he'll survive. No arrests have been made. Three years ago, more than a dozen people chased a man through the streets of Milwaukee and beat him to...

The man to whom I'm going to introduce you was not a scrooge, he was a kind decent, mostly good man. Generous to his family, upright in his dealings with other men. But he just didn't believe all that incarnation stuff which the churches proclaim at Christmas Time. It just didn't make sense and he was too honest to pretend otherwise. He just couldn't swallow the Jesus Story, about God coming to Earth as a man. "I'm truly sorry to distress you," he told his wife, "but I'm not going with you to church this Christmas Eve." He said he'd...

New studies show Fourth Salt Man is 2000 years old TEHRAN, Dec. 23 (MNA) -- The most recent studies on the Fourth Salt Man indicate that the body is 2000 years old, the director of the Chehrabad Studies Center announced on Friday. Recent radiography and CAT scans of the body indicate that the Fourth Salt Man was 15 or 16 years old at the time of death, Abolfazl Ali added. Discovered in the Hamzehlu Salt Mine in early March 2005, the Fourth Salt Man is the most intact of the “salt men” discovered in the mine, which is located near...

One of biggest paradigm shifts in origins in recent years is when genetics and morphological studies began to show that Neanderthals and humans weren’t related. Sure, a lot of Darwin Fundies around here don’t know that because they get all of their science from the talking point lists of their Fundamentalist Leaders. So this is probably a big shock too, science is also showing that man is not related to any hominids including apes. In the groundbreaking book, Who was Adam?, biochemist Fazale Rana examines the scientific research that is overturning Darwinian Fundamentalism. Here, using peer-reviewed research that the Darwin...

Greenwood, IN - An Indiana man is behind bars for intentionally leaving his girlfriend's children in a car in the frigid cold. On Sunday, police say Gary Willhoite left a six-year-old, a four-year-old, and a two-month old at a Greenwood gas station just south of Indianapolis. Authorities say he was angry with his girlfriend, so he left her kids in a car for six hours. By the time the children were found, police say ice had formed inside the car. Lt. Bob Dine with the Greenwood Police Department says, "The baby was in the car seat, had a wet diaper,...

SIERRA VISTA — A man robbed, kidnapped and threatened to kill the owner of a local eatery Saturday morning before fleeing into Mexico, Sierra Vista police said. The man was able to get away when he forced the store owner to give him a ride to the Naco Port of Entry. Police said the incident began at about 4 a.m. when the store owner heard a strange noise while working in the Bread Basket Bakery, 355 W. Wilcox Drive. After going outside, he was robbed by a man with a black-colored, semi-automatic pistol. The robber also took an undisclosed amount...

A man accused of first-degree murder is acquitted in Colorado Springs under the state's "Make My Day" law.The law is intended to protect people who shoot intruders in their homes. However, in this case Gary Lee Hill was accused of killing a man who was already driving away from his house.Nineteen-year-old John David Knott and three others had earlier assaulted Hill in his home. As they left, Hill grabbed a high-powered rifle and fired a shot which hit Knott in the back.