Ice Age find made on Calif. college campus

Ice Age find madeon Calif. college campus
LA MIRADA, Calif. -- Crews building a dormitory at a Southern California college discovered the remains of a mammoth or mastodon, Ice Age mammals that resembled elephants.
Officials at Biola University had already toyed with naming the 450-bed dorm, the largest building on campus, "Mammoth Hall." Wednesday's find may seal the deal, spokeswoman Alisa Grace said.
"It's an interesting coincidence that in the middle of this, they find these fossils," she said.
The university, a Christian school, has hired a team of paleontologists to excavate the remains. The site has already yielded fragments of rib and pelvis.
The bones will be analyzed to conclusively determine their origin, said Cara Corsetti, director of the paleontology program for SWCA Environmental Consultants.
As recently as 10,000 years ago, mammoths, mastodons and other Ice Age creatures were common in Southern California.
Oregon wildfire growsto 308,000 acres
GRANTS PASS, Ore. -- The nation's largest active wildfire grew to 308,000 acres Friday, threatening to become the biggest fire in Oregon history.
The blaze, in the Siskiyou National Forest and adjoining lands in southwestern Oregon and Northern California, was close to surpassing a 1933 wildfire that burned 311,000 acres in northwest Oregon.
The wildfire had at one point threatened about 17,000 people in several small towns in the Illinois Valley. That danger has eased, but the fire continued to threaten the community of Agness in the Rogue River Canyon and an area near the small coastal town of Brookings.
Sheriff's deputies Friday were asking some Brookings-area residents to prepare to leave their homes immediately if notified.
More than 5,000 people are fighting the fire. More than $27 million has been spent trying to extinguish it, but it was only 15 percent contained.
Eighth body recovered
CAGUAS, Puerto Rico -- Rescuers Friday recovered the body of an eighth American serviceman killed when a U.S. Air Force special operations plane slammed into a Puerto Rico mountainside earlier this week.
The body was found far down the mountainside from where the MC-130H transport plane crashed Wednesday night on the outskirts of Caguas, 20 miles south of San Juan. On Thursday, rescuers found seven bodies, some charred, and parts of the fuselage. Two bodies are still missing.
The search team also found one of the aircraft's two "black boxes," said Adolfo Menendez, commander of a National Guard unit at the scene. He did not know if it was the data or voice recorder.
The bulky plane was flying in rain and fog when it struck a heavily wooded area on Monte Perucho, broke in two and erupted in flames, witnesses said.
Seven of the 10 people aboard the aircraft were identified Friday. One was a Kentucky national guardsman, five were from Air Force Special Operations in Florida, and one was from the Air Intelligence Agency, also based in Florida.
British police find leadsin case of missing girls
LONDON -- Police gleaned significant leads from a computer used by two 10-year-old girls before they disappeared from a rural village last weekend, a detective said Friday in a case that prompted rival tabloid newspapers to offer a $1.72 million reward.
Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman vanished Sunday evening while walking near their homes in Soham, 12 miles northeast of Cambridge. The girls used the Internet shortly before their disappearance and authorities said they were following up leads from the computer.
"Some interesting information has come from Holly's computer," Detective Superintendent David Hankins said.
Officers were pursuing "significant" leads, he told British Broadcasting Corp. radio without revealing details.
"We remain optimistic that Holly and Jessica are alive and well but have to consider that they are being held against their will," Hankins said at a news conference in Soham, appealing for anyone holding them to see the girls are returned to their parents.
On Wednesday, rival groups of Britain's intensely competitive newspapers offered huge rewards for vital information about the missing girl.
The Sun and the News of the World jointly offered $230,000. Express Newspapers, owners of the Daily Express, the Sunday Express and the Daily Star, offered $1.5 million for information leading to the girls' safe return or the conviction of those responsible for their disappearances.