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Politics : Stockman Scott's Political Debate Porch -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: lurqer who wrote (26416)	8/26/2003 11:12:52 AM
From: stockman_scott	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 89467

Postwar Iraq Death Toll Reaches 139, Surpassing Number Killed in Combat abcnews.go.com

To: lurqer who wrote (26416)	8/26/2003 11:21:42 AM
From: stockman_scott	Respond to of 89467

Iraq starting to look like Afghanistan ______________________ Allegedly blogged from Baghdad (though on the Net, it's always hard to tell): <<...Females can no longer leave their homes alone. Each time I go out, E. and either a father, uncle or cousin has to accompany me. It feels like we’ve gone back 50 years ever since the beginning of the occupation. A woman, or girl, out alone, risks anything from insults to abduction. An outing has to be arranged at least an hour beforehand. I state that I need to buy something or have to visit someone. Two males have to be procured (preferably large) and 'safety arrangements' must be made in this total state of lawlessness. And always the question: "But do you have to go out and buy it? Can't I get it for you?" No you can't, because the kilo of eggplant I absolutely have to select with my own hands is just an excuse to see the light of day and walk down a street. The situation is incredibly frustrating to females who work or go to college. Before the war, around 50% of the college students were females, and over 50% of the working force was composed of women. Not so anymore. We are seeing an increase of fundamentalism in Iraq which is terrifying. Saddam was, whatever else you can say about him, a bullwark against Islamic fundamentalism. The US is increasingly unable to push back against the rising tide of fundamentalist in that nation. And in the long run, that may prove deadlier than an impotent Saddam...>> dailykos.com

To: lurqer who wrote (26416)	8/26/2003 11:32:27 AM
From: T L Comiskey	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 89467

ROME (Aug. 13) - A prehistoric Italian iceman nicknamed ''Otzi'' may have been shot in the back with an arrow, but he only died after prolonged combat with his foes, new DNA evidence has shown. The 5,000-year-old corpse, dug out of a glacier in northern Italy more than a decade ago, had traces of blood from four different people on his clothes and weapons, molecular archeologist Tom Loy said Wednesday. He also had ''defensive cut wounds'' on his hands, wrists and rib cage, Loy said after recent blood and DNA tests. Loy, a senior lecturer at Queensland University in Brisbane, traveled to the northern Italian town of Bolzano for the research. ''Presumably he was in a combat situation for between 24 to 48 hours before he died,'' Loy said in a telephone interview. ''I think one of the things we could advance is that he shot at least two different people and retrieved his arrow, but then he shot at something else and missed, shattering his arrow.'' Loy took initial blood samples from Otzi's arrows, knife and coat in July. Amplifying and sequencing the samples, he concluded they belonged to four different people -- not including Otzi himself. ''The plot thickens a bit now,'' Loy said. ''Rather than a simple murder ... it looks like he may have put himself in a boundary situation where bloody battles often occur.'' Otzi, the oldest mummy ever unearthed, was found in the Italian Alps in 1991. Scientists were thrilled to find he had remained frozen, and almost perfectly preserved, for thousands of years. He wore clothing made from leather and grasses and carried a copper axe, a bow and arrows. Speculation immediately began about who he was and why he died where he did, but it was hard to do too much checking without damaging his body. Later, an arrowhead was found in his left shoulder, suggesting Otzi did not simply freeze to death while climbing the high mountains, but was shot by a fellow hunter. After studying the corpse's intestines, Italian researcher Franco Rollo concluded last year that the iceman's final meals consisted of venison and ibex meat. The latest research gives scientists a glimpse of what the stone age hunter's last, bloody hours must have been like. Loy said the tools that Otzi was carrying suggest he was a specialist hunter who often worked above the tree line in high passes that were often boundary areas between different, hostile language groups. He said the blood found on the back of Otzi's coat could have come from a wounded companion that he was carrying, but that the arrows and knife blade suggest that he was also fighting off at least two foes. Reuters 11:50 08-13-03