Attackers kill five foreign tourists in Ethiopia

Unknown attackers killed five foreign tourists in Ethiopia's northeastern Afar region, state television reported. The foreigners, whose nationalities were not immediately known, were killed on Monday in the remote region bordering Eritrea, Ethiopian Television said, citing the defence ministry. The report added that some of the foreigners were wounded and taken to hospital by government forces in the region, but it did not say how many. A German foreign ministry official who spoke to AFP on condition of anonymity said they were probing reports that German nationals could have been victims of the attack. "Reports of an attack on tourist group with German citizens in Ethiopia are being followed up. The German foreign ministry and the German embassy are working with determination to clarify the matter and the fate of the German citizens," the officials said on phone from Berlin. The tourists were in a group, and according to other sources, some were missing. The Afar region, an inhospitable scrubland and desert with shallow salty lakes and chains of volcanoes, is reputed to be one of the hottest places on earth. It also known for hominid fossil finds. A French tourist disappeared in the region in 2004 leaving behind no trace apart from a rucksack. In 2007, a group of European nationals were kidnapped in the region, but later released by the rebel group that captured them. Ethiopia, which often accuses its arch-foe Eritrea of backing rebels fighting the Addis Ababa regime, accused Eritrea of supporting the group behind the 2007 kidnapping. Ethiopia and Eritrea fought a bitter territorial war between 1998 and 2000 and are still deeply at odds over their border.

U.S., allies say N.Korea welcome to resume nuclear talks

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States, Japan and South Korea agree that "a path is open" for North Korea to return to stalled six-party talks on Pyongyang's nuclear program, the State Department said on Tuesday. U.S., Japanese and South Korean officials, meeting in Washington, reaffirmed their commitment to the talks on efforts toward denuclearization of North Korea in a peaceful manner, the State Department said in a statement. "We also agreed that a path is open to North Korea towards the resumption of talks and improved relations with the United States, Japan, and Republic of Korea through dialogue," the statement said. The six-party talks, involving the two Koreas, the United States, Japan, Russia and China, broke down in 2008 when the North walked away from an aid-for-disarmament deal. United Nations inspectors were expelled from North Korea in 2009. Despite repeated efforts, there has been little sign of progress since then. North Korea has called for the resumption of the nuclear talks, but Washington and Seoul have been reluctant to rush back to the table, wary of Pyongyang's potential to engage in protracted negotiations only to walk away from its obligations. (Reporting By JoAnne Allen; Editing by Eric Walsh)

Ancient Egypt s Lady Gaga discovered in 3,000year-old tomb

For researchers in Egypt's Valley of the Kings, finding an untouched tomb is an exciting prospect, but finding one that became the final resting place of an ancient superstar is downright amazing. Swiss archaeologists recently stumbled upon the pristine remains of what they are calling the "Lady Gaga" of ancient Egypt: a singer for a revered deity who was buried some 3,000 years ago. Her name was Nehmes Bastet and she served Amun-Ra, the deity often referred to as the "God of Gods." Amun-Ra was the Sun God of ancient Egypt, and therefore held the greatest importance of all the culture's icons. Amon's status within Egyptian lore would have meant an official position as his performer carried a lot of weight. It's unclear exactly what purpose she served as a singer, but she likely played a role in many of the large-scale events held in honor of Amun-Ra, which may have heightened her celebrity. She is believe to be the daughter of the High Priest of Amon, making her the perfect candidate for such a duty you might even say she was born this way. Her tomb was reportedly adorned with wooden plaques and her remains were "nicely wrapped." The tomb's location in the Valley of the Kings is particularly important because up until recently, most researchers believed that area was reserved for royalty. Her prehistoric superstar status was apparently enough to grant her a final resting place among the most cherished individuals of the era.

Inside A $1.5 Million Cave House

Locals refer to it as the Cave House and the nickname is apt. Sitting on 37 acres just outside of Bisbee, AZ, a mining town-turned-Baby Boomer retirement haven about 80 miles from Tucson, the Chulo Canyon Cave House is carved into an outcropping of granite boulder, extending more than 2,000-square feet into a desert grotto. The strange and unusual dwelling is up for grabs and could be yours for $1.5 million. It occupies 2,890-square feet of living space and comes with a 890-square foot guest house, a subterranean game room underneath the guest house, a library building, a stand-alone workshop space, a separate home office, and a carport. The main house features rough petrous walls, rock and cement ceilings, and potable wall water seep that is collected from a natural spring. There s a glass-walled sunroom, a commercial-grade kitchen with stained glass cabinets and mosaic tiling, an-eight person dining room, a sunken living room, two full bathrooms, a sleep loft with walk-in closet tucked below underneath the loft stairs, and a back room that is currently used as an exercise and yoga room.
The desert abode was built by the current owner, specifically the current owner s late husband who recently passed away. It s technically a man made cave that was actually blasted out of the rock existing there, explains Jean Noreen, a Realtor with Bisbee Realty and the listing agent for the Cave House. But it has all of the good qualities of a cave for living like it stays the same temperature all year

round. Maintaining a so-called rock temperature, the house never slides below 66 degrees Fahrenheit or above 72 degrees.

The main house greets guest with a wall of windows before extending back into the cave. Photo: Bisbee Realty

Creating this man-made cavern home meant recruiting a mining engineer who, using the Swedish straight wall mining technique, injected the ceilings with roof bolts and excavated blasted rock with ammonium nitrate. But as attention-grabbing as the stone-forged main lair is, the property s zaniness doesn t end there. Starting with the pools, which are not your typical chlorinated in-grounds. Rather, the home s natural pools are a short hike away, up the side of a nearby mountain and fed by a freshwater creek for six to eight months out of the year. The higher up the mountain you climb the more pools you have to choose from. The owners also installed a carefully camouflaged hot tub

A perk of living in a cave is consistent temperature, which stays between 66 and 72 degrees. Photo: Bisbee Realty

The other buildings on the premises peddle some secretive amenities, too. Lying below the two-story guest house is a game room with a separate entrance. The subterranean space is constructed of cement blocks and fluorescent lighting. The nearby library building, also constructed of cement blocks, doubles as a safe house, with a back room accessible through a roll-down metal security door hidden behind a sliding glass door. The back room is equipped with a Murphy bed, an air conditioner, an antique vault and a climate-controlled gun safe.

The property boasts a series of natural pools that fill with water from a nearby creek Photo: Bisbee Realty

The Cave House has graced the Multiple Listing Services sporadically for years. "When we first put it on we did so for close to $3 million," says Noreen. The price bumped down to $1.5 million last year, when the owners decided they were truly serious about selling. But despite the 50% price chop, a buyer has yet to put up an accepted offer. Noreen believes it will be nontraditional home buyers that ultimately purchase this pad: "It would make a great retreat for something like a yoga retreat or as an alternative healing place. It s very peaceful." The real estate market in Bisbee has suffered its share of foreclosures in the past several years and prices plunged about 20% from their early 2008 highs, according to Zillow. Now home prices are cautiously inching back up. Noreen says homes are selling at prices that haven t been seen since the late 1990s. We ve actually been really active and we have a whole realm of people coming in to buy at these lower prices, she remarks. Now to find a well-off a New Age nature-lover who wants to plunk down seven figures to live in a cave.

UK scientists find 'lost' Darwin fossils

LONDON (AP) British scientists have found scores of fossils the great evolutionary theorist Charles Darwin and his peers collected but that had been lost for more than 150 years. Dr. Howard Falcon-Lang, a paleontologist at Royal Holloway, University of London, said Tuesday that he stumbled upon the glass slides containing the fossils in an old wooden cabinet that had been shoved in a "gloomy corner" of the massive, drafty British Geological Survey. Using a flashlight to peer into the drawers and hold up a slide, Falcon-Lang saw one of the first specimens he had picked up was labeled 'C. Darwin Esq." "It took me a while just to convince myself that it was Darwin's signature on the slide," the paleontologist said, adding he soon realized it was a "quite important and overlooked" specimen. He described the feeling of seeing that famous signature as "a heart in your mouth situation," saying he wondering "Goodness, what have I discovered!"

Falcon-Lang's find was a collection of 314 slides of specimens collected by Darwin and other members of his inner circle, including John Hooker a botanist and dear friend of Darwin and the Rev. John Henslow, Darwin's mentor at Cambridge, whose daughter later married Hooker. The first slide pulled out of the dusty corner at the British Geological Survey turned out to be one of the specimens collected by Darwin during his famous expedition on the HMS Beagle, which changed the young Cambridge graduate's career and laid the foundation for his subsequent work on evolution. Falcon-Lang said the unearthed fossils lost for 165 years a period of history scientists thought they knew well. show there is more to learn from

"To find a treasure trove of lost Darwin specimens from the Beagle voyage is just extraordinary," Falcon-Lang added. "We can see there's more to learn. There are a lot of very, very significant fossils in there that we didn't know existed." He said one of the most "bizarre" slides came from Hooker's collection prototaxites, a 400 million-year-old tree-sized fungus. a specimen of

Hooker had assembled the collection of slides while briefly working for the British Geological Survey in 1846, according to Royal Holloway, University of London. The slides "stunning works of art," according to Falcon-Lang contain bits of fossil wood and plants ground into thin sheets and affixed to glass in order to be studied under microscopes. Some of the slides are half a foot long (15 centimeters), "great big chunks of glass," Falcon-Lang said. "How these things got overlooked for so long is a bit of a mystery itself," he mused, speculating that perhaps it was because Darwin was not widely known in 1846 so the collection might not have been given "the proper curatorial care." Royal Holloway, University of London said the fossils were 'lost' because Hooker failed to number them in the formal "specimen register" before setting out on an expedition to the Himalayas. In 1851, the "unregistered" fossils were moved to the Museum of Practical Geology in Piccadilly before being transferred to the South Kensington's Geological Museum in 1935 and then to the British Geological Survey's headquarters near Nottingham 50 years later, the university said. The discovery was made in April, but it has taken "a long time" to figure out the provenance of the slides and photograph all of them, Falcon-Lang said. The slides have now been photographed and will be made available to the public through a new online museum exhibit opening Tuesday.

Falcon-Lang expects great scientific papers to emerge from the discovery. "There are some real gems in this collection that are going to contribute to ongoing science." Dr. John Ludden, executive director of the Geological Survey, called the find a "remarkable" discovery. "It really makes one wonder what else might be hiding in our collections," he said