Legends sometimes are born from facts; other times they come from hope or fear. Either way, legends prevail when people listen with open minds. An open mind is all organizers of the 11th Aztec UFO Symposium asked Saturday from the dozens of participants who flooded into the Masonic Lodge. The symposium, near the alleged UFO crash in Hart Canyon north of Aztec, attracts believers and skeptics from across the country, each looking for evidence of alien life. The legend states that an unidentified craft crashed in the desert outside Aztec in 1948, killing as many as 16 occupants. But very little evidence remains. The flying disc reportedly fell from the sky after being hit by a beam of light from a nearby radar station. "All we have at the crash site is circumstantial evidence," said Randy Barnes, one of three independent researchers to discover the site. The hard evidence includes a block of concrete near the site, which researchers believe was part of the military's operation to remove the spacecraft, a collection of military paraphernalia left behind and a paper trail that leads researchers into the dark recesses of the FBI, CIA and military intelligence.It is that paper trail that most interests researcher Scott Ramsey. Ramsey has a stack of more than 7,500 documents obtained from the government, but most of the information was blacked out before the documents were released. "According to the FBI, the government had no interest in the crash," Ramsey said. "If that's true, why did they spend more than five years investigating it? And why were the FBI, CIA and the Air Force all looking at it and trying to keep it hidden?" Ramsey has spent the last 18 years filtering the facts from the rumors, traveling to 29 states and interviewing 60 first- and second-hand witnesses to the crash. "I've seen enough evidence and talked to enough people to believe something happened here," he said. "It's an important part of New Mexico history, and we have a lot more work to do." Organizers of the event do not ask people to believe in alien life or that a UFO crashed near Aztec, Ramsey said. They simply ask people to allow for the possibility. "It's easy to be a skeptic," he said, "but when you look at this scientifically, there's a lot more to it. There's not a whole lot of evidence supporting the skeptics."Evidence can be as subtle as a feeling, said Debbie Gitar, a visitor from Minneapolis, Minn. Gitar said she was skeptical about the identified crash site, but not about the crash itself. While standing on the indentation on the desert landscape where researchers claim the craft went down, Gitar said she felt cosmic energy. "It's all about being open," she said. "Anyone can feel it, because everything that happens leaves energy." Saturday's encounter was not Gitar's first claim to such with alien life. She said she first was abducted more than 20 years ago while lying in bed. The incidents have occurred several times since. "They don't take me to put implants in me or to have babies with me," she said. "They come and get me when they need to tell me something; it's instructional. The guys' out there are trying to help us." Other visitors to the symposium were more skeptical. Jean Frendreis, of Bayfield, Colo., said she attends every year because she likes the idea of UFOs. Frendreis said she hasn't decided whether she believes in alien life, but she's keeping an open mind. "I don't feel any different," she said while standing at the crash site. "I don't feel any waves or anything, but it's a fun thing to consider, a unique way of thinking about things, so I'm open to it."
An Indian woman accused of being a witch was tied to a tree and beaten by a mob, with television footage of the incident aired in India on Friday. Nishant Tiwari, a police official in northeastern India, said a journalist who filmed the beating called him Thursday to report the incident, which took place in the village of Dumaria in central eastern Bihar state. He arrived to find the woman tied to a tree, her hair partially cut and her complexion ruddy from being slapped. She had no serious injuries."I was appalled at what I saw because people should be more socially responsible than to do this," Tiwari said. Authorities arrested six people, including the man who admitted to hiring her services as a witch. They were due to appear before a magistrate on Friday. Ram Ayodhya, who could face up to seven years in prison for his role in the attack, told police he was justified in beating the woman, Tiwari said. Ayodhya said he paid her to use magic and prayer to improve his wife's health. When his wife's condition deteriorated, Ayodhya accused her of performing black magic, Tiwari said, and a crowd soon gathered and tied her to the tree.
The woman seen being attacked is expected to testify when the suspects appear before the magistrate. Tiwari said he was disturbed by the fact that a journalist filmed the incident before contacting authorities. "The media filmed the incident, then called the police -- instead of the police first," Tiwari said. Local news reported that the incident took place close to the local police station. It reported that there had been other such occurrences of mob justice in the state. In Bhagalpur district in August 2007, a man caught trying to snatch a woman's chain was beaten up, with police looking on, and later tied to a motorcycle and dragged around by a police officer. In September, in Lucknow's Wazirganj area, an angry mob beat a man to death after a 2½-year old girl was allegedly found sexually assaulted and murdered in his house.
Ghost Hunters Will Investigate Johnson County Poor Farm / Asylum
Members of the Johnson County Board of Supervisors said that although the request is “bizarre,” they would allow a paranormal team to come investigate the county’s poor farm and asylum. Brandon Cochran, museum operations assistant for the Johnson County Historical Society, presented the idea to the board to bring in the Carroll Area Paranormal Team for one night to do a scientific study of the area to determine if there is paranormal activity on the land. The hope is not that there will be, Cochran, but rather to get away from the stigma. With the scientific methods and reports done by the paranormal team, the historical society can steer focus back to the county history and heritage at the Johnson County Poor Farm and asylum on Melrose Avenue. “To me, it’s rather bizarre,” Supervisor Pat Harney said, questioning if bringing the team would add to the issue rather than debunk rumors. “They’re not going to do it Halloween night, are they?” Cochran said that is not the plan, and like Harney has never heard anyone talk of the land being haunted. “It’s kind of taking the preemptive approach,” Cochran said. “We’re using it to make sure the site is the site and nothing else.”Cochran said this idea started more than a year and a half ago after Cornell College students did an online exhibit about the poor farm for a class. The Carroll Area Paranormal Team contacted the Cornell professor about the project, and then the team and the historical society got in contact. The plan is for the Carroll Area Paranormal Team to be at the poor farm and asylum for one night to do their investigations. The four-person team works at night, using tools such as thermal imaging cameras and voice recording systems, he said. Cochran said Johnson County Historical Society staff would be there to monitor what happens and Johnson County Facilities Director Dave Kempf said he would also volunteer to tell the team where they can set up and be on the land. Kempf said he checked with Chatham Oaks officials, who said they didn’t see any problems with the paranormal team coming as long as it didn’t disturb the building’s residents. The County Poor Farm became the county home and now is the location of Chatham Oaks. Cochran will work with the Johnson County Attorney’s office to come up with some form of written agreement that likely will include a liability release before the supervisors formally vote on allowing the team to come. “In the name of science,” Supervisor Terrence Neuzil said.
Experts at Queens University Belfast have dated a skull discovered in a so-called haunted house to the late 1700s. Gardaí sent the skull to be analysed at the university after it was discovered during renovations on the house in Co Cork a few days before Christmas. The grim discovery was made by a man who purchased the Queen Anne-period house in Ballynoe just a few weeks earlier. The skull had been concealed between the floorboards separating the ground floor ceiling and the first floor, and it fell out when the man was putting in a new staircase. Also discovered were a clay pipe and a gold sovereign. Assistant State Pathologist Dr Margaret Bolster tentatively dated the skull as being more than 100 years old, but advised gardaí to seek the assistance of experts to get a more exact date. No marks were found on the skull, indicating that the owner probably didn’t suffer a violent death. However, as gardaí were unable to locate any other skeletal remains in the area, despite an intensive search, they cannot say for sure if the person died as a result of foul play.According to gardaí the skull was extremely smooth, indicating that it had been regularly handled. They believe the most likely explanation is that it was used for anatomical demonstrations by a doctor. Gardaí know from local historians that a medical man lived in the house in the early 1800s and that he later left Ireland to ‘travel the world’. It is likely that detectives will carry out further interviews in the area to try and gain more knowledge of the doctor and they will then submit a file to the coroner’s office in north Cork. Ironically, locals always referred to the home as a “haunted house”, with many claiming down through the years that they had heard ghostly noises in the vicinity. The discovery further fuelled their belief that it was indeed the case. The house was built in the late 1700s by the 6th Duke of Devonshire and was once part of the Lismore Castle estate.
Police rescued two teenage Bulgarian sisters from a circus in southern Italy which forced one of them to swim with flesh-eating piranhas for the amusement of guests, police said. While the 19-year-old sister swam in a transparent tank, the younger, 16-year-old was forced into a container where the circus staff tossed snakes at her. She was injured by one of the snakes, police said.Police arrested three Italians who ran the circus south of Naples, in Salerno province, accusing them of forcing the sisters to live in virtual slavery. The women were paid 100 euros ($155.8) per week and lived in a trailer that had previously been used to transport animals, they said.
Four months after he was declared brain dead and doctors were about to remove his organs for transplant, Zach Dunlap says he feels "pretty good." Dunlap was pronounced dead November 19 at United Regional Healthcare System in Wichita Falls, Texas, after he was injured in an all-terrain vehicle accident. His family approved having his organs harvested. As family members were paying their last respects, he moved his foot and hand. He reacted to a pocketknife scraped across his foot and to pressure applied under a fingernail. After 48 days in the hospital, he was allowed to return home, where he continues to work on his recovery. Dunlap said he has no recollection of the crash. "I remember a little bit that was about an hour before the accident happened. But then about six hours before that, I remember," he said. Dunlap, 21, said one thing he does remember is hearing the doctors pronounce him dead. "I'm glad I couldn't get up and do what I wanted to do," he said.Asked if he would have wanted to get up and shake them and say he's alive, Dunlap responded: "Probably would have been a broken window that went out." His father, Doug, said he saw the results of the brain scan. "There was no activity at all, no blood flow at all." Zach's mother, Pam, said that when she discovered he was still alive, "That was the most miraculous feeling." "We had gone, like I said, from the lowest possible emotion that a parent could feel to the top of the mountains again," she said. She said her son is doing "amazingly well," but still has problems with his memory as his brain heals from the traumatic injury. "It may take a year or more ... before he completely recovers," she said. "But that's OK. It doesn't matter how long it takes. We're just all so thankful and blessed that we have him here." Dunlap now has the pocketknife that was scraped across his foot, causing the first reaction. "Just makes me thankful, makes me thankful that they didn't give up," he said. "Only the good die young, so I didn't go."
Private investigators are searching for the origins of a photograph that allegedly depicts a UFO flying over a Capitola, Calif., utility pole. T.K. Davis, who served more than 30 years as a deputy sheriff, and Frankie Dixon, a former police officer, were hired by an anonymous member of the Open Minds Forum, an Internet UFO research group, to find the photographer who took the pictures and anyone else who may have spotted the mysterious object. The pictures, which were posted by someone using the name Raji on Craigslist, depict an object that appears to be too small to be manned flying above a utility pole.Raji told the Open Minds Forum in an e-mail that the pictures were taken Capitola near the home of his fiancee's parents, but his e-mail account disappeared and the forum was unable to get contact them. The detectives said they are working to identify the utility pole in the photograph to help them find the home of Raji's parents and others in the area who reported sightings of the object. Davis said the case isn't about finding extraterrestrials. "We were working for people who didn't want to be identified," Davis told the Times, "looking for people who didn't want to be found."
Antarctic Explorers Come Face To Face With Sea Giants
After 50 days exploring the frigid waters of Antarctica, a group of New Zealand-led scientists is certain of two things: there are lots of previously unknown creatures out there, and some of them are positively enormous. The marine life encountered during the 2,000-mile voyage through the Ross Sea, off the north coast of the frozen continent, included jellyfish with 12ft-long tentacles, giant sea snails and starfish the size of food platters. The international team of 26 scientists and 18 crew collected 30,000 samples during the expedition, the most comprehensive survey ever of the Ross Sea. Among the finds were hundreds of unfamiliar organisms and "a lot of new species", according to Don Robertson, a New Zealand marine scientist. The survey was conducted as part of International Polar Year, a global programme aimed at achieving a better understanding of the land and sea environments of the Antarctic and Arctic and to monitor the effects of climate change in the regions.More than 60 nations are taking part, with 10 more voyages planned to investigate the marine life and habitats of Antarctica. Scientists aboard the research vessel Tangaroa sampled every level of water between the surface and the sea floor, up to 11,500ft down. They were surprised to find fields of 20-inch-tall lilies stretching hundreds of yards. Stu Hanchet, a fisheries scientist with New Zealand's National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (Niwa), told Associated Press: "Some of these big meadows of sea lilies I don't think anybody has seen before." Dr Robertson, a science manager with Niwa, said the size of some of the specimens collected could be attributed to cold temperatures, low predator numbers, high levels of oxygen in the water, and longevity. Analysis of the specimens from this one survey could take two years, and potential new species will be sent to experts for verification. Stefano Schiaparelli, a member of the team and a mollusc specialist at Italy's National Antarctic Museum in Genoa, said that scientists had found "marine communities" never seen before. "This is a new brick in the wall of Antarctic knowledge," he said.Dr Schiaparelli reported that at least eight new molluscs and a range of new invertebrates had been found on sea mounts, or undersea mountains, off the northern Antarctic coast. Dr Hanchet, of Niwa, said that there were perhaps eight new species among the approximately 90 species of fish caught. "That is exciting, and that is something that will grab the world in terms of fish biology," he said. However, Chris Jones, an American scientist with the Antarctic research division of a federal fisheries service based in California, said: "It's exciting when you come across a new species. All the fish people go nuts about that. But you have to take it with a grain of salt." He said he had been surprised by the lack of fish diversity in the sea mount areas. "We expected a wealth of diversity of fish," Dr Jones said. "But surprisingly, there were only two or three species. We kept catching the same fish." But Mary Livingston, a scientist with the New Zealand Ministry of Fisheries, said: "Doing this census really has been a voyage of discovery."
There are fears that a big cat is stalking the fields of County Donegal after the discovery of paw prints, droppings and a dead sheep. A photograph has also been taken which may show such a creature in the Manorcunningham area. It is thought that the animal could be either a black leopard or jaguar. There have been meetings involving the Irish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and the Garda and an action plan has been put in place in case of further sightings. Kevin McGinley from the ISPCA said there had been a number of sightings since 14 February when a farmer from the Letterkenny area contacted the society about a sheep kill on his property. "I had a look at this particular kill and it concerned me enough to remove a hair and faecal samples which have been sent away to a labroratory in County Kildare for an in-depth analysis," Mr McGinley said. "I believe it certainly wasn't killed by domestic dogs which did alarm me."So I thought the most sensible and prudent thing to do would be to remove any hair and faecal samples found around the kill area and send them away for a full investigation." Keith Roulston from the Irish Farmers' Asscoation said farmers should be concerned but not alarmed by the sightings. "I think the message needs to go out there to people to keep watching and if they see anything unusual to report it to the relevant authorities and not to be trying to take it into their own hands," he said. "We'd be urging people just to be concerned and to be vigilant." In 2003, the USPCA said it believed two big cats were roaming the north Antrim countryside. It said a black panther was living near the village of Ballybogey, outside Portrush, and a brown coloured puma was roaming the hills near Ballycastle.
A 53-year-old man who assaulted his two daughters over a period of 10 years, claiming he was possessed by the Devil, was sentenced to seven years in jail today. The man appeared in Wellington District Court on four charges of unlawful sexual conduct, two charges of indecent assault, two of assault with a blunt instrument and three single charges of assault. The court was told the man had indecently assaulted one daughter from 1997 when she was aged six until September last year. In addition to the sexual assault she suffered, the man also physically punished his daughters using weapons that included a belt and a vacuum cleaner pipe.On one occasion he attacked one of his daughters when he saw her walking home from Bible studies with a boy. Judge John Walker said he was disturbed by a pre-sentencing report which said the man did not accept responsibility for his actions, instead claiming he had been possessed by the Devil. However, defence lawyer Geoff Fulton said the man did accept responsibility and that blaming the event on possession by the Devil was his way of rationalising the terrible things he had done. A psychiatric report found the man did not suffer from any mental illness. Judge Walker said the man's offending was very serious and had had a devastating effect on the family.
Spooky goings-on were captured by a team of paranormal investigators in an overnight vigil at a town landmark. Things went bump in the night when Hartlepool-based group Old Haunts camped out at the town's Borough Hall. And more than 20 fellow ghost-hunters joined them to see if they could catch a glimpse of any ghouls. The spine-chilling night was one of three vigils organised this year in which the group will explore prominent locations. Sheila Dignen, one of the members of Old Haunts, said the night at the town's Borough Hall was a "huge success". She said: "As far as I know this is the first time the Borough Hall has been investigated and there was something there. "Everyone seemed to enjoy the night and we had a big mix of people. Some experienced and some beginners. "People were a bit nervous beforehand but they got into the spirit and it was a good night. "There was definitely activity that is worth investigating further and we plan to go back to the hall in the future."During the event the group took part in spooky activities, including a seance and ouija boards and two mediums joined the group. Sheila added: "We heard footsteps and we saw orbs. And there were some names that came out in the seance that we will be investigating further to see if they have anything to do with the history of the building. "There was a lot of activity in the old mayor's room and we heard some strange noises." The group are now looking forward to the coming events to see what else is in store. A second vigil will be held at the Town Hall Theatre, Raby Road, on Saturday, April 12, and third will be held at the White Horse community centre in Eden Lane, Peterlee on Friday, June 13.Old Haunts is also looking forward to revisiting the Heugh Battery, on the Headland, in May, as members believe recent restoration work may have unearthed new spirits.
Next month's hunt for Sasquatch in West Virginia will center around the Greenbrier River region. The Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization Founder and Director Mathew Moneymaker recently released new details about the April 10-13 hunt. Earlier, the group had declined to release the location of the expedition, fearing that curiosity seekers would compromise the results.Retired Army Sgt. Stephen Willis, a native of Webster County, will lead the expedition. It will include at least 18 BFRO members. More than 50 West Virginia sightings are documented on the group's Web site. The organization estimates there are up to 6,000 such creatures living in the U.S. and Canada. But skeptics cite the lack of physical evidence.
A Pembroke man was playing with Google Earth - an online digital map of the planet - when he came across something that seemed out of this world: an apparent meteorite crater in Pawtuckaway State Park in Nottingham. "I was just searching around on Google, looking at lakes, because I'm a sailor," said Stephen Dupuis, 52. "As I was panning down through the landscape, it kind of caught my eye." Dupuis, a multimedia artist, has been fascinated with astronomy and outer space since his father, a former engineer, built the heat shields used for the Apollo spacecraft in the 1960s.What he saw in Nottingham stirred his interest. He researched impact craters online and wrote to the Earth Impact Database, which is run out of the University of New Brunswick. Nobody has responded yet. "They didn't show anything in New Hampshire," he said of the database's maps. "Maybe somebody now will look at this and say, 'Hey that is a crater.' " So far, Dupuis is favoring a scientific explanation for the site. "There were no crop circles and no flying saucers involved with it," he said.
An unidentified flying object caught the attention of Pasco County residents. Many described the object -- a rotating triangle of three white lights plus a flashing red light that stayed put -- as a UFO. The Pasco County Sheriff's Office says some Wesley Chapel residents called 911 around 6:25 a.m. wondering what was up -- literally. A deputy's report says it was a balloon, but doesn't get more specific than that. Watch the video attached to this story and decide for yourself.
Top Aide Testifies Taylor Ordered Soldiers To Eat Victims
Grim tales of cannibalism highlighting the brutality of West Africa's civil wars emerged in testimony Thursday at the war crimes trial of former Liberian President Charles Taylor. Joseph "Zigzag" Marzah, who described himself as Taylor's chief of operations and head of the death squad before Taylor became president, said African peacekeepers and even United Nations personnel were killed and eaten on the battlefield by Taylor's militiamen. Prosecutors described Marzah as a key witness with inside knowledge of the former Liberian president's operations in Liberia and neighboring Sierra Leone, where he is accused of responsibility for the widespread murder, rape and amputations committed by soldiers loyal to him. Taylor, 59, has pleaded not guilty to 11 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity. He is accused of orchestrating violence in Sierra Leone's civil war, which ended in 2002, and trading in illegally mined diamonds to finance the conflict. The trial by the Special Court for Sierra Leone, part of the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands, began last June but adjourned after one day when Taylor fired his lawyer. It reconvened in January, but many prosecution witnesses have testified behind closed doors for fear of retribution.Marzah appeared in open court after lengthy negotiations involving protection for him and his family. Prodded under cross-examination by defense lawyer Courtenay Griffith, Marzah gave a sometimes-graphic description of cannibalism that altered between the ritual taking of vengeance and the practical need for food. He repeatedly said nothing was done without Taylor's instructions, and that anyone who violated Taylor's orders would be executed. "Did Charles Taylor order you to eat people?" Griffith asked. "Yes, to set an example for the people to be afraid," Marzah replied. He appeared unfazed by Griffith's blunt queries, and responded in matter-of-fact tones to such questions as "How do you prepare a human being for the pot?" Marzah then described the splitting, cleaning, decapitating and cooking of the corpse with salt and pepper. "We throw your head away," he said. He said the victims were usually from the ethnic Krahn, the tribe of former Liberian President Samuel Doe whom Taylor set out to topple in 1989. But they also included peacekeepers from the Nigerian-led ECOMOG, the African peacekeeping force sent to the area in 1990, and some U.N. people, he said. "How many ECOMOG soldiers did you eat?" the attorney asked. "We ate a few but not many. But many were executed, about 68," the witness said, and several U.N. personnel also were captured. The time and location of the incident were unclear. "Which ones taste best?" Griffith asked. "There was no alternative but to do it your own way," Marzah replied. Enemies, he was told, "are no longer human beings." Taylor, then head of the National Patriotic Liberian Front, said in interviews at the time that he considered ECOMOG to be just another warring faction in the multisided civil wars in Sierra Leone and Liberia. Later, ECOMOG helped stabilize the region, allowing elections in Liberia in 1997 that Taylor won.
About 50 people blinded themselves by looking at the sun after reports of a miraculous image of the Virgin Mary in the sky. People in India started staring at the sky after reports of the visions were said to have appeared over the former home of a hotel owner in the Kottayam area in southeast India.One hospital in the district reported 48 patients had been admitted with burned retinas since last week. Churches have warned their congregations that looking at the sun will cause permanent blindness and have told them the supposed miracle is not one. Before moving out, the hotel owner reportedly had also claimed to have statues of the Virgin Mary that cried honey and bled oils and perfumes.
A town in South America is living in fear after several sightings of a 'creepy gnome' that locals claim stalks the streets at night. The midget - which wears a pointy hat and has a distinctive sideways walk - was caught on video last week by a terrified group of youngsters. Teenager Jose Alvarez - who filmed the gnome - yesterday told national newspaper El Tribuno that they caught the creature while larking about in their hometown of General Guemes, in the province of Salta, Argentina. He said: “We were chatting about our last fishing trip. It was one in the morning. “I began to film a bit with my mobile phone while the others were chatting and joking."Suddenly we heard something - a weird noise as if someone was throwing stones. "We looked to one side and saw that the grass was moving. To begin with we thought it was a dog but when we saw this gnome-like figure begin to emerge we were really afraid." Jose added that other locals had come forward to say they had spotted the gnome. He said: “This is no joke. We are still afraid to go out - just like everyone else in the neighbourhood now. "One of my friends was so scared after seeing that thing that we had to take him to the hospital.”
A couple sues a Dubuque woman and her Realtor, claiming they were haunted by a suicide at the home. A 65-year-old Dubuque woman says she was forced to file for bankruptcy to save herself financially from a lawsuit filed by the people who bought her home and claimed in part that they were haunted by her husband's suicide.Plaintiffs Chad and Michelle Miller alleged in a suit that they were not happy after purchasing Rita Russow's home, at 2801 Summer Drive. The Millers claimed that structural defects in the property, such as roof leakage, and the 1992 suicide of Russow's husband, supposedly on the property, caused them to suffer damages. The plaintiffs purchased the home for $136,000. Had they known about the problem.
A teenager claimed she was brutally abused in a residential school's punishment room. Ashley Johnston, now 16, said she endured 12 weeks of torment at the Good Shepherd Centre. She claimed she was kept for up to two days at a time in the punishment room - dubbed the "zombie room" by the girl residents. The Record revealed that police were investigating amid allegations the punishment room was used for torturing girls as young as 12. We received a flood of calls from former residents and their parents in response to our story. One of the worst cases was that of Ashley, who was sent to the school in Bishopton, Renfrewshire, by the children's panel when she went off the rails after her mum's death two years ago. She said she was punched in the face and body, kicked, sat on and dragged across the floor by her hair in a shocking catalogue of attacks. She said: "I couldn't believe it when I saw the Record finally exposing the abuse that has been going on for years and it has always been covered up. "I was assaulted by staff at least three times and spent two days at a time in the punishment room, which we used to call the zombie room because you were beaten and left to rot. "While I was in there, staff would come in and goad me and say really terrible things like my dad would commit suicide because I was so bad and that no wonder I wasn't wanted."They said these things to see if I would get angry. It was mental torture as well as physical." Ashley's dad James, 40, and stepmum Helen, 45, from Whitburn, West Lothian, said she was so badly beaten they twice called in police. But maintenance worker James said the abuse claims were brushed under the carpet. Ashley added: "I was sent to the Good Shepherd to get help to control my anger. But I came out even worse and became very violent. They didn't help me - they just abused me. "I don't trust adults any more because of this and I get very scared if I have to face strange people. "The first time I was assaulted was when they crushed my fingers in the door of my room because I tried to get out. "The second time I was attacked because I had just been released from the zombie room after two days and I asked for something to eat. "They refused and I went mad because I was starving. So they came into my room, battered me off the door, pulled the legs from under me, dragged me along the carpet and held me down on the floor. "I was bruised all over and had a black eye. My dad and stepmum were stopped from coming in to see me until the bruising died down. They were angry when they saw me. "I also had carpet burns over my face and stomach - that's when my dad called the police the first time. "They came to the home but I never heard any more about it after that. "The third time was the worst. I was punched in the side of the head in the zombie room and restrained by six staff. "I had threatened a member of staff with a pair of scissors. That was wrong but I didn't deserve to be beaten up. "They were all over me, kneeling on my legs, arms and neck. I was in a terrible state and my stepmum saw what I was like when she came in to visit me." Cleaner Helen called the police after being shocked at the state of her stepdaughter. She said: "Ashley was covered from head to foot in bruises. "I called the police immediately and they came out. But it didn't go anywhere" Ashley said she also witnessed other girls being abused. She said one of her friends had a black eye after a beating.Her dad said: "I am so glad the Record have exposed this. I have been trying to get something done to stop this abuse for years." Ashley now hopes to rebuild her life and train to be a hair and beauty therapist. Police moved into the Good Shepherd Centre after a former worker gave a tip-off to the Care Commission watchdogs. The commission launched their own investigation into the school. A police spokeswoman said: "Strathclyde Police, along with the local authority and the Care Commission, are currently making inquiries in respect of the Good Shepherd. "Inquiries are at a very early stage." Care Commission director of children's services regulation Ronnie Hill said: "We received an anonymous complaint regarding the Good Shepherd in February. "During our investigation, we became aware of other issues which were raised with police, Renfrewshire Council and other related agencies." In a statement, the school management said: "The management of the Good Shepherd Centre are proud of their record in creating an environment where young people with complex social, emotional and care issues can have their needs met." 'They crushed my fingers in the door of my room because I tried to get out'
A woman named Basanti, of Jhalawar, was badly beaten up after being branded as a witch, even as women organisations were busy celebrating International women’s day. In another case, a woman named Sharda set an example when she protested against her child marriage. A resident of chief minister Vasundhra Raje’s home district of Jhalawar, Basanti has been admitted to a local hospital with many injuries. "I was tortured and beaten up as the villagers held me responsible for the illness of a child," she told mediapersons at Manothar Thana Hospital in Jhalawar. According to police sources, the incident occurred last week at Todri Meera village of Jhalawar. No arrest has been made so far on Basanti’s report, police sources said. "It is difficult for me to live in the village," the victim said.According to an NGO report, there were 63 women who were ill-treated and tortured after being branded as witch in a decade in Rajasthan. The report has identified six districts, namely Ajmer, Tonk, Udaipur, Jodhpur, Bhilwara and Kota, where the atrocities against women still prevail. The state women commission had suggested formulation of a new law to curb the menace but the issue is still pending with the government. Jhunjhunu district’s Sharda Punia had filed a case against her parents under the amended Sharda Act, which discourages child marriage. Seven-year-old Sharda said that her parents had forced her to get married to a 40-year-old person despite her protest. "I have filed a case against such marriage and left the house. I went into hiding and came to Jaipur for help," she said. "We provided help to Sharda as she had set an example for other girls," said Nisha Shidhu of National Federation Of Indian Women.
At least one expert thinks the large reptile spotted at a pond in Loveland last summer has probably died. Loveland officials closed Jayhawker Pond and a 30-acre recreation area last July. A Loveland boy who was fishing there said something lunged at him. "We were getting ready to fish and all of a sudden something big, greenish-black, jumped out of the water and tried to get onto the dock," Andrew Kapono had said.Other residents reported seeing the giant reptile in the waters, describing it as a 7-foot-long creature. The Colorado Division of Wildlife set up traps, but never caught anything. It's thought the animal was likely a caiman someone raised as a pet, then dumped when it got too big. One zoologist said if it's a caiman, it could survive on the ice, but probably not the winter in a pond.
Two lesbian lovers, one who drank blood as part of a vampire culture, have been sentenced to life in prison for killing a British teenager they bludgeoned to death with a concrete block. Jessica Stasinowsky, 21, and Valerie Parashumti, 19, pleaded guilty to murdering 16-year-old Stacey Mitchell in Perth, Western Australia, in 2006 because she was annoying. Judge Peter Blaxell said the murder was "sexually perverse" and "evil", after the court was told the two lesbian lovers became sexually aroused as they battered the teenage girl and then kissed while standing over her body as she lay dying. British-born Stacey, who had emigrated to Australia from Dorset, had moved into a house the lovers were sharing. Stasinowsky immediately hated her because she thought the teenager was flirting with her lover, the court heard. Parashumti felt the need to prove that Stacey meant nothing to her, so she and Stasinowsky decided to kill her. On the day of the murder, the trio drank whiskey in the kitchen and Stacey took tablets which made her drowsy.Parashumti crept up behind Stacey and started hitting her on the head with a concrete slab, while Stasinowsky took off a dog chain belt and began to strangle her. Stacey took at least 45 minutes to die, but Stasinowsky later told a prison officer she wished it had lasted longer. The killers made a mobile phone video of the murder scene, laughing and mocking their victim, and then dumped her body upside down in a garbage bin in a back shed. Parashumti, who drank blood as part of a vampire subculture, was said to have very strong sexual sadistic tendencies and was sexually aroused by physical torture and violence. According to reporters, Judge Blaxell said when handing down the life sentences: "You have each had more than a year in custody to reflect upon the evilness of your crime, yet you still lack remorse and obviously place no value on the sanctity of human life. "There is also the added problem that you each enjoy being sexually aroused by the infliction of violence. "Even more appalling are your admissions to the effect that at the time of the murder you were each sexually excited by the violence of the event."
You would expect a ghost to hang out in a club dedicated to scaring customers, not to making them laugh. But that's what Jokeboy's Comedy Club in downtown Ocala has on its hands, according to a paranormal specialist. "I immediately felt an energy, a presence, when I walked into the building," said Rick Hayes, a University of Florida graduate who serves as a paranormal communicator for Life's Gift Inc. "He is connected with the building and very protective of it." Those protective measures caught club owners Myra Popp and Brian Walters off guard. Popp said she would turn out the lights as she locked up the club, but on a regular basis the lights would be on when she returned the next morning. She said she also noticed a breath on the back of her neck when no one was around, and a feeling she was always being watched. "It was really spooky, but not scary spooky," Popp said. "You'd hear someone walking upstairs, or someone walk past you, but there wouldn't be anyone there." The black-painted building at 18 S.W. Broadway St. is two doors down from the new Starbucks and next door to Mango's. The shell of the structure preserves the masonry vernacular style it had when built in 1906. Popp left the east wall inside as unfinished brick, but painted the rest of the building in shades of brown and purple. Black curtains cover windows, keeping out daylight. The attic, which used to be a complete second story, is filled with dust, cobwebs and exposed steel pipes. Piles of rubble from tenants past fill the attic, where the ghost is said to hang out. There was no hooing or howling Tuesday morning, but the lights were on."He likes tampering with the lights," Popp said. "He leaves them on for protection." The ghost goes by the name of Linus, Hayes said. Hayes, a friend of Popp's family, stopped by the club one evening after a seminar at Central Florida Community College. "We kept having these weird things happen and we thought we should bring someone in," Popp said. Hayes immediately made his way to the attic, where he identified the spirit. "He's not tall - maybe 5'5" or so," Hayes said. "He has a round face and is a little stocky, definitely middle-aged. He is very respectful, though. He stays up in the attic because he doesn't want to interfere with business." But Linus has some suggestions for the club owners, Hayes said. "He's a little upset because there aren't children around anymore," Hayes said about Linus, who he envisioned wearing a white apron. "He is really concerned about the building, like he had good business memories there, and he doesn't want it to be torn down." Hayes said Linus may come from the 1920s era. After being built as a tennis racket store by J.W. Alexander, the property became Ocala Market and Meats in 1921. According to the Historic Ocala Preservation Society, there was a soda fountain in the building until it became the Marion Liquor Store in 1940. If there is a ghost that looks over the building, this is the first HOPS President Suzanne Thomas has heard about it. "We don't really have any ghost stories downtown," she said. "The noises could be the wood floors extending when the weather changes. It could be mice. It is a great story though, and it may bring people in." Popp and Walters say they aren't looking for extra publicity, nor are they inventing the story. They're content to live with their new roommate. "He protects the place, so I like him hanging around," Popp said. "Plus, I think he likes me."
Brooklyn Paranormalists Will Clear Out Your Ghosts For $20 An Hour
It's Ghostbusters, Brooklyn-style. A team of self-made paranormalists is offering to come over to your house in the middle of the night to chase away any unwanted spirits. "I'm fascinated with the supernatural," says Sal Cicconi, 27. Cicconi, along with Sergio Ocasio, 20, and Samantha Ramirez, 18, have plastered Brooklyn offering their services for just $20 an hour. Their business plan is a bit unorthodox, but then again, so are they. "When I was a kid, I had this ability, this gift," Cicconi said in an interview in the trio's East New York apartment."When I was 10 years old, I started to see things - spirits and ghosts." The three, who call themselves Brooklyn Ghost Investigations, are otherwise unemployed. Their only client is a Red Hook man who said he had two ghosts in his apartment. Cicconi and Ocasio went to the man's apartment and waited until 3 a.m. - the witching hour for paranormal activity - to see if they could talk to the ghosts. "I caught something on camera," Cicconi said. "It looked like two lights moving around, like the spirits were playing with each other.""We tried to get them out of there," he said. The two used a homemade Ouija board to try to coax the ghosts into talking to them - with no luck. "Sometimes, spirits are afraid to talk or to show themselves to us," he said. Not surprisingly, the three are big fans of the 1984 classic "Ghostbusters." Having no formal training, they also watch Sci Fi Channel's "Ghost Hunters" and A&E's "Paranormal State" for tips. They say business has been a bit slow - but maybe that's not such a bad thing.
Confidential Ministry of Defence files on Unidentified Flying Objects are set to be made public. Hundreds of documented sightings of UFOs across the UK will be released by the MoD to the National Archive in the coming weeks. Detailed accounts of sightings in the Bonnybridge area are expected to be among the files. The Stirlingshire town became famous in the 1990s after dozens of locals reported objects in the sky. A spokesman for the Ministry of Defence said the secret files date back more than 10 years. He said: "The files contain information about UFO sightings by members of the public and include photographs that people have taken or drawings they have done."There is no scientific data included in the files just the public reports which may also include a comment from nearby RAF bases saying whether there was flight activity when the sightings took place." Earlier files released by the MoD have concluded that UFO sightings could be attributed to natural phenomena in the atmosphere. Bonnybridge councillor Billy Buchanan, who said he had seen UFOs on many occasions, said the release of the files was good news. He said: "The more information that comes out about the sightings the more it gives credibility to all those, including myself, who have been ridiculed by speaking out. "On a number of occasions I have seen something that cannot be rationally defined. "It's an ongoing issue for Bonnybridge with many of the area's elderly people getting concerned when they cannot explain something they've seen in the sky."
MP Targeted By "Satan" After Gay Earthquake Comments
A member of Israel's parliament who generated headlines across the world when he linked earthquakes to gayrights has been receiving death threats. Shlomo Benizri, who is a member of the ultra-Orthodox Shas party, has been targeted by someone using the name "Satan." The Jerusalem Post reports: "It is unknown if those threats are connected to a suspicious envelope filled with white powder that the MK received last week, prompting an evacuation of the first floor of the Knesset (parliament). "That powder was found to be harmless." During a Knesset debate on earthquake preparedness last month Mr Benizri, after reading passages from the Old Testament, said that in his view one cause of earthquakes is that "the Knesset gives legitimacy to sodomy. "A cost-effective way of averting earthquake damage would be to stop passing legislation on how to encourage homosexual activity in the State of Israel, which anyways causes earthquakes."In January the Knesset discussed new legislation that would enable Jerusalem's city authorities to ban gay Pride parades on the grounds that they might offend religious people or create a disturbance. During the debate Shas MK Nissim Zeev, a former deputy mayor of Jerusalem, restated his view that gay people should be put in rehabilitation centres and called the gay rights movement a "plague that may destroy Jewish Israel" that should be dealt with by the Ministry of Health. Last year's gay Pride march took place in June despite violent protest from Orthodox Jewish groups. Around 5,000 people took part, protected by 7,000 police officers. In the week leading up to Pride 10,000 religious Jews protested and rioted, burning tyres and attacking police cars, but the Israeli Supreme Court ruled the parade should go ahead. Jerusalem Pride has been denounced by conservative Jewish, Christian and Muslim leaders who regard the city as holy. In 2006 it was was delayed and then cancelled, with a Pride gathering held in a sports stadium instead. The Jerusalem Post reported in June that three quarters of the city's residents oppose the Pride parade. In 2005, an Orthodox Jewish protester stabbed and wounded three people at Jerusalem Pride.
After a nasty surprise for one Bishopville resident, she's wondering if the "Lizard Man" is back. Dixie Rawson of Bishopville sent local News an e-mail about a big surprise she got at her home Thursday morning. "The whole front half of our van is chewed up. There are bite marks right through the front grill. Both sides of the van above the wheel wells were bitten and the metal is bent like a piece of paper."It reminded Dixie of the local legend of the "Lizard Man" that stretches back for decades. Now some are wondering if the Lizard Man is back. The legend blows in with a brisk winter wind, sending chills through neighbors in Lee County. "I couldn't believe it, I just couldn't believe it," says Bob Rawson. He looks down at the blood and claw marks on his van. "He literally bit, you can feel where he bit straight through here." Who is "he"? It's a point of renewed debate in the area. Some are sure they know the only creature capable of this kind of damage is the Lizard Man. If it is the Lizard Man, he's back nearly two decades after first being spotted near Scape Ore swamp.No one's ever been able to confirm the account of the seven-foot monster with green skin, three toes and a three clawed fingers. In addition to the car damage, the Rawsons didn't find their cats in the boxes where they usually sleep. They did find the towels inside shredded, and the same story with the morning paper. Whatever did this, the Rawsons aren't taking any chances. His Glock loaded, Mr. Rawson is ready to shoot what he feels is most likely a bear. Lee County Sheriff E.J. Melvin says it could be a coyote, but then again, "All the scratch marks, people are saying, 'Sheriff, it's Lizard Man.' Don't know. It's hard to say." Several of the Rawsons' 20 plus cats have also disappeared. They're hoping they were just scared away.
A jury found a man guilty of first-degree murder Friday in the killing of a 10-year-old girl, reaching its decision within minutes the day after hearing his macabre videotaped confession. Kevin Underwood, a former grocery stocker who claimed Internet pornography stoked his cannibalistic fantasies, showed no emotion as the verdict was announced. Family members of the victim, Jamie Rose Bolin, patted each other and shook hands. The girl's body was found in a plastic tub in Underwood's apartment in April 2006. Jurors had heard his detailed videotaped confession in court Thursday. Judge Candace Blalock told jurors to return to court Monday morning for the penalty phase. Prosecutors have said they intend to seek the death penalty, while the defense has said it will seek to spare his life. Deputies led Underwood, 28, away in handcuffs once jurors had left the courtroom. Rose Fox, Jamie's grandmother, said after the verdict that she was originally against the death penalty in the case, but has now changed her mind. "He made his choice," Fox said. "He's a monster in human form." "I was for mercy. And then when I found out what he really did to her ... . He showed her no mercy." Jurors began deliberating following closing arguments in which Cleveland County District Attorney Greg Mashburn predicted it would take jurors longer to pick a foreman than to determine guilt. "It's the worst of the worst," Mashburn said. "His plan is to butcher someone like an animal."
Kevin Underwood faces the death penalty for killing a 10-year-old girl he enticed with his pet rat.
In his closing argument, Defense attorney Matthew Haire did not dispute Underwood's guilt. But he called him "a lonely, very troubled, reclusive young man" and accused prosecutors of overwhelming jurors with gruesome evidence. In the confession, Underwood said he lured the girl, his upstairs neighbor, into his apartment in Purcell, hit her with a cutting board, smothered her with his hands, sexually assaulted the body and nearly cut her head off as part of a fantasy involving cannibalism. "I wanted to know what it tasted like, and just the thought of eating someone was appealing to me," Underwood said in the confession. Underwood also said such fantasies began about the time he started taking the antidepressant Lexapro. Defense attorneys plan to call witnesses during the penalty phase on his use of the drug. Underwood told FBI he hit the girl her over the head with a wooden cutting board while she was watching television and playing with his pet rat. Agents asked Underwood what the girl said after he hit her. "That's something that's haunted me forever since it happened," he said. "She started yelling, I'm sorry,' which I'm like, What is she sorry for? She didn't do anything wrong. It's me. I'm the one that should be sorry."' Underwood said he regretted hitting Jamie as soon as he did it, but that by that point it was too late. "I was sick to my stomach that I was doing this," he told agents Craig Overby and Martin Maag. "I was literally, physically sick." He said he smothered the girl with his hands, sexually assaulted her lifeless body, draped the corpse over the bathtub and began sawing her neck with a decorative dagger, nearly cutting her head off. Two days after the girl's disappearance, authorities grew suspicious of Underwood after stopping him and his father at a police checkpoint near the apartment complex. After a short initial interview, he allowed investigators to search his apartment, where they found the girl's nude body stuffed into a plastic tub inside his bedroom closet. A forensic pathologist testified that Jamie was asphyxiated and had been sexually assaulted. Dr. Inas Yacoub said she was unable to determine if the girl's injuries, including the deep gashes to the neck, occurred before or after her death.
CRUEL KEV: A Third Class Petty Officer in the U.S. Navy during the Cold War. Presently a member of the Navy League. A Republican with Libertarian leanings. (South Park Republican) My goals for the several blogs that I am involved with is to find and post Interesting News including occasional Criticism, Comments & Analysis
It is that paper trail that most interests researcher Scott Ramsey. Ramsey has a stack of more than 7,500 documents obtained from the government, but most of the information was blacked out before the documents were released. "According to the FBI, the government had no interest in the crash," Ramsey said. "If that's true, why did they spend more than five years investigating it? And why were the FBI, CIA and the Air Force all looking at it and trying to keep it hidden?" Ramsey has spent the last 18 years filtering the facts from the rumors, traveling to 29 states and interviewing 60 first- and second-hand witnesses to the crash. "I've seen enough evidence and talked to enough people to believe something happened here," he said. "It's an important part of New Mexico history, and we have a lot more work to do." Organizers of the event do not ask people to believe in alien life or that a UFO crashed near Aztec, Ramsey said. They simply ask people to allow for the possibility. "It's easy to be a skeptic," he said, "but when you look at this scientifically, there's a lot more to it. There's not a whole lot of evidence supporting the skeptics."
Evidence can be as subtle as a feeling, said Debbie Gitar, a visitor from Minneapolis, Minn. Gitar said she was skeptical about the identified crash site, but not about the crash itself. While standing on the indentation on the desert landscape where researchers claim the craft went down, Gitar said she felt cosmic energy. "It's all about being open," she said. "Anyone can feel it, because everything that happens leaves energy." Saturday's encounter was not Gitar's first claim to such with alien life. She said she first was abducted more than 20 years ago while lying in bed. The incidents have occurred several times since. "They don't take me to put implants in me or to have babies with me," she said. "They come and get me when they need to tell me something; it's instructional. The guys' out there are trying to help us." Other visitors to the symposium were more skeptical. Jean Frendreis, of Bayfield, Colo., said she attends every year because she likes the idea of UFOs. Frendreis said she hasn't decided whether she believes in alien life, but she's keeping an open mind. "I don't feel any different," she said while standing at the crash site. "I don't feel any waves or anything, but it's a fun thing to consider, a unique way of thinking about things, so I'm open to it."
It is that paper trail that most interests researcher Scott Ramsey. Ramsey has a stack of more than 7,500 documents obtained from the government, but most of the information was blacked out before the documents were released. "According to the FBI, the government had no interest in the crash," Ramsey said. "If that's true, why did they spend more than five years investigating it? And why were the FBI, CIA and the Air Force all looking at it and trying to keep it hidden?" Ramsey has spent the last 18 years filtering the facts from the rumors, traveling to 29 states and interviewing 60 first- and second-hand witnesses to the crash. "I've seen enough evidence and talked to enough people to believe something happened here," he said. "It's an important part of New Mexico history, and we have a lot more work to do." Organizers of the event do not ask people to believe in alien life or that a UFO crashed near Aztec, Ramsey said. They simply ask people to allow for the possibility. "It's easy to be a skeptic," he said, "but when you look at this scientifically, there's a lot more to it. There's not a whole lot of evidence supporting the skeptics."
Evidence can be as subtle as a feeling, said Debbie Gitar, a visitor from Minneapolis, Minn. Gitar said she was skeptical about the identified crash site, but not about the crash itself. While standing on the indentation on the desert landscape where researchers claim the craft went down, Gitar said she felt cosmic energy. "It's all about being open," she said. "Anyone can feel it, because everything that happens leaves energy." Saturday's encounter was not Gitar's first claim to such with alien life. She said she first was abducted more than 20 years ago while lying in bed. The incidents have occurred several times since. "They don't take me to put implants in me or to have babies with me," she said. "They come and get me when they need to tell me something; it's instructional. The guys' out there are trying to help us." Other visitors to the symposium were more skeptical. Jean Frendreis, of Bayfield, Colo., said she attends every year because she likes the idea of UFOs. Frendreis said she hasn't decided whether she believes in alien life, but she's keeping an open mind. "I don't feel any different," she said while standing at the crash site. "I don't feel any waves or anything, but it's a fun thing to consider, a unique way of thinking about things, so I'm open to it."
