Wednesday, March 9, 2005
hTut's death not violent,results of scan indicate
CAIRO, Egypt -- King Tut wasn't murdered by a blow to the head, nor was his chest crushed in an accident. But after ruling out those longtime theories, the most revealing tests ever performed on the boy pharaoh's mummy didn't solve the mystery of how he died. The results of the high-tech CT scan released Tuesday raised one new possibility: It suggested that just days before his death, Tut might have badly broken his left thigh, puncturing the skin -- an injury that could have caused a dangerous infection. But not everyone on the Egyptian-led team that pored over 1,700 CT images of Tut's body taken two months ago agreed with that theory. Some said the fracture could have occurred from mishandling when the mummy was discovered in 1922 in Luxor's Valley of the Kings. Zahi Hawass, head of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, said the study allowed him to rule out violent death, but left him with no idea how Tut died. He said further tests would try to determine if Tut died from natural causes, or perhaps was poisoned, but he stressed it was unlikely they would find an answer.
Pope's inbox bombarded
VATICAN CITY -- He presides over an organization with two millennia of history, but Pope John Paul II is like anyone who's been away from the office for a while: His e-mail is piling up. The Vatican says it's logged more than 10,000 e-mails in English alone for the pope, who is recovering at a Rome hospital from throat surgery to ease his second breathing crisis in a month. More than 6,000 e-mails in Spanish have streamed into the pope's inbox, along with thousands of others in various languages, the Vatican said. "As far as the content, the common denominator is not only the good wishes but personal memories and episodes of life recounted by those who have been stirred by the words of the pope and his testimony of faith," Vatican Radio reported this week. The Vatican won't say how much -- if any -- e-mail the 84-year-old pontiff actually reads or responds to, but John Paul seems comfortable with the medium.
Brother cross-examinedat Michael Jackson trial
SANTA MARIA, Calif. -- Michael Jackson's lawyer Tuesday confronted a 14-year-old boy whose brother was allegedly molested by the singer, pointing to discrepancies between the boy's trial testimony and earlier accounts, and extracting an admission he lied in another case. "I knew more back then," the boy said during a grueling cross-examination. "It was fresher in my memory." "Did someone tell you to say that?" defense attorney Thomas Mesereau Jr. asked. "No, I'm just saying it," the boy said. "I know everything happened. I just don't know it in detail." The boy appeared surprised when Mesereau confronted him with his Monday testimony that Jackson showed him and his brother sex magazines, including one called Barely Legal. The boy reiterated he was sure it was the exact magazine Jackson showed them. "Michael Jackson never showed you that magazine, Barely Legal, did he?" Mesereau asked. "Yes," the boy insisted. "But when you look at the date it was August 2003," Mesereau said. The boy and his family left Jackson's Neverland ranch months before that.
Fla. parents request testsof brain-damaged daughter
CLEARWATER, Fla. -- An attorney for the parents of a brain-damaged woman at the center of a right-to-die case asked a judge Tuesday to allow new medical tests to determine if she has more mental activity than previously thought. Attorney David Gibbs III told Judge George Greer that 41-year-old Terri Schiavo deserves to be re-evaluated with technology that has advanced since the last time she was tested in 2002. "We do believe Terri should get this benefit," Gibbs said. "She deserves to have the tests run." The hearing was the latest in a flurry of litigation before the court-ordered March 18 removal of a feeding tube that helps keep Terri Schiavo alive. Bob and Mary Schindler have fought their daughter's husband, Michael Schiavo, for nearly seven years to try to keep her alive. Michael Schiavo contends she would not want to be kept alive artificially, and he has court permission to stop the feedings so she can die. Gibbs also asked Greer to reconsider testimony from a friend of Terri Schiavo about what her end-of-life wishes might have been. The judge said he would rule as early as Wednesday.
From Vindicator wire reports