Browse News Briefs

The spectre of reason
Category: Paranormal
ONE claimed she could make people urinate with the power of her mind while another confidently predicted an asteroid would destroy Bowen, in far north Queensland.
The long list of failed challengers for James Randi's $US1 million prize is as entertaining as it is bizarre.
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Exonerated Internet guru sues Web site for defamation
Category: Psychic
so-called Internet psychic, who was acquitted of sex abuse charges in Washington County Circuit Court in May 2007, is suing a French Web site for defamation in Portland's U.S. District Court.
Eric J. Pepin, 40, the founder of the online company Higher Balance Institute, is suing Laura Knight-Jadczyk, who publishes the blog "Signs of the Times," at www.SOTT.net.
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Measles outbreaks hit dozens and lack of MMR jabs blamed
Category: Health
AN OUTBREAK of measles has left three people needing hospital treatment, prompting calls for parents to ensure their children are fully vaccinated.
Health Protection Scotland (HPS) said it had received reports of 36 cases of measles so far this year, compared with just four in the whole of 2007.

Health chiefs said the outbreak was mostly affecting young people who were not fully immunised.
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Heart defect ignored for 23 years
Category: Health
A young woman who PE teachers dismissed as lazy when she was a child has been found to have the biggest hole in the heart her doctors had ever seen.
Louise Banks, aged 23 from Exeter, collapsed regularly when exercising but was told it was epilepsy.
When she was 16, trainers at her local gym realised she had a serious problem, but the condition was not diagnosed until January this year.
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Terry Pratchett: The Alzheimer's warrior
Category: Health
Terry Pratchett is accustomed to having a dedicated following and has never been shy about  engaging with his fans. Between book signings and Chinese meals with them he would take off the wizardly black clothes that make him recognisable and disappear to his home in Wiltshire, his writing and his overseeing of the industry his books have spawned.
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Restaurant owner's 'spongy' handshake with GP saves man's life after doctor recognised rare killer brain tumour
Category: Health
It was nothing more than a warm handshake between two people meeting for the first time - but it was a gesture that saved Mark Gurrieri's life.
The hand that clasped his belonged to a GP, Dr Chris Britt, who noticed a 'fleshy and spongy' feeling which instantly triggered his professional concern.
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The Nutrient Packed Almond
Category: Health
The almond is believed to have originally been cultivated in Asia and North Africa, and it was Spanish missionaries who first brought almonds to California. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the United States is the largest producer of almonds in the world.
The almond featured significantly in different cultures throughout history.
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Council evicts grumpy ghost
Category: Psychic
British officials paids a psychic to exorcise a supposed poltergeist from state housing after the distressed occupants said otherwise they would leave and become homeless, a council official said on Tuesday.
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Can drilling electrodes into your brain cure depression?
Category: Health
Deep brain stimulation sounds like a form of fiendish torture. You're wide awake as your head is clamped in a metal cage and two holes are drilled into your skull. Fine wires attached to electrodes are then slid directly into the soft grey matter of your brain.
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Scam preys on religious beliefs
Category: Psychic
 
SATURDAY JANUARY 26, 11am: Trading Standards officers have warned people to watch out for a scam which preys on people's religious beliefs.
Leaflets, supposedly sent by a "world famous psychic healer" called Karina Natalia have been falling on doormats for the past fortnight.
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Sleeping with Cannibals
Category: Bizarre Times
 
For days I've been slogging through a rain-soaked jungle in Indonesian New Guinea, on a quest to visit members of the Korowai tribe, among the last people on earth to practice cannibalism. Soon after first light this morning I boarded a pirogue, a canoe hacked out of a tree trunk, for the last stage of the journey, along the twisting Ndeiram Kabur River.
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Big Foot Or Leg Pull?
Category: Mysteries
A Look At Mysteries Caught On Camera
THIS is the amazing picture released by Nasa, apparently revealing life on Mars.
The snap was taken on the surface of the red planet by the robot Mars Explorer Spirit in 2004 but was only released by Nasa last week.
The image sent the internet into overdrive, with many convinced the photo is of a woman with her arms outstretched - or a bigfoot beast.
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