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Report: Ozone Hole May Disappear by 2050Sat May 20, 9:01 AM ET TOKYO - The ozone hole over the Antarctic is likely to begin contracting in the future and may disappear by 2050 because of a reduction in the release of chlorofluorocarbons and other ozone-depleting gases, according to a team of Japanese scientists. The findings are based on a series of numerical simulations carried out by Eiji Akiyoshi of the National Institute for Environmental Studies, near Tokyo, using projected emissions of chlorofluorocarbons and other gases blamed for the ozone hole. According to a report posted Friday on the institute's Web...

BISBEE — Motorists along three of Cochise County’s major north-south throughways may have noticed the recent disappearance of some familiar landmarks — the Border Patrol checkpoints that had long been fixtures on highways 80, 90 and 191. A Border Patrol spokesman at the agency’s Tucson Sector headquarters said Monday that because the management of checkpoints is an operational issue, he could not comment on why or precisely when the permanent revision points in Cochise County had been dismantled. A spokeswoman at Congressman Jim Kolbe’s office in Washington, however, said that any removal would be appropriate given a law prohibiting long-term...

Arctic ice cap 'will disappear within the century' By Roger Highfield, Science Editor (Filed: 29/09/2005) The Arctic ice cap is on track to disappear within a century, according to a study published yesterday. The satellite survey by the US National Snow and Ice Data Centre (NSIDC), and the space agency Nasa reveals that for the fourth consecutive year there has been "a stunning reduction" in Arctic sea ice at the end of the northern summer, placing species such as polar bears at risk. The reduction in ice levels places Arctic wildlife at risk The survey recorded the lowest sea-ice extent...

Surinamese Deepak Kalpoe, 21, arrives to court in Oranjestad, Aruba, Friday, Aug. 26, 2005. Aruban police arrested Kalpoe and his brother Satish, 18, along with a third person according to government spokesman Ruben Trapenberg, saying he doesn't know if the arrests are connected to the disappearance of Natalee Holloway. The two brothers had been previously detained and released. (AP Photo/Pedro Famous Diaz) Surinamese Satish Kalpoe, 18, front, gets in a car to go to court in Oranjestad, Aruba, Friday, Aug. 26, 2005. Two Surinamese brothers, Satish and Deepak Kalpoe, who had been detained and released in the disappearance of Natalee...

Profile of Natalee Holloway Missing: Natalee Holloway participated in a trip with 125 seniors from Mountain Brook High School to Aruba in the Caribbean. In the early morning hours on May 30, 2005 Natalee was seen leaving a nightclub and getting into a vehicle. She failed to turn up Monday morning for her return flight home and she has not been seen since. Foul play is suspected in her disappearance. Profile: Natalee Holloway was born on October 21, 1986 to Beth and Dave Holloway. She grew up in the close-knit community of Mountain Brook, a suburb of Birmingham, Alabama. She...

BLOOMERY — It seems an unlikely setting for a meeting of big-city gang members — a secluded spot along the Shenandoah River where the loudest noises come from tires crunching gravel and water rushing over the dam. But it’s here, on a narrow road just across the Virginia state line, that authorities say members of MS-13, one of the nation’s most violent gangs, have begun to congregate. “If you just drove through, you wouldn’t notice. But we sit and watch what they do,” says Jefferson County sheriff’s Lt. Bobby Shirley. While women serve picnics and children play, “the men are...

NEW - Read a letter to the Governor of Alabama from Natalee Holloway's father Aruba Message Board

Natalee Holloway is shown in this undated family photo. (AP Photo/family photo)

Previous Natalee Holloway ThreadsFirefighters drain a lake, Tuesday, July 26, 2005, in Oranjestad, Aruba searching for Alabama teenager, Natalee Holloway, who vanished nearly two months ago while vacationing in the island. Edwin Comemencia, a police spokesman, confirmed that the draining of the lake across from the Marriott Hotel was part of the investigation into Holloway's disappearance but would not comment further. The draining was expected to take up to 24 hours. (AP Photo/Pedro Famous Diaz)

Natalee Holloway and friends in Aruba 5/30/05

Link post; any discussion of the images should take place in the FR "Chat" section, where the images are posted: Geology Pictures of the Week, November 30 - December 6, 2003 (oddities)

A BOEING 727 passenger jet, grounded at Luanda airport a year ago, has disappeared after a mysterious unauthorised take-off, Angola state radio reported today. The plane, chartered by the Angolan airline Airangol, was grounded after being banned from overflying Angolan territory on account of a series of irregularities, said Angola civil aviation director Helder Preza. A witness to the plane's departure on Sunday, airport employee Luis Lopes, said he saw a white man start the empty plane and then take off after a few dangerous land manoeuvres. Airport chief Celso Rosa said there was some evidence to believe the Boeing...

NEW YORK - A University of Tokyo professor claims he and his research team have developed a system that can make you 'invisible.' Engineering Professor Susumu Tachi is in the early stages of technology that he says will eventually enable camouflaged objects to be virtually transparent by wearing an optical device. Professor Tachi demonstrated the technology on Wednesday. In a photo of graduate student Kazutoshi Obana, it appears as if three men walking in the background can be seen 'through' Obana's green overcoat. The retroreflective material of the coat acts as a screen and gives a transparent - or invisible...

Why Did Monongahela Indians Disappear From Western Pennsylvania? Massive Droughts May Be Answer to Mystery, Says Anthropologist at Carnegie Museum of Natural History Story Filed: Wednesday, October 02, 2002 10:31 PM EST PITTSBURGH, Oct 01, 2002 (ASCRIBE NEWS via COMTEX) -- For decades, anthropologists have struggled to explain why the once thriving Monongahela Indian culture disappeared from southwestern Pennsylvania by 1635 - well in advance of European settlement. Jim Richardson, Curator of Anthropology at Carnegie Museum of Natural History, believes he may finally have the answer. In a study published in the journal Archaeology of Eastern North America, Richardson and...

10,000 asylum seekers allowed to disappear By David Bamber, Home Affairs Correspondent (Filed: 11/08/2002) More than 10,000 asylum seekers who were sent to a detention centre set up to deport unfounded claimants have been sent back into the community despite having their applications rejected. When the Oakington centre in Cambridgeshire opened two years ago, ministers hailed it as the solution to the asylum crisis and promised that it would "fast-track" 13,000 asylum seekers each year, assessing claims within seven days and deporting those rejected. Last night, however, the Home Office said that although it was assessing initial asylum applications as...