Captivity

Nearly 1.5 miles beneath Earth's surface in Canada, scientists have found pockets of water that have been isolated from the outside world for more than 1 billion years. The ancient water, trapped in thin fissures in granite-like rock, has been bubbling up from a zinc and copper mine for decades in Timmins, Ontario. Only recently have scientists been able to calculate the age of this water and determine that it is the oldest ever discovered - possibly as old as 2.6 billion years, when Earth was less than half its current age. And it may harbor life.

In the more than two decades since the U.S. government declared chimpanzees in the wild to be an endangered species, not much has improved for those great apes. The threats of habitat loss, poaching and disease have only intensified. Now, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has proposed reclassifying captive chimpanzees as well, moving them from the "threatened" category to "endangered," a change that brings with it stricter guidelines covering the handling and use of the animals. In the future, any procedure that harms, harasses or kills a research chimp would require a permit.

Reporting from San Francisco -- There are graphic details of her years as a sex slave, descriptions so unsettling that a judge has refused to make much of Jaycee Lee Dugard's grand jury testimony public. There are chapters dedicated to her life today — a mix of intensive therapy and simple pleasures, of healing from 18 years as a captive and seeing her teenage daughters blossom, finally, in freedom. But while Dugard's memoir "A Stolen Life" chronicles her growth from victim to survivor, from terror to strength, it also is an indictment of the parole system and a meditation on loneliness.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on Tuesday proposed extending tough new protections for chimpanzees in captivity, a shift that would place strict limits on primates' role as human surrogates in biomedical research. In reclassifying chimps as endangered, the agency would put new requirements on the declining number of scientists who rely on chimpanzees to devise vaccines for infectious diseases, develop treatments for cancers and autoimmune diseases, and investigate ways to block dangerous pathogens that might jump from primates to humans.

The news that three female kidnapping victims had been held against their will for roughly a decade each has shocked Cleveland and the nation. But such cases are not without precedent. Elizabeth Smart, of Utah, was kidnapped at knife point at age 14 in 2002, sexually assaulted and held captive for nine months by a street preacher; Jaycee Dugard was kidnapped in South Lake Tahoe by a couple in 1981, when she was 11, and held for 18 years in tents and a shack in their back yard. Both Smart and Dugard   said Tuesday that the three women, taken in separate kidnappings in 2002, 2003 and 2004 and held in a Cleveland home for years,  would need time to recover after their sudden escape and rescue.  Photos: Long-term abductions "These individuals need the opportunity to heal and connect back into the world," Dugard said in a statement provided to the Los Angeles Times.

Ariel Castro, accused of kidnapping and raping three women held captive for years in his Cleveland house, is the father of the child born in captivity to one of the victims, officials said Friday morning. State officials received a DNA sample from Castro on Thursday afternoon and worked to complete the tests, Ohio Atty. Gen. Mike DeWine announced. “Forensic scientists worked throughout the night to confirm that Castro is the father of the six-year-old girl born in captivity to one of the kidnapping victims,” the office said in a statement posted on its website.

AND HERE I thought nothing could out-gross the billboards. They weren't up for long -- studio reps said they were a "mistake" -- but one look made a lot of folks queasy: four graphic images of a terrified and abused blond for the gore-porn movie "Captivity," headlined, "Abduction," "Confinement," "Torture" and "Termination."

NBC News' chief foreign correspondent Richard Engel and two members of his production team, producer Ghazi Balkiz and cameraman John Kooistra, have been released after five days in captivity in Syria. The network released the following statement early Tuesday morning: “After being kidnapped and held for five days inside Syria by an unknown group, NBC News Chief Foreign Correspondent Richard Engel and his production crew members have been freed unharmed. We are pleased to report they are safely out of the country.” Via satellite from Turkey, Engel, Balkiz and Kooistra discussed their ordeal on Tuesday morning's “Today.” The men looked a little tired and unkempt, but otherwise seemed in good spirits despite what sounded like a harrowing five days.

Re "Tiger Attacks Las Vegas Magician During Show," Oct. 4: My hopes and prayers go out to Las Vegas magician Roy Horn, who was seriously mauled by a tiger in his act. Yet I also can't help feeling that the man brought this on himself, all in the name of profit. People think that wild animals are better off in humans' care, but this is simply not the case. If you watch animals in captivity, they show extreme signs of frustration and boredom, all because they are restricted from displaying behaviors that are innate to them, killing and hunting included.

One of two rare golden monkeys on loan from China gave birth Thursday to a healthy baby, the first golden monkey born outside China, Washington Park Zoo officials said. The sex of the gray-gold baby monkey was not known because zoo employees said they did not want to disturb the monkeys.

Southern California is miserably accustomed to serial killers - the Manson Family, the Hillside Strangler, the Freeway Killer, the Skid Row Slasher. But there had never been one quite like Richard Ramirez, who deserved the flashy, fearsome tabloid nickname "The Night Stalker. " In the spring of 1984, Los Angeles was about to hoist its flags to welcome the world to the Summer Olympics. Richard Ramirez, as slapdash car thief, a weed and junk-food fancier, a dabbler in satanism, began the slow, bloody trek of murders that would build to a gory frenzy by the following summer.

At some point, every enduring musician has to prove his or her worth and silence the doubters. The Beatles first succeeded with "Revolver," the Beastie Boys with "Paul's Boutique," Wilco on "Summer Teeth. " Talking Heads raised the bar with "Fear of Music," Lauryn Hill with "The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill. " New York band Vampire Weekend's "Modern Vampires of the City" is one of those records, a brave, surprising third effort that's both challenging and confident, catchy but progressive, expertly imagined and executed.

Writers from around the Tribune Co. will discuss which NBA playoff series has most captured their attention. Feel free to join the conversation by leaving a comment of your own. K.C. Johnson, Chicago Tribune If this answer isn't unanimously the Warriors-Spurs series, then I'm not sure which games others are watching. First, the contrast between the young, unproven team and the veteran-laden Spurs is fascinating. Add in two rabid fan bases. (As an aside, it's nice Bay Area fans are getting recognized for their passion and knowledge that anyone who has been around the league for awhile long has already seen.)

Three Cleveland women rescued after they were abducted and held captive for about a decade thanked the public Sunday and asked for privacy. Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight issued statements that were read by a lawyer. "Thank you so much for everything you're doing and continue to do," Berry said. "I am so happy to be home with my family. " "I'm so happy to be home and want to thank everybody for all your prayers," Gina DeJesus said. "I just want time now to be with my family.

Ariel Castro, accused of kidnapping and raping three women held captive for years in his Cleveland house, is the father of the child born in captivity to one of the victims, officials said Friday morning. State officials received a DNA sample from Castro on Thursday afternoon and worked to complete the tests, Ohio Atty. Gen. Mike DeWine announced. “Forensic scientists worked throughout the night to confirm that Castro is the father of the six-year-old girl born in captivity to one of the kidnapping victims,” the office said in a statement posted on its website.

Michelle Knight, one of the three Cleveland women kidnapped and held captive for about a decade, has been discharged from the hospital where she had been receiving care. In a statement emailed to reporters Friday, MetroHealth Medical Center said Knight had left the hospital and was asking for privacy. “Michelle Knight is in good spirits and would like the community to know that she is extremely grateful for the outpouring of flowers and gifts. She is especially thankful for the Cleveland Courage Fund.

Gunmen released two European aid workers after holding them for nearly 10 days in southwestern Somalia. Rab Dhure District Commissioner Sheik Mohamed Kheyr said elders and an extremist Islamic group helped secure the release of the employees of Doctors Without Borders. He said no ransom was paid. Dutch national Kees Keus, 49, said soon after his release that he and 40-year-old Jorgen Stassijns of Belgium were given food and water but that the circumstances of their captivity were "harsh."

Father Lawrence M. Jenco, a Roman Catholic priest who spent 19 months as a captive of extremists in Lebanon, told a group of veterans and former prisoners of war in Long Beach on Tuesday that he vowed never to forget those who remained behind. "I made a covenant with Terry Anderson that he (and the others) wouldn't be forgotten," Jenco, speaking softly, told the crowd of more than 200 gathered in the chapel of the Long Beach Veterans Affairs Medical Center.

Hours after Ariel Castro was arraigned on rape and kidnapping counts in connection with three women held prisoner for years in his Cleveland house, Ohio prosecutors said they would seek new charges that he abused some of his victims and forced them to have miscarriages. Cuyahoga County prosecutor Timothy J. McGinty, whose office will present the case to a grand jury, said that if Castro, 52, were charged and convicted of aggravated murder as a result of the miscarriages, he could face the death penalty.

CLEVELAND - As a curbside crowd joyfully chanted her name, Gina DeJesus, who disappeared in 2004 and was held prisoner for years in a house with two other women, arrived home on Wednesday. As bystanders cheered, “Gina, Gina, Gina,” DeJesus, now about 23, stepped from a dark SUV and thrust her right thumb into the air in a sign that all was well. DeJesus wore a hooded sweatshirt that hid her face and was locked in a hug with a relative as they walked into the house. DeJesus is the second of the women captives to return to their families after their Monday escape.