Mysterious Light - UFO on the skies of Roxas City, Capiz, Philippines
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Roxas City is a medium-sized city in the province of Capiz, Philippines. It is the provincial capital and a component city. The city is a center of copra and aquaculture production. The surrounding area grows sugarcane, rice, coconut, fruit, hemp, and tobacco. The abundance of marine life makes Roxas City the "Seafood Capital of the Philippines."
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A Wiltshire mound where the legendary wizard Merlin was purported to be buried has been found to date back to 2400 BC.
Radiocarbon dating tests were carried out on charcoal samples taken from Marlborough Mound, which lies in Marlborough College's grounds.
The 19m (62ft) high mound had previously mystified historians. Some believed it dated back to about 600 AD.
English Heritage said: "This is a very exciting time for British prehistory."
Dig leader Jim Leary said: "This is an astonishing discovery.
"The Marlborough Mound has been one of the biggest mysteries in the Wessex landscape.
"For centuries people have wondered whether it is Silbury's little sister; and now we have an answer. "
'Dramatic history'
Silbury Hill, an artificial man-made mound about five miles away, also dates back to 2,400 BC.
Marlborough Mound was reused as a castle and became an important fortress for the Norman and Plantagenet kings.
It was also the scene for major political events, such as the general oath of allegiance sworn to King John in 1209.
Nicholas Sampson, Master of Marlborough College, said: "We are thrilled at this discovery, which confirms the long and dramatic history of this beautiful site and offers opportunity for tremendous educational enrichment."
The work is part of a major conservation programme being undertaken by the Marlborough Mound Trust. - BBC
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California woman arrested while pushing trashcan of human body parts down the street
A California woman caught wheeling a trashcan full of body parts was arrested on Monday on charges of homicide.
Carmen Montenegro, 51, of San Bernardino, Calif. was spotted with the macabre container around 2:30 in the afternoon and nabbed by police who were tipped off to her bizarre activities.
"Officers stopped her leaving the location and in the trashcan we found human remains," Detective Jeff Crittenden told KTLA-TV.
The contents of the trashcan are being investigated by the coroner's office, but police believe it is a homicide and that there is only one body.
They are still working to clarify the connection between the woman and the remains and to identify the victim.
Crittenden told reporters he did not have much information on Montenegro, but said she is a relative of the homeowner whose house she was spotted wheeling the body away from.
One neighborhood resident's daughter told a KTLA-TV reporter she is Montenegro's cousin, and that the woman came to the home for help disposing the body.
Other residents said Montenegro's mother lives in the home, and that Montenegro herself lived there sporadically for over a decade.
The body is believed to have been dug up from the yard of the house where Montenegro was first spotted, according to police. - nydailynews
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False teeth save man's life
Of all the things you'd expect to save someone's life -- a lifejacket, a bullet-proof vest, a motorcycle helmet -- would you ever include the humble pair of dentures? Well, it seems like we might have to after reports of some fake gnashers coming to the rescue of a Brazilian barkeep.
Thursday's bizarre incident saw the bar owner from the town of Alta Floresta, western Brazil, taken to hospital after a gunman opened fire at him while he was tending bar.
His name: Zacarias Pacheco de Moraes. His age: 81-year-old... and still kicking, thanks to his pair of miraculous false teeth.
The bullet was heading straight for his brain before ricocheting off the chompers and lodging in the back of his throat. It's too delicate to remove right away, doctors have said, but there's no doubt that it all could have ended far, far worse.
It reminds of that surreal story of the man who was shot in the head and sneezed out the bullet afterwards, as well as this World Cup football star who managed to get a bullet in his brain... and still survive. Now, time to visit the dentist, just to be careful - asylum
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Muslim girl, 19, 'stoned to death after taking part in beauty contest'
Katya Koren, 19, was found dead in a village in the Crimea region near her home.
Friends said she liked wearing fashionable clothes and had come seventh in a beauty contest.
Her battered body was buried in a forest and was found a week after she disappeared.
Police have opened a murder investigation and are looking into claims that three Muslim youths killed her, claiming her death was justified under Islam.
One of the three - named as 16-year-old Bihal Gaziev - is under arrest and told police that Katya had 'violated the laws of Sharia'. Gaziev has said he has no regrets about her death.
Stoning is a divisive subject among Muslims, with some groups interpreting it as Islamic law and others disagreeing.
According to Amnesty International's annual report on death sentences worldwide, issued in April, there were no reports of judicial executions carried out by stoning in 2010.
However, new death sentences by stoning were reportedly imposed in Iran, the Bauchi state of Nigeria and Pakistan.
At least 10 women and four men remained under sentence of death by stoning at the end of the year in Iran, where adultery is the only crime which carries that penalty under Sharia law.
It was widely imposed as a sentence in the years following the 1979 Islamic revolution, and even though Iran's judiciary still regularly hands down such sentences, they are now often converted to other punishments.
The barbaric practice was thrown into the international spotlight last year when an Iranian woman, Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, was sentenced to death by stoning for adultery after suffering years of abuse at the hands of her drug addict husband.
Miss Ashtiani's lawyer said she was allegedly beaten and sold for sex by opium-addict Ebrahim Ghaderzade, who she is accused of killing.
She was jailed for ten years for murder and sentenced to death for adultery. She was also convicted of having illicit relations for which she received 99 lashes.
The Iranian authorities eventually suspended the stoning after an outcry from the international community.
The European Union has called the sentence 'barbaric', the Vatican pleaded for clemency and Brazil, which has tried to intervene in Iran's stand-off with the West over its nuclear programme, offered Miss Ashtiani asylum.
A number of celebrities, including Robert Redford, Robert De Niro and Sting called for her release in an open letter to the Iranian regime, backed by more than 80 actors, artists, musicians, academics and politicians.
When Carla Bruni, the French First Lady, prominently gave her support to the 43-year-old mother-of-two, Iran responded by launching two scathing attacks on Miss Bruni, branding her an adulteress with a 'vastly immoral lifestyle'.
Last week Amnesty international called for 'clarification' on the legal status of a jailed lawyer who represented Miss Ashtiani, Javid Houtan Kiyan.
It issued a statement that read: 'If – as appears - he is held solely for the peaceful exercise of his right to freedom of expression, including in connection with his work as a defence lawyer on behalf of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, he should be released immediately and unconditionally.
'The allegations that he has been tortured while in detention should be investigated immediately and anyone found responsible for abuses brought to justice.'
The Islamic republic says the death penalty is essential to maintain law and order and is applied only after exhaustive judicial proceedings.
Murder, rape, armed robbery, drug trafficking and adultery are all punishable by death in Iran.
In March, Iran hanged a woman convicted of murdering a love rival.
Shahla Jahed, 40, had been a 'temporary wife' of Nasser Mohammad Khani, a former striker for the Iranian national football team.
The execution was thought to be the 146th so far this year. At least 270 people were executed in 2009. - dailymail
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Attorney General orders more episodes of the “The Wire”, or a movie
Sometimes government officials draw fire for potentially overstepping their authority — but Attorney General Eric Holder will probably get some praise for ordering the writers of the critically-acclaimed television series HBO “The Wire” to come up with more episodes or a movie.
The gritty fictional series, which ran five seasons on HBO, showed the raw side of Baltimore as it endured hundreds of murders annually and a rampant drug scene. The show focused on the cash-strapped city police trying to root out crime as well as the drug dealers fighting for turf, using children to run their corners and the related effects on the city.
On Tuesday three of the actors, Wendell Pierce (“Bunk”), Sonja Sohn (“Kima”) and Jim True-Frost (“Prez”), dropped by the Justice Department to join Holder in trying to draw attention to the issue of protecting children from drug abuse and exploitation.
But Holder could not resist a plea — well really an order — to the writers David Simon and Ed Burns for more.
“I want to speak directly to Mr. Burns and Mr. Simon: Do another season of ‘The Wire’,” Holder said, drawing laughter and applause from the audience. “That’s actually at a minimum. … If you don’t do a season, do a movie. We’ve done HBO movies, this is a series that deserves a movie. I want another season or I want a movie. I have a lot of power Mr. Burns and Mr. Simon.”
Wendell “Bunk” Pierce, who is now on the latest HBO hit “Treme”, chimed in with a “hear hear.” - reuters
NOTE: "hear, hear" indeed! I was able to watch the filming of "the Wire" on several occasions and got to meet with several of the actors and crew during those years. One of, if not, the finest TV series ever produced...Lon
