The Cardinals may have been wise to place a second-round tender on Hoyer.
Last week, Brian Hoyer signed his second-round tender with the Arizona Cardinals, meaning that unless the team decides to trade or cut him, he will be one of the quarterbacks on the roster next season. No team is allowed to negotiate with Hoyer now that he has signed the tender and he is no longer considered a free agent, which is bad news for the Steelers, according to Ed Bouchette of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (via NFL.com).
Bouchette states that the Steelers had interest in signing Hoyer to be the backup to Ben Roethlisberger before signing his tender with the Cardinals.
The Steelers were not willing to part with a second-round pick for a backup quarterback (obviously), so it became moot. The Cardinals were obviously aware that teams were going to have interest in him, which is why they placed such a high tender on him instead of hoping for the best.
The oddest part about all of this is that the Cardinals actually signed Hoyer last season after he was released from the Steelers. If they would have kept him on their roster, they would have had the option of tendering Hoyer instead of the Cardinals.
In all, it was a good move by the Cardinals as they were able to secure their backup (and possible starter) by paying him just $800,000 more for the season.
TRIKALA, Greece (AP) ? At least 11 inmates escaped from a Greek prison after gunmen brazenly attacked the site with grenades and automatic weapons, kicking off a nightlong standoff between police and prisoners. Two guards were injured, one of them seriously.
A senior police official told the Associated Press on Saturday that 11 inmates were missing after the gun battle and standoff, which ended at dawn when police special forces entered the prison. He spoke on condition of anonymity because an official announcement was still pending.
The incident occurred near the town of Trikala, in central Greece, some 320 kilometers (200 miles) northwest of Athens. As many as six gunmen attacked the prison after driving up to the site in a van and pickup truck, according to officials.
Prison authorities were investigating reports that weapons had also been fired from inside the facility. At least five grenades exploded, while army experts were expected at the prison to dispose of two unexploded grenades.
The attack started at around 8:30 p.m. (1830GMT) Friday, when a police patrol jeep was fired upon.
"It was like a war was going on. There was so much gunfire," said Trikala city councilor Costas Tassios, who lives in the village of Krinitsa, near the prison.
A bullet fired at the village damaged a coffee shop window in an incident also being investigated by police.
The escaped prisoners used ropes to climb down from a guard tower that had been attacked. Police set up roadblocks near the prison and searched vacant homes and farm buildings, as well as using two helicopters, in the manhunt. Officers from evidence units were also scouring the jail perimeter after dawn.
Police said the escaped inmates were mostly Albanian but gave no other details. An inmate from Argentina was arrested but the circumstances of his apprehension were not immediately clear.
The attack was the latest dramatic incident at Greek prisons, which are suffering from serious overcrowding and staff shortages as the country struggles through financial crisis and a recession that started in late 2008.
Last month, guards foiled a breakout attempt by four inmates who tried to escape by helicopter from Trikala prison, including notorious Greek inmate Panagiotis Vlastos, who is serving life for murder and racketeering. Gunmen in the helicopter had fired on guards in the Feb. 24 incident and lowered a rope in to the courtyard, but the chopper was forced to land after being hit by returned gunfire.
In a separate incident on March 17, a convicted contract killer, Albanian inmate Alket Rizaj, took several prison guards hostage in an attempt to escape from another prison in central Greece. The attempt was unsuccessful and the hostages were released unharmed following a 24-hour standoff.
Stryknyn opened the show with a win via spear over the returning David Coleman. After the match, APW Commissioner Jacob Ashworth appeared on the big screen and ordered Stryknyn to leave the building and then announced that Southern States Champion Jacoby Boykins would defend the title later in the evening against Jeremy Vain and that Ashworth would be at ringside.
APW North Georgia champ Wade Adams pinned Psycho Scott Mason.
APW Tag Team champs King Seth Delay and Da Fireman successfully defended the titles against Yasir Akbar and Kevin Ballenger when Seth hit a sunset flip on Akbar.
APW Commissioner Jacob Ashworth pinned Shane Hexxon after crotching him on the top rope and hitting the power bomb for the win.
James Boulevard and Jamie Cruz defeated the team of Chris Spectra and The Sin City Saint Brandon Parker. This match came about after a previous altercation between Parker and Boulevard caught on the big screen and Parker and Boulevard, respectively, recruiting former parters Cruz and Spectra as tag partners. After a long back and forth match, Boulevard rolled Parker with a handful of tights for the pin.
Jeremy Vain defeated Jacoby Boykins to become the new APW Southern States champion. After a quick start by Vain, Jacoby Boykins took control of the match by a combination of brutal power moves and outside interference by Commissioner Ashworth. But Vain would come back and, after a series of moves that was topped off by an amazing Death Valley Driver on Boykins, Vain looked poised to take the title. The big move on Boykins drew Ashworth to jump up on the ring apron, breaking the count and drawing the referee to start arguing with Ashworth. While the referee and Ashworth were occupied, Stryknyn ran out, grabbed the APW Southern States title belt and threw it to Vain. Jeremy Vain clocked Jacoby Boykins with the belt and made the pin as the referee turned around.
APW News and Notes: Spring Break Bash 2013 will be held on April 19th at the APW Arena in Royston, GA.
ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) ? Probation officials are investigating how a man charged with possessing child pornography managed to cut off his electronic monitoring bracelet before carjacking a woman at a mall, fatally stabbing her and raping her 10-year-old-daughter, authorities said.
David J. Renz abducted the school librarian and her daughter as they left a gymnastics class Thursday night at a mall in the Syracuse suburb of Clay, about 150 miles west of Albany, state police said Friday.
Renz bound both victims, raped the girl and drove a short distance to a spot where the girl escaped and was found by a passing motorist, troopers said.
The motorist told 911 dispatchers he saw a man running away, allowing police to quickly send in officers on the ground and a sheriff's helicopter in the air. Renz was caught a short time later near a wooded area.
It was unclear how the girl escaped or when her mother was killed, authorities said.
"We're still trying to piece the timeline together," Trooper Jack Keller said.
The girl was being treated at a hospital Friday. Her mother died from multiple stab wounds.
Renz, 29, had been charged in January with possession of child pornography and allowed to remain free under terms that included staying off the Internet and away from places including schools, parks and arcades. He lost his job at a supermarket, moved in with his mother and hadn't been able to find other work after his arrest, according to court documents.
Federal authorities said he cut his electronic monitoring device off his ankle shortly before Thursday's attacks. Probation officials are investigating whether Renz was able to get around an alert that is supposed to go off if the ankle bracelet is removed, Executive Assistant U.S. Attorney John Duncan said.
Renz was arraigned Friday on murder, rape and kidnapping charges and was held without bail. The lawyer assigned to his case, Ken Moynihan, didn't return a call seeking comment.
The Associated Press generally doesn't publish information that could identify potential sex crime victims and isn't naming the woman to protect the girl's identity.
According to an FBI criminal complaint, agents who went to the North Syracuse apartment where Renz was living in June found in his bedroom four computers that he told them he used to view adult pornography.
Agent Alix Skelton said Renz eventually admitted using the Internet for the past six years to download child porn to a drive on one of the machines, which he turned over to the agents. Technicians determined in November that it had an encrypted hard drive, and Skelton said Renz provided the encryption key. Agents reviewing the drive in December found about 100 gigabytes of child porn comprising more than 500 videos and more than 3,000 images, according to the complaint.
Among the images were two showing sex acts involving prepubescent girls, said Skelton, a member of a unit that targets people involved in online exploitation of children.
Renz was charged Jan. 9 in federal court with possession of child pornography. On Jan. 29, a judge granted a prosecutor's request for an extension of the time required for grand jury action so investigators could continue going over "numerous items of electric media" for additional evidence.
Renz, who authorities said had no prior police record, was released after agreeing to stay at home at night with an electronic monitor and away from any place he might encounter children.
Late Friday afternoon, state police turned Renz over to federal authorities, who will hold him for violating the terms of his release, court documents said.
Duncan said the cases against him will continue in federal and state courts.
The lawyer assigned to Renz in the child porn case, James Greenwald, didn't return a call seeking comment Friday.
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WASHINGTON (AP) ? To gauge the limits of the tea party's ability to frighten re-election-seeking Republicans into a rightward panic, spend time with Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina.
One day he's blasting tea party hero Rand Paul on the Senate floor, calling the Kentucky senator's 13-hour filibuster ? which criticized U.S. drone policy ? wrong-headed and "ill-informed."
Another day Graham is at a groundbreaking ceremony in Greer, S.C., mixing jokes and politics in a fashion even his enemies have to admire. Citing a January CBS News poll showing Congress' approval rating at 12 percent, he asked: "Who are the 12 percent, and what do they like?"
Three years ago, South Carolina Republican clubs were condemning Graham, calling him too moderate and too willing to cooperate with President Barack Obama and other Democrats. Nikki Haley, now the state's governor, supported the censures. Graham seemed a prime candidate for the type of tea-party-backed insurrections that ousted GOP senators in Utah and Indiana, and prompted other senators to steer hard right to save their jobs.
Today, even his critics say Graham is on track to win a third Senate term next year.
"His approval numbers are pretty high," said Lin Bennett, executive director of the Charleston County Republican Party, one of two major groups that censured Graham three years ago for supporting a bank bailout and for being too accommodating on immigration.
"He offers great constituent services," Bennett said. "One unhappy county isn't enough."
Graham calls himself a proud conservative. But he makes no apologies for sometimes seeking compromise with Democrats, which some tea partyers consider villainy.
"How do we get out of this mess?" Graham asked the Greer crowd, referring to the nation's economic troubles. "The same way the country has survived and thrived for the last 200 years: find common ground. Try to find a way to make everybody a winner instead of everybody a loser."
Graham's bipartisan talk contrasts with the recent tones of Senate Republican leaders Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and John Cornyn. Both men face possible GOP primary challenges from the right next year, and they have sharpened their criticisms of Democrats.
Graham didn't pass judgment on fellow Republicans. But he said politicians needn't kowtow to ideological groups if they visit their home districts regularly and explain their positions forthrightly.
"I've been fortunate enough to be judged by the body of my work," he said in an interview in his Senate office. "I don't worry obsessively about my political re-election. And I've become a very good senator. If you don't overly worry about losing, you become hard to beat."
All politicians and states are different, so Graham's lessons and luck may not apply elsewhere. But by any measure he's folksier and friendlier than the standoffish McConnell. He's far more visible in his home state than was Sen. Richard Lugar of Indiana, defeated in last year's GOP primary. And he seems unlikely to be caught off guard by hard-right insurgencies, as were Republican senators in recent years in Utah and Alaska.
Graham "is a ferocious campaigner, especially when he gets back home," said Katon Dawson, a former South Carolina Republican Party chairman and a major Graham fundraiser. "Lindsey doesn't have a lot of hobbies." The Senate and politics are "a lifestyle, and he works hard," Dawson said.
Some South Carolina tea partyers still hope to challenge Graham in next year's primary. But they lost perhaps their best prospect when state Sen. Tom Davis ? a libertarian-leaning former top aide to Gov. Mark Sanford ? declined to run.
Another state senator, Lee Bright of Spartanburg, might try. Graham's criticisms of Paul's filibuster "kind of pushed me over the edge," Bright said.
But some South Carolinians see Bright as a fringe candidate.
Meanwhile, Graham has a formidable campaign fund of more than $4 million and rising. Assuming Graham survives the GOP primary, as expected, he is "completely bullet proof" in a general election against a Democrat, Dawson said.
Non-South Carolinians might be amused to hear Republicans debate whether Graham is conservative enough. Four years before being elected to the Senate he was one of 13 House managers for President Bill Clinton's impeachment. He sharply criticizes Obama at times, calling presidential budget plans "a road map to disaster."
Like his pal and mentor Arizona Sen. John McCain, however, Graham often carves an independent path. Despite conservative attacks on Republican senators who have voted to confirm Obama's judicial nominees, Graham says presidents should get their choices barring something that's clearly disqualifying.
"I don't know how to construct a world where we get all of our judges, and they never get any of theirs," he said.
Graham says he would consider higher tax revenues in exchange for serious changes to Medicare and Social Security. His says immigration reform must include a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants. Both stands are anathema to many conservative activists.
Graham most recently drew their fire for joining McCain in denouncing Paul's highly publicized filibuster. Paul ? a libertarian Republican weighing a presidential bid ? demanded White House assurances that unmanned aircraft will not be used to kill American citizens on U.S. soil and not engaged in combat.
Graham called the question groundless and defended Obama's use of deadly drones against terrorist suspects overseas. He shrugged off the resulting torrent of angry tweets and e-mails, saying he and Paul get along fine.
"Rand and I play golf together," Graham said. They differ on surveillance and other anti-terrorism policies, he said, "but these differences have been around forever in the Republican Party."
Graham supports a "big-tent" GOP, which is disdained by those conservatives who say Republicans have become too wishy-washy and too willing to compromise.
"Partisan ideas, on big issues, never fare well over time," he said. He cited Obama's embattled overhaul of health care as an example.
As for the nation's economic challenges, he said, "the path off the road to becoming Greece is a shared path."
If the Republican Party is to thrive, Graham said, it must have "tea party libertarians, tea party conservatives, married up with traditional Republicans. That's the coalition of the future."
So far, most South Carolina Republicans seem disinclined to punish him for that vision.
Stanford researchers map out an alternative energy future for New YorkPublic release date: 12-Mar-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Mark Z. Jacobson, Stanford jacobson@stanford.edu 650-723-6836 Stanford University
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo will soon decide whether to approve hydraulic fracturing for natural gas in the state. To date, no alternative to expanded gas drilling has been proposed.
But a new study finds that it is technically and economically feasible to convert New York's all-purpose energy infrastructure to one powered by wind, water and sunlight (WWS). The plan, scheduled for publication in the journal Energy Policy, shows the way to a sustainable, inexpensive and reliable energy supply that creates local jobs and saves the state billions of dollars in pollution-related costs.
Mark Z. Jacobson, a senior fellow with the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment and the Precourt Institute for Energy, co-authored the study with scientists from Cornell University and the University of California-Davis.
"Converting to wind, water and sunlight is feasible, will stabilize costs of energy and will produce jobs while reducing health and climate damage," said Jacobson, a professor of civil and environmental engineering.
The study is the first to develop a plan to fulfill all of a state's transportation, electric power, industry, and heating and cooling energy needs with renewable energy, and to calculate the number of new devices and jobs created, amount of land and ocean areas required, and policies needed for such an infrastructure change. It also provides new calculations of air pollution mortality and morbidity impacts and costs based on multiple years of air quality data.
The study concludes that while a WWS conversion may result in initial capital cost increases, such as the cost of building renewable energy power plants, these costs would be more than made up for over time by the elimination of fuel costs. The overall switch would reduce New York's end-use power demand by about 37 percent and stabilize energy prices, since fuel costs would be zero, according to the study. It would also create a net gain in manufacturing, installation and technology jobs because nearly all the state's energy would be produced within the state.
According to the researchers' calculations, New York's 2030 power demand for all sectors (electricity, transportation, heating/cooling, industry) could be met by:
4,020 onshore 5-megawatt wind turbines
12,770 offshore 5-megawatt wind turbines
387 100-megawatt concentrated solar plants
828 50-megawatt photovoltaic power plants
5 million 5-kilowatt residential rooftop photovoltaic systems
500,000 100-kilowatt commercial/government rooftop photovoltaic systems
36 100-megawatt geothermal plants
1,910 0.75-megawatt wave devices
2,600 1-megawatt tidal turbines
7 1,300-megawatt hydroelectric power plants, of which most exist
According to the study, if New York switched to WWS, air pollutionrelated deaths would decline by about 4,000 annually and the state would save about $33 billion 3 percent of the state's gross domestic product in related health costs every year. That savings alone would pay for the new power infrastructure needed within about 17 years, or about 10 years if annual electricity sales are accounted for. The study also estimates that resultant emissions decreases would reduce 2050 U.S. climate change costs such as coastal erosion and extreme weather damage by about $3.2 billion per year.
Currently, almost all of New York's energy comes from imported oil, coal and gas. Under the plan that Jacobson and his fellow researchers advance, 40 percent of the state's energy would come from local wind power, 38 percent from local solar and the remainder from a combination of hydroelectric, geothermal, tidal and wave energy.
All vehicles would run on battery-electric power and/or hydrogen fuel cells. Electricity-powered air- and ground-source heat pumps, geothermal heat pumps, heat exchangers and backup electric resistance heaters would replace natural gas and oil for home heating and air-conditioning. Air- and ground-source heat pump water heaters powered by electricity and solar hot water preheaters would provide hot water for homes. High temperatures for industrial processes would be obtained with electricity and hydrogen combustion.
"We must be ambitious if we want to promote energy independence and curb global warming," said study co-author Robert Howarth, a Cornell University professor of ecology and environmental biology. "The economics of this plan make sense," said Anthony Ingraffea, a Cornell engineering professor and a co-author of the study. "Now it is up to the political sphere."
To ensure grid reliability, the plan outlines several methods to match renewable energy supply with demand and to smooth out the variability of WWS resources. These include a grid management system to shift times of demand to better match with timing of power supply, and "over-sizing" peak generation capacity to minimize times when available power is less than demand.
###
The study's authors are developing similar plans for other states, including California and Washington. They took no funding from any interest group, company or government agency for this study.
Rob Jordan is the communications writer for the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Stanford researchers map out an alternative energy future for New YorkPublic release date: 12-Mar-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Mark Z. Jacobson, Stanford jacobson@stanford.edu 650-723-6836 Stanford University
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo will soon decide whether to approve hydraulic fracturing for natural gas in the state. To date, no alternative to expanded gas drilling has been proposed.
But a new study finds that it is technically and economically feasible to convert New York's all-purpose energy infrastructure to one powered by wind, water and sunlight (WWS). The plan, scheduled for publication in the journal Energy Policy, shows the way to a sustainable, inexpensive and reliable energy supply that creates local jobs and saves the state billions of dollars in pollution-related costs.
Mark Z. Jacobson, a senior fellow with the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment and the Precourt Institute for Energy, co-authored the study with scientists from Cornell University and the University of California-Davis.
"Converting to wind, water and sunlight is feasible, will stabilize costs of energy and will produce jobs while reducing health and climate damage," said Jacobson, a professor of civil and environmental engineering.
The study is the first to develop a plan to fulfill all of a state's transportation, electric power, industry, and heating and cooling energy needs with renewable energy, and to calculate the number of new devices and jobs created, amount of land and ocean areas required, and policies needed for such an infrastructure change. It also provides new calculations of air pollution mortality and morbidity impacts and costs based on multiple years of air quality data.
The study concludes that while a WWS conversion may result in initial capital cost increases, such as the cost of building renewable energy power plants, these costs would be more than made up for over time by the elimination of fuel costs. The overall switch would reduce New York's end-use power demand by about 37 percent and stabilize energy prices, since fuel costs would be zero, according to the study. It would also create a net gain in manufacturing, installation and technology jobs because nearly all the state's energy would be produced within the state.
According to the researchers' calculations, New York's 2030 power demand for all sectors (electricity, transportation, heating/cooling, industry) could be met by:
4,020 onshore 5-megawatt wind turbines
12,770 offshore 5-megawatt wind turbines
387 100-megawatt concentrated solar plants
828 50-megawatt photovoltaic power plants
5 million 5-kilowatt residential rooftop photovoltaic systems
500,000 100-kilowatt commercial/government rooftop photovoltaic systems
36 100-megawatt geothermal plants
1,910 0.75-megawatt wave devices
2,600 1-megawatt tidal turbines
7 1,300-megawatt hydroelectric power plants, of which most exist
According to the study, if New York switched to WWS, air pollutionrelated deaths would decline by about 4,000 annually and the state would save about $33 billion 3 percent of the state's gross domestic product in related health costs every year. That savings alone would pay for the new power infrastructure needed within about 17 years, or about 10 years if annual electricity sales are accounted for. The study also estimates that resultant emissions decreases would reduce 2050 U.S. climate change costs such as coastal erosion and extreme weather damage by about $3.2 billion per year.
Currently, almost all of New York's energy comes from imported oil, coal and gas. Under the plan that Jacobson and his fellow researchers advance, 40 percent of the state's energy would come from local wind power, 38 percent from local solar and the remainder from a combination of hydroelectric, geothermal, tidal and wave energy.
All vehicles would run on battery-electric power and/or hydrogen fuel cells. Electricity-powered air- and ground-source heat pumps, geothermal heat pumps, heat exchangers and backup electric resistance heaters would replace natural gas and oil for home heating and air-conditioning. Air- and ground-source heat pump water heaters powered by electricity and solar hot water preheaters would provide hot water for homes. High temperatures for industrial processes would be obtained with electricity and hydrogen combustion.
"We must be ambitious if we want to promote energy independence and curb global warming," said study co-author Robert Howarth, a Cornell University professor of ecology and environmental biology. "The economics of this plan make sense," said Anthony Ingraffea, a Cornell engineering professor and a co-author of the study. "Now it is up to the political sphere."
To ensure grid reliability, the plan outlines several methods to match renewable energy supply with demand and to smooth out the variability of WWS resources. These include a grid management system to shift times of demand to better match with timing of power supply, and "over-sizing" peak generation capacity to minimize times when available power is less than demand.
###
The study's authors are developing similar plans for other states, including California and Washington. They took no funding from any interest group, company or government agency for this study.
Rob Jordan is the communications writer for the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Archaeologists uncovered 20 Stone Age skeletons in the Sahara Desert. The burials spanned thousands of years, suggesting the place was a persistent cemetery for the local people.
By Tia Ghose LiveScience
Archaeologists have uncovered 20 Stone Age skeletons in and around a rock shelter in Libya's Sahara Desert, according to a new study.
The skeletons date between 8,000 and 4,200 years ago, meaning the burial place was used for millennia.
"It must have been a place of memory," said study co-author Mary Anne Tafuri, an archaeologist at the University of Cambridge. "People throughout time have kept it, and they have buried their people, over and over, generation after generation."
About 15 women and children were buried in the rock shelter, while five men and juveniles were buried under giant stone heaps called tumuli outside the shelter during a later period, when the region turned to desert.
The findings, which are detailed in the March issue of the Journal of Anthropological Archaeology, suggest the culture changed with the climate.
Millennia of burials From about 8,000 to 6,000 years ago, the Sahara Desert?region, called Wadi Takarkori, was filled with scrubby vegetation and seasonal green patches. Stunning rock art depicts ancient herding animals, such as cows, which require much more water to graze than the current environment could support, Tafuri said.?
Tafuri and her colleague Savino di Lernia began excavating the archaeological site between 2003 and 2006. At the same site, archaeologists also uncovered huts, animal bones and pots with traces of the earliest fermented dairy products in Africa. [See Images of the Stone-Age Skeletons]
To date the skeletons, Tafuri measured the remains for concentrations of isotopes, or molecules of the same element with different weights.
The team concluded that the skeletons?were buried over four millennia, with most of the remains in the rock shelter buried between 7,300 and 5,600 years ago.
The males and juveniles under the stone heaps were buried starting 4,500 years ago, when the region became more arid. Rock art confirms the dry-up, as the cave paintings began to depict goats, which need much less water to graze than cows, Tafuri said.
The ancient people also grew up not far from the area where they were buried, based on a comparison of isotopes in tooth enamel, which forms early in childhood, with elements in the nearby environment.
Shift in culture? The findings suggest the burial place was used for millennia by the same group of people. It also revealed a divided society.
"The exclusive use of the rock shelter for female and sub-adult burials points to a persistent division based on gender," wrote Marina Gallinaro, a researcher in African studies at Sapienza University of Rome, who was not involved in the study, in an email to LiveScience.
One possibility is that during the earlier period, women had a more critical role in the society, and families may have even traced their descent through the female line. But once the Sahara began its inexorable expansion into the region about 5,000 years ago, the culture shifted and men's prominence may have risen as a result, Gallinaro wrote.
The region as a whole is full of hundreds of sites yet to be excavated, said Luigi Boitani, a biologist at Sapienza University of Rome, who has worked on archaeological sites in the region but was not involved in the study.
"The area is an untapped treasure," Boitani said.
The new discovery also highlights the need to protect the fragile region, which has been closed to archaeologists since the revolution that ousted dictator Moammar el Gadhafi.
Takarkori is very close to the main road that leads from Libya into neighboring Niger, so rebels and other notorious political figures, such as Gadhafi's sons, have frequently passed through the area to escape the country, he said.
Follow Tia Ghose on Twitter @tiaghose.?Follow?LiveScience?on Twitter?@livescience. We're also on?Facebook?&Google+. Original article on?LiveScience.com
Copyright 2013 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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Public release date: 12-Mar-2013
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