Body Parts

"Oh, you mean the guy with the 70-year-old head and the 20-year-old body-builder body? That picture has got to be Photoshopped." Dr. Jeffry Life smiles when I tell him about the general reaction I get about the famous picture of him with his shirt off, the shot that turned a mild-mannered doctor in his mid-60s into a poster boy for super-fit aging and controversial hormone replacement Appearing in medical-clinic ads in airline magazines and...

At 11 a.m. PDT, Los Angeles Times editor Davan Maharaj will take part in  a live discussion of the L.A. Times story about U.S. troops posing with body parts from Afghan suicide bombers. The story , and the two photos that accompanied it, outline how a unit of the 82nd Airborne Division posed with remains when sent on two missions to attempt to get identification of the dead bombers. The Pentagon has denounced the behavior depicted in the photos and has launched a criminal investigation.

The paratroopers had their assignment: Check out reports that Afghan police had recovered the mangled remains of an insurgent suicide bomber. Try to get iris scans and fingerprints for identification. The 82nd Airborne Division soldiers arrived at the police station in Afghanistan's Zabol province in February 2010. They inspected the body parts. Then the mission turned macabre: The paratroopers posed for photos next to Afghan police, grinning while some held - and others squatted beside - the corpse's severed legs.

From the White House to the American Embassy in Kabul, American officials rushed to distance themselves from the actions of U.S. soldiers who posed for photographs next to corpses and body parts of Afghan insurgents. Two photos of incidents from a 2010 deployment were published Wednesday by the Los Angeles Times. In one, the hand of a corpse is propped on the shoulder of a paratrooper. In another, the disembodied legs of a suicide bomber are displayed by grinning soldiers and Afghan police.

Pablo Szmulewicz, a Mexico City artist, remembers the pitch from the newspaper hawker who held a front page with chopped-up human bodies. "He told me: 'Buy it ? it's a good story,'" Szmulewicz said, recalling the encounter that took place three months ago in the central state of Morelos. "I'm saying, 'But ? these are people .'" Szmulewicz knew he had found a terrible inspiration. When he got home, he downloaded death-scene images from the Internet and went to work. The result is a series of paintings depicting discarded bodies, bound and blindfolded and lying in heaps; rows of severed heads, arrayed on shelves and eerily lifelike, are based on photos of real victims, bruises and all. The 55-year-old painter has no idea where he will exhibit his new work, a departure from his favored themes, such as migration.

From the White House to the American Embassy in Kabul, American officials rushed to distance themselves from the actions of U.S. soldiers who posed for photographs next to corpses and body parts of Afghan insurgents. Two photos of incidents from a 2010 deployment were published Wednesday by the Los Angeles Times. In one, the hand of a corpse is propped on the shoulder of a paratrooper. In another, the disembodied legs of a suicide bomber are displayed by grinning soldiers and Afghan police.

The partial remains of a pregnant woman who vanished nearly a month ago after being lured from her home by the promise of free diapers have been found in the trash in Tijuana. The discovery is the latest development in the disappearance of Margarita Flores, a macabre case that continues to baffle police. Josefina Sonia Saldana, 40, who is accused of kidnapping Flores on Sept. 14 from her Fresno home, remained in jail in lieu of $1 million bail and is the sole suspect in the case.

What by historical standards was a mild earthquake shook parts of as many as nine states on Tuesday in the latest rumble along the fabled New Madrid Seismic Zone. The quake, measuring 4.0, struck at 3:58 a.m. CST near East Prairie, Mo., a rural town of some 3,200 people off of Interstate 55, which connects St. Louis with Memphis, Tenn., according to the U.S. Geological Survey website. The quake was felt in Missouri, Illinois, Arkansas, Kentucky and Tennessee and there were scattered reports from four other states including as far away as Georgia.

As the sun set over the Hollywood Hills park where police spent Wednesday searching for human body parts, they still didn't have a name to go with the man's head discovered there a day earlier. What they did have were two hands and two feet. Authorities were optimistic that the hands were in good enough condition to obtain fingerprints. The homicide investigation began Tuesday afternoon after two dog walkers in Bronson Canyon Park noticed their dogs playing with a plastic bag and went to inspect it. PHOTOS: Body parts found below Hollywood sign Inside was a man's head.

Key editors at the Los Angeles Times on Wednesday explained the decision to publish a story and pictures of U.S. soldiers posing with body parts of Afghan suicide bombers, after questions were raised by the White House, the Pentagon and readers. In a live chat on latimes.com, Editor Davan Maharaj explained the decision to publish the material, especially the pictures, even though the events occurred two years ago. The publication comes at an especially sensitive time, with the U.S. and its NATO allies seeking to disengage from the Afghanistan war that began in October 2001.

Key editors at the Los Angeles Times on Wednesday explained the decision to publish a story and pictures of U.S. soldiers posing with body parts of Afghan suicide bombers, after questions were raised by the White House, the Pentagon and readers. In a live chat on latimes.com, Editor Davan Maharaj explained the decision to publish the material, especially the pictures, even though the events occurred two years ago. The publication comes at an especially sensitive time, with the U.S. and its NATO allies seeking to disengage from the Afghanistan war that began in October 2001.

The paratroopers had their assignment: Check out reports that Afghan police had recovered the mangled remains of an insurgent suicide bomber. Try to get iris scans and fingerprints for identification. The 82nd Airborne Division soldiers arrived at the police station in Afghanistan's Zabol province in February 2010. They inspected the body parts. Then the mission turned macabre: The paratroopers posed for photos next to Afghan police, grinning while some held - and others squatted beside - the corpse's severed legs.

I Hunt Killers A Novel Barry Lyga Little, Brown: 362 pp., $17.99, ages 15 and up A generation ago, young horror fans had to "read up" to adult authors such as Stephen King. Now novelists such as Barry Lyga are tailoring gore for a teen audience. In "I Hunt Killers," Lyga attempts one of the more daring concepts in recent years by a young-adult author. His multiple-murder mystery focuses on the son of a notorious serial killer who is forced to confront his fears that he will follow in his dad's footsteps and must also reconcile his attraction to grisly deaths.

What by historical standards was a mild earthquake shook parts of as many as nine states on Tuesday in the latest rumble along the fabled New Madrid Seismic Zone. The quake, measuring 4.0, struck at 3:58 a.m. CST near East Prairie, Mo., a rural town of some 3,200 people off of Interstate 55, which connects St. Louis with Memphis, Tenn., according to the U.S. Geological Survey website. The quake was felt in Missouri, Illinois, Arkansas, Kentucky and Tennessee and there were scattered reports from four other states including as far away as Georgia.

The tale of the brazen con man known as Clark Rockefeller who lied and charmed his way into New England high society has captivated the nation, so much so that it was made into a book and a Lifetime movie. But a hearing that came to a close Tuesday asked if the man was capable of something far more sinister: Did he bludgeon a man to death, hack his body to bits, possibly with a chain saw, carefully wrap the pieces in plastic bags, then bury them all in the backyard of his victim's mother's home, all before setting out on his trail of deception from coast to coast?

As the sun set over the Hollywood Hills park where police spent Wednesday searching for human body parts, they still didn't have a name to go with the man's head discovered there a day earlier. What they did have were two hands and two feet. Authorities were optimistic that the hands were in good enough condition to obtain fingerprints. The homicide investigation began Tuesday afternoon after two dog walkers in Bronson Canyon Park noticed their dogs playing with a plastic bag and went to inspect it. PHOTOS: Body parts found below Hollywood sign Inside was a man's head.

A 51-year-old San Bernardino woman has been arrested on suspicion of murder after she was discovered on a city street pushing a trash can containing a man's dismembered body, Ontario police said Monday. Carmen Montenegro was taken into custody after Ontario residents in the 700 block of Holmes Avenue spotted her about 3 p.m. Sunday pushing a foul-smelling trash bin and alerted police, Det. Jeff Crittenden said. Body parts were found inside the bin, he said. After Montenegro's arrest, detectives began an exhaustive search of the home and yard of a relative on the same street, Crittenden said.

Two men who allegedly tried to sell the corneas and kidneys of executed Chinese prisoners have been charged with trying to profit from the sale of body parts. The men, Cheng Yong Wang, 41, and Xingqi Fu, 35, both of Queens, were arrested in Manhattan. Wang and Fu wanted to sell kidneys, corneas, livers, skin, pancreases and lungs, the complaint said.

Los Angeles police detectives are investigating the slaying of a man believed to be of Armenian descent whose head was discovered Tuesday afternoon by two dogs off a hiking trail below the Hollywood sign. Two women were hiking with nine dogs in the rugged hills near the 3200 block of Canyon Drive when two of the dogs found a plastic bag in the brush containing the head, according to law enforcement sources with knowledge of the investigation, who asked not to be identified because the probe was still unfolding.

The Pentagon defended steps it has taken to more respectfully handle the remains of fallen troops after a report detailed the extent of dumping cremated body parts at a Virginia landfill. Last month, Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta ordered a review of why the cremated remains were routinely disposed of in the landfill despite a protocol requiring that such matters be handled in a dignified and respectful manner. New data from the Air Force obtained by the Washington Post showed that 976 fragments of remains from 274 military personnel were incinerated and taken to the landfill between 2004 and 2008.