'Yeti hand' replica to be returned to Nepal monastery

A pilot from New Zealand is in Nepal to return a replica of what some believe is the hand of a yeti to a remote monastery in the Everest region.

Mike Allsop will fly from Kathmandu to the Everest region on Friday to take the models to Pangboche Monastery, which sits at 4,000m (13,123ft).

The originals were stolen from the monastery in the 1990s.

They first came to light in the 1950s when an expedition to find the mythical yeti came upon the monastery.

Mr Allsop will also take with him a replica of a yeti skull-cap, which was also stolen in the 1990s.

"I will take these replicas back to the monks so they can replace the ones that were stolen," Mr Allsop told the BBC.

Peter Byrne, the leader of the 1950s expedition to find the abominable snowman, said that while the skull was probably made of goat or antelope skin, the hand did not match the skeleton of a human or a primate.

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Cat gives birth to a dog

Picture is (C) copyright to Rex Features

Zhou Yun, the cat's owner, says she knew her furry friend was pregnant so she wasn't surprised when she happened upon two kittens at the beginning of the month.

On closer inspection, however, she noticed that one of the babies was dead.

'I then noticed the other kitten surprisingly looks like a dog,' Zhou, who lives in Yangshan, in eastern China's Jiangsu Province, told reporters.

Zhou, who's also the owner of a pet dog that likes to eat and sleep with its feline pal (hmm...), added: 'Quite possibly the kitty is a mixed child'.

Lai Xiaoyun, president of a local pet clinic, has sagely pointed out (after having a good look at the kitten-puppy, to be fair) that it's impossible for a cat to give birth to a dog.

He reckons Zhou's cat popped out two kittens and one died shortly after: 'So the cat went out and accidentally found a litter of newborn puppies and took one home.'

'Cats and dogs are two different species and it's impossible to have joint descendants,' he concluded.

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55 Feet Long Unknown Fish Species Found in China

Picture is (C) copyright to ibtimes

A 55 feet long fish has been found in the seashore of Guangdong, China.

According to a local newspaper, the big fish weighs at least 10,000 pounds.

Hwang, a 66-years-old fisherman living in the near area, said he has never seen anything like this in his whole life and that the fish was tied with ropes when it was first found.

Many people have flocked to see this strange specimen since its discovery, although its rotting corpse already emits a foul smell.

The people living in the area think the fish was caught by some fisherman but was abandoned due to its heavy weight, hence the ropes.

Due to the serious decay of the fish's body, it is almost impossible to identify the species, according to the local newspaper.

The fish was discovered on April 25th.

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Kyrgyz MPs sacrifice rams to banish "evil spirits"

By Olga Dzyubenko – Thu Apr 21

BISHKEK (Reuters) – Members of Kyrgyzstan's divided parliament slaughtered seven rams before their morning session on Thursday, in a sacrifice they hope will banish "evil spirits" disrupting their work.

Kyrgyzstan elected a new legislature in October in a bid to build the first parliamentary democracy in former Soviet Central Asia, a region otherwise run by authoritarian presidents.

But the fragile governing coalition has come under threat after weeks of bitter recriminations and disputes in parliament, leading a senior government member to resign temporarily.

Kyrgyzstan, which lies on a drug trafficking route out of Afghanistan and hosts both Russian and U.S. military air bases, saw its president toppled by a violent revolt last April. More than 400 people were killed in ethnic riots in June.

"We decided to resort to popular customs, in order for this building not to see bloodshed anymore," member of parliament Myktybek Abdyldayev told Reuters after the rams were sacrificed on a green lawn in front of the government headquarters.

Besides hosting the legislature, the Soviet-era white-marble building in the center of the Kyrgyz capital is the official seat of the president and government. Two presidents fled this building to escape violent popular uprisings in 2005 and 2010.
"We acted like those who light candles or fumigate their homes in order to banish an evil spirit from their conscience," Abdyldayev said.

The ritual of making a sacrifice is widespread in the impoverished, predominantly Muslim nation of 5.4 million. It is practiced mainly during funeral repasts and at solemn ceremonies of reconciliation.

"This is a popular ancient tradition, carried out in order to avoid a repeat of last year's tragic events and for peace and harmony to triumph," said parliamentarian Kurmanbek Osmonov.

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Bullet lodged in man's brain for 23 years

By Myles Burke 22 Apr 2011

A two-centimetre rusted bullet, embedded in the head of a farmer for 23 years, has been removed at a local hospital.

In 1988 Wang Tianqing, who lives in Zhangjiakouin city in northern China's Hebei province, was knocked unconscious on his way home by a blow to the head.

"I thought I'd been hit by a slingshot," said Wang. "I saw a man standing on a hill and thought he'd hit me."

He woke up in a hospital bed, was given anti-inflammatory drugs by the doctors and sent home.

Shortly afterwards he started having epileptic seizures which grew progressively worse over the next two decades.

On a return trip to the hospital for treatment for his convulsions, the bullet was spotted on his CAT scan.

Wang Zhiming, an attending surgeon from Neurosurgical Oncology department, said that the survival rate for being shot in the head would usually be one out of several thousand, but the bullet missed his brain's main veins and not injured his brainstem.

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Wedding: ET ‘spying on Abbey’

A TOURIST filmed a UFO hovering over Westminster Abbey - the venue for tomorrow's Royal Wedding.

The 2½-minute video footage shows a shimmering white object in a cloudless blue sky near Big Ben.

It seems to move and shift shape - but to have three sections, like the starship USS Enterprise from TV's Star Trek.

The tourist who posted it on the internet wrote: "First we thought it was a parachute but it was way too high up.

"It changed shape but stayed there for at least 30 minutes. Then I lost sight of it."
The sighting emerged shortly after a retired US Air Force major predicted extra-terrestrials would visit Earth to see Wills and Kate tie the knot.

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Wildmen of the Pamir Mountains

There seems to be renewed interests in the 'wildmen' of Asia...probably the best known is the Yeti. But there have been expeditions into the more tropical areas of south central Asia as well. In this post, I want to concentrate on mountainous central Asia, specifically those hominids or 'snowmen' that are said to exist in the Pamir Range of Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Afghanistan and northern Pakistan. These hominids go by several monikers...the Barmanu, the Tajik Yeti, the Almysty, the Golub-Yavan or simply the Gul.

In August 2001, the Russian magazine Karavan + I published an article about the killing of a wild man on the old Soviet-Afghanistan border. According to the author, border guards of the Kevran unit in the Pamir Mountains saw a "Snowman" during the winter of 1967/68. They reported their observation to their superior, Kuzkov, the officer in charge of the unit. He did not, at first, pay any attention to it.

The soldiers of the next watch again saw a creature and reported the fact. Subsequently, the duty officer accompanied the soldiers to the spot and personally observed the creature. Kuskov informed his superior officer, a colonel in Khorog – a settlement on the Tajikistan-Afghanistan border. News about this reached the Central Asia Command where, in February 1968, a high-ranking officer gave the order, ‘Catch him or, if that isn’t possible, eliminate him!’. Thereupon, the border guards shot the creature and took it to the border post. The body was stored in a woodshed. A subsequent article 3) in Karavan + I in September 2001 on the happening disclosed that the body was taken to Moscow in great secrecy.


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Two kinds of ghosts

Mukul Sharma, ET Bureau

When is one most scared of ghosts? Typically the setting is an abandoned house or graveyard at night with no one else around. Under such circumstances the appearance of an apparition is terrifying because there's no affirmation of life anywhere one can relate to. Suddenly one's own mortality, which is not generally contemplated, is threatened. Also, the apparition either does nothing or remains engaged in some meaningless activity which makes little sense.

Yes, they can apparently be hostile sometimes but the fear then is of a physical nature since bodily harm may result. It's not the same as the existential horror evoked by the bodily disintegration we associate with death. When is one least scared of ghosts? Typically the setting is the emergency ward of hospitals when a terminally damaged or diseased individual reports having what is called a near-death-experience.

We needn't be concerned about the empirical validity of such an event but consider just the subjective feelings of millions of people from all over the world who have had it. They report among other things travelling through a tunnel with a light at the end and being greeted by long dead family members or friends who tell them that it's not yet their time and that they must return.

At no time is there any fear of these "ghosts"; there's only a sense of tranquility. When they return, they remember everything and living for them takes on a new meaning after that. To them there's peace at the end of life and joy in the act of dying.

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The Lost Fleet of Kublai Khan Found?

It was the year 1281 and over 70,000 men and 4,400 ships were launched to conquer Japan. But the largest armada the world had ever seen ... vanished without a trace.

700 years later, one man believes he has found the lost fleet. Kenzo Hayashida is Japan's leading marine archaeologist and he has spent the last 15 years devoted to the search for the lost fleet of Kublai Khan. Salvaging clues from the seabed he fits the pieces of the puzzle together, hoping to solve the riddle of the lost armada.

Kenzo's task will not be easy, for 700 years the fate of the fleet has remained one of Japan's most enduring mysteries.

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Fountain of youth genes found, say scientists

LONDON - Researchers have pinpointed eight genetic variations that control the production of a crucial hormone linked to old age as well as diseases of the elderly.

The genes control levels of the steroid dehydroepiandrosterone sulphate (DHEAS), one of the most abundant in the body and vital to many key functions.

Levels of DHEAS are known to peak in our mid to late 20s and decline as we age. At age 85, the body contains about 5 per cent of its peak amount.

A group of scientists from across the globe analysed the DHEAS levels and 2.5 million genetic variants in 14,846 people across Europe and the United States.

The results, published in the PLoS Genetics journal, identified eight common genes that controlled the concentration of DHEAS, with some of those genes associated with ageing and age-related diseases such as Type 2 diabetes and lymphoma.

Researchers say their findings provide the first genetic evidence that DHEAS can cause common age-related diseases or a decreased lifespan.

Supplements of the steroid have already been commercially available for the past few years.

Dr Guangju Zhai, the study author from King's College, London, said that while taking it could theoretically slow down the ageing process, it was too early to say for sure how effective it could be.

"It is hoped that we could slow down the ageing process or the affect of age-related diseases through manipulation or gene therapy," he said.

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Baba Vanga's Nuclear Prediction

The elderly psychic and seer, Baba Vanga was one of the most famous psychics in her region. The psychic, who made a number of predictions is receiving new attention after a number of her claims turned out to be more accurate than once thought - at least according to certain interpretations.

But what has she predicted, and what will this tell us of the future that may face us all?

First, let's take a look at one of the misses that Vanga declared for 2010. Though some have maintained that we are in the early stages of a global conflict that has been unfolding, most who have reviewed Vanga's work consider this a miss. But there is another interpretation to the text that has been causing quite a stir.

What if she was correct, but this third world war is one of a different sort? Could the third world war be one of economic policies? An armed conflict may eventually result in some regions, but if we bear with this possibility, the next few events make more sense than before.

In 2011, Vanga predicted nuclear fallout would blanket the northern hemisphere Vanga's prediction then goes on to say that the Earth will then be devastated by the radioactive cloud resulting in massive skin cancer across the globe. By 2014, Vanga suggests that most of Europe would not be inhabited.

Interestingly enough, the nuclear fallout cloud from the Fukushima nuclear power plant has spread throughout the Northern Hemisphere according to the Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization in very small trace amounts. Of course this is nothing even approaching the level of radiation expected by Vanga. And it didn't result from nuclear war. But how strange is it really that Vanga says a nuclear catastrophe will strike in 2011 and it just happens to be the same year the world may be facing one of the greatest nuclear challenges it has ever faced?

She also suggests that by 2018 China would become the new global superpower. If China were to become the new superpower as so many are suggesting, when would it most likely occur? This is a matter that economists and historians are still battling out. If China were to become a global superpower, how would it be announced, and would there be any official announcement in the first place? But then there is the fact that we are now talking about it. When Baba Vanga died in 1996, her followers wept and openly feared the world that would be coming in the next few decades.

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Kublai Khan's Lost Fleet video 2

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