The Mexican government claims that records about the 1968 Tlatelolco student massacre can't be released on the grounds of national security. However, information can now be found at the CIA's website. A journalist who sits on the advisory board of the Mexico Documentation Project for the National Security Archive said, "I think the fact that there are more than 70 U.S. government documents on the Web is a clear indictment of the Mexican government." While the Mexican consititution enshrines the right to information, there is nothing like the Freedom of Information Act to assist citizens in gaining access to the archives. One researcher who did gain access to the archives said the files "weren't sanitized; they were purged... they have disappeared." Even the Mexican congress cannot gain access to government files during a year-long investigation. The inquiry looked into why security forces surrounded and opened fire on students packed into a plaza on October 2, 1968.

During two recent long-distance races along the East Coast, some 2,200 homing pigeons vanished. Since then, dozens of people across the East have contacted race organizers and animal control groups to report pigeons that they suspect may be the missing birds. About 100 pigeons were seen resting on a ledge of a Philadelphia warehouse; a pigeon resting in a front yard was caged by a woman in Pennsauken, N.J. About 1,600 out of 1,800 pigeons competing in a 200-mile race from northern Virginia to Allentown, PA, vanished on October 5th. About 600 out of 700 birds were missing after a 150-mile race on the same day from western Pennsylvania to Philadelphia. Homing pigeons find their way using the sun and by using the earth's magnetic field as a compass, experts say. Though they are sleeker and a bit bigger than a city-dwelling pigeon, the only way to really identify a homing pigeon is by a colored band around its leg. The birds should have been back in their lofts in a matter of hours. So far, no one is exactly sure why the birds veered off course.

Today the Johns Hopkins Children's Center is dedicating the first pediatric research center designed to pinpoint links between severe mental illness and early childhood viral infections. Researchers at the new Stanley Division of Developmental Neurovirology plan to follow-up on theories connecting viruses to schizophrenia and manic-depressive (or bipolar) disorder. Robert H. Yolken, MD, will be named the division's first professor and chairman. He and his colleagues have researched mental disorders for decades. They have identified several disease-related RNA sequences, possibly related to viruses, that appear only in people with these brain disorders. Many of these sequences are related to retroviruses, the viral family which also contains the agents which cause AIDS and T-cell leukemia. Additionally, the researchers have identified viral infections in infants who subsequently developed schizophrenia later in life.

Currently they are looking into a theory that a virus invades the brain, lying dormant for years before triggering the onset of schizophrenia or manic depressive illness in adolescence or young adulthood. "If this is the case," says Yolken, "antiviral medications or other methods might be developed to treat or prevent these conditions in some individuals. This would represent a major advance in limiting the heartbreak and social disruption suffered by families and individuals with these diseases."

Archaeologists from Cornell Univ. and the Univ. of California at Berkeley have found evidence of a village that was continuously occupied from 2000 B.C. to A.D. 1000, as well as hints to the secret of the community's remarkable longevity. The type of ceremonial pottery uncovered by the archaeologists points to the Puerto Escondido, Honduras region as being the possible "Cradle of Chocolate." Excavations have added at least 1,000 years to the documented story of a region where a hunting-and-gathering society settled and skilled pottery-makers flourished. The deepest excavations show building activity and obsidian tools, but no pottery. The pottery that was found, dating between 1100 and 900 B.C., shares the shape and style of pottery from communities to the west, the Olmec style in present-day Mexico. The same site is also yielding pre-Olmec pottery made between 1600 and 1100 B.C., the earliest known pottery making known in Meso- and upper-Central America. One possible explanation for similar pottery styles is trade, but the researchers suggest a more complex web of social relations, possibly centering on marriage between prominent families. Access to Ul�a valley cacao would be an important factor in motivating distant partners.

Historic records show that when the Spaniards arrived, the best chocolate in all of Mexico and Central America was growing in the Ul�a valley. THe finest cocoa beans come only from intense cultivation and special preparation techniques. The beans were so valuable, they were a form of currency. The type of pottery found are small, delicate vessels used for drinking chocolatl, the Aztec word for "warm drink." There are also more utilitarian pots for cooking and food storage. The delicate, small Olmec vessels are decorated with symbols of the supernatural, indicating ceremonial use. Most likely the royal liquid in the Olmec ceremonial vessels was chocolatl. Centuries later this beverage was craved by Montezuma, who reportedly drank 50 portions a day. The Ul�a valley was an ideal place to grow cacao, and the researchers have determined that newer and newer versions of the community were built upon the burned or flooded remains of the previous ones.

An American has been arrested by authorities in Rome for allegedly trafficking in human organs over the Internet. He was believed to be part of a US-based ring that allegedly sold hearts, kidneys, and other organs from Latin America, Cambodia, India and China. The 48-year-old suspect from Los Angeles was arrested at a Rome hotel when he met with police who were posing as organ buyers, arranging to purchase a kidney for $20,000. The authorities are still searching for other members of the alleged trafficking ring.

Abbas Al-Janabi, former top aide to Saddam Hussein's eldest son and heir, has sought asylum for his family and himself in an unnamed country. Before his recent defection, he served as press secretary to Uday Hussein, but his high-ranking position did not protect him from his employer. Al-Janabi says he was beaten for three days in 1991 for trying to quit his job. Another dispute that year landed him in a special prison inside a presidential palace. Uday sent his bodyguard, according to the former aide, to pull out one of his front teeth - the tooth was taken to Uday to prove that the punishment had been carried out. "You can't find any of Uday's friends... without they are leaning (limping)... Even his people who serve him, give him or prepare for him food or drinks. He always likes to torture people." Al-Janabi says he witnessed many acts of violence, and may write a book now that he and his entire family have fled Iraq.