Dead Parrot at Center of British Avian Flu Mystery

Michael Smith,
MedPage Today
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London (UK):
Mystery continues to surround the death of a South American parrot from the H5N1 avian-flu strain in a quarantine facility near London. A spokesman for the British environment ministry said today it's still unclear how a parrot imported from Suriname, in South America, died from the H5N1 avian-flu strain.
There have been no reports of the H5N1 strain in South America. The ministry's "working hypothesis" is that the parrot became infected while it was in a quarantine facility in Chelmsford, northeast of London, the ministry's chief veterinarian, Debby Reynolds, Ph.D., said earlier in a statement. The probable source, Dr. Reynolds said, is birds imported from Taiwan that shared the same airspace in the quarantine facility.
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See Also:
Bird flu may have entered Britain earlier: report
Parrot quarantined next door to foot and mouth farm
Scientists still searching for source of Britain's first deadly bird flu case
Two consignments of birds, one warehouse, and a ticking clock
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Taiwanese officials were quoted today as saying that the British government had already ruled out the birds from Taiwan, but the environment ministry spokesman said the matter is still under investigation.
It's also unclear how many birds from South America were infected; samples from two birds were pooled, leaving authorities unable to say for certain whether they both carried the virus, Dr. Reynolds said. Dr. Reynolds also said the practice of mingling birds from different parts of the world in the same quarantine area will be reviewed.
There are about 2,000 imported birds under 30-day quarantine in Britain. The environment ministry said none will be released until after a case-by-case assessment. Britain is officially free of avian flu and the current uproar doesn't change that status, Dr. Reynolds said.
However, other parts of Europe have already seen avian flu in both wild birds and poultry. The latest area hit is Croatia, which late last week reported that the virus had been found in dead swans.
British authorities said they had not seen the parrot's H5N1 strain before, but the closest match on file was found in ducks from China earlier this year.
Oct 24, 2005

Was Shakespeare a Fraud?

Bhuwan Thapaliya (Bhuwan)
OhmyNews International
South Korea
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Whether it's red, pink, yellow, or white, a rose is still a rose, right? Well, not always. There's something here to perplex not only ordinary minds, but also the best of minds.
Was the work of William Shakespeare the biggest and most successful fraud ever practiced in the history of the world?Was Shakespeare a plagiarist who patched plays together from other writers' works? Or are these accusations against Shakespeare nothing but the critics own version of Einstein's theory of relativity.
A small but vocal group has emerged to prove that William Shakespeare could not have written the world famous plays that bear his immortal name. Their real authors have been identified as Christopher Marlowe, Francis Bacon and the Earl of Oxford, Edward de Vere.And the debate continues.
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See Archive:
Sir Henry: The Real Author of Shakespeare's Works? _____________________________
Michael H. Hart in his book, "The 100," a ranking of the most influential people in history, suggests that "Shakespeare" was merely a pen name used by a nobleman named Edward de Vere, but because writing plays was considered beneath the dignity of a nobleman, he took no direct credit for his work.
A new book entitled, "The Truth Will Out: Unmasking the Real Shakespeare," claims that the real Bard was Sir Henry Neville, a distant relative of Shakespeare. Shakespeare himself was just a front man, claims Brenda James and William Rubinstein in the sensational book.James and Rubinstein, a professor of history at the University of Wales, dispute that Shakespeare could not have had enough knowledge of the politics, foreign languages and European cities described in the plays to have written them since he came from a modest background and did not attend University.
Neville, in contrast, was well-educated, had traveled to all the countries used as settings in the plays and had a life that matched up with what "Shakespeare" was writing about at the time, the book says.James said that she began exploring the connection between Shakespeare and Neville about six years ago when she deciphered what she believes is a code on the dedication page of Shakespeare's sonnets. The code revealed the name Henry Neville.
Further research turned up more evidence pointing to Neville, who served for a time as ambassador to
France. The authors said that Neville's life helps explain a switch in Shakespeare's plays, from
histories and comedies to tragedies at the turn of the 17th century.
Neville was imprisoned in the Tower of London from 1601 to 1603 for his role in the Essex rebellion, which the authors say accounts for the more tragic tone of "Hamlet," written in 1601 and 1602, and the plays that follow.Many Shakespeare experts, however, dismiss these serious accusations against Shakespeare.Meanwhile, most Shakespearians are claiming that there is plenty of evidence to suggest
Shakespeare received a thoroughly good classical education at the Stratford grammar school and then, for well over 20 years, was involved in artistic and intellectual circles in London.
Oct 24, 2005

How the President's Wife Died

This Day
AllAfrica.com
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Lagos (Nigeria):
President Olusegun Oba-sanjo, in the early hours of yesterday lost his wife and Nigeria's First Lady, Stella.Stella, who would have been 60 next month, died in Spain after undergoing surgery.
Although Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media Matters, Mrs. Oluremi Oyo, while breaking the news at a press conference, did not disclose the nature of the surgery, THISDAY gathered that the First Lady died of complications arising from cosmetic surgery to reduce fat from her body.
Addressing State House Correspondents at about 9.30am yesterday Oyo said, "President Olusegun Obasanjo announces with deepest sorrow, the death, in the early hours this morning (yesterday), of his beloved wife and First Lady of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Chief (Mrs.) Stella Obasanjo."Mrs. Obasanjo died in Spain after undergoing surgery.
She would have been 60 years old next month".Oyo, while holding back tears, and saying that the First Lady's death gives her "deep sorrow", added that "condolence registers have been opened at the Banquet Hall of the State House, Abuja, State House, Marina, Lagos and President Obasanjo's home in Abeokuta".When asked what kind of surgery Stella underwent in Spain, she said that "I cannot say".Stella, THISDAY checks revealed, flew into Spain on Thursday from Paris and breathed her last at about 4 am yesterday at Marbella Hospital in Malaga, Spain.Sources told THISDAY that as a result of complications resulting from the surgery the First Lady had a "massive asthma attack and fell into a coma" from which she did not recover.Two Spanish newspapers El-Pais.es and L'a Nacion Domingo said she had the surgery at Molding Clinic, near Banus Port before she was transferred to Legal Medicine Institute of Malaya, following post-surgery complications. While the two papers said she died at the Institute, a Spanish Radio Unionradio.net reported that Stella's remains was moved from Molding Clinic to USP Hospital of Marbella (Old Europe Clinic) after her death.The radio reported that medical personnel at USP Hospital tried resuscitation maneuvers but were not successful "given her advanced state of shock."
The radio said an initial autopsy called 'pre-survey' of the corpse has been conducted and samples taken to the Legal Medicine Institute for final autopsy today.In a telephone interview with THISDAY yesterday, the Nigerian ambassador to Spain, Dr. Kingsley Ebenyi, gave graphic details of Stella's last moment.According to him, Stella came into Paris Thursday in her usual vivacity, betraying no sign of illness. She was actually billed to represent the President at the 40th anniversary of Cardinal Francis Arinze's ordination in the Vatican City on Saturday.But the first lady later told the ambassador that she would like to do a medical check up and that she had already made an appointment with the doctor.Soon afterwards, both Ebenyi and Stella drove to the hospital in the same car.
On Friday morning she was taken to the theatre.The first lady was said to have been hale and hearty after the operation and she spoke with Ebenyi later that Friday. Stella was said to have given the envoy go ahead to arrange for her hotel accommodation in Rome where she was being expected the next day.Her condition, however, began to deteriorate that Saturday which necessitated that she remained in the hospital. The hospital later called to inform the ambassador that her condition was getting worse.
At 3am yesterday, the ambassador had woken the President up with a telephone call to inform him that his wife's condition was deteriorating. Obasanjo who was said to have taken the news calmly then asked the ambassador to get details of what was wrong with her and brief him on the development later yesterday morning.About one hour later, news came from the hospital that Stella had passed on.Asked how he broke the sad news to the president, Ebenyi said he could not tell him directly."I called him (President Obasanjo) at 3am today (yesterday) to inform him that the first lady's condition was getting worse.
I woke him up from sleep and he said 'ok' and that whatever the situation is I should let him know. This morning I was informed by the hospital that she had died. But I couldn't call the president to break the sad news to him.
Instead I called the ADC and told him so it was the ADC that told the president. I did not know how to break such news to him."He (Obasanjo) later called me to ask for the details of what happened to her and what really went wrong."The president was said to have requested that the remains be brought back yesterday but that could not be done as the autopsy could not be performed yesterday being Sunday.Obasanjo was said to have spoken to the Spanish King urging that the autopsy be done as fast as possible so the body could be flown home today.
The Spanish authorities were said to have assured the president that they would do everything possible to ensure that the body is brought back to the country today or tomorrow.
Oct 24, 2005

The 25-centimeter Dwarf of Kerman is from Ancient Dwarf City?

Iranian Cultural Heritage News Agency
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Tehran (Iran):
The 25-centimeter dwarf near Shahdad city of Kerman province and the rumors of the existence of an ancient dwarf city in Kerman province has brought a lot of questions to archaeologists and caused great sensations among the public.
Kerman’s Police Department and the provincial office of Iran’s Cultural Heritage and Tourism Organization (ICHTO) have asked for the clarification of the situation of the discovered mummified corpse in Shahdad to settle the issue as soon as possible.
Two months ago, illegal excavations in the historical fortress of Gudiz in Kerman province near Shahdad city, which dates back to the Sassanid era, led to the discovery of a 25-centimeter corpse known as the “mummified dwarf” facing archaeologists with a mystery since then. Forensic studies have not been able to determine the sexuality and the exact age of the corpse at the time of its death so far.
The corpse which is 20 to 25 centimeters high has remained quiet intact during excavations. It is estimated that the dwarf should have been 16-17 years old at the time of death.
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See Also:
25-centimeter Dwarf has Puzzled Archaeologists
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“Regarding the rumors and the sensitivity of the issue of the existence of an ancient dwarf city in Kerman province, the Cultural Heritage and Tourism Organization of Kerman has asked for more anthropological studies to end the rumors,” says Hossein Rashidzadeh, an official with the Cultural Heritage and Tourism Organization of Kerman.
Regarding the fact that no mummies have been found in Iran from any historical periods, ICHTO archaeologists have denied the corpse being a mummified one. On the other hand, the Organization anthropologists believe that that the corpse may have been mummified under natural processes.
Oct 24, 2005

Airman Found Frozen in Mountains Arrives at Military Lab

Jaymes Song
Associated Press
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Hickam Air Force Base, (Hawaii):
The well-preserved remains of a World War II airman found frozen in the Sierra Nevada arrived at a military laboratory for identification."The body is in very good condition after 63 years. The skin is mummified and the bones are very well preserved," Paul Emanovsky, an anthropologist with the Joint POW-MIA Accounting Command, said Monday.
"Whether an identification can be made quickly, or if it takes awhile, depends on the availability of medical records."A pen, small notebook, hair comb and coins were recovered inside the airman's Army uniform, officials said.
His dog tags were not immediately found, but a badly corroded name badge on the uniform will be examined, Emanovsky said.
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See Archives:
Frozen Body May Be WWII Airman
Experts Examine WWII Airman's Frozen Body
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Maj. Rumi Nielson-Green said officials at JPAC's Central Identification Laboratory have narrowed the list of possible missing servicemen to fewer than 10 individuals, but the list could change any time.
The airman, apparently a Caucasian with fair hair, was flown to Hawaii in a blue body bag inside a U.S. flag-draped metal casket. It was transported to the lab in a military van and unloaded by four soldiers.
Oct 25, 2005

Georgia Family Hopes Blind Man's Visions Will Solve Mystery

Bryn Mickle
Flint Journal, MI
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MT. Morris Township, Wisconsin (US):
He's legally blind, but Jeffrey Pierce says he sees things that most people cannot. Now, a family hopes Pierce, 52, of Mt. Morris Township will be able to see answers to a mysterious death that has puzzled a small Georgia town about two hours south of Atlanta. Pierce, who says he has had psychic abilities since he was a boy, will head to Ashburn, Ga., this week to meet with the family of Greg Wallace, a health care worker who was found dead in a pond in March.
Family members found Pierce through his Internet Web site and offered him about $3,000 to retrace Wallace's steps and look for "energy signatures," or psychic fingerprints, in hopes of learning the events that led to his death.
Turner County Sheriff's Lt. Thomas Mauldin said the case is still open, but police have no reason to believe Wallace was the victim of foul play. "The man didn't have a scratch on him," Mauldin said. But the family remains unconvinced.
"We think something bad happened," said Mark King, a cousin of Wallace. The family already hired three other psychics, and King said Pierce is likely their last hope.
An Iowa psychic found the body when it floated to the surface as she walked around the pond. She told the family he had been killed, but then she disappeared, King said. The family has not heard from her since.
Oct 24, 2005

Location of Sayre Seaman's Family Still Unknown

Lisa R Howeler
Sayre Evening Times
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Sayre, Pennsylvania (US):
If members of John Leslie Williams' family still exist, Nancy Kenney of Traverse City, Wisconsin wants to invite them to celebrate the solving of a 60-year-old mystery.If he had lived Williams would be 79 years old today.
But, as a crew member of the USS Lagarto, John Williams didn't live past the age of 19. He, along with 86 other seamen died in the submarine on May 4, 1945, at the hands of the enemy, according to the United States Navy.For 60 years the Navy and the seamens' families alike were at a loss as to what had exactly happened to the boat. Kenney is among those who wondered and pondered the disappearance of the Lagarto.
She wondered because her father had been on the submarine. She was two when her father (SM1 William T. Mabin) disappeared and she never had the chance to get to know him. She at least wanted to know what happened to him.Though the United States Navy won't officially confirm it, camera footage from a British dive team is enough for family members to be certain the wreckage of the Lagarto has been found off the coast of Thailand, said Kenney this week speaking from her home in Wisconsin.
Kenney hopes the Navy will eventually send an expert to the site to confirm that the boat discovered this spring belongs to the United States.
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See also:
NavSource Online: Submarine Photo Archive
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The Lagarto was the only submarine reported missing in that area. And it is in the exact area another United States boat said it lost contact with it, said Kenney.“If by some strange, horrible, quirk of fate they determine it isn't the Lagarto, then my question is, what the heck is it? We (the families) all know it is (the Lagarto).”
Kenney and Karen Duvalle of the Wisconsin Maritime Museum have the names of the seamen who were on the ship and have begun to contact family members still living to tell them of the discovery. The Wisconsin Museum has adopted the Lagarto.
Twenty-nine families of the 86 crew members have been found, but now the museum and other veteran's organizations hope to notify the other families about where their relative rests.A memorial service in honor of the seamen will be held in May at the museum.John L. Williams is on the list of crew members and if family members can be found they will be notified as soon as possible, said Kenney.
Oct 25, 2005

Missing Girl Appears in Court, Declares Conversion to Islam

Omer Farooq
Khaleej Times, UAE
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Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh (India):
The mystery of a missing girl, K. Pallavi, was solved yesterday as the 21-year-old made a dramatic appearance in the Andhra Pradesh High Court covered in burqa (veil).The girl declared before the division bench that she had converted to Islam willingly without inducements or coercion from any body.
She also denied that she was kidnapped adding that she was hiding as her life was under threat from her parents and other relatives.Pallavi said that as she was a major and should be allowed to go on her own. She also insisted that she should be called by her new name, Sana Fatima.Acting on a complaint from her mother, a division bench of Andhra Pradesh High Court had ordered the police to trace the girl and produce her before the court.
Accompanied by a few other burqa-clad women, Sana appeared before the division bench comprising Chief Justice Bilal Nazki and Justice R Subhash Reddy and told the court that she wanted to give her statement. Member of Parliament from Hyderabad, Asaduddin Owaisi, was also present.Later during an in camera proceeding, the judges — in the presence of the advocate general C.V. Mohan Reddy and counsel for girl's mother Prabhakar Reddy — recorded her statement.
The court then dismissed the complaint of the mother and told the girl that she was free to go.Sana later addressed a news conference at the MIM headquarters Darussalam. She said that she has been studying texts on Islam for the last one and a half years and on the basis of her understanding of the religion, decided to convert.
"This was my own decision. Neither anybody coerced nor induced me to convert. I found spiritual bliss in the religion," she said.
She held her parents and other family members as well as the Langar House area police responsible for the murder of a local youth Quader Ali as he had helped her. "He was an innocent person.
All this talk of my love affair with him or any link with him is false. His only fault was he guided me to meet a religious leader for the formal conversion," she said.The girl had gone missing since July last from her home in Langar House area of Hyderabad.
Oct 25 2005

Riddle of Plane's Disappearance in 1968 Still Unsolved

Paul Peterson
Daily Mining Gazette
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MIRedridge, MI (US):
As Copper Country mysteries go, the disappearance of a National Center for Atmospheric Research plane 37 years ago remains one of the more intriguing ones.On Oct. 23, 1968, a three-man NCAR research crew embarked in the morning from Madison, Wis., to collect water radiation temperatures in Lake Superior.
The plane made its last contact with the Houghton County Memorial Airport about 12:30 p.m. that sunny fall day.Not long afterward, some residents in the Redridge-Freda area reported seeing a flash in the sky.
The plane and its three occupants were never seen or heard from again. Lester Zinser, a pilot for NCAR in 1968, was involved in the search for the men: Research pilots Gordon Jones and Robert Carew and University of Wisconsin graduate student Velayudh Krishna.Jones and Carew were in their early 40s while Krishna, an Indian national, was in his middle 20s. Zinser, who retired from the NCAR 21 years ago and now resides in Thornton, Colo., said the case remains a puzzle to him.
"It was a very routine flight," said Zinser. "The weather was perfect and there was nothing on board the plane that could have caused (an explosion). I knew Gordon Jones and Robert Carew very well. They were professionals who had done this type of work on numerous occasions. Something went wrong."
Jones and Carew were former military pilots and had conducted the project before. The work was performed at an altitude of approximately 1,000 feet. NCAR spokesmen said their planes only flew the mission when skies were clear and that assignments were called off when fog banks or heavy clouds were present.
The 1968 search, coordinated by a six-member team from NCAR headquarters in Denver, was accomplished with the help of the U.S. Coast Guard. The search team also included deputies from the Houghton County Sheriff's Department.
Oct 24, 2005

Mystery Behind Hex168 Revealed

fiXXXer
Xbox Circle, NY
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New York (US):
Major Nelson has posted a press release uncovering the mystery behind the whole "Hex168" viral marketing campaign. In a nutshell, “The Sign of the Hex” was created by Microsoft and 42 Entertainment to be a fun, tongue-in-cheek contest to engage the gaming community in the weeks leading up to the launch of Xbox 360.
Xbox confirmed today the true nature of the mysterious online competition that has grabbed the imagination of web surfers and game enthusiasts across the Internet and spawned a flurry of message board activity.? Visitors to the site www.hex168.com are introduced to the fictional character “Dr. Jason Q. Lutz” (a specialist who has dedicated his career to analyzing the phenomenon known as “Hex 168”) and are enlisted as “fellow truth-seekers” in the quest to research and catalog this anomalous global occurrence.
In the spirit of the outlandish stories and farcical photos appearing in supermarket tabloid the “Weekly World News,” entrants are asked to submit photos or short videos capturing “manifestations of the power of hex” which are posted on the site for public voting. Entrants have until November 4th to submit entrees and voters have until November 7 to rate each individual evidence submissions as “Hexed or Not” and determine the semi-finalists.
A panel of pre-qualified judges will then determine the grand prize winners in each category. A total of 360 grand prize winners will be chosen from the competition.
Oct, 24 2005