Search for war deadgoes high-tech

CMP staffers mark the surrounding area as Jol (left) operates the pulseEkko to check for any disturbances through layers of soil beneath the asphalt to offer any clues supporting eyewitness accounts that people who vanished nearly a half century ago are buried in a makeshift mass grave, now squeezed between a two-story home and a fig orchard. — AP

A BRIGHT yellow machine resembling a cross between a vacuum cleaner and a small scooter scrapes a narrow village road in Cyprus, working to solve a painful mystery from the divided island nation’s conflict-ridden past.

It uses radio waves to detect any disturbances in the layers of soil under the asphalt – potential evidence that could support eyewitness accounts of a mass grave containing remains of people who vanished nearly a half-century ago.