Food Poisoning Scare (Nigeria)

http://tribune.com.ng/index.php/news/16725--25-yr-old-graduate-dies-in-benue-after-eating-carrots

Nigerian Tribune
27 January 2011

25-yr-old graduate dies in Benue after eating carrots

Written by John Akpodovhan, Makurdi

Residents of Kanshio village, a suburb of Makurdi, were gripped by confusion when they learnt of the death of a 25-year-old graduate of Sociology from the Benue State University, Michael Adzor Adzor, who died after eating carrots. [...]

http://www.leadershipeditors.com/ns/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=24056:fear-of-poisoned-foodstuffs-spreads&catid=51:cover-stories&Itemid=101

Leadership [Nigeria]
27 January 2011

Fear of Poisoned Foodstuffs Spreads

Nnamdi Mbawike, Enugu and Joseph Wantu, Makurdi

Man dies after eating carrot There is palpable fear in some parts of the country following rumours making the rounds that some unidentified persons have poisoned foodstuffs and fruits brought to other parts of the country from strife torn Plateau State.

A text message sent to residents of Enugu State purportedly warned people of the South East to shun foodstuffs and fruits, alleging that some people from the northern part of the country had poisoned the items as a reprisal attack over the Jos crisis that has claimed many lives.

In Benue State, the death of a 25- year old graduate of Sociology from Benue State University who was said to have died after eating carrots he bought from a street hawker has caused panic among residents of Makurdi, the state capital. [...]

Spitfires Buried in Queensland

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/aviation/fact-or-fable-hunt-is-on-for-buried-spitfires/story-e6frg95x-1225995654752

The Australian
28 January 2011

Fact or fable: hunt is on for buried Spitfires

Ted Strugnell

IT'S the Lasseter's Reef of warbirds -- a rumoured stash of mint-condition Spitfires hidden underground in rural Queensland.

Many have searched for the legendary British fighters, reportedly still in their crates and hidden since the end of the World War II around the Queensland town of Oakey, but so far nobody has been able to lay claim to what would be a multi-million-dollar find. [...]

Adopted Haitian Baby Killed for Insurance Money

http://www.counterpunch.org/boadiba01252011.html

Counterpunch
25 January 2011

Haiti Quake Journal
Where Urban Legends Come to Life

By BOADIBA

[...] Urban legends also are flying on the breeze. From mouth to mouth:

The US soldiers sent en masse right after the quake went into the rubble only twice to remove safes at Citibank and Caribbean Market. (This must come from the memory of the American occupation which started in 1916 and ended in 1935 with marines withdrawing the safes containing the nation’s entire gold reserve. It now sleeps in vaults in New York or D.C.) [...]

Some camps are well organized, but not the one across from the police station in Petionville.

At the restaurant across from the police station and the refugee camp, on the terrace overlooking the pool, foreign correspondents sit with their video cams. Two women are eating and talking at a table next to us. “Two women adopted a baby here in Haiti and took him back to New York. There, in the middle of winter, they left him locked up in a car and he died of pneumonia. Afterwards they got the insurance money. They would have gotten away with it if they hadn’t come back some time later to adopt another baby and try the same thing. The second baby was strong and didn’t die. The insurance company got suspicious and investigated. They got arrested.” [...]

Stolen Cremains Snorted

http://www.ocala.com/article/20101220/ARTICLES/101229974/1439

Ocala Star-Banner [FL]
20 December 2010

Cremated remains of father, dogs stolen during burglary

By Fred Hiers
Staff writer

Holli Tencza had started to put the loss of her two Great Danes behind her. A robbery last week in her new Silver Springs Shores home changed all that.

Stolen from the home were a television and computer, but also the cremated remains of Tencza's father, stored in a box, and the ashes of both dogs, stored in separate containers. [...]

http://www.ocala.com/article/20110118/ARTICLES/110119714/1439?p=all&tc=pgall

Ocala Star-Banner [FL]
18 January 2011

Deputies: Burglars tasted, snorted human and canine ashes

By Austin L. Miller
Staff writer

Three young men have been arrested in connection with a Silver Springs Shores burglary last month in which the remains of a woman's father and the ashes of her two pet great Danes were stolen. [...]

Adding two odd twists to the story, detectives say the burglars told them they thought the containers they stole contained crushed pills and began tasting and snorting them. [...]

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/file/snorted-ashes?page=0
Marion County Sherriff's Office
Supplemental Incident Report

Infant Seat Ruse

http://www.northumberlandtoday.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=2937939

Northumberland Today [Ontario, Canada]
20 January 2011

Baby seat e-mail a hoax

By TED AMSDEN NORTHUMBERLAND TODAY

PORT HOPE -An e-mail was circulated to dozens of Port Hope residents, mainly women, recently warning drivers not to stop if they see an infant car seat on the side of the road. The e-mail is, in fact, a hoax. [...]

The Port Hope businessman who sent the e-mail to many local residents believing he was doing a good deed says seeing a baby seat could lead unsuspecting drivers to become victims. He says a friend was the victim of the infant seat ruse years ago in Stuttgart, Germany.

His friend stopped to check out the seat, was accosted by four men and was brutally beaten. His car was stolen, too. [...]

Lost Child Leads to Rape by Gang

http://www.elpasotimes.com/ci_17134606?source=most_viewed

El Paso Times [Texas]
19 January 2011

Sheriff's Office warns of lost child hoax

By Adriana M. Chávez / El Paso Times

El Paso County Sheriff's deputies are warning area residents about a hoax text circulating locally that claims to have originated from the sheriff's office.

The text warns recipients that if they come across a lost child asking for a ride home, to take that child to the nearest police station; and if the driver takes the child to the address he or she is requesting to be taken to, the driver will be raped by members of the Mara Salvatrucha gang. The text also claims the information has been verified by CNN and Fox News. [...]

Toy Dog Swears

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/3356693/Four-letter-outburst-by-babys-cuddly-sing-song-puppy.html

The Sun [UK]

18 January 2011

Swear of the Dog

By Jamie Pyatt

MUM Leigh McPherson bought a singing toy puppy for her baby daughter - and was horrified when it started swearing.

The cuddly My Pal Violet turned the air blue when Leigh pressed its paw to trigger its first song.

It sang: "If you're happy and you know it f*** with me, if you're happy and you know it f**k with me, if you're happy and you know it and you really want to show it f*** with me!" [...]

Queensland Floods

http://www.cabinet.qld.gov.au/MMS/StatementDisplaySingle.aspx?id=73283

Queensland Government

Ministerial Media Statements

Premier and Minister for the Arts
The Honourable Anna Bligh
Thursday, January 13, 2011

TRANSCRIPT - PRESS CONFERENCE - 11:30AM THURSDAY

[...] JOURNALIST: There are a number of hoaxes surfacing on social networking sites and things like Wivenhoe Dam’s about to breach …What’s your advice to people who read those things and are becoming distressed by them?

PREMIER: Unfortunately when events like this happen rumours can escalate very, very quickly and they can do a lot of damage. These events can be quite scary and I know that the best thing that we can do is give you regular, updated, accurate information. That’s why we are holding these briefings every two hours. If you hear or read on social networking sites rumours or statements, if they’re not confirmed in these meetings, if you don’t hear them out of my mouth or out of the police commissioner or deputy commissioner then it’s very unlikely to be true. So yes I’ve heard some of the wildest rumours in the last couple of days. Can I assure you the Wivenhoe Dam is absolutely secure, in fact any danger to it has completely passed with the passing of this water through it. So there will be inevitably people who…there’ll be a bit of Chinese whispers and it’ll grow into a bit of gossip and then it’ll become a full-scale rumour. And I think some of the social networking technology we have has been of enormous assistance during this flood event. It’s helped us to alert people and people are using it to find friends and loved ones, people are using it to tell each other what’s going on and that’s all terrific. The downside of it is if a piece of wrong information gets out or a rumour it can spread like wildfire much quicker than it ever would have. So please there is a bit of a wild speculation out there. the reason we’re going to continue for as long as necessary doing these regular updates is so that everything people need to know, even if it is bad news or frightening news, we will tell you here. [...]

http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/environment/weather/discovery-of-bodies-hasnt-been-reported-to-us-police-20110118-19uj5.html

Brisbane Times
18 January 2011

Discovery of bodies hasn't been reported to us: police

Police say they haven't been contacted about the reported discovery of two bodies in a house near Brisbane.

Ipswich councillor Paul Tully told AAP this morning the bodies of two women were located by a young volunteer in a residence that had been flooded, in the Ipswich suburb of Goodna, late yesterday. [...]

http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=161307130583974

Facebook

Police appeal to the community not to spread rumours

by Queensland Police Service on Monday, January 17, 2011 at 6:42pm

The Queensland Police Service can confirm that reports of two bodies being found in a house in Goodna are not accurate. [...]

http://www.thechronicle.com.au/story/2011/01/18/police-quash-dead-body-rumours-toowoomba-floods/

The Chronicle [Toowoomba]
18 January 2011

Police quash dead body rumours

POLICE today quashed rumours that dead bodies were being secretly stored in the region’s morgues after last week’s devastating floods. [...]

http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/environment/weather/rumour-has-it-wrong-in-flood-crisis-20110118-19v9h.html

Brisbane Times
19 January 2011

Rumour has it wrong in flood crisis

Cameron Atfield

Misinformation spread during Queensland's flood crisis could have had dire consequences, according to a disaster management expert.

Rumours that spread at the height of the crisis included that public transport would grind to a halt at 2pm last Tuesday; that Brisbane Airport was set to close; that the CBD was being evacuated; and that a makeshift morgue had been set up in Toowoomba.

And yesterday, Ipswich councillor Paul Tully fuelled rumours that two bodies had been found in a Goodna house, which Premier Anna Bligh declared "probably the most irresponsible act by any politician of any political persuasion" she had seen. [...]

http://www.gattonstar.com.au/story/2011/01/18/animals-left-behind-as-owners-evacuate/

Gatton Star [Australia]
18 January 2011

Animals left after owners evacuate

THE sick, injured and lost animals that survived the devastating Lockyer Valley flood found refuge at The University of Queensland's (UQ) Veterinary Medical Centre at the Gatton campus. [...]

Lockyer Valley Regional Council Animal Control Team Leader, Darryl Simpson, said rumours that all animals not claimed by the end of January would be euthanised, was false. [...]

Don Tyson's Cadillac

The Washington Post Magazine
July 12, 1992

An Arkansas State of Mind

By James Morgan

[...] Don Tyson -- This bantam-sized chicken magnate, provider of the much-maligned free airplane rides and accused polluter extraordinaire of the White River in northwest Arkansas, runs Tyson Foods, the state's largest private employer, from an egg-shaped office in the company headquarters in Springdale. [...] If you come to Arkansas, it won't be long before somebody tells you The Don Tyson Story, which goes like this: One day his wife saw his expensive new Cadillac convertible parked out in front of some other woman's house. The wife called a cement company and had a truck come over and fill his car with concrete. Everyone who tells the story swears they know somebody who saw the whole thing. When I called Tyson headquarters and asked the company PR man if this story is true, he chuckled wearily and said he'd been hearing the same story for 20 years. He assured me it's apocryphal. " [...]

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/postmortem/2011/01/the-chicken-king-of-arkansas.html
The Washington Post
7 January 2011
Post Mortem [Blog]
The Chicken King of Arkansas
By T. Rees Shapiro

Vulture Is a Mossad Spy

http://www.haaretz.com/news/international/saudi-arabia-nabbed-israeli-tagged-vulture-for-being-mossad-spy-1.335171

Haaretz [Israel]
4 January 2011

Saudi Arabia 'nabbed Israeli-tagged vulture for being Mossad spy'

Vulture used as part of bird migration research was reportedly captured in rural area of Saudi Arabia.

By Haaretz Service

A vulture tagged by scientists at Tel Aviv University has strayed into Saudi Arabian territory, where it was promptly arrested on suspicion of being a Mossad spy, Israeli and Saudi media reported Tuesday. [...]

http://www.emirates247.com/news/region/saudis-to-free-israeli-vulture-2011-01-09-1.339781

Emirates 24/7 [Dubai]

9 January 2011

Saudis to free Israeli vulture

By Staff

Saudi Arabia intends to free an Israeli vulture captured by a local hunter this week on the grounds it has nothing to do with espionage, the head of the Gulf kingdom’s wildlife agency was quoted on Sunday as saying.

Prince Bandar bin Saud Al Saud said tests showed the vulture is a “bald eagle” which was fitted with systems for pure scientific purposes.

“The reports that this bird is equipped with Israeli spy systems arsenal are incorrect…the system tied to its feet is traceable by satellites to know birds’ emigration movements and how they feed with the aim of conducting scientific research on these birds,” he said, quoted by local newspapers. [...]

"Baker Street" Saxophonist

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-12120809

BBC News Magazine
5 January 2011

Why do we think Bob Holness was the Baker Street saxophonist?

As the nation mourns the sad passing of singer Gerry Rafferty, the myth involving his famous song Baker Street and a certain quiz show host has received a fresh airing. So how, asks the Magazine, did it come about? [...]

Bob Geldof: "Give us your fucking money"

http://www.mirror.co.uk/celebs/news/2010/12/27/the-urban-myth-of-sir-bob-geldof-s-legendary-live-aid-outburst-115875-22809066/

The Daily Mirror [UK]
27 December 2010

The urban myth of Sir Bob Geldof's legendary Live Aid outburst

by David Hepworth, Daily Mirror

ON July 13, 1985 I was at Wembley Stadium working for the BBC as one of the presenters of its coverage of Live Aid. [...]

[Bob Geldof] climbed into our little studio and demanded to make an appeal. In a break between acts I sat next to him and talked him through it.

He made his case as to why people should put hands in their pockets to help the starving.

“Fine,” I said and then, because I knew what order the captions would come up in, I added to camera: “Here’s the address...”

“F*** the address,” interjected Geldof. “Go to the phone number!” [...]

In the years that followed I’ve been engaged in that same conversation all over the world. The people who are convinced that Geldof said “Give us your f***ing money” range from those who claim to have watched every second of the broadcast to people not even born at the time. [...]

Christmas Tree Vendor Legends

http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/2010/12/selling_christm.php#

The Village Voice [NY]
23 December 2010

Tales From a Greenpoint Christmas Tree Vendor

By Jen Doll

[...] Stories tend to accumulate over the years, told from vendor to vendor, some of them real, some of them with the trappings of urban legend. "There's one I heard from a tree guy," [tree vendor Charlie Poekel] said. "Someone new was selling trees late one night. A good-looking girl came around, talked to him for 30 minutes or so, got him to sneak away, and gave him head in a nearby alley. When he came back, the story goes, every tree was gone."

In another tale, "This woman sold a tree to a drunk guy three nights in a row. The first two nights the tree apparently didn't make it home." [...]

Keith Richards

Keith Richards with James Fox, Life (New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2010), p. 209.

There was the thing of course of Marianne. Hard day on acid, she had taken a bath upstairs, just finished, and I had this huge fur rug, made of pelts of some kind, rabbit, and she just wrapped herself up in that. I think she had a towel around her too and was lying back on the couch after a nice bath. How the Mars bar got into the story I don't know. There was one on the table -- there were a couple, because on acid suddenly you get sugar lack and you're munching away. And so she's stuck forever with the story of where the police found that Mars bar. And you have to say she wears it well. But how that connotation came about and how the press managed to make a Mars bar on a table and Marianne wrapped in a fur rug into a myth is a kind of classic. In fact, Marianne was quite chastely attired for once. Usually when first you said hi to Marianne you started talking to the cleavage. And she knew she was thrusting it. A naughty lady, bless her heart. She was more dressed in this fur bedspread than she'd been all day. So they had a woman police officer who took her upstairs and made her drop the rug. What else do you want to see? From there -- it shows you what's in people's minds -- the evening paper headlines are "Naked Girl at Stones Party." Info directly from the police. But the Mars bar as a dildo? That's rather a large leap. The weird thing about these myths is that they stick when they're so obviously false. Perhaps the idea is that it's so outlandish or crude or prurient that it can't have been invented.

Keith Richards with James Fox, Life (New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2010), p. 546.

Bert had died in 2002, but his memory was revived a few weeks before Doris died in a big press story generated by a journalist reporting that I'd claimed to have snorted some of my father's ashes along with a line of bump. There were headlines, editorials, there were op-eds on cannibalism, there was some of the old flavor of Street of Shame indignation at the Stones. John Humphrys on prime-time radio was heard to ask, "Do you think Keith Richards has gone too far this time?" What did he mean this time? There were also articles saying this is a perfectly normal thing, it goes back to ancient times, the ingestion of your ancestor. So there were two schools of thought. Old pro that I am, I said it was taken out of context. No denying, no admitting. "The truth of the matter" -- to read my memo to [his manager] Jane Rose when the story threatened to get out of hand -- "is that after having Dad's ashes in a black box for six years, because I really couldn't bring myself to scatter him to the winds, I finally planted a sturdy English oak to spread him around. And as I took the lid off the box, a fine spray of his ashes blew out onto the table. I couldn't just brush him off, so I wiped my finger over it and snorted the residue. Ashes to ashes, father to son. He is now growing oak trees and would love me for it."

Vanishing Genitals (Ghana)

http://news.peacefmonline.com/social/201012/119661.php

Peace FM Online [Ghana]
22 December 2010

Man 'Jailed' Over Missing Penis

A Tamale Circuit Court has remanded 48-year-old Alex Ikege, a man suspected of making some persons’ genitals disappear, into police custody to re-appear on December 23, 2010. [...]

Attempted Abduction at Toledo Shopping Mall

http://toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20101215/NEWS16/101219594

Toledo Blade [OH]
15 December 2010

Police: Westfield Franklin Park abduction story untrue

BLADE STAFF

A persistent and startling story about the alleged attempted abduction of a young girl from the bathroom of a local shopping mall is untrue and has circulated widely through e-mail, authorities said Wednesday. [...]

The tall tale involves a teenage girl whose mother screamed to alert mall security when she saw the girl unresponsive and being carried out by two men from the food court bathroom at Westfield Franklin Park.

In most variations of the rumor, the girl's hair was disguised in some way by being shaved, dyed, or covered with a wig. [...]

Armenian Children Kidnapped, Organs Taken

http://armenianow.com/social/26472/yerevan_children_kidnapping_transplant_scare

ArmeniaNow
14 December 2010

Kidnapping scare: Armenian Police say abduction cases are case of urban myth

By Gayane Abrahamyan
ArmeniaNow reporter

Parents in Yerevan have been increasingly worried about their children’s safety in recent weeks as rumors have circulated that children have been abducted. [...]

Stories of horrific cases have circulated, usually including talk of “foreigners” coming into Armenia and kidnapping boys and girls to sell them for organ transplants. [...]

Roundabout Plan = Cup Stain on Blueprint

http://www.shropshirestar.com/news/2010/12/10/hignfy-telford-roundabout-jokes-ring-of-truth/

The Shropshire Star [UK]
10 December 2010

HIGNFY Telford roundabout joke’s ‘ring of truth’

Millions of TV viewers heard how rings left on a blueprint by a dirty coffee cup were supposedly mistaken by planners in Telford for proposed roundabouts.

The mark was said to have led to the myriad of islands being built, even though they had never featured in the architects’ minds.

The alleged stain on Telford’s character was aired last night on hit satirical panel show Have I Got News For You. It left the audience reeling with laughter. [...]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-shropshire-11971965
BBC News
10 December 2010
Telford roundabout TV claim 'is urban myth'

Koro Outbreak (Nigeria)

http://www.vanguardngr.com/2010/12/two-persons-lynched-over-%E2%80%98missing%E2%80%99-genitals-in-plateau/

The Vanguard [Nigeria]
7 December 2010

Two persons lynched over ‘missing’ genitals in Plateau

By Taye Obateru & Samuel Olaniran

At least two people have been lynched in Plateau State for being allegedly responsible for the disappearance of the genitals of other citizens in different parts of the state.

A man was stoned to death in Mikang Local Government Area while two others were set ablaze in Shendam Local Government Area of the state over the allegations. [...]

Shark Attacks an Israeli Plot

http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/1/64/1343/Egypt/Politics-/Experts-shoot-down-theory-that-Israel-is-behind-sh.aspx

Ahram Online [Egypt]
6 December 2010

Expert shoots down conspiracy theory blaming Israel for shark attacks

Yasmine Fathi

A Sharm El Sheikh marine biologist slammed the conspiracy theory circulating around the country that last week's shark attacks off the South Sinai resort of Sharm El-Sheikh were part of an Israeli conspiracy, but the South Sinai governor supports it. [...]

http://www.jpost.com/MiddleEast/Article.aspx?ID=198286&R=R1

The Jerusalem Post
6 December 2010

Egypt: Sinai shark attacks could be Israeli plot

By ARIEH O'SULLIVAN / THE MEDIA LINE

Israel rejects the notion as "too ludicrous" for comment; German woman killed near Sharm e-Sheikh, Russian tourists also mauled.

Egyptian officials say they have not ruled out the possibility that a fatal shark attack in Sinai on Sunday could have been a plot by the Mossad. [...]

http://af.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idAFTRE6B52OE20101206

Reuters Africa
6 December 2010

Egypt puzzled after string of Red Sea shark attacks

By Mohamed Zaki

SHARM EL-SHEIKH (Reuters) - Shark attacks on tourists in the Red Sea have triggered a flurry of speculation as to what could have caused them, with suggestions ranging from overfishing to an Israeli plot to harm Egyptian tourism. [...]

Cholera Rumors (Haiti)

http://www.truth-out.org/how-rumors-rule-cholera-torn-haiti65656

Truthout

4 December 2010

How Rumors Rule in Cholera-Torn Haiti

by: Laura Wagner

[...] But the idea, however wrongheaded, that Haitians are particularly resistant because of their continuous exposure to unsanitary conditions, is now cited as proof that the emergence of cholera is something other than just a "germ," something outside the natural order, and something intentional.[...]

On November 16, a friend from the Port-au-Prince neighborhood of Christ-Roi told me she'd heard that the UN peacekeeping mission, MINUSTAH, had released a box of dead rats into the water in Cap Haitien with help of "the Americans." [...]

Jenkem (Fort Pierce, Florida)

http://www.nbcmiami.com/news/local-beat/wastedapt-111274134.html

NBC Miami
3 December 2010

Waste-Filled Apartment Causes a Stink
Fort Pierce building condemned after drug habit leads to disgusting mess

By SCOTT FITZGERALD

[...] When police opened the second floor unit, they found bottles and buckets of what appeared to be human waste. Many of the containers had been dumped out onto a mattress and the bedroom floor.

Officers believe the wasteful renter may have been huffing "Jenkem," a hallucinogenic drug made from the gas of fermented sewage. [...]

http://www.wptv.com/dpp/news/region_st_lucie_county/fort_pierce/smelly-house-forces-tenants-to-leave
WPTV-TV [West Palm Beach, FL]
3 December 2010
Smelly house forces tenants to leave
By: Carolyn Scofield

Cholera Caused by Powders (Haiti)

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40482791/ns/world_news-haiti_earthquake/

MSNBC
2 December 2010

Cholera panic sparks Haiti witch hunt; 12 killed

By JONATHAN M. KATZ
The Associated Press

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Terror over a fast-spreading cholera epidemic has triggered a violent witch hunt in rural Haiti in which locals have murdered at least 12 neighbors on accusations they used "black magic" to infect people, police said Thursday. [...]

Rumors began to spread last week in the remote southwestern Grand Anse region, where the first cases of cholera are only now being seen, that Vodou practitioners had fashioned a magic powder to spread the infection. [...]

Cannibalism Scare (Sierra Leone)

http://www.awoko.org/2010/11/25/cannibalism-scare-grips-bo/

Awoko [Sierra Leone]
25 November 2010

Cannibalism scare grips Bo

By Easmon Moiguah

Parents and residents of Bo and its environs have for the past two weeks been in fear for the safety of their loved ones especially their children as rumours of cannibalism circulate around the township.

Play grounds were abandoned as children were kept indoors and parents had anxious moments waiting for their children to return home from school. So far there has not been a single case of cannibalism in the area. [...]

http://www.cocorioko.net/?p=4887

Cocorioko
26 November 2010

Ritual murder and Cannibalism scare hit SLPP strongholds, as Borfima Society and human baboons become active once again

[...] According to our Freetown-based reporters, the ritual murder and cannibalism scare have also been fuelled by reports of the sightings of human baboons who have been seen at night in some villages and towns. Human baboons are real human beings disguised in baboon skins and they specialize in capturing innocent people from whom they extract parts for ritual purposes while consuming their flesh. [...]

Dead Mobsters in Lake Tahoe

http://www.smh.com.au/travel/sunny-slopes-shady-stories-20101118-17yu2.html

Sydney Morning Herald
21 November 2010

Sunny slopes, shady stories

Craig Tansley discovers a most unusual ski resort, complete with legends of dead mobsters and thousands of slot machines.

BELOW this place they call Heavenly, hell awaits those who double-cross the Mob.

Around here, urban legend has lake fishermen reeling in human ears and human hands. They say that far below all that fluffy powder snow and those perfectly spaced pine trees and all that sunshine; and way down below the surface of the huge alpine lake the Indians call Lake of the Sky, lies an underwater wax museum of perfectly preserved Mafia gangsters with bullet holes in the middle of their foreheads. [...]

Janitor Unplugs Life Support System

http://lifestyle.inquirer.net/wellness/wellness/view/20101123-304720/Urban-legends-die-hard

Philippine Daily Inquirer
23 November 2010

Inner Awareness
Urban legends die hard

By Jaime Licauco
Philippine Daily Inquirer

I RECENTLY got a text message titled “Mystery at a Medical Center” from a well known ophthalmologist. The message read:

“ICU patients always died in the same bed on Sundays at 11 a.m., regardless of their medical condition. This puzzled the doctors. No one could solve the mystery. Mr. Licauco and the Ateneo paranormal folks were called. They arrived armed with special photographic equipment, infrared devices and motion sensitive radar to detect any presence, so on Sunday, a few minutes before 11 a.m., doctors and nurses nervously waited outside the ward to know what the mystery was all about. Some were holding wooden crosses and prayer books to ward off evil spirits.

“When the clock struck 11, Mang Jose, a part-time Sunday janitor, entered the room, unplugged the life support system and plugged in the vacuum cleaner.” [...]

Gang Initiation: Murder at Broadway Mall

http://www.wpix.com/news/wpix-mall-hoax,0,2409495.story

WPIX-TV [NYC]
18 November 2010

No Murders Planned For Long Island Mall

Rob Hoell

HICKSVILLE, NY — Police say there is no credibility to a barrage of emails circulating in Nassau County of an impending MS-13 gang initiation where an innocent victim would be randomly singled out to be murdered at the Broadway Mall in Hicksville. [...]

Kool Mints Reduce Blood Alcohol Levels

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/jeff-kennet-advises-drink-drivers-to-eat-kool-mints/story-e6frf7kx-1225955860473

Herald Sun [Melbourne, Australia]
19 November 2010

Jeff Kennet advises drink drivers to eat Kool Mints

Felicity Williams

VICTORIA police have lashed out at Jeff Kennett after the former premier advised drink drivers to eat Kool Mints to reduce their blood alcohol content.

Speaking to radio station 3AW yesterday, Mr Kennett said that people who had been drinking should eat Kool Mints before getting behind the wheel.

"If you have had a couple of drinks and you want to absorb the alcohol quickly, Kool Mints will do it,'' he said. [...]

Handshake Used to Inject Drug

http://www.wavy.com/dpp/news/local_news/va_beach/ominous-e-mail-circulates-in-va.-beach

WAVY-TV [Portsmouth, VA]
9 November 2010

Ominous e-mail circulates in Va. Beach
Police said e-mail was an urban myth

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (WAVY) - Hundreds of people received an exaggerated e-mail that circulated around Virginia Beach.

The e-mail stated that a man approached a Sandbridge woman at a gas station and asked her for gas money. She gave him a few dollars, but before she left, the man thanked her and squeezed her hand tightly. When he did that, the e-mail stated he injected her with something like a date rape drug. [...]

How to Beat a Breath-Alcohol Test

http://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/135405/slurring-falling-and-still-driving

Otago Daily Times [New Zealand]
9 November 2010

Slurring, falling and still driving

By Hamish McNeilly

[...] Asked what urban legends he had heard in connection with drink-driving tests, Dr [Allan] Stowell said he had heard of how didgeridoo players can "beat' a breath-alcohol test by drawing air through the nose at the same time as breathing through their mouths.

"If this is correct and they can satisfy the stringent airflow requirements of the breath-testing devices, which I doubt, they could significantly lower their breath-alcohol test results." [...]