Tribal residents of a slum in Orissa 'married' a 12-month-old boy to a dog in the hope that it will bring the boy prosperity and good health in the future. The 'marriage' was solemnised according to traditional rites on Sunday at Munda Sahi in the coastal district of Jagatsinghpur A human couple performed the role of the parents of the 'bride'. The marriage started with an exchange of rings while the priests chanted mantras. The dog was dressed in a new yellow sari. The boy put a vermilion dot on her forehead and bangles on her legs. The priests performed ...

VietNamNet – In Hoa Binh province lie a number of ancient tombs of the Muong minority group – tombs brought alive by mystery and legend. As night falls on the ancient tombs, mystery creeps like a mist in the night, as if the very air is cooled by the ghouls and ghosts that prowl the forests. “That forest is the nocturnal dominion of Muong chiefs from many a generation. We live next to them, but never do we dare walk the woods after dark.” A snaggle-toothed old lady wails. Located in Kim Boi District, the site of the ancient ...

In India's remote northern villages it feels as if little has changed. The communities remain forgotten and woefully undeveloped, with low literacy and abject poverty. They are conditions that for decades have bred superstition and a deep-rooted belief in the occult. The village of Barha in the state of Uttar Pradesh is only a three-hour car drive from the capital Delhi. Yet here evil medieval practices have made their ugly presence known. Lured with sweets I was led by locals to a house that is kept under lock and key. They refuse to enter it. Peering through the window ...

Welder, labour supplier, KTV lounge owner, food stall owner and now 'ghostbuster'. Chew Hon Chin has done it all By Wong Kim Hoh March 20, 2005 CHEW ON THAT: Chew Hon Chin says he's afraid of malignant human beings. -- WANG HUI FEN ANACHRONISM hangs like a musty draught in the basement of Katong Shopping Centre. It's a rabbit warren of mom-and-pop shops peddling mops and pails, maid employment agencies, shoe stores, dressmakers and gaming outlets. The tenant mix is quaint but shops No. 13 and 28, in particular, are wont to stop a casual passer-by in his ...

There is a mystical old woman living in a small village in Guofu town, Qijiang county, Chong Qing city, China. The woman is nearly 80 years old. For the last 70 years, she has eaten smallstones every day and appears to be healthier than other villagers her age. According to the "Approaches to Science" TV program, Darong is a typical village in that area. However, because the strange old woman by the name of Luo Kairong lives there, this secluded village has become famous. A villager said, "She is very healthy. We have never seen her unwell. She is ...

Central New York Ghost Hunters capture a terrifying scene from the past IN JANUARY, 2007, the Central New York Ghost Hunters (CNYGH), based in Syracuse, New York, were invited to investigate an old hotel in upstate New York. (The owners of the hotel have asked to keep its location confidential.) The investigation proved to be one of the most intensely active the group has ever encountered, and produced an EVP – an electronic voice phenomena recording – that is remarkable not only for its length, but also for its terrifying content. It may well be the most intense, frightening EVP ...

I think this is just about freaking incredible. Belgian scientists (previously known for their delicious chocolates), have been able to extract recordings from 5,000 year old vases. How can this be? Well, here’s the deal. It seems that the vase makers used long sticks to carve decorations on the clay vases as they were being made on rotating stones. These sticks picked up the minute vibrations in the air (caused by, say, conversations) and transformed these into grooves and bumps, much like what happens when you make a vinyl record. The Belgian scientists then analysed these patterns and extracted ...

Millions died in the Vietnam War and 400,000 of them have never been found. But the families of the missing have found new hope in the form of a group of psychics. This World: Psychic Vietnam will be broadcast on Thursday 18 May 2006 at 2100 BST on BBC Two. Although the Vietnam War ended in 1975, some families are still searching for loved ones missing in action and are turning to psychics for help. Every day Vietnamese army units hack through malarial jungles. Their single aim is to bring back the dead. Even by conservative estimates, the war ...

A former Imperial Army soldier, who hasn't been seen by his Japanese family since he went off to fight in World War II and was declared among the war dead in 2000, has resurfaced in Ukraine and is returning to Japan to see his relatives after 60 years, the government said. Ishinosuke Uwano, now 83, was expected to arrive in Japan on Wednesday, accompanied by his Ukrainian son, for 10 days with his surviving relatives in Iwate, about 460 kilometers (290 miles) northeast of Tokyo, said Suminori Arima, who is in charge of locating war veterans lost overseas for ...

History or hoax? That's the question many people are asking in the Placer County town of Colfax after a local prospector claims he found hundreds of little Buddha figurines along the American River. Herman Henry says he found about 400 of the Buddha carvings in a washed out sandbar along the River more than a month ago. The thumb-sized, white carvings may be hundreds of years old. And now federal and state investigators are looking into the discovery and are looking for Mr. Henry. CBS 13 was able to locate Henry Thursday night. "I don't want to go to jail," prospector Henry ...

Two U.S. fighter planes were scrambled and ordered to shoot down an unidentified flying object (UFO) over the English countryside during the Cold War, according to secret files made public on Monday. One pilot said he was seconds away from firing 24 rockets at the object, which moved erratically and gave a radar reading like "a flying aircraft carrier." The pilot, Milton Torres, now 77 and living in Miami, said it spent periods motionless in the sky before reaching estimated speeds of more than 7,600 mph (12,000 kph). After the alert, a shadowy figure told Torres he must never talk about the incident ...

We have all seen Smart , young people of their country doing duty in their country's Army. But have anyone seen a Ghost doing duty in the Army of any country.......Yes it happens & happens only in India. Yes, in Indian Army the Ghost of "Baba" Harbhajan Singh who died during the 1962 China - India War still does his duty on Nathula Pass in eastern Sikkim, India. The story goes like this...... "Baba" Harbhajan Singh was a soldier in the Indian Army & worked in the Dogra Regiment during 1962 China-India War. This soldier died near the Nathula Pass ...

The owner of a biomedical supply house and three others were charged with selling body parts for use in transplants in a scheme a district attorney called "something out of a cheap horror movie.'' Prosecutors said Thursday the defendants made millions of dollars obtaining bodies from funeral parlors in three states and forging death certificates and organ donor consent forms to make it look as if the bones, skin, tendons, heart valves and other tissue were legally removed. The indictment was the first set of charges to come out of a widening scandal involving scores of funeral homes and hundreds ...

For eons, folklore has blamed the Moon for everything from lunacy to bad luck. And, for the last few centuries, scientists have scoffed. Now, according to new research they're not so sure. The Moon may not be made of cheese, but it seems to influence a lot more down on Earth than we previously thought. According to new research, the Moon affects not only the tides of the oceans but also people, producing a range of symptoms from flare-ups of gout to bladder problems. It may even lie behind the causes of car crashes and affect people's hormonal balances. Having carried out ...

Witch doctors carry some weight in Indonesian villages Police in Indonesia have arrested 22 people over the killing of 20 villagers accused of being witch doctors, it has emerged. The victims died in a spate of attacks between July and October, reportedly by a groups of vigilantes after locals had accused them of practising witchcraft. Police spokesman Sri Widodo said four suspects were arrested in Cianjur, West Java province (100km from Jakarta), on Friday. They follow the arrests in October of 18 others, he said. Detectives denied reports that the bodies of the alleged sorcerers or shamans - ...

Remote viewing Tibetan monks see Extra Terrestrial powers saving the World from destroying itself in 2012 N.K. Subramanium, Special Correspondent August 12, 2008 Remote viewing is nothing new in Tibetan monasteries. For thousands of years remote viewing in the middle of other spiritual activities have dominated Tibetan culture. What some Indian tourists came to learn from a few Tibetan monasteries under the current Chinese rule is extremely alarming and fascinating. According to these tourists remote viewers are seeing world powers in the course of self-destruction. They also see that the world will not be destroyed. Between now and 2012 the world super powers will ...

Can This Black Box See Into the Future? DEEP in the basement of a dusty university library in Edinburgh lies a small black box, roughly the size of two cigarette packets side by side, that churns out random numbers in an endless stream. At first glance it is an unremarkable piece of equipment. Encased in metal, it contains at its heart a microchip no more complex than the ones found in modern pocket calculators. But, according to a growing band of top scientists, this box has quite extraordinary powers. It is, they claim, the 'eye' of a machine that appears capable of ...

GHOSTS, spirits, jin and other supernatural beings are abundant at SMK Tanjung Lumpur, claim dozens of bomoh as well as spiritual and faith healers who have visited the school in Kuantan in the past weeks. Some of the bomoh have even claimed that they have "communicated" with the spirits who were responsible for bouts of hysteria at the school since May. The so-called spirits, which are aplenty based on the names given by the bomoh, have made several demands including a special feast before they leave the school. The spirits claimed that the construction of the school's new building had ...

If you're just a bit more cautious on a Friday the 13th, wouldn't fly on 9/11 or could never live in a house numbered 666, you are not alone. With 06/06/06 looming (June 6, 2006), authorities in some cities are worrying prophecy theorists or hate groups might read something ominous into the date and use it as an excuse to stir tension. Some expectant mothers are making birthing appointments to ensure they avoid the date, according to the Sunday Times in London. And for others, it is a marketing opportunity. 20th Century Fox's remake of "The Omen" and Ann ...

By Leong Su-lin Aug 31, 2006 The Straits Times A RARE Catholic ritual made popular by horror movies is the subject of a court case here. Madam Amutha Valli, 50, is suing Novena Church, two of its priests and seven helpers, for what she claims to be severe side effects of a botched exorcism. She says the exorcism performed against her will two years ago has left her so traumatised that she now needs 24-hour care. The procedure, which originated in AD200, has never been officially carried out in Singapore, said Father William Goh, a theologist from St Francis ...

Reuven Zelinkovsky(L rear), who was a colonel in the Israeli army and has since renounced military might to join a squadron of yogic flyers, meditates along with other Israelis in Tiberias, Israel. Zelinkovsky explained that the solution to the latest conflict to engulf the Middle East was "not to kill the enemy but to kill enmity." Reuven Zelinkovsky was a colonel in the Israeli army, but now he has renounced military might to join a squadron of yogic flyers at the Sea of Galilee to throw a "shield of invincibility" around the Jewish state. As Hezbollah rockets fired from nearby ...

Malaysian wildlife officials denied capturing a baby "Bigfoot," amid fevered speculation over the existence of the mythical creature in the nation's southern jungles. The Berita Harian newspaper reported that a young Bigfoot was caught by a group of men thought to be from the Wildlife and National Parks Department (Perhilitan) near the southern town of Kota Tinggi two weeks ago. The paper quoted local residents as saying they had spoken to men who described shooting the creature with tranquiliser darts. The locals then peeked into the back of the their truck to see a large, hairy creature. But the ...

So, does that mean we should not enjoy the wondrous beauty of Malaysia’s forests for fear of spirits? The answer is probably no. First of all, any trip has inherent risks. Take driving for instance – especially during festival seasons. As long as one adheres to safety procedures, whether it be obeying speed limits or saying one’s prayers before entering a jungle, all should be fine. Otherwise, as the saying goes, “If it’s your time, it’s your time”. Secondly, there are reports of hauntings even in towns and cities. Certain hotels, schools, toilets, hospitals and road accident sites are common ...

Former NASA astronaut and moonwalker Dr Edgar Mitchell - a veteran of the Apollo 14 mission - has stunningly claimed aliens do exist. And he says extra-terrestrials have visited Earth on several occasions - but the alien contact has been repeatedly covered up by governments for six decades. Dr Mitchell, 77, said during a radio interview that sources at the space agency who had had contact with aliens described the beings as 'little people who look strange to us.' He said supposedly real-life ET's were similar to the traditional image of a small frame, large eyes and head. Chillingly, he claimed our technology ...

A missing Nepalese teenager popularly known as "Buddha Boy" reappeared briefly on Sunday, his followers say. The committee managing the meditation site of Ram Bomjan, 16, released video of its members purportedly meeting the boy near his village in southern Nepal. The boy's meditation and apparent 10-month fast attracted global attention before he vanished in March. Large numbers of devotees flocked to see him to leave offerings. A massive search operation is still under way. 'Not to worry' The chairman of the Om Namo Buddha Tapaswi Sewa Samiti (ONBTSS), Bed Bahadur Lama, told reporters that he and his colleagues ...

The Chinese government has told Tibet's "living Bhuddas" that they must have permission to be reincarnated. The new regulations, which come into force on September 1, are to "regulate the management of the reincarnation of living Buddhas", the State Administration for Religious Affairs said in a statement on its website (www.sara.gov.cn). "Temples which apply for reincarnations of living Buddhas must be legally registered venues for Tibetan Buddhism activities and capable of fostering and offering proper means of support to the living Buddha," it said. The regulations are to "guarantee citizens freedom of religion and respect Tibetans' tradition of living Buddha ...

SHE was asleep when an 'orang minyak' (oily man) undressed and raped her. The 31-year-old nurse, who was alone in her dormitory, was awoken by the man whose face and body was covered with oil. The man had entered the all-female nurses' dormitory at the Kuala Lumpur Hospital (HKL) yesterday morning, despite HKL's claims that security was tight. Armed with a knife, he threatened the nurse before tying up her hands and legs. He also used a handkerchief to gag her, Guangming Daily reported. The 2am incident took place while the nurse's two roommates were out. She was found ...

It's that time of year when Country House restaurant workers in Clarendon Hills answer as many questions about their ghost as about their half-pound burger. Missy Dupre, the restaurant's hostess, says Country House doesn't brag about its alleged haunted history, but employees are trained to talk about it if need be. As the story goes, an attractive blond woman who was dating a bartender back in the 1950s came in distraught, asking him to watch her baby. When he refused, she left, and died after driving into a tree. Whether or not you believe the ghoulish tale, it's been repeated many times over ...

APRIL 9, 2004 Ghost sightings cause hysteria at NS camp Bomoh called in to soothe nerves at Negeri Sembilan camp By Reme Ahmad GHOST sightings have caused mass hysteria and panic among some trainees at a Malaysian national service camp in Negeri Sembilan. The camp authorities called in a ghostbusting bomoh, which seems to have soothed frayed nerves. The first 'sighting' on Sunday night had caused 16 trainees, three of them boys, to be admitted to the Port Dickson hospital for observation. Four more girls were admitted three days later. 'They said they saw figures big and small, some ...

First it was the 'ghost caller', now there are whispers of cab drivers in Honiara picking 'ghost passengers' as night falls. Solomon Times probed in a random interview on street talks of cab drivers claiming to have picked up 'ghost passengers'. The norm is for passengers in need of cab service to call and your ride gets at your doorstep in no time. Cab drivers however often get the spooks when night falls as many claim to "come face-to-face" with ghosts. "Street talks allege that these cab drivers believe they have been seeing ghosts and worse scenerios are of some claiming to having ...

A rusty iron nail that can ward off vampires; a hideous "Jenglot" couple believed to be the shrunken husks of two mythical creatures which turned evil and are shunned by the netherworld (alam barzakh), leaving their souls earth-bound. These are some of the items showcased in an exhibition themed "Mysterious World" ("Pameran Alam Misteri") at Bastion House here, jointly organised by the Malacca Museums Corporation (Perzim) and Famewell Venture Sdn Bhd. The 35 items, some of which are said to be thousands of years old, were collected from India, the Middle East, Indonesia, Thailand, Papua New Guinea and ...

JUNE 6, 2006 — 06/06/06 — the date has finally come that is generating frenzied discussion and debate around the globe, not seen since the eve of the new millenium. Why? Because if you drop the 0s — you get 666 — the number of the beast, according to the Bible's Book of Revelation. The internet is rife with speculation about the looming date with the devil. Doomsayers have declared it the day the Antichrist will be revealed, while the superstitious are fearing global catastrophes from earthquakes to terror attacks. One website is selling "6/6/6 — the date of ...

The Electric New Paper : ARE GHOSTS GROUNDS FOR DIVORCE? Woman claims husband using spirits to get divorce. Will her claim stand up in court? MY husband has used supernatural means to get me to divorce him. By Teh Jen Lee 21 August 2006 MY husband has used supernatural means to get me to divorce him. He unleashed a spirit at me. That's what Madam Tan, 45, a receptionist who lives in the Lakeside area claims. We are not using her real name because she doesn't want her two sons, aged 18 and 20, to be affected by her ...

Awe-inspiring and impeccable! This is the most straightforward, rational, level-headed, and comprehensive exposition of the facts concerning what really happened at the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. Nothing in this film finds its basis in fear, suspicion, or hysteria but only in solidly grounded investigation and scientific facts! This film is permeated with intellectual honesty unblemished by unreasoning emotion. "Simple physics" is part of the basis of this film's shattering of the official story. This film is not for the closed-minded or for the faint of heart who are not ready to face the implications of what really ...

It's a meteor. It's a green flash. Or is it all in the mind? Intermittent bursts of green streaks across Singapore skies on Sunday evening have set communities abuzz with talk of unidentified flying object (UFO) sightings and experts debating the phenomenon. The light was seen around 7.40pm in areas including Woodlands, Bedok, Bukit Panjang, Clementi and Marina. While some readers said it was a green light, others observed a blue and white glow. The light resembled a fireball with a "tail", lasting for a few seconds in the sky before disappearing, they said. "There was a light flying ...

SINGAPORE : A Singapore magician has attempted what's believed to be the largest 'live' illusion staged in Southeast Asia - teleporting himself from the ground to the rooftop of a 50-storey building in just 5 seconds. Over 5,000 spectators who turned up to watch the act were spellbound. "It's unbelievable. It's amazing. It's fantastic to see this in Singapore," said one spectator. "It's very amazing. If David Copperfield can do it, so can he," said another. "I can't really tell you how I did it. But it’s a combination of several things, with the optical scientific principles involved. (But) I can tell you (there ...

For centuries, the Zoroastrian dead have been wrapped in white muslin and left at a leafy funeral ground on downtown Mumbai's Malabar Hill, where they are devoured by vultures. Only then, according to the tenets of the ancient religion, can the soul be freed. But with just a handful of the endangered birds remaining in the city, and with solar panels installed to speed up decomposition working poorly during the monsoon rains, some Zoroastrians are demanding a change. Pictures of rotting corpses piled at the funeral grounds, secretly snapped by a mourning woman, have sparked a furor over the ancient ...

During exams, Karan Pandit does not suffer from the blues. He simply wears them. Pandit, an HSC student whose exams are on, wears a variety of underwear in different shades of blue. For luck. Two years ago, on the first day of his SSC examination, he had worn blue underwear and simply sailed through the English paper. So, Pandit decided to make it a ritual. Throughout these board exams, his innerwear has been blue — not the same one though. "It has worked before. I scored 79% (in SSC), much beyond my expectations," says the 18-year-old, who is now counting ...

A 35-year-old tractor operator, Igor Namyatov, has undergone surgery to be relieved of what had initially been diagnosed as a tumor, but turned out to be the embryo of his unborn twin brother, the Komsomolskaya Pravda daily reported Monday. Doctors said the embryo belonged to Namyatov’s unborn brother who had spent 35 years in the body of the patient. Namyatov’s fellow villagers doubted the explanation given by the doctors. Some even surmised the object removed from Namyatov’s body was an extraterrestrial organism. “It is a pity they have removed it. They should have waited to see what would become ...

Mdm Tan Hong Qiao (72) - currently residing in Mersing. When I was about 10+ years old, I stayed at a place near to Endau Rompin Forest, called Kangar. At that time there was a lot of talk about "mountain people". There was also a "mountain people" that use to come to the fringe of the forest. She even saw him once. At that time she and her mother and two sissters were in the forest . She was rocking her little sister to sleep in a hammock. Suddenly they heard branches breaking. Her mother told her that the "mountain people" was ...

Bigfoot where are you? S'poreans going to Johor jungles. Their mission: To find mythical creature By Teh Jen Lee January 10, 2006 THIS is Bigfoot sighting season. The latest was reported just across the Causeway last month. And in November last year, three fish farm workers apparently saw two hairy beasts about 3m tall and a smaller, younger one, near Kota Tinggi. These unconfirmed sightings have excited a group of Singaporeans. In two weeks, 20 of them, members of the Singapore Paranormal Investigators (SPI), will head to the jungles of Johor. Their two-day recce trip will determine how ...

GHOSTS have sex. This is the claim of Syed Abdullah Alattas, founder and chief investigator of Seekers Malaysia. "We are doing research to find out their habits, behaviour, how they have sex and such," he said. Syed Abdullah said some texts on religion also mentioned naughty and randy ghosts. Dressed in a red T-shirt, a black leather vest and leather gloves and looking more like a well-heeled Mat Rempit rather than a ghost-buster, he bubbled with enthusiasm when discussing apparitions. "The ghost-busting business is not cheap," he said, proudly displaying a high-tech sound detector which had cost him RM5,000. "This ...

MUM AND SON DIE 8 MINUTES APART By Low Ching Ling IN life, mother and son shared a close bond. And they weren't separated in death. On Thursday, both died - almost at the same time. The son collapsed and died of a heart attack at home while his mum, who was in a coma in hospital, died eight minutes later. Their bodies were cremated on Friday and their ashes scattered at sea, in keeping with Hindu tradition. For close to a year, Mr N Selvakumar (right), 54, a taxi driver, had visited his gravely ill mother, Madam Muthiah ...

Ngoc: three decades without sleep Sixty-four-year-old Thai Ngoc, known as Hai Ngoc, said he could not sleep at night after getting a fever in 1973, and has counted infinite numbers of sheep during more than 11,700 consecutive sleepless nights. "I don't know whether the insomnia has impacted my health or not. But I'm still healthy and can farm normally like others," Ngoc said. Proving his health, the elderly resident of Que Trung commune, Que Son district said he can carry two 50kg bags of fertilizer down 4km of road to return home every day. His wife said, "My husband used ...

HALLOWEEN SCARE IN EMPTY HOUSE (Source: extracted from the New Paper Online) Bony find rattles neighbours By Maureen Koh November 02, 2006 MAN or animal? No one could say for certain. But hearing the news that some bone-like objects were discovered by the police in a dark, empty bungalow in a quiet neighbourhood, was enough to spook those living in the area. Click to see larger image A plastic bag of the bone-like items (below right) is carried out of the bungalow (above), which has been vacant since Chinese New Year this year. -- KUA CHEE SIONG Especially on ...

There’s nothing subtle about the Wang Saen Suk Monastery garden, 90 minutes drive south of Bangkok, apart from its location, hidden down a quiet lane not far from the coastal resort of Bang Saen. At the entrance, a brightly coloured sign proclaims “Welcome To Hell”, while beyond lies a garish, in-your-face morality tale of sawn torsos, boiling vats and devilish figures tormenting worldly sinners. The Wat (temple) Wang Saen Suk Hell Garden is a sort of unsavoury Buddhist theme park with a message. Judgement is black and white; punishments are swift, painful and gory. I wondered how I would be ...

Electromechanical teenager repellant Howard Stapleton (Merthyr Tydfil, Wales) invented an electromechanical teenager repellant -- a device that makes annoying high-pitched noise designed to be audible to teenagers but not to adults. The "Mosquito" ultrasonic teenage deterrent aims to solve the problem of unwanted gatherings of youths and teenagers in shopping malls, around shops and anywhere else they are causing problems, claiming to be "the most effective tool in our fight against anti social behaviour". He later used that same technology to make telephone ringtones that are audible to teenagers but probably not to their teachers. more >> http://www.compoundsecurity.co.uk/ Apparatus for ...

Anwar Rashid and his wife Nabila spent £3.6 million on Clifton Hall in Nottinghamshire but a year later were so desperate to get rid of it that they gave it back to their mortgage provider. The couple moved in with their three daughters aged seven, five and three, and baby son in January 2007, and it was not long before they were spooked by the sound of screams from the mansion's corridors. During their eight months in the former school, the couple also saw mysterious figures which took the form of their children. Mr Rashid, 32, who is worth £25 ...

The Ministry of Defence of UK plans to open its "X-Files" on UFO sightings to the public for the first time. Officials have not yet decided on a date for the release of the reports, which date back to 1967, but it is hoped to be within weeks. The move follows the decision by the French national space agency to release its UFO files in March, the first official body in the world to do so. UFO buffs will be keen to find out what officials knew about some of the UK's most famous sightings and whether any action was taken. ...

The ladies walked into the tavern. They were wearing the finest of Victorian wear for the time. They were joined a few moments later by a gentleman friend. They talked, commented on the fashions of others there. I don’t think they were fond of what was worn by some of the ladies present that night. They laughed. After a short time, the gentleman glanced at his watch, as remembering he had another engagement near. Then, in a few minutes, he left saying “He must catch the train.” Just a moment after he departed, the horn sounded as a train sped through downtown Opelika ...

An Indonesian man who murdered 42 women in "black magic" rituals aimed at increasing his supernatural powers will soon be executed by firing squad, a prosecutor said Thursday. Self-proclaimed shaman Ahmad Suraji was sentenced to death in 1998 after police found the women's bodies buried in a sugar cane field in North Sumatra. Suraji confessed to police that he strangled most of the women and drank their saliva after they came to him for supernatural help with their finances and love life. He said the saliva improved his magical powers. Indonesia is mainly Muslim but belief in black magic is widespread. Suraji's execution ...

Elephantiasis: grossly enlarged members Lymphatic filariasis, also known as elephantiasis, is best known from dramatic photos of people with grossly enlarged or swollen arms and legs. The disease is caused by parasitic worms, including Wuchereria bancrofti, Brugia malayi, and B. timori, all transmitted by mosquitoes. Lymphatic filariasis currently affects 120 million people worldwide, and 40 million of these people have serious disease. When an infected female mosquito bites a person, she may inject the worm larvae, called microfilariae, into the blood. The microfilariae reproduce and spread throughout the bloodstream, where they can live for many years. Often disease symptoms do ...

During the Gulf War in 1991, Shun Akiba was one of only two foreign journalists reporting from Baghdad, along with Peter Arnett of CNN. With such experience and expertise, it would be reasonable to imagine him in great demand right now. Wrong. Shun is on some kind of invisible blacklist. His book "Teito Tokyo Kakusareta Chikamono Himitsu" ("Imperial City Tokyo: Secret of a Hidden Underground Network"), published by Yosensha in late 2002, is already in its fifth edition. Yet Shun has found it impossible to get the media to take serious note, write reviews or offer interviews. This is very ...

Skeleton of man found below overhead bridge along Dunearn Road By Rita Zahara, Channel NewsAsia | Posted: 17 October 2006 1750 hrs A skeleton, believed to be that of a man in his 60s or 70s, has been found below an overhead bridge along Dunearn Road. Police say it was discovered by contractors working in the area at about 11am on Tuesday. The badly decomposed body has been reduced to bones. 38-year-old Dennis Heng was working with six other workers when they found the skeleton deep inside the thick bushes, some 80 metres from the Anglo-Chinese School, Barker Road. ...

SINGAPORE: One of the two priests at the centre of the Amutha Valli forced exorcism trial, said no exorcism has ever been performed in Singapore. Testifying in a packed courtroom, Father Simon Tan took the witness stand on Wednesday for the first time since the trial started seven months ago. The Catholic Church's definition of exorcism was under scrutiny in the High Court. Father Simon Tan told a packed court that several conditions need to be satisfied in order for an exorcism to be carried out. First, the Archbishop has to appoint a priest. The person to be exorcised must ...

How do you deal with the paranormal to have a pleasant jungle trek? Here are a few tips provided by the interviewees and the Internet. If you suddenly smell jasmine, don’t turn around. Just move on quickly. Or say a silent prayer. Quietly ask for permission before entering a jungle. Some 4WD convoys, for example, pray and burn joss sticks at the shrine to Datuk Kong, guardian spirit of the jungle, before entering. If a particular rock formation looks like an abnormally comfortable resting place, don’t use it. Don’t call your friends by their names, instead, agree on codenames beforehand and ...

In a grotesque incident, three educated sons of a UP Power Corporation engineer, along with a cousin, punched, kicked and beat their mother to death with a rod late on Saturday night believing that she had been possessed by the spirit of a dead relative. The bizarre violence didn't end there. The foursome then tried to "sacrifice" a sister-in-law in an attempt to bring their dead mother back to life. They also beat up and injured their sister, her husband, the husband's father and two sisters, when they tried to intervene. All except their brother-in-law, Rohit Kumar, had to be ...

A ghost is being blamed for a series of car crashes. Paranormal researchers are investigating the sightings of a girl aged between three and five in Victorian dress who appears late at night near an accident blackspot. Researcher David Taylor, chairman of the Parasearch group, said: "Although people who reported sightings didn't actually crash they had to swerve round the apparition. "It could be an optical illusion of some sort. Advertisement "The area around there is an accident blackspot and there have been some serious incidents, so maybe they had all seen the same thing," Mr Taylor, who has been ...

Raëlism: scientifically advanced humanoid extraterrestrials created humans Raëlism is the religious, naturalist belief system promoted by the Raëlian Movement, an atheist UFO religion founded in 1970s which focuses on the social ideas of sexual self-determination, individualism, and humanitarianism in the spirit of sharing and responsibility, which, they claim, will bring a new age of wealth and peace guided by those with greater intelligence, as predicted by main religions. They also believe in scientifically advanced humanoid extraterrestrials known by our primitive ancestors as Elohim (or "those who came from the sky"). Raëlism espouses belief that Elohim synthesized life on Earth through ...

A three-day "miracle" drama in Chhattisgarh's industrial town of Raigarh ended on Monday afternoon after a Hindu priest, who had committed suicide promising to return to life within 72 hours of his death, was cremated. Hundreds of people had laid siege around the body of 25-year-old Manoj Baghel, who ended his life on Saturday by consuming poison at a temple in Raigarh, about 200 km northeast of state capital, Raipur. Baghel had claimed that he would come back to life. "The miracle drama is now over as the people, who had surrounded the body of the dead priest to witness ...

THE hair of an exhibit that apparently “grew” while it was on show at the Asian Arts Museum in Universiti Malaya has become a topic of discussion in a KOSMO! report. The hair, purportedly that of a female jenglot (vampire), measured 17cm when it was first exhibited on Aug 1. The report quoted UM Mythical Creature Exhibition project head Mohd Nul Hakim Derasip as saying that the hair had now grown to 35cm and had reached the ground. On whether someone could have placed a wig or hair extension on the exhibit, Mohd Nul said he doubted it as there were ...

FREAK weather hit a family's grief at the wake of their 76-year-old mother, who died just a day before Mother's Day. Picture: SHIN MIN DAILY NEWS Gale force winds struck just before dawn yesterday, leaving a trail of destruction at her wake, almost uprooting the entire tent. Five mourners scrambled to pin down the tent at Whampoa West, fighting against winds so strong two lamp posts and two trees nearby were snapped and broken. The storm threatened to damage the woman's coffin. A valiant five-minute tug-of-war against the force of the wind prevented the tent, near Block 34, ...

Jennifer Redfern has always been interested in the paranormal activity in South Lyon. But researching it on her own was not easy. In February she contacted Cameron Johnson, another interested local resident, and they came up with the idea to start the South Lyon Area Paranormal Society. The goal is to reach out to others in the community with the same curiosities, and find answers about why ghosts exist in certain places. "We wanted to provide a place where people could go without being laughed at or thought they were crazy," Redfern said. "And we know there is a lot of activity ...

Many people describe their place of employment as a horror story. But some try to claim it's the work of a ghost. Maybe the spirits have decided that spooky mansions and creepy battlefields are passé. Maybe they want to cash in on the glamour of corporate life. Maybe they just wanted the sushi. In Orlando, Fla., a landlord is in court battling his tenant, a Japanese restaurant, for backing out of a lease. According to the landlord's complaint, the eatery's owners decided not to move in because they heard the premises "were allegedly haunted by ghosts, unworldly characters, ungodly spirits and ...

Yap Kok Sun, 70, retired civil servant “In 1992, as we were coming down from Gunung Tahan, Pahang, we came to this bamboo grove. From there, out came this Orang Asli with a very clean white robe and a staff,” recalls Yap, who has been an avid trekker and nature photographer for the past 15 years. “He didn’t respond to any of us. I went into the grove, thinking that it was a trail. Suddenly, the trail disappeared! Everything went dark!” Luckily, one or his friends saw him going in. Yap Kok Sun “I could hear him shouting ‘Turn left! ...

Caught in the act Shadowy grave cleaners spirit away contractors' tools and steal their business in the dead of night By Zaihan Mohamed Yusof October 14, 2006 THEY hover around the dead and become active late at night. Wherever they are, there will be lights. No, they are not ghosts, but illegal graveyard contractors. And they are digging into the income of legitimate ones such as Mr Iskandar Dzulkhairi. The 33-year-old, who renovates and cleans graves at the Choa Chu Kang Muslim cemetery, used to make a few thousand dollars more during the month of Ramadan every year. ...

ANACHRONISM hangs like a musty draught in the basement of Katong Shopping Centre. It's a rabbit warren of mom-and-pop shops peddling mops and pails, maid employment agencies, shoe stores, dressmakers and gaming outlets. The tenant mix is quaint but shops No. 13 and 28, in particular, are wont to stop a casual passer-by in his tracks. A pantheon of Chinese and South-east Asian deities stare out of the shop windows on which are pasted newspaper and magazine clippings in English and Chinese. The signages are dramatic - gold and red affairs with the English word 'Ghostbuster' emblazoned boldly. Both shops belong to Chew ...

A man holds joss sticks at an altar during the hungry ghost festival in Singapore July 30, 2006. Businesses may be hit by a double whammy this year due to an oddity in the Chinese lunar calendar that results in two 'seventh' months -- also known as the hungry ghost festival, when the gates of hell open and the dead walk among the living. It's the time of the year many Chinese businesses dread -- the hungry ghost festival, when families avoid moving house, couples postpone their wedding plans and tourists shy away from beach resorts. But businesses may be ...

From the NewPaper Dead baby buried THE decomposed body of a baby - was found early yesterday morning in Choa Chu Kang. 29 August 2006 THE decomposed body of a baby - was found early yesterday morning in Choa Chu Kang. The tiny body measuring just 25.4cm in length was wrapped in white cloth and buried in a shallow grave on top of a grassy hill along Sungei Tengah road. It was found in front of a makeshift altar. There are two statues on the hill believed to be of Indian and Buddhist deities. Scattered around the burial ground ...

April 24, 2005 Urban Legends A recruit who died during his basic military training is said to haunt the barracks in Pulau Telong By Karl Ho IF YOU'RE a national serviceman, you might have heard this story. During a route march once in Pulau Tekong, a soldier from Charlie Company disappeared. Tekong is the offshore base where recruits undergo basic military training (BMT). One of the toughest training exercises, the route march sees soldiers laden with combat gear marching distances of 3 to 24km. Despite a thorough search, he was only discovered the next day along the route march ...

Dubbed as Wollongong's Indiana Jones, STOMPer John, a Singaporean historian and researcher at the University of Wollongong, says he has the answers to the unexplained underground structure in the forestry between Woodlands and Marsiling. In an email to STOMP, the researcher sent in links to an online local community newspaper, Wollongong and Northern Leader, and his university website. According to the university website, the structure, nicknamed the "Marsiling Dungeons", was first discovered two years ago by Dr Kenny Fong, the leader of Singapore Paranormal Investigators. It said the finding sparked off heated speculation, from claims that the dungeons were a place of occult ...

Carlos Sluzki’s cat died a while ago now, but he still sometimes visits. Now more of a shadow cat, the former pet seems to lurk at the edges of Sluzki’s vision, as a misinterpreted movement amid the everyday chaos of domestic life. All the same, the shadow cat is beginning to slink away and Sluzki notes that as the grief fades his erstwhile friend is “erasing himself from the world of the present and receding into the bittersweet world of the memories of the loved ones.” The dead stay with us, that much is clear. They remain in our hearts and ...

FOR 27 YEARS, HE'S BEEN PRAYING AT WHAT HE THOUGHT WAS HIS MOTHER'S GRAVE. NOW THE PLOT THICKENS... Article by Low Ching Ling His mother's name and photograph mark the grave he's been praying for 27 years. But according to cemetery records, said Mr Ong Eng Wah, the plot belongs to a man, Mr Kiang Long Tang. The grave carrying the man's name and picture is further along the same row of graves - in a plot that records say belongs to Mr Ong's mother. It all came to light when Mr Ong ordered the exhumation of his mother ...

Unusual Temple Ceremony in Sims Ave 'Deep down, I never stopped feeling guilty' 1,200 couples offer prayers to aborted foetuses By Maureen Koh November 04, 2006 She wasn't alone. With her in the second floor hall of the Cai Shen (Fortune God) temple were other mostly young Singaporean couples at a ceremony to put their past behind them. More than 1,200 couples had registered. The day-long mass ritual was held after an auspicious date and time were selected by the Yuan Zhong Xiu Geomancy Centre, which conducted the ceremony. Last Monday fell on Chong Yang (Double Ninth) Festival, the ninth day of the ninth lunar month. Mr Lim ...

When my wife and I had our twin baby boys circumcised in our home last year, the Hasidic rabbi who performed the bris left us with a surprising parting gift: an amulet for protection against demons. It was a laminated card printed with Hebrew texts including imprecations against Lilith, a female demon of the night. Alluded to in the Hebrew Bible and the Talmud, she seduces men to sin and kills infants in their sleep. When I queried the rabbi about this, especially about some esoteric and incantation-like phrases on the card that I couldn't decipher, he gracefully dodged, referring ...

Thais are a surprisingly superstitious race of people, not due to their Buddhist beliefs, but rather the older Hindu traditions that predated the arrival of Buddhism; the belief in animist gods, spirits with the sun and moon and stars, fear of the unseen dead, evil powers in doorways and old haunted trees. This may sound ridiculous to most Westerners, but most Thais firmly believe in the reality of unseen spirits, animist hauntings, and ghosts...which sometime return at the most inappropriate times. Monks and guests who attended a funeral rite at Wat Lam Nao in Bang Khan district were thrown into a ...

Of hungry ghosts and Olympic hosts Wooing the supernatural: Genevieve Woo ‘Chinglish’ is the new English: Lian Pek One has made a documentary about hungry ghosts, the other about China’s fetish for the English language. CNA’s Genevieve Woo and former CNN anchor Lian Pek are coming from the newsroom to a cinema near you, reports Genevieve Loh (genevieveloh@mediacorp.com.sg) : :Genevieve Loh :genevieveloh@mediacorp.com.sg WHAT knowledge of the Hungry Ghost Festival could a Channel NewsAsia newscaster and an ang moh editor/short film-maker impart to you, a true-blue superstitious Singaporean, born and bred in the thick of our island’s melting pot of cultures and rituals, that ...

Student says 1.2m coffin in Woodlands HDB flat is for deity to live in By Desmond Ng Aug 27, 2006 The New Paper THE room is dark - the windows kept closed, curtains drawn. Not a sliver of sunlight slips through. In the corner of this gloomy, musty HDB bedroom lies a 1.2m traditional Chinese coffin - the kind you see in Chinese vampire movies. It is the prized possession of ITE student Peh Zhi Xiang, 21. He has been sleeping next to it in his three-room flat in Woodlands for the last three years. Creepy? Well, his ...

A man prays for winning 4D numbers One group goes to gawk Another takes down unit number The New Paper 23 June 2005 IT used to be just another ordinary HDB block in a quiet neighbourhood. But now, residents of Block 114, Geylang Lorong 3, call it 'hong pai' (Mandarin for the most popular block). China national Liu Hong Mei was allegedly killed and dismembered by Leong Siew Chor in his ninth-storey unit there. Over the past few days, the block has seen its fair share of visitors. THE 4D PUNTER Retiree Steven Fung went there last night to ...

THE fort lay lost in the jungle for some 57 years. Few locals dared to visit the site as it was reputed to be haunted, in fact they called it Bukit Hantu ("Ghost Hill"). Then along came Johari Shafie. This enterprising man from Kedah rediscovered the site and transformed it into a living war museum. Next time you are in Penang, make sure you visit the outdoor Living War Museum at Bukit Batu Maung. It is an educational step back in time and is a unique concept, situated in the grounds of this apparently haunted fort. During its heyday in the ...

What is a ghost but a spirit or a vestige of what once was? In the case of National Ghost, however, it also refers to something that's still alive. The Detroit jam group combines "ghosts" from various veteran local bands to create something that's vital and new. This eponymous debut scales new heights with a mixed bag of rock and pop styles that are at once unique but immediately recognizable. Americana, country, prog-rock, reggae, soul and numerous other genres blend a stew that features exquisite harmonies and excellent songwriting as core ingredients. It's obvious after but one listen that the sum ...

Aug 20, 2006 Where the unborn are laid to rest At the An Le Memorial Park, spirits of miscarried or aborted foetuses are laid to rest in urns nestled in columbarium niches By Teo Cheng Wee BE AT PEACE: These niches at An Le Memorial Park ensure the spirits of foetuses can dwell in peace. -- SHAHRIYA YAHAYA CHILLING newspaper images of an undertaker carrying a fruit box with a dead baby inside shocked Singaporeans earlier last week. Sales assistant Wong Lih Tyng, 36, was charged last Wednesday with dumping her child in an employee's locker at Bishan ...

Close your eyes and 'visit' the afterlife Now in Singapore: Taiwanese ritual that takes believers on 'tour' to meet deceased loved ones By Maureen Koh April 15, 2007 A walk in hell to meet the dead. That is what a ritual imported from Taiwan known as Guan Luo Yin promises. The ritual has attracted 20 Singaporeans, including professionals. It is supposed to make the believer reach beyond the world of the living and communicate with their deceased loved ones or, at least, find out how they are faring in the other world. The 20 participants will take part in a two-hour ritual this weekend to coincide with ...

HER lover may be dead, but Miss Dang Thi Tho still wants to marry him. The 25-year-old Vietnamese, who nearly drowned when her married boyfriend dragged her into the sea, intends to have a ghost wedding when she returns to her country. The man, a 35-year-old China national whose name she gave as Mr Yang, had wanted the two of them to drown together on Monday night at East Coast Park. He felt it was the only way out because his wife in China wouldn't agree to a divorce and Miss Dang had repeatedly refused to cohabit with him, she said. Miss Dang, who ...

Forensic experts said on Tuesday they have unearthed about 1,000 skeletal remains of Bosnian victims of the 1995 Srebrenica massacre in a mass grave. Documents recovered from the grave in this village dubbed "Death Valley" showed the victims were from Srebrenica, forensic experts said. The eastern enclave was under United Nations protection when it was overrun by Bosnian Serb forces near the end of the 1992-95 war. "Almost 90 percent of all remains had traces of bullet shots and some victims were blindfolded with rope-tied hands," said Vedo Tuco, standing on the edge of a muddy grave where white-clad forensic pathologists marked and ...

CHOA CHU KANG CEMETERY HORROR Metal rod roots her to ground By Celine Lim (The New Paper) November 14, 2006 IT was like she was nailed to the spot. Clinging to a marble statue of the Virgin Mary, she had to remain there, her left foot about 5cm off the ground, for some 20 minutes. A rusty metal rod sticking out of a concrete block in the undergrowth had skewered her foot in mid-step in a freak accident at the Choa Chu Kang Christian Cemetery around 10am on 5 Nov. The rod, which was more than 50cm long, pierced ...

The cruise industry says that more than 30 passengers have disappeared from ships in the past five years – and these figures exclude those known to have been suicides or drunken accidents. When the QE2 docked at Southampton on January 2, the liner was one passenger short: a 62-year-old German woman was missing. She is just one of a growing list of people who have disappeared from cruise ships in mysterious circumstances. Some of these deaths may be suicides, writes Gwyn Topham, but others appear more sinister. And of course there are no police out on the ocean . . . In ...

Singaporeans love to be scared. At least that's what the sales figures of local ghost story books are saying. NO DEAD END: Books by Singaporean authors usually get a dead response from readers, but not ghost stories. Some titles have even sold more than one million copies. Why the hunger for ghoulish tales, and what's the trick to penning a winning title? -- LEE CHEE CHEW, DESMOND FOO IT IS past midnight and you are driving along a deserted stretch of road when you stop to give a lift to a beautiful girl with long black hair. As she enters your car, ...

Would you buy one? Some will, some haveThese are walls that have seen too much: blood, violence, innocent lives brutally snuffed out. But some S'poreans don't mind living there. Just give it some new paint, they say THE ninth-storey unit at Block 114, Geylang Lorong 3, where a gruesome murder took place is now eerily empty. It was where factory supervisor Leong Siew Chor allegedly killed and cut up the body of China national Liu Hong Mei. That happened two months ago. Leong's wife and his three children have since moved out of the flat, which had earlier attracted ...

It is popular belief that graveyards are closely connected with ghost hauntings. Other sites include hospitals, old palaces, abandoned houses, old buildings, factories, schools and hostels. Museums also have anecdotal accounts of ghosts. Historians disclose that most Malay villagers in the 19th century avoided treatment in the hospitals. Apart from the fear of being confined in a strange institution, the villagers also feared the malignant souls of the dead patients. laters contemporary reseach in Hong Kong reveals that hospitals are common ghost haunted sites. In Hong Kong most ghost encounters in buildings occupied by the Japanese in World War II. ...