US STATE DEPARTMENT TO TEACH AMERICANS TRAVELLING ABROAD...

HOW NOT TO BE AN 'UGLY AMERICAN'

The US State Department is setting out a controversial program to try and patch up the damaged reputation of the United States in the rest of the world. And the first step will be the issuing of a set of guidelines to American business people travelling abroad. There are plans to issue the same, or similar, guidelines to American tourists as well.

The US State Department's advice, in short, is : Shut Up And Listen.

In a move that will sound alarm bells in the heads of the New World Order crowd, the US State Department is going to issue US employees heading overseas for work a 'World Citizen Guide'.

The aim is to "help improve America's battered international image".

Here's some of the 'tips' that are expected to go into the 'World Citizen Guide' :

• Think as big as you like but talk and act smaller. (In many countries, any form of boasting is considered very rude. Talking about wealth, power or status - corporate or personal - can create resentment.)

• Listen at least as much as you talk. (By all means, talk about America and your life in our country. But also ask people you're visiting about themselves and their way of life.)

• Save the lectures for your kids. (Whatever your subject of discussion, let it be a discussion not a lecture. Justified or not, the US is seen as imposing its will on the world.)

• Think a little locally. (Try to find a few topics that are important in the local popular culture. Remember, most people in the world have little or no interest in the World Series or the Super Bowl. What we call "soccer" is football everywhere else. And it's the most popular sport on the planet.)

• Speak lower and slower. (A loud voice is often perceived as bragging. A fast talker can be seen as aggressive and threatening.)

• Your religion is your religion and not necessarily theirs. (Religion is usually considered deeply personal, not a subject for public discussions.)

• If you talk politics, talk - don't argue. (Steer clear of arguments about American politics, even if someone is attacking US politicians or policies. Agree to disagree.)

From the London Telegraph :

Keith Reinhard, one of New York's top advertising executives, who heads BDA, said: "Surveys consistently show that Americans are viewed as arrogant, insensitive, over-materialistic and ignorant about local values. That, in short, is the image of the Ugly American abroad and we want to change it."

The National Tourism Agency for Britain has jumped in quick to point out that not all Britains hate Americans or think there is a need for change.

A spokesperson told the London Telegraph : "Americans have a certain reputation which, for the majority, is undeserved. These guidelines sound like good common sense but they're not something the majority of our American visitors need. As tourists, they're out to enjoy themselves and have a good time. We continue to welcome them."

WHO SAID YOU CAN'T TEACH A CAT TO PUSH A TROLLEY FULL OF
CATS AND A DOG WEARING SUNGLASSES?



The cat on the left in the trolley looks like it's thinking about calling its agent to get a better gig. The look on its face is priceless, 'I've never been so humiliated!'

The Moscow Cat Theatre has managed to train a bunch of cats to do some pretty extraordinary things. But it's not a circus. God, no. What cat would be seen dead performing in a circus? No way, this is the Theatre.

Theatre?

What are you doing next week? Performing a bit of Shakespeare? Or some Chekov?

It's a circus. They just don't want to tell the cats that.

It's a pride thing, apparently.

Go here to see more from the Moscow Cat Circ...Theartre.

POPE ASKS : "WHERE IS JESUS IN THE AGONY OF OUR TIME?"

By Darryl Mason

The Pope has done his Good Friday special, and he's still not a big fan of gay marriages, contraception, poverty and altering the human gene for any purpose at all.

No big suprises there.

But Pope Benedict XVI's really cut loose, getting far more apocalyptic than his predecessor did.

According to the London Times, the English translation of his prayers and mediations contained lots of talk about our "Satanic" age. Wonder who he might be referring to in partix?

Some other highlights from his prayers go like this : By messing with the human gene, trying to alter it to cure diseases and disabilities, scientists are trying to "modify the very grammar of life as planned and willed by God."

He calls this brilliant new science of saving lives and easing suffering, "insane, risky and dangerous” and claims scientists are trying to "take God’s place without being God”.

Apparently, "we have lost our sense of sin. Today a slick campaign of propaganda is spreading an inane apologia of evil, a senseless cult of Satan, a mindless desire for transgression, a dishonest and frivolous freedom, exalting impulsiveness, immorality and selfishness as if they were new heights of sophistication.”

I think he's talking about Harry Potter, and maybe Playstation, too.

One of the prayers continued thus, "our affluence is making us less human, our entertainment has become a drug, a source of alienation, and our society’s incessant, tedious message is an invitation to die of selfishness.”

Okay, he's definitely talking about Playstation now.

He had this to say about the mothers of the world, "River of tears shed by mothers, mothers of the crucified, mothers of murderers, mothers of drug addicts, mothers of terrorists, mothers of rapists, mothers of psychopaths, but mothers all the same”.

And you can't argue with that.

For a church that is richer than Bill Gates, Donald Trump, Rupert Murdoch and all the world's oil companies combined, the Pope's got plenty to say about poverty, which is always important, but it doesn't seem to be going away any time soon, does it?

“Where is Jesus in the agony of our own time, in the division of our world into belts of prosperity and belts of poverty . . in one room they are concerned about obesity, in the other, they are begging for charity?”

How true is that? In the same half hour of news last week, I saw a story on the obscene obesity of porky little American kids and another story on a million infants starving to death in Africa. The irony was enough to make you want to cry, and deep fry some more cheese sticks.

"Where is Jesus in the agony of our time?"

Right here, apparently.

JESUS FOUND - ON AN EASTER EGG



An American woman claims she used an Easter egg dye kit on this hard-boiled egg, eight years ago, and it left an image of Jesus. She was running late for an Easter service, so to hurry up the drying process, she blew on it, the ink smeared and this was what she found when she returned home.

It's the face of Jesus, claims Linda Bargas.

"I think it just happened, and it's something beautiful to look at," Bargas said.

Eight years old, but she claims it doesn't smell rotten.

But eight years is long enough to own a Jesus egg, she claims, so she wants to sell it. Presumably on E-Bay.



Now, Linda may see the face of Jesus on this Easter egg, but I see something else, far more clearly. The black hooded profile of Death himself, just to the right.

Now that is creepy.

Or maybe we're both mad.

DEATH BY DISNEY

THE RIDE SO GOOD IT JUST MIGHT KILL YOU

'CURSED' RIDES MORE POPULAR AFTER THEY'VE BEEN 'BLOODED'

From the Associated Press : A second person in less than a year died Wednesday after going on a ride at Walt Disney World so intense that it has motion sickness bags.

The 49-year-old woman became ill after riding 'Mission: Space' on Tuesday. She was taken to a hospital, where she died...

'Mission : Space' is one of the most popular rides at Disney World. Severe chest pains have sent other riders to hospital. You get in, it spins you in a centrifuge at twice the normal force of gravity.

Here's one description of the experience : The ride simulates a rocket launch and a trip to Mars. A clock counts down before blastoff, which includes smoke and flame and the sound of roaring rocket engines. The G-forces twist and distort riders' faces.

Posters on one comment board I saw while looking around the subject of Theme Park Deaths raved about how fantastic it was to go on rides where the Gs were so strong you blacked out for a few seconds. "I couldn't wait to go on it again!" was a common response.

There's a couple of websites devoted to tracking amusement and theme park deaths and accidents from around the world. There have been hundreds of deaths and severe injuries in the past few years.

Brain injuries, severed fingers, fleshed stripped from shin bones when people have had their legs dragged under carriages, massive collisions between cars on rollercoasters that have sent dozens of people to hospital, people thrown from rides and killed on impact with the ground or steel support girders, children's hearts literally exploding under severe stress, swing rides snapping free and flinging riders sixty or seventy feet across carnivals...

Maybe that's what helps to make the rides so exciting. You are literally defying death.

This is one of the more comprehensive sites that tracks amusement park deaths and injuries, and Disney theme parks get plenty of listings :

Verified Injury Accidents At Theme and Amusement Parks.

Disney usually stretches the court cases out for a few years and then settles, quietly, on the condition that no further information be released.

Apparently a rollercoaster that 'kills' someone has been 'blooded', according to a couple of the sites devoted to coaster maniacs, and this makes them all the more desirable to ride.

There are coaster freaks from all over the world who holiday together every year and go and ride the latest and greatest coasters, and then review them, scathingly, in online forums.

Ride On.

Go here for some haunting images (and link-thrus) from an abandoned Japanese theme park.

BODIES OF KNIGHTS TEMPLAR FOUND NEAR RIVER JORDAN

DISCOVERY TOUTED AS BEING EQUIVALENT TO FINDING THE HOLY GRAIL


There's virtually nothing anywhere on the net about this story, bar a few paragraphs in the Daily Telegraph in Sydney. With the connection to the madness surrounding anything related to the Da Vinci Code, you'd think this would have been newsworthy.

If I find links to online stories, I'll post them, but for now this is about all the news there is, courtesy of the Telegraph.

The first bodies of the Knights Templar, the mysterious religious order at the heart of The Da Vinci Code, have been found by archaeologists near the River Jordan in northern Israel.

British historian Tom Asbridge yesterday hailed the find as the first provable example of actual Knights Templar. The remains were found beneath the ruined walls of Jacob's Ford, an overthrown castle dating back to the Crusades, which had been lost for centuries.

They can be dated to the exact day -- August 29, 1179 -- that they were killed by Saladin, the feared Muslim leader who captured the fortress.

"Never before has it been possible to trace their remains to such an exact time in history,' Mr Asbridge said. "This discovery is the equivalent of the Holy Grail to archaeologists and historians. It is unparalleled."

But were any of the bodies holding a little cup in their hands?

Who were the Knights Templar? What did they do? Why are they so prominently featured in Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code? Well, they practically wrote the plot for Brown nine hundred years ago.

They believed that Jesus Christ had conceived three children with Mary Magdalene, who moved to France after the crucifixion. Their progeny married into royalty; hence, there existed members of the French nobility who had divine blood in their veins. The Knights Templar eventually dedicated themselves to protecting the lives of these descendants of Jesus, the Merovingians.

Go here for a brief account of their history.

JEWISH HACKERS TARGET ISRAELI PORN SITES

HOT PICS DELETED, REPLACED BY SOME OLD GUY

Ultra-Orthodox Jewish hackers are waging insurgenty war against the massive empire of Israeli porn sites on the web. The 'Sex Commandos' crack porn sites run by Israeli companies and delete the entire contents of the sites, and leave a message and a photo of this guy, a revered rabbi.



The messages says porn is an "abomination" and "a violation which has caused many people's death, troubles and calamities."

"What is this violation?" the messages squawk to those who fight they were going to see some hot chicks getting it on, but instead cop a stern look from the old guy. "...a man who has spilt his sperm for nothing!"

Well, not for nothing....

(source : breitbart.com)

HAS THE MYSTERY OF NEAR DEATH EXPERIENCES BEEN SOLVED?


From ABC America : "It's an unusual area of science, but after a patient described mysterious experiences and feelings during a close brush with death, Dr. Kevin Nelson knew he wanted to learn more.

"'It was so vivid to him. I was struck by the intensity of the report he gave me,' Nelson said of the patient's near-death experience, which occurred when Nelson was a medical intern.

"He and his team of researchers discovered that the near-death study group had a significantly higher rate (60 percent compared with 24 percent) of a sleep disorder known as rapid eye movement, or REM, intrusion.

"This disorder causes one of the most active dream states of sleep -- REM -- to intrude into wakefulness, causing a person to sometimes wake up and feel paralyzed, experience leg muscle weakness or wake up to hear sounds other people didn't."

17 BULLETS NEEDED TO WASTE FRENZIED KILLER DOG

"KEPT GETTING UP AND WOULDN'T DIE"

In London, a bull mastiff attacked a two year old child. It's jaws locked on and nothing could get that dog to let go.

Nothing?

Nothing.

First the father of the two year old kid stabbed the dog four times with a bread knife.

Then the cops arrived and hit the dog with blasts from a 50,000 volt Taser gun.

Mitch, the bull mastiff, continued his attack.

Police marksmen unloaded a couple of shots into the dog from a Glock 9mm and then waited to see if the dog would let go, or go down.

Mitch stayed upright. They fired again, same thing. More bullets hit the dog, Mitch wouldn't go down.

The father of child, and owner of the dog, couldn't believe what he was seeing, neither could the police marksmen.

"Mitch kept getting up and wouldn't die. It was a nightmare," the father was quoted as saying in the UK's Daily Mail.

The police cotinued to fire, emptying a whole clip into the mutt.

Eventually bullet number 17 saw Mitch slump to the ground and die.

The kid, Nicholas, only spent one night in hospital and suffered no serious injuries.

Almost as disturbing as the dog attack is the fact that police marksmen who couldn't kill the dog, at first, were officers from Scotland Yard's CO19 specialist firearms squad.

This is the same squad that blew apart Brazilian electrician Jean Charles de Menezes on the London Underground last year, in the wake of the July 7 terrorist attacks.

They unloaded eight shots into Menezes in front of screaming witnesses, most of those bullets went straight into his head.

The CO19 are supposed to be specially trained to take out would be suicide bombers with what is known in the biz as the "Shot Of Excellence." One single shot that reportedly can sever the spinal cord and stop any detonation.

Well, that was the theory anyway.

Mitch, the dog they couldn't kill, might send them all back for a second look at the whole "Shot Of Excellence" concept.

Go here to read the full story.

RUSSIAN GRANDPA BECOMES PORN STAR AT 75

According to Russia's MosNews, a 75-year-old grandad has become a porn star in Russia.

He didn't set out to become one of Russia's most popular adult movie stars. He was 'talent-spotted' when he accidentally walked onto the set of a porn film.

Maybe there's something lost in the translation here, but David Bozdoganov had seen what he thought was an advert for a muscleman show and went inside to check it out. He found himself in the studios of the Gorodcki production company where director Alexander Plahov noticed Bozdoganov's "massive package straining against his trousers".

The director said his next thought was 'This could be an original idea.'

And so Alexander Plahov's gut instinct proved right. Grandpa Porn has proven to be an unlikely success in Russia, with David starring in The Old Neighbour and The Handyman At Work, amongst other big selling titles.

At 75, David now finds himself a famous fixture amongst the professionals of the Russian porn world....for one particular habit of his preparation for shooting a scene.

Acorrding to his director, "David's female co-stars always complain because David believes in the beneficial power of garlic and insists on rubbing it on his erection before a scene, so it’s rather smelly.”

That one was detail too many.

GONE OVERBOARD ON THE RENOVATIONS?



Thanks to the extraordinary amounts of money that can be earned from running weblogs visited by thousands of people a day, I recently decided to spend a few weekends renovating my bedroom and my bathroom with a kind of Persian-inspired Super-Bling theme going on.

So tell me this. Do you think it's all a bit too much? Did I go overboard?

Be honest. Is it all just a little bit tacky or a touch too much?



Okay, this is not my bedroom or my bathroom and I'm not much of a renovator at all. Unless taking out the garbage is renovating the kitchen from rubbish.

These two extraordinary images of extremist wealth are from the rooms at Emirates Palace, Abu Dhabi. And even though some of the rooms can cost more than $US15,000 a night, you do get a free breakfast and, get this, free newspapers!

Wow! Now that's luxury!

Go here to take a look around for yourself.

AMAZING DRIFTWOOD HORSE SCULPTURES




These stunning sculptures are made from pieces of driftwood, pieced together by artist Heather Jansch. Go here for more images and further info about the artist.

PLOT TO ASSASSINATE AUSTRALIAN PRIME MINISTER

John Howard and George W. Bush have both been threatened with assassination in the past twelve months

TO CRACK THE CASE COP TURNS TO PSYCHIC AND KICKS OFF MAJOR SCANDAL

Someone wanted the Australian Prime Minister John Howard dead. And someone threatened to do it. Like US President GW Bush, Howard has had at least one threat of assassination levelled against him since the start of the War On Iraq.

The Australian Federal Police investigated, but apparently the investigation drew a major blank.

One AFP officer decided there was one still one more route worth pursuing, so he turned an infamous psychic from a small country town. Now the cop has been suspended from the force and the psychic was shocked when journalists turned up at her house asking questions.

How good could she be at divining the world of the unkown, of seeing the future, or reading invisible energy fields if she didn't know that a fleet of journos were about to make her the most famous psychic in the country?

The AFP officer was bound by a strict code of conduct regarding national security and the confidentiality of information. He apparently consulted the psychic, who he knew socially, without the okay from superior officers.

An AFP spokesman said : "I can confirm we are currently investigating the matter. A member of the AFP has been suspended … The AFP takes seriously all allegations of misconduct by officers, and does not condone the use of psychics in security matters."

The Melbourne Age has revealed the psychic is a medium named Elizabeth Walker. who seemed genuinely shocked when journalists hit her up for comments yesterday.

"It's an extremely sensitive situation … how did you find out about this?" she asked, not consulting her unique abilities to divine the truth about the mysteries of the universe.

The AFP officer took the stalled investigation into the death threats in his own hands late last year, and the disclosure of national security information has been under investigation since December.

Psychic Elizabeth Walker was called in for questioning by the AFP earlier this year.

Cops and detectives turning to psychics for help, when all other leads have dried up, is not unusual, though it is rarely discussed in the media, and official confirmation is even more rare.

The success rate of pyschic solving crimes, finding missing children or uncovering key evidence has been cited in police training manuals in the US and the UK, and some credit has been given to their unique abilities, but it doesn't happen at all in Australia.

"This really is a B-grade movie script that's been played out in real life," said a spokesman for the Opposition Labour Party.

Is he kidding? This is plot material for an A-grade Hollywood thriller!

PLOT OUTLINE : "Assassin threatens nation's leader, best cops in the country can't find the nutter making the threats, one young cop who wants to make a big splash turns to a psychic friend for help as the threats grow more serious. Cop gets busted, the psychic gets exposed.

"But did the cop find the information he was looking for? Will the plot to assassinate the leader be stopped before it's too late?

"Suspended from the force, the young cop decides to finish the mission he has assigned himself.

"The leader of the country isn't safe, the assassin is on the move, and only one young cop and a middle-aged country town pyschic can stop the hit from going down."

Don't get any ideas, I've already started writing the first draft of the screenplay and I'm up to page fifty four.

(Sources : The Sydney Morning Herald, The Melbourne Age, ABC News)

AUSSIE SURFERS PREPARE FOR BIGGEST WAVES IN THIRTY YEARS

WAVES UP TO NINE METRES HIGH EXPECTED

This stunning photo by John Alcock appeared on the Sydney Morning Herald site today.

Surfers on the East Coast of Australia are now getting in a few hours sleep before they rise early and head out to tackle what are expected to be the biggest waves in almost three decades.

Wave faces of up to nine metres are expected to appear off shore at a number of Sydney beaches and up the coast. It's bringing every surf legend still alive and able to stand on a board out of the woodwork.

On Saturday the surf beaches were packed, with some seeing wave riders numbering in the hundreds. Insane.

About the waves expected today, former world chapion surfer Barton Lynch told the Sydney Morning Herald : "Regardless of how experienced you are, you have got to be on your game and concentrating completely in these sort of conditions. It is no time to be experimenting or learning."

'Lynch and his surfing partner, two-time world champion Tom Carroll, will be towing each other out to a bombora with a power-ski to make the most of waves that are predicted to hit seven metres at their peak.

"We have known this swell has been coming and have spent the week on test runs with the Jet-ski, checking the equipment and making sure we are well rested and ready," he said.

"Obviously being out in seas of that power and magnitude is dangerous. The ocean pays no regard to whether you are a world champion or a novice, so you cannot relax for a second."'

Go here for the full story.

THE VILLAGE OF NO CHILDREN

Notice anything strange about this Scottish village? Look closer. There are no fences between the houses. There is a lake, but again, it isn't fenced off. Why would that be?

Welcome to Firhall, the village of no children. It's not an accident. It was planned and built this way. The people who live don't hate children....they just don't want them around.

In fact, in Firnhall, children are banned.

From The Guardian :

"The Scottish village of Firhall, on the outskirts of Nairn on the Moray Firth, is spotless and smart, a cluster of detached houses overlooking a lake. There are no skateboards here, either. No footballs. No noise.

"To buy a property in the village, you have to be 45-plus with no dependent family in tow, and you must sign a contract agreeing not to sell property on to those with children."

"Most people I spoke to at Firhall love living without children around, and are not hesitant in telling you why.

"'I am sick of having conversations with parents about how funny and clever their kids are,' Ivy, a 55-year-old resident, tells me. 'I don't think I noticed how much people go on about their kids until I started living among people who don't.'"

I SEE INVISIBLE PSYCHIC DWARVES, CLAIMS MANILLA JUDGE

Manilla's Judge Florentino Floro liked to begin his court hearings with a reading from the Book of Revelation. For starters.

He said he could read the future, exist in two different places at the same time and had the inside line on the guiltiness of those who were brought before him thanks to the help of a trio of "psychic dwarves" - Luis, Angel and Armand - who were, apparently, invisible.

When he wasn't wigging out in the court room, Floro liked to conduct "healing sessions" in his private chambers during break time.

He made the legal community nervous, not just because of his behaviour in court and how that might reflect on them, but because he had the habit of predicting his co-workers in Law would suffer strokes or die, or both.

Judge Florro was infamous long before he came to the attention of the Supreme Court. He considered himself to be an Angel Of Death who had made it his mission in life to punish corrupt court officials and members of the judiciary.

Now it makes sense. They had it in for Judge Florro because he was paying far too much attention to Them.

He had been under preventative suspension for seven long years, before he was finally booted out for being a nutter...unless of course there are actually invisible psychic dwarves who can help a judge run his courtroom.

The Supreme Court of Manilla finally acted, using the excuse that Florro refused to subject himself to a mental examination, even though he had been,, surprisingly, charged earlier with being mentally unfit.

It's good to know that "psychic phenomena, even assuming such exist, have no place in a judiciary," or so says the Manilla Supreme Court, who finally told him to pack it in, psychic dwarves and all.

The Supreme Court decided Judge Floro may have been too "dysfunctional as a judge", but claimed he may still be successful in "other areas of endeavour", including Manilla's public service.

No government department has decided to make use of the former Judge Floro's remarkable abilities.

Yet.

Sources : The Independent Online, The Manilla Times, The Australian, Tempo.

COULD CATS BRING ON THE WORLDWIDE BIRD FLU PANDEMIC?

HORROR OF A CAT CULL LOOMS

For cat lovers, the idea that they might have to hand over their beloved pets to be gassed as part of a cat cull is incomprehensible. But in some parts of the world, the idea of a cat cull is now being taken very seriously.

Why? Because cats could play host to the avian ifluenza virus and even pass it onto humans.

From The Bird Flu Blog :

"In less than a week, the idea that cats could help spread the avian influenza virus to humans, and even act as incubators for the virus to mutate into a human pandemic form, has gone from being a widely discounted theory to the chilling possibility of actually being true.

After the discovery of a dead cat infected with the virus, this theory is now being taken very, very seriously indeed.

In at least four European countries, governments have demanded cat owners keep their animals inside, or face prosecution.

Go here for the full story.

More at Your New Reality.

FLYING TROPICAL ISLANDS WILL BRING PARADISE TO YOU

Or not.

This satellite image is supposedly of an area near Bermuda, but it arrived by e-mail a few weeks back without any information or linkages attached. Only just realised I mentioned the 'hovering islands of Bermuda' in the text of the 'Flying Cars Of Perth' story featured down below, and didn't actually post this image. Whoops. So here it is.

It's interesting that most people who have seen this remarkable image automatically say they see islands floating above the ocean, whereas the pretty obvious explanation is that what appears to be shadows cast by islands above the water are actually shadows of small clouds that happen to be near-perfectly aligned so as to give the visual impression of 'floating islands'.

THE ONE PERSON LEFT IN THE WESTERN WORLD WHO HASN'T HEARD OF DAN BROWN'S THE DA VINCI....

Australian AFL veteran Peter 'Spider' Everit was on a celebrity quiz show called 'Australia's Brainiest Footballer' tonight. He got the following question, and gave the following answer :

Question : "The author Dan Brown wrote one of the biggest selling novels of all time. The title of the book is 'The Da Vinci....what?'

Spider : "Ahhh.....pass."

Congratulations, Spider, you have given proof to the marketing myth that everyone in the Western World has heard of this book. You proved them wrong.

THE BIZARRE BABY OF NEPAL

I hoped this was an early April Fool's joke. But it may not be after all.

The story of this paper ran on Ekantipur.com on March 29. The story is pretty straightforward, it lays out the alleged facts of the baby's birth and short life, and the discussion board following mostly includes posts saying how disgusting it was the baby was paraded this way, and what the medical condition might be that is responsible for the deformities.

From the original story : "The birth of a bizarre-looking baby in Charikot....on Wednesday, drew a huge number of onlookers to witness the astonishing sight.

"The neck-less baby with its head almost totally sunk into the upper partof the body and with extraordinarily large eyeballs literally popping out of the eye-sockets, was born to Nir Bahadur Karki and Suntali Karki at the Gaurishnkar Hospital in Charikot.

"The bizarre baby, however, died after half an hour of its birth, Suntali, the mother, informed. It was taken to the hospital after its death.

"The news about such a baby being brought to the hospital spread like wildfire and there were hundreds gathered at the hospital to have a look. The police had to be deployed to control the crowd.

"We wouldn't have been able to save it, even if it had been brought here alive," said a nurse attending to the mother at the hospital, "This is an extremely abnormal case."

"The baby weighed 2kg at birth and was born after the normal nine-month gestation period.

"Suntali, already a mother of two normal daughters, was not suffering from any illness during the pregnancy.

"Nir Bahadur, the father, says he does not feel any remorse for the newly-born baby's death. "I am happy that nothing happened to my wife," he said.

"The news about such a baby being brought to the hospital spread like wildfire and there were hundreds gathered at the hospital to have a look. The police had to be deployed to control the crowd.

"We wouldn't have been able to save it, even if it had been brought here alive," said a nurse attending to the mother at the hospital, "This is an extremely abnormal case."

"The baby weighed 2kg at birth and was born after the normal nine-month gestation period.

"Suntali, already a mother of two normal daughters, was not suffering from any illness during the pregnancy.

"Nir Bahadur, the father, says he does not feel any remorse for the newly-born baby's death. "I am happy that nothing happened to my wife," he said. END

I've checked Snopes.com and all the other main hoax and urban legends sites and I haven't seen one posting about this four day old story. If it turns out to be fake, I'll correct the record here. Until then....sorry if I've given you too much to think about.

You can find out more about the condition supposedly responsible for this kind of abnormality - Anencephaly - by going here.

Go here for a story from the Russian media about a 30 year old man who discovered a mutant twin growing inside.

CARTOON WAR HEATS UP

AUSTRALIAN CARTOONIST FIRES BACK AT INDONESIAN "OUTRAGE"

The Australian newspaper has fired back at Indonesia over last week's front page cartoon in one of Indonesia's biggest selling newspapers that showed the Australian Prime Minister mounting the Australian Foreign Minister from behind - go here for that image and background story.

Today The Australian's cartoonist Bill Leak published the above cartoon showing the Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudoyono sodomising a West Papuan native.

Australia's Foreign Minister, Alexander Downer called the cartoon "offensive" and "tasteless" and quickly tried to remove himself from the controversy. Good Luck, Alex!

Go here for the full story.