SAO PAULO, Brazil -Sloths weren’t always slow-moving, furry tree-dwellers. Their prehistoric ancestors were huge — up to four tons (3.6 metric tons) — and when startled, they brandished immense claws.

For a long time, scientists believed the first humans to arrive in the Americas soon killed off these giant ground sloths through hunting, along with many other massive animals like mastodons, saber-toothed cats and dire wolves that once roamed North and South America.

But new research from several sites is starting to suggest that people came to the Americas earlier — perhaps far earlier — than once thought. These findings hint at a remarkably different life for these early Americans, one in which they may have spent millennia sharing prehistoric savannas and wetlands with enormous beasts.

“There was this idea that humans arrived and killed everything off very quickly — what’s called ‘Pleistocene overkill,’” said Daniel Odess, an archaeologist at White Sands National Park in New Mexico. But new discoveries suggest that “humans were existing alongside these animals for at least 10,000 years, without making them go extinct."

Some of the most tantalizing clues come from an archaeological site in central Brazil, called Santa Elina, where bones of giant ground sloths show signs of being manipulated by humans. Sloths like these once lived from Alaska to Argentina, and some species had bony structures on their backs, called osteoderms — a bit like the plates of modern armadillos — that may have been used to make decorations.

In a lab at the University of Sao Paulo, researcher Mírian Pacheco holds in her palm a round, penny-sized sloth fossil. She notes that its surface is surprisingly smooth, the edges appear to have been deliberately polished, and there’s a tiny hole near one edge.

“We believe it was intentionally altered and used by ancient people as jewelry or adornment,” she said. Three similar “pendant” fossils are visibly different from unworked osteoderms on a table — those are rough-surfaced and without any holes.

The military's tradition of #tracking Santa Claus on his gravity-defying sweep across the globe will carry on this Christmas Eve, even if the U.S. government shuts down, officials said Friday.

Each year, at least 100,000 kids call into the North American Aerospace Defense Command to inquire about Santa’s location. Millions more follow online.

“We fully expect for Santa to take flight on Dec. 24 and Norad will track him," the U.S.-Canadian agency said in a statement.

On any other night, Norad is scanning the heavens for potential threats, such as last year's Chinese spy balloon. But on Christmas Eve, volunteers in Colorado Springs, Colo., are fielding questions like, “When is Santa coming to my house?” and, “Am I on the naughty or nice list?”

The endeavour is supported by local and corporate sponsors, who also help shield the tradition from #Washington dysfunction.

Bob Sommers, 63, a civilian contractor and Norad volunteer, told The Associated Press that there are "screams and giggles and laughter” when families call in, usually on speakerphone.

Sommers often says on the call that everyone must be asleep before Santa arrives, prompting parents to say, "Do you hear what he said? We got to go to bed early."

Norad's annual tracking of Santa has endured since the Cold War, predating ugly sweater parties and Mariah Carey classics. Here's how it began and why the phones keep ringing.

The origin story is Hollywood-esque

It started with a child's accidental phone call in 1955. The Colorado Springs newspaper printed a Sears advertisement that encouraged children to call Santa, listing a phone number.

A boy called. But he reached the Continental Air Defense Command, now Norad, a joint U.S. and Canadian effort to spot potential enemy attacks. Tensions were growing with the Soviet Union, along with anxieties about nuclear war.

#Google Maps image provides clue in Spanish missing persons case.

Chance images captured by a passing Google Maps camera showing a man leaning over a large bag or bags in a car trunk with what could be a human body gave police an extra clue in a murder investigation in the central Spanish village of Tajueco.

A friend reported the male victim missing in November 2023 after receiving suspicious text messages sent from the victim's phone saying he had met a woman and was leaving the province of Soria, where Tajueco is located, and abandoning his phone, police said in a statement on Wednesday.

The investigation focussed on the missing man's girlfriend and her ex-partner, with unspecified important clues found in their cars and homes, police said.

During checks on the movements of one of the cars, police came across a street view image captured by a Google Maps car mapping the area.

It showed a street that was deserted except for a man leaning into the trunk of a red car in which there was a bulky white bag or bags. Several other images in the same series, dated October 2024, showed the trunk shut and nobody in the street.

Last month, police arrested the couple initially on suspicion of kidnapping, and later discovered a human torso, believed to be that of the missing man, in a shallow grave at a local cemetery on Dec. 11.

The investigation is still underway, police said, noting that the Google Maps image was just one of several clues in the case.

#MOSCOW, December 17. Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova described the assassination of Chief of Russia’s Radiation, Chemical and Biological Protection Troops Lieutenant-General Igor Kirillov and his aide as a planned terrorist attack made possible by the West’s connivance of the crimes of the Kiev regime.

"Another terrorist attack has taken place. General Igor Kirillov and his aide were killed in a planned manner, killed in front of an apartment building at a time when people are going to work, children are going to school or kindergarten," she wrote on Telegram.

According to the diplomat, the attack represented "a continuation and development of the spiral of Western connivance of the war crimes of the Kiev regime's militants, which they have been exacerbating all these years."

#Taiwan said on Thursday it detected 16 #Chinese warships in waters around the island, one of the highest numbers this year, as Beijing intensifies military pressure on #Taipei.

EU envoys agree on 15th package of anti-Russia sanctions
The new package adds more persons and entities to the already existing sanctions list, as well as constrains the activity of additional vessels of third states operating to contribute or support actions or policies supporting Russia’s actions against Ukraine

#DAMASCUS, Syria -Israel carried out a wave of heavy airstrikes across Syria as its troops advanced deeper into the country, a Syrian opposition war monitor said Tuesday, and the Israeli defence minister announced that his forces had destroyed Syria's navy.

#Israel acknowledged pushing into a buffer zone inside Syria following the overthrow of President Bashar Assad. But it remained unclear if its soldiers had gone beyond that area, which was established more than 50 years ago. Israel denied it is advancing on the Syrian capital of #Damascus.

Israeli officials have said they are striking military targets, including heavy weapons, suspected chemical weapons sites and air-defence systems, to prevent them from falling into the hands of extremists. Photographs circulating online showed destroyed missile launchers, helicopters and warplanes. Associated Press reporters in the capital heard heavy airstrikes overnight and into Tuesday morning.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said Israel intended to establish a demilitarized zone in southern Syria.

Speaking at a navy base in Haifa, Katz said the army will create "defence zone free of weapons and terrorist threats in southern Syria, without a permanent Israeli presence, in order to prevent terrorism in Syria from taking root."

He gave few details on what that entailed, but warned Syria's rebels that "whoever follows Assad's path will end up like Assad. We will not allow an extremist Islamic terrorist entity to act against Israel."

In an area where so many geopolitical lines are packed together -- it is barely 25 miles (60 kilometres) from Damascus to the buffer zone, and only a few more miles to Israeli territory -- any military movement can spark regional fears.

There was no immediate comment from the insurgent groups -- led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS -- that have taken control of much of the country. Their lightning advance brought an end to the Assad family's half-century rule after nearly 14 years of civil war. There are concerns over what comes next.

'Damascus is more beautiful now'

Life in the capital is slowly returning to normal after the overthrow of Assad, who fled the country over the weekend and has been granted political asylum in Russia.

Private banks reopened on instructions from the central bank, said Sadi Ahmad, who runs a branch in the upscale Abu Rummaneh neighbourhood. He said all his employees returned to work.

Shops also reopened in the city's ancient Hamidiyeh market, where armed men and civilians could be seen buying perfume and ice cream. A clothing shop owner, who asked not to be named for fear of retribution, said he hoped vendors would no longer have to pay bribes to security officials.

At Bakdash, a famous ice cream shop, a poster outside read: "Welcome to the rebels of free Syria. Long live free Syria."

"Damascus is more beautiful now," said Maysoun Qurabi, who was shopping in the market. "It has a soul, and people feel at ease and secure." Under Assad, she said, "people were hungry and scared. The regime was strong."

Israeli incursion draws condemnation

In the immediate aftermath of Assad's fall, Israeli forces moved into a roughly 400-square-kilometre (155-square-mile) buffer zone inside Syria that was established after the 1973 Mideast war, a move it said was taken to prevent attacks on its citizens.

Israel has a long history of seizing territory during wars with its neighbours and occupying it indefinitely, citing security concerns. Israel captured the Golan Heights from Syria in the 1967 Mideast war and annexed it in a move not recognized internationally, except by the United States.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which has closely tracked the conflict since the civil war erupted in 2011, said Israel has carried out more than 300 airstrikes across the country since the rebels overthrew Assad.

The Observatory, and Beirut-based Mayadeen TV, which has reporters in Syria, said Israeli troops are advancing up the Syrian side of the border with Lebanon and had come within 25 kilometres (15 miles) of Damascus, which the Israeli military denied.

The suspected UnitedHealthcare CEO killer planned his attack well -- but made crucial mistakes, experts say.

“What surprises me is how well planned the actual attack was, and at the same time how sloppy the killer was in his movements – in his showing his face, in leaving behind items,” said Steve Moore, a retired FBI supervisory special agent.

“There’s kind of a dichotomy. It’s almost as if he read a book on how to do one of these attacks and didn’t read it carefully. He just made serious mistakes as he went along.”

The suspect’s evasion ended Monday at a McDonald’s in Pennsylvania – where police arrested Luigi Mangione in connection with the killing.

Here’s a look at what police say are the suspect’s key moves, the evidence he left behind, and what experts say about his strategy:
Before the killing

He took a bus to New York and paid cash: The suspect cleverly avoided air travel – and the intense scrutiny that comes with it, experts said.

Had he taken a plane to New York, the suspect probably would have had to use a credit card, show his ID and reveal his entire face under security cameras. If he had a gun at the time, it probably would have been detected during luggage screening.

Instead, the suspect took a Greyhound bus to New York, law enforcement sources told CNN.

By travelling on Greyhound, the suspect “is paying cash, no ID,” former NYPD Deputy Commissioner Richard Esposito said.

“It’s one of the reasons people ride Greyhound buses. (There) is a great deal of freedom and anonymity to come and go as you please.”

Almost a week after the killing, it’s still not clear where the suspect got on the bus. The bus started its route in Atlanta, but authorities didn’t know whether the suspect boarded in Atlanta or elsewhere.

Detectives from the New York Police Department travelled to Georgia and reviewed surveillance footage from the Greyhound station in Atlanta – but saw no sign of the suspect, law enforcement officials told CNN. The detectives returned to New York.