In brief: Nation

Discovery

De soto trail found, expert says

ATLANTA — An archaeologist says excavations in southern Georgia have turned up beads, metal tools and other artifacts that may pinpoint part of the elusive trail of the 16th-century Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto. Dennis Blanton of the Fernbank Museum of Natural History in Atlanta was scheduled to present his findings Thursday to the Southeastern Archaeological Conference in Mobile, Ala.

Health

CLARKSVILLE, Md. — State officials said Tuesday they’re creating teams of staff members at hospitals around the state to secretly monitor their colleagues’ hand-washing habits as part of a first-of-its-kind program. The monitors will contribute to a systemwide report on hand-washing, using $100,000 in federal stimulus money.

Climate

WASHINGTON — The snows of Kilimanjaro may soon be gone. The African mountain’s white peak — made famous by writer Ernest Hemingway — is rapidly melting, researchers report. About 85 percent of the ice that made up the mountaintop glaciers in 1912 was gone by 2007, researchers led by paleoclimatologist Lonnie Thompson of Ohio State University report in Tuesday’s edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

FROM WIRE SERVICES

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