OKLAHOMA CITY (Reuters) – A woman claiming to be the niece of the mysterious skyjacker dubbed D.B. Cooper, who bailed out of a jetliner 40 years ago with $200,000 in ransom, says she recalls her uncle plotting the sensational caper at a family gathering in 1971.

Marla Wynn Cooper, 48, of Oklahoma City, said on Wednesday that she was the person who furnished investigators new clues to a previously unknown suspect, sparking a renewed probe of a case the FBI counts as the only unsolved hijacking in U.S. aviation history.

The woman told Reuters she gave the FBI a leather guitar strap made by her uncle, now dead for over a decade, along with a photo of him with the same strap, to be examined for fingerprints that might match those from the plane.

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THE BOTTOM OF FRIJOLES CANYON, N.M. – Tourist season is peaking in northern New Mexico but there are no visitors at the heart of much-loved Bandelier National Monument, tucked into the ancient canyons northwest of Santa Fe.

No one is climbing the wooden ladders that reach up to the centuries-old dwellings that were carved into the canyon walls by ancestors of the Native American pueblos that surround the area. No one is picnicking along Frijoles Creek as it bubbles by.

There’s just the silence of a devastated landscape and it could remain that way for years.

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Fewer Americans will hit the road during the Independence day weekend, consistently one of the heaviest travel periods of the year, but more are expected to take to the skies to reach their holiday destinations.

Between Thursday June 30 and Monday July 4, 39 million people will travel 50 miles or more from home, according to AAA Independence Day forecast. That is a 2.5 percent decrease from last year.

“AAA is projecting a slight decline in the number of Independence Day travelers mainly due to fuel prices being approximately one dollar per gallon higher than last year,” director of AAA Travel Services Glen MacDonell said in a statement.

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STOCKHOLM – Saab Automobile AB said Monday it has signed a nonbinding agreement with two Chinese companies, which will inject a total of euro245 million ($ 351 million) into Saab-owner Spyker Cars NV.

Saab said Zhejiang Youngman Lotus Automobile Co. will invest euro136 million for a 29.9 percent stake in Spyker to participate in joint ventures to make and distribute Saab-branded cars in China.

Saab’s previously announced sales partner Pang Da Automobile Trade Co. will increase its investment in Spyker to euro109 million from euro65 million to retain its 24 percent stake in the company.

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BOSTON (Reuters) – Residents of tornado-ravaged towns in western and central Massachusetts faced the arduous tasks of cleaning up and assessing the damage on Friday from the twisters that ripped through the region this week.

Officials have confirmed three deaths from Wednesday’s storms and said a fourth death, an elderly man who died of apparent cardiac arrest, may not have been tornado-related.

The late-afternoon tornadoes, moving west to east, tore through some 19 communities, including Springfield, about 90 miles west of Boston, bringing high winds, rain, large hail stones, thunder and lightning.

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