Temperatures have soared across Scotland, but enough snow has clung on in the Cairngorms for skiing.

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Scotland has warmest places in UK

To my mind, the highest form of mystery novel is the “locked room” murder or “impossible crime.” While Agatha Christie is the mistress of misdirection with an unequaled gift for plotting, John Dickson Carr remains the master of those howdunits involving what is sometimes facetiously referred to as a “hermetically sealed chamber.” For example, in Carr’s masterpiece, “ The Three Coffins ,” two murders are committed by seemingly supernatural means. In one, a man is shot at point-blank range while standing in a courtyard covered with freshly fallen snow. His are the only tracks in the snow. Moreover, there are eyewitnesses who can swear that they saw no one near the victim at the time of the shot and that it wasn’t suicide. How was he killed? Read full article > >

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Michael Dirda reviews Christopher Fowler’s ‘The Memory of Blood’

COMBAT OUTPOST SAYED ABAD, AFGHANISTAN — In a big war, Army Spec. Cherry Maurice believed that one small gesture could make a difference. Temperatures at her mountain base plunged to 20 degrees below zero in January, and snow covered the ground. Maurice noticed that the eight Afghan workers on the outpost were coming to work in rubber flip-flops. The 35-year-old soldier labored with the men in the outpost’s kitchen, which is not much bigger than a walk-in closet. She dug into her personal savings and spent $135 to buy them eight pairs of boots. Read full article > >

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U.S. soldier’s gift to Afghan workers at her base underscores divide

The first round of the Trayvon Martin saga is finally over. George Zimmerman is behind bars 45 days after the shooting of an unarmed African American teenager — an act that snowballed into a national soul searching crisis that evoked strong and poignant questions about race and racism in America.

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Existential Threats And the Case of Trayvon Martin

The story Nora Roberts likes to tell of her transformation from harried homemaker to published novelist reads like something from one of her novels: Stuck at home with her two young sons during a 1979 snowstorm, the Silver Spring native started writing longhand, and the epiphany hit: “ ‘ This is it . This is the thing I am meant to do.’ The sun came out and the snow melted.” The moment her first book, “Irish Thoroughbred,” was accepted for publication in 1980, Roberts recalls, “was better than sex.” Read full article > >

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Nora Roberts’s three decades of writing have led to 200 books

In the snowy wastes of Siachen, where Pakistani and Indian soldiers face off in a battle zone ringed by Himalayan peaks, the fight is against the mountain, not the man.

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Siachen Avalanche Puts Spotlight on India-Pakistan Conflict

SAYAD ABAD, Afghanistan — The Taliban fighter crouched in a muddy field about 100 yards from Highway 1. The mid-afternoon sun melted the last patches of winter’s snow as he waited for an American convoy to pass. Read full article > >

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U.S. and Taliban fight for key Afghan highway

Snow falls in parts of mid and north Wales as Arctic winds bring a drop in temperatures.

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Blizzard conditions as snow falls

Yorkshire has experienced its heaviest April snowfall in more than thirty years.

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VIDEO: Aerial footage of Yorkshire snow

A mountain climber’s arm is trapped for three-and-a-half hours in a crevice after he became wedged after a fall in Snowdonia.

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Climber’s arm trapped in crevice

Polar bears are ideally suited to life in the Arctic: Their hair is without pigment, blending in with the snow; their heavy, strongly curved claws allow them to clamber over blocks of ice and snow and grip their prey securely, and their rough pads keep them from slipping. Read full article > >

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Captivity could help polar bears survive global warming assault, some zoos say

VIERA, Fla. – Washington Nationals scout Steve Arnieri first watched Jordan Zimmermann pitch early in his junior season at Wisconsin-Stevens Point, a Division III outpost that produces both major leaguers and temperatures by the single-digit. “It was snowing sideways so hard,” Arnieri recalled, “you couldn’t even see him.” Read full article > >

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Nationals’ pitcher Jordan Zimmermann stands out, but likes to blend into the background

VIERA, Fla. – Washington Nationals scout Steve Arnieri first watched Jordan Zimmermann pitch early in his junior season at Wisconsin-Stevens Point, a Division III outpost that produces both major leaguers and temperatures by the single-digit. “It was snowing sideways so hard,” Arnieri recalled, “you couldn’t even see him.” Read full article > >

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Nationals’ pitcher Jordan Zimmermann stands out, but likes to blend into the background

Maine Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe will not seek reelection in 2012, she announced Tuesday. Read full article > >

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Maine Sen. Olympia Snowe to retire in blow to GOP

The deaths of four people Sunday are the latest examples of what can happen when backcountry skiing meets high-country snow.

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Avalanches, and Danger Warnings, on the Rise for Thrill-Seeking Skiers