The aliens, "two meters tall and with red lights on their hands, were seen March 16 by five people from Concepcion, at the Las Pinas scenic overlook," located one kilometer (0.6 miles) southeast of Angol, "a place which has become a favorite for extraterrestrial visitors."

"Witnesses to the latest sighting of three strange entities were seen by five residents of the town on Concepcion, who had come to Angol to see the sights."

"'They saw three beings standing nearly two meters tall hiding behind some vegetation. The beings appeared to talk amongst themselves, turned around and disappeared," said Ernesto Escobar, head of the field research team"

"Escobar said that the witnesses made drawings of what they had seen and that samples were taken of soil upon which the figures had allegedly been standing."

"'I cannot tell you what they were. I don't know if they were ghosts or extraterrestrials, but we're investigating and making videos,' he added."

"These events have been a source of fear and expectation in the community, causing Angol residents to remain on the lookout."

"In fact, they acknowledge that it is a well-known fact that strange events have transpired at the scenic lookout and that people were increasingly visiting the spot in the hopes of seeing something weird."

"'I've never seen anything, but everyone's going there to check it out and they are watching to see if the entities will appear. It's said that half-human creatures were seen, and that's the reason for the investigation,' said resident Luis Novoa."

"Julia Espinoza, who also lives in the region, stated, that she is aware of people who have seen strange phenomena at Las Pinas."

"'Everything happens at a gate with two decorative metal wheels and that's where the entities appear. Before this, the place was quite tranquil, but now everyone's talking about it. Even I went to the lookout after the apparitions occurred.'" (See the Chilean newspaper Diario Austral de Temuco for April 22, 2001, "Shock in Angol over UFO sightings." Muchas graciasa Scott Corrales, autor de los libros, Chupacabras and Other Mysteries y Forbidden Mexico, y tambien Rodrigo Cuadra para eso articulo de diario.)

On Sunday, April 22, 2001, "at 4:15 p.m., three objects of unknown origin were seen flying over Bogota," the capital of the South American nation of Colombia.

The overflight of the three UFOs "was witnessed by more than 3,000 People," said William Chavez, spokesman for the Contacto OVNI (Spanish acronym for UFO--J.T.), a Colombian research group.

"The object was in the vicinity of Cerro El Cable (hill) and Monserrate, where they remained motionless (in the sky) for four minutes."

"Radio Difusora Nacional (RDF) and Tudelar phoned Contacto OVNI a research organization to discuss the sighting live," Chavez reported. "And because in recent weeks this type of phenomena has become increasingly common over Bogota."

Chavez stated that, in March 2001, "a mothership was captured on video over the barrio Santa Isabel (neighborhood) When the video arrived (at Contacto OVNI, it was easy to see that the object was a large tubular object at an altitude of 3,000 meters (9,900 feet)." he reported.

"Cerro El Cable has been the site of many UFO sightings," he added, "On (Sunday) April 15, 2001, Pablo Berrio filmed a disc-shaped object in the vicinity of El Dorado International Airport in Bogota, and we are investigating this sighting." (Muchas gracias a William Chavez of Contacto OVNI, y tambien Louise A. Lowry para esa informacion.)

The ongoing Chupacabra drama in Calama, a city in northern Chile, took an ominous new twist last week with an appearance by the Men In Black (MIB).

"A resident who saw the alleged Chupacabra was visited and intimidated by odd-looking characters not once but twice, according to Centro UFO de Calama researcher Jaime Ferrer, who conducted field researches of the phenomenon from" March 25 through March 28, 2001.

"The witness and his wife were warned not to speak to Ferrer, whose footsteps are being closely followed by these enigmatic individuals."

"The threatened residents are friends of a third witness to the continuing manifestations and who served as an important source of information.'" to Ferrer.

"Ferrer himself had the following to say: 'On Wednesday night (March 28, 2001) I returned to continue my interview, but my witness behaved oddly and steadfastly refused to talk to me. I didn't know what was going on. I managed to convince him after awhile, and he explained the reason for his attitude."

"The resident, a humble farmer, told him that at 8 o'clock that morning, 'his friend turned up in a truck along with his wife, children, worldly possessions, and the following story.'"

"'Listen, compradito, (Spanish for little friend--J.T.) last night (Tuesday, March 27, 2001) at 11:30 p.m., the three men from the last time turned up at my house . They told us a bunch of stuff. My wife heard it all, and we are in a heap of trouble. Something very bad is going on, and we have to be careful. They mentioned the name of one Jaime Ferrer, the guy who researches and makes plaster casts of things and they said it (Jaime's investigation--J.T.) will lead nowhere. They said you are giving him information about them. I don't know what's going on here, but I'm leaving and I can't stay any longer.'"

"Ferrer said that he had 'in fact discovered and copied several (Chupacabra) prints the previous day.'"

"That evening, myself and others who were with me clearly heard the long, braying sound of the Chupacabra--no other animal can contain such a sound for over 40 seconds."

"Far from being intimidated by the MIBs, Ferrer said he will continue to pursue his research." (See the Chilean newspaper La Estrella del Loa for April 26, 2001, "Chupacabra researcher in the crosshairs of the Men In Black." Muchas gracias a Scott Corrales y Jaime Ferrer para eso articulo de diario.)

"The mystery of the UFO sightings over the Peaks and Dales" of Derbyshire, UK "shows no signs of abating after the 23rd reported sighting in the last 8 months."

"Since September (2000), locals have spoken of strange lights, flying saucers and huge triangular craft in the skies. One was even caught on video."

"Now, a 34-year-old Wirksworth man, who asked not to be named, says he saw a giant disc-shaped craft over Idridgebay around a month ago." "The stallholder was driving to market in Derby at 3 a.m. when he saw the UFO hovering over the road."

"And he was the first person to have seen a UFO who has admitted to being afraid of what he saw."

"'It did frighten me because I couldn't explain what it was,' he remarked, 'I've never seen anything like this before and logic couldn't explain it.'"

"'It was shocking. I've never been a believer in UFOs and sightings, but I believe in them now.'"

"The man said the craft was hovering above woods and seemed to rotate. It had blue, red and white lights."

"Last Wednesday (April 18, 2001) there was a sighting of three silver discs over Youlgrave," Derbyshire, UK. (See the newspaper Matlock Mercury for April 25, 2001, "23rd UFO over the Dales." Many thanks to Gerry Lovell for this newspaper article.)

"The mystery in the skies above Kerry deepened this week with reports of yet another strange occurrence."

The sighting was in the Scartaglin area of Kerry.

"On this occasion, the man who witnessed something very peculiar admitted to (the Irish newspaper) The Kerryman that he was utterly terrified. by his eerie experience and was glad to be surrounded by the familiar lights of his home village."

"It all started in the early hours of a Friday morning two weeks ago , after the incident at The Spa reported in last week's edition of The Kerryman the man, who stressed that he not be named, had been a Pioneer for over 25 years, was walking towards a friend's house."

""I had been at home with my wife and children, but after everyone went to bed, I decided that I would call over and visit a friend of mine who lives in the village,' the witness, who did not want to give his name, explained."

"'Anyway, I was heading towards his house when suddenly I saw something that I can only describe as a a huge ball of light , perhaps about a mile away in the distance, somewhere in the direction of Ballydesmond.'"

"'I would have guessed that it was no more than 40 or 50 feet (12 or 15 meters) off the ground."

"'The way I would describe it is that the edges looked as if they were sizzling. They weren't smooth or constant.'"

The first thing that entered the witness's mind "was that he had seen a helicopter until he realized that it was far too large and entirely the wrong shape."

"Also, on what was an extremely still, clear night, there was not a sound to be heard from the object, whatever it was."

"'All of a sudden, it dimmed down quite slowly but what was even weirder was that , as it moved off, there were blue, green and yellow lights at its rear, rotating and flashing in sequence. I watched it until it disappeared from view and then went to my sister's house and told her what I'd just seen.'"

"'To be honest, I don't know what it was. I'm a pretty logical guy and I don't really believe in UFOs, but the fact is that it wasn't a plane or anything like that. It was something strange and like nothing I'd ever seen before. I certainly can't begin to describe what it was.'"

According to The Kerryman, "a taxi driver and his two passengers also reported seeing something unusual in the sky that night" near Scartaglin. (See the Irish newspaper The Kerryman for April 25, 2001. Many thanks to Louise A. Lowry for this newspaper article.)

On Friday, April 20, 2001, at 11 p.m., "eyewitnesses saw a strange object of immense size from their home in Jesi, in the province of Ancora," in Italy. "The object was of a definite shape and moved slowly towards the sea. It appeared to pass near Falconara. The object proceeded slowly and was observed with binoculars. The object was of circular form and presented multicolored lights around the rim." (Grazie a Alfredo Lissoni e Vladimiro Biboletti di Centro Ufologico Nazionale D'Italia per questo rapporto.)

A Chinese couple sighted a hovering UFO in the Southeast Asian country of Brunei last week.

"A husband and wife claim to have seen an unusual flying object in Gadong," in the Rabu district at around 12:30 a.m. on Thursday, April 26, 2001.

"They were on their way home from a dinner in Jerudong."

"Philip Chua, 33, a businessman, claimed that he had earlier seen a UFO around the grounds at Jalan Tungku Link. He was shocked by the bright object in the skies."

"Coincidentally, he had a camera with him. However, the object vanished as if it knew that someone was taking a picture of it."

"'At first I was disappointed that I didn't have a chance to take a picture. Later, I was asking myself if it really was a UFO or just a light from a lamp.'"

"His wife, Sylvia Goh Meiling, 28, corroborated her husband's story."

"Upon passing a bridge near Emperor's Court, she claimed that they saw the object appear again over Rimba, Gadong."

"Chua immediately stopped the car and took pictures of it. Then it vanished. The husband and wife kept on waiting for ten minutes" But they were "left disappointed" when the UFO did not return.

"The next day (Friday, May 27, 2001) Chua took the film to his friend's shop in Tutong. Strangely, while his friend was developing the film, the shop's power was cut off for one hour."

"However, Chua felt relief when the object's image appeared in the photos."

Brunei "authorities confirmed that radar had not detected any objects in the nation's airspace other than planes," i.e. commercial air traffic flying assigned routes. (See Media Permata for April 28, 2001. Many thanks to Gerry Lovell for forwarding this report.)

On Tuesday, April 24, 2001, Cliff C. was outside his home in Oswego, Illinois when he "saw an object appear from the east and dart away suddenly to the north. The orb of light was hovering over a church when it stopped. It was white, but it had a kind of red aura around it. I'd say it was going 100 miles per hour (160 kilometers per hour)." (Email Form Report)

On Wednesday, April 25, 2001, the male witness was outdoors in Sebastian, Florida when he saw the UFO approaching from the northeast.

"It was a big cylinder-shaped object with something like a sphere on the front," he reported, "If I were to guess, that is where they control the ship from. I know that what I saw was something really odd and not a UFO but it looked like one to me, for sure."

"It was a silvery black cylinder with a sphere on the front. It was way up there, maybe 30,000 feet (9,900 meters) and it moved slow at the beginning but then began to move extremely quick" before departing to the southwest. (Email Form Report)

Archaeologists unleashed a bombshell last week, announcing the discovery of a giant pyramid in Peru--in an ancient city dating back to 2627 B.C.

"That discovery, based on research by Chicago-area scientists and reported Friday in the research journal Science, indicates that complex societies emerged in the Americas earlier than previously thought."

"'This isn't something just a little earlier than the other known early urban cultures in this hemisphere--it's a lot earlier,' said Field Museum anthropologist Jonathan Hass, who has been excavating the site with his wife, Northern Illinois University anthropologist Winifred Creamer, and a Peruvian colleague since 1999. 'Something of this size doesn't occur anywhere else for another 1,000 years.'"

"'This may actually be the birthplace of civilization in the Americas,' Creamer said."

"The site, in a remote desert area along the Rio Supe (river) was first discovered and recorded by archaeologists in 1905 but lay ignored and unexamined for decades. It is near Caral, a farming village which to this day has no electricity or running water."

"The most startling artifacts at Caral, one of the 18 large sites in the area, are the huge stepped pyramid structures."

(Editor's Note: Similar to the ziqqurats found in Iraq and the Mayan pyramids of Mexico and Guatemala.)

"The largest, dubbed "Piramide Mayor" measures 500 feet (150 meters) on two sides and 450 feet (120 meters) on the other two sides. It rises 60 feet (18 meters) with a flat top that city builders covered with rooms, chambers, stairways, halls, altars and hearths for ceremonial activities."

"The largest pyramid and five others are arrand a vast circular plaza 1,800 feet (540 meters) in diameter."

"The pyramids were built by filling woven reed sacks with river pebbles and piling them up, said Hass., then increasing the piles in trimmed, flat-faced rock."

"After adding a coat of plaster, the builders painted the pyramid in earth tones 'Rosy pink. light beige, light gray, blue-gray and yellow,' said Hass, 'These things would have been magnificent in their glory.'"

"Researchers used radiocarbon dating of fibers from the sacks to establish that the pyramid construction took place as early as 2627 B.C."

(See the Chicago Tribune for April 27, 2001, "Pyramids in Peru as old as in Egypt," page 3.)

(Editor's Comment: Score one for you, Colonel James Churchward. "Pyramids as old as Egypt" have been found in Peru, exactly where you predicted in your book, The Children of Mu, written 70 years ago.)

New Zealand ufologist Norman Weiss writes, "Just a comment on the spontaneous combustion story. On April 7, 1938, the Volkswagen was top secret and none knew of it except Hitler and the engineers working on the project. They weren't commercially available until the late 1940s."

"So it would have been impossible for young William Ten Bruik to have been driving one when he spontaneously combusted."

(Editor's Comment: Good point, Norm. Vincent H. Gaddis got this account from a Sunday newspaper feature story. It could be that the New Jersey newspaper guessed--wrongly--that Ten Bruik had been driving a Volkswagen. Maybe one of our Netherlands readers can help us out on this one.)

From the UFO Files...

The Kentucky Derby is coming up this weekend, which reminds me of a strange little story my grandmother once told me.

It was November 1989, and the news had just broken about the UFO landing at Voronezh in Russia. I mentioned it when I visited my 90-year-old grandmother in Taunton, Massachusetts. She asked me if I really believed in Flying saucers, so I told her about my sighting in Seekonk, Mass. and mentioned a few other Fortean phenomena. When I finished, she was quiet for a moment and said, "You know, something strange like that happened to me once."

My grandmother was born Ruth Sutcliffe in Fall River, Mass. in 1899. Yes, that's the same Fall River where Lizzie Borden took an axe and became the defendant in "the Trial of the Century." The Nineteenth Century, that is.

(Editor's Note Here's an odd fact. In addition to being acquitted of their respective murder charges, O.J. Simpson and Lizzie Borden have something else in common. They both have their father's first name for a middle name. That's Orenthal James Simpson and Lizzie Andrew Borden.)

Anyway, in 1922, Ruth married Joseph O'Hearne and moved to Taunton, where they had four daughters. They owned and operated a combination cafe and bar on Church Street.

Now, May of 1934 was the pits of the Great Depression. My grandparents had managed to limp through the winter, but now they were in trouble The building's furnace had gone down in March, and they needed to replace it, as well as pay liquor license fees and other bills, before the cold weather set in again.

Then my grandad heard that a man in Nashua, New Hampshire had a furnace to sell. My grandparents decided to drive up north for the day to see if the old farmer was willing to do business.

The night before their trip, with the family financial woes weighing heavily on her mind, my grandmother fell asleep. And she had a strange, vivid, realistic dream.

She dreamed she was walking slowly between a pair of white stables on a sunny spring day. Just then, a groom led a thoroughbred racehorse into her field of view. He left the horse alone for a moment. The horse was a handsome roan thoroughbred about sixteen hands high with two white stockings.

He was wearing a royal blue blanket with a gold border. In the lower right corner of the blanket was a bright gold number 9.

The horse looked her way, and my grandmother woke up.

What an odd little dream, she thought.

The following day was a warm sunny New England day as they drove up to Nashua. But the trip was in vain. The farmer had already sold the furnace. They started home. But instead of turning south towards Lowell, Mass., my grandfather headed east.

"Joe!" she said, "Where are you going?"

My grandfather shrugged. "It's a nice day. I thought we'd drive over to Rockingham. You know, have a hot dog, see a race, so the trip ain't a complete waste."

A half-hour later, they arrived at the racetrack in Rockingham, N.H., just in time for lunch. Heading for the refreshment stand, my grandmother experienced a weird feeling of deja vu. And then she recognized those white stables--the same stables she had seen in her dream.

Before she could comment to my grandfather, a groom led a thoroughbred roan right in front of them--a roan with two white stockings wearing a royal blue blanket with a gold border. It was the exact same horse--but with one difference. There was no gold number 9 on the blanket.

Just as in her dream the previous night, the groom walked away for a moment, and the horse looked right at her. My grandmother stopped, and when the groom returned, she asked, "Excuse me, is this horse running today?"

"Yes, he is, ma'am."

"What's his name?"

"Troubadour," the groom replied.

Naturally, my grandfather wanted to know why she was so interested in this horse. So she told him about her dream. Grandad was a complete skeptic who chalked it up to coincidence. He scoffed at my grandmother's assertion that Troubadour would win his race.

Listening nearby was this Fellow we'll call Harry. Gram described Harry as "a typical racetrack tout," wearing "a porkpie hat, a loud sports jacket and tie, and white socks." He also "had little slips of paper sticking out of his pockets."

Harry came over and joined the discussion. Then he reached into his sports jacket and took out his well-marked copy of The Daily Racing Form. And--whattaya know--Troubadour was the ninth horse in the ninth race.

Well, that was enough of a portent for Harry. He made a beeline to the cashier's window.

Grandad, however, proved harder to convince. For one thing, Troubadour had never won a race before. The odds were a hundred-to-one against him winning today.

"Ruth, you can't be serious. We're down to our last five dollars. You want me to bet it on a dream!?"

"Troubadour is going to win. I just know it."

"We need this money. We don't have enough gas to make it home. We're going to run out somewhere around Stoughton (Mass.) and then we'll have to walk the rest of the way."

"Oh, Joe, just go in there and place that bet...before it's too late."

So, with my grandmother looking over his shoulder, he went in and placed the bet. He mumbled, "Put it on Troubadour--to win."

The cashier looked surprised. "Are you sure you want to make this bet, fella?"

Grandad almost backed out at the last second. My grandmother gave him a look, and he said, "Yeah, go ahead."

As they reached the stands, the trumpet sounded for the ninth race. The horses, with their jockeys aboard, entered the gate. Tense minutes passed. And the electric bell clanged.

Troubadour was off to a slow start, trailing the pack to the first turn. You could see why he wasn't considered competition for Man O'War, War Admiral or Seabiscuit. At the half, he was running on the outside of the pack, well behind the favorites, Moonglow and Sexton Ferry.

My grandfather let out a groan. "I knew it! This is a sucker's bet if ever I saw one."

But then something strange began to happen. Troubador suddenly caught fire, galloping ahead of the pack. Coming around the clubhouse turn, he had caught up with Sexton Ferry and was only two lengths behind Moonglow. And on into the stretch. One length behind Moonglow. A half-length. And now it's Troubadour and Moonglow racing for the finish line Troubador and Moonglow, neck and neck. And the winner is...Troubadour, by half a neck.

"Impossible!" my skeptic grandfather said, covering his eyes. "I don't believe it!"

"We won!" my grandmother shouted, hugging him.

So they collected their winnings. It didn't make them independently wealthy, bit it enabled them to buy a brand-new furnace for the cafe and to settle their debts and to pay the mortgage for the rest of 1934. There was even enough left over to buy new school clothes in September for their four girls, including my mother, age seven.

Then they saw Harry come out, hugging a big black leather valise. He had a ile-wide grin and danced into the parking lot.

"Depression!?" he yelled, then let out a burst of insanely joyous laughter. "What Depression!?"

And why was Harry so jubilant? Well, you see, my grandparents bet five dollars on Troubadour to win.

Harry bet fifty.

Seeing my grandmother, he ambled over, fished in a side pocket and handed her his card. "Lady, if you get any more of them dreams, give me a call."

I'd like to think that, after this experience, Harry gave up gambling and became a missionary in Cambodia. But I suspect that he journeyed instead unto Hialeah--by way of Belmont and Pimlico.

"I believe it was the only win of Troubadour's career," my grandmother said.

And the only clairvoyant experience she had in her long life.

So what did happen at the Rockingham racetrack back in May of 1934?

Did my grandmother have a "wild talent" for precognition, which manifested itself once and only once, during her family's moment of dire need?

Or did the thoroughbred hear the voice of Anikin Skywalker in his head, saying, "Use the Force, Troubadour."

Or, as I sometimes suspect, does the Almighty have a strange sense of humor?

Well, that's it for this week. Join us in seven days for more UFO and paranormal news from around the planet Earth, brought to you by "the paper that goes home--UFO Roundup." See you then.

A ufologist from Ecuador claims to have documentary proof that an alien, whom ge describes as a "Nordic," stayed at the Embassy of Ecuador in Lima, the capital of the neighboring South American country of Peru.

Jaime Rodriguez claimed to have copies of reports written by consular officials at the Embassy of Educator in Lima, including a fax describing the incident that was emailed to Ecuador's Ministry of Defense in Quito, the national capital.

According to Rodriguez, the incident began "when a person of Nordic aspect with perfect facial features and standing a little taller than 1.8 meters (6 feet) and with a perfume of exotic fragrance presented himself to the embassy staff and was interviewed by Alberto Avila Mazchuca, the Ecuadorian attache for cultural affairs.. The person identified himself as Commandante (Commander) Banj (Rhymes with the English word orange--J.T.) and he asked to speak to the Consul, Jose Davila Gonzalez. Banj said he had to get back to his ship, which was in a geostationary orbit above the Earth."

"An official contact has been realized," said Haume Rodriguez, who is investigating the alleged diplomatic contact. (See Noticario OVNI for April 8, 2001. Muito obrigado a Adelmar J. Gevaerd por eso articulo.)

(Editor's Note: Sightings of Hermanos Espaciales (Space Brothers) are common in South America. See this week's feature story for one such incident.)

TWO UFO SIGHTINGS REPORTED IN MEXICO

On Tuesday, April 3, 2001, , after sunset, "an enormous luminous and mysterious OVNI (Spanish acronym for UFO--J.T.) moved across the sky over hillside homes in Colonia Olimpica, a barrio (neighborhood) on the outskirts of Guadalajara," the second largest city in Mexico.

"The witnesses said the light emitted a strong reddish-yellowish light that lit up the houses in the barrio " {People in Colonia Olimpica left their homes and watched as the large object descended and moved slowly over the neighborhood "until it passed slowly beyond their field of view.

The following day, on Wednesday, April 4, 2001, at 7:45 p.m., Claudio Cardona was walking on the beach in Puente Tampico, on the Gulf of Mexico, "on the border between the (Mexican states of Tamulipas and Vera Cruz, when he saw a UFO.

"According to Cardona, the OVNI resembled 'a lantern in the sky.' Flying away to the north, the object hovered over the horizon for several minutes" until Cardona lost sight of it. (See Noticario OVNI for April 8, 2001, "OVNI Luminoso es avistado en el Golfo de Mexico" and "OVNI luminoso altera a los animales en el occidente de Mexico." Otra vez, muito obrigado a Adelmar J. Gevaerd.)

"A UFO was reported over Almaty," the former capital of Kazakhstan in central Asia on Thursday, April 5, 2001.

"A city resident, Darkhan Isakov, managed to record the supposed UFO with a video camera. He brought the videocassette with the recorded image to our studios," i.e. the studies of Kazakh Commercial Television (KCT), which aired the footage in its local news broadcast.

Osakov's video "shows a glowing spot behind tree branches, , a teenager in a TV studio, people speaking in an office, a photograph of a flying saucer and a star map," KCT reported.

At first "Darkhan took the brightly-glowing object for a star of unusual size (magnitude--J.T.) He said it first seemed to be coming down and then poised in the air, which had especially attracted his attention. He saw an odd sphere through the viewfinder of his video camera."

"After ten minutes of mysterious transformations, the UFO disappeared behind a house. He watched the flight of the sphere together with his brother and sister. They had no doubt that they saw a flying saucer with aliens on board."

However, the Kazakh Ministry of Civil Aviation disputed the saucer theory, and "officials said it could have been an aircraft, a spacecraft or a star." (Many thanks to Martin Montague and BBC World Service for forwarding the KCT transcript.)

On Monday, March 20, 2001, at 4 p.m.. a woman and her four-year-old son were on the sidewalk in front of their home in Newington, Connecticut, just south of Hartford, the state capital, when they spotted some UFOs.

"I was looking up at clouds and explaining to my four-year-kid son how they move with the wind," she explained, "When I noticed two white shiny objects appear, and then two more. They were crossing the sky in a northeasterly direction."

"When I couldn't see them any more, I looked back at the cloud, and there was one more that seemed to follow them in the same direction."

"I watched it until it disappeared. Then I went inside for about ten minutes and came back out. I laid on the sidewalk , watching the sky again. And, sure enough, I saw a bigger object come from the northeast heading southwest."

"As I watched it, it split up into a triangle shape, with a light at each corner and one light moving between them, 'merging' with them. Observed the craft until it disappeared from sight." (Many thanks to Rev. Billy Dee and Peter B. Davenport of the National UFO Reporting Center for this case.)

On Wednesday, April 11, 2001, at 8:45 p.m., Denise Koppel was outdoors when she saw an oblong UFO fly over from west to east across the sky.

""It was an oblong UFO," Denise reported, "The thing had no lights. It was approximately 2,000 feet (600 meters) above us. The (street) lights across the road made the underside of the object glow. No, not really glow but shimmer maybe. It had globes all over the underside of the thing. Sort of blended in with the sky. It was traveling at maybe 70 miles per hour." (Email Form Report)

On Thursday, April 12, 2001, at 10:15 p.m., Skip Yost and his wife were returning to their car in Moraine State Park in Butler County, Pennsylvania when they spotted a strange bright light in the sky.

My wife and I were returning to our vehicle after spending approximately two hours viewing the stars. Both with our eyes and our binoculars , I suddenly spotted a very bright white light moving extremely fast. through the sky. It was about 80 degrees above the horizon, moving from the southeast to the northwest. It was not moving in a straight line and much faster than all of the aircraft in the vicinity."

"The 'object' was moving five or six times faster than any other aircraft in the sky...Using the binoculars, which were German-made 16X50's, I was able to determine that the UFO was triangular-shaped and very dark, except for the 'lights' at the rear of the craft."

"To the naked eye, the lights appeared to be one big bright light. However, when I viewed it through the binoculars, it was easy to see that there were actually three separate and distinct lights. The two outside lights were larger than the middle one. They were in a straight line across the rear apron of the craft."

"As the UFO proceeded along, they would switch from a very bright white to to red, then to blue, then to green and then back to white again."

"My wife and I both observed the UFO until it was out of sight over the horizon, all the while making comments to one another. I observed through my binoculars that the lights changed color in a distinct pattern from left to right quite rapidly."

Skip added that their vantage point for the observation was near Lake Arthur in Moraine State Park. (Email Form Report)

Three people at the Self-Awareness Earth Institute in Trout Lake, Washington state, witnessed an unusual UFO display the evening of Saturday, April 7, 2001.

According to Patricia, one of the eyewitnesses, "On Saturday night, James (Gilliland, the ranch owner--J.T.) and I were upstairs when we heard his friend, Paul, outside, yelling excitedly. We ran out on the deck and saw a bright circular light traveling up from the far horizon, then up into the night sky."

The glowing circular light arced across the sky at a very slow speed, "taking about five minutes to cross the sky," Patricia added.

"It was clearly not a plane (too bright, no flashing lights--Patricia) and it was the brightest object in the sky."

"As I stood on the front deck watching it, I was overcome by the cascade of energy, from my head down to my toes. Like being washed in a shower of glittering golden globes of light with energy pulsing through my entire body I felt an incredible joy and love and lightness and radiance. Paul began yelling that he was getting pulses of energy as well."

When the encounter began, James Gilliland grabbed his camcorder, mounted it on the tripod in the front yard, and began shooting the footage. Suddenly, Patricia said, "the object sent a pulse directly at the camera."

"Kater, we all stood outside, gathered around the fire and marveled at what we had seen and felt." (Many thanks to John M. Novak for this report.)

On Thursday, March 6, 2001, seer Quentin Jessup appeared on the radio show The Prophecy Club, based in Topeka, Kansas, and "a large earthquake in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Oregon," an earthquake in excess of 6.0 on the Richter scale."

Jessup told the radio audience that a similar earthquake had struck on January 26, 1700, causing tidal waves in Japan, and he felt that history was about to repeat itself. He forecasted a specific date for the big quake--Friday, April 13, 2001.

But the earthquake didn't happen.

No tidal waves rushed ashore between Tillamook and Gold Beach.

The most exciting thing to happen over the Easter weekend was in Bend, Oregon, where proposed new mining regulations were unveiled in Deschutes County by local officials.

(Editor's Comment: Well, Mr. J, I guess you can forget about taking Sandra Bullock to the Nostradamus Awards next year. And the moral of this story, readers is...the Almighty is not in show business. He/She/It is not a trained seal, performing earthquakes on some wannabe prophet's cue.)

"Several Moroccan and Italian archaeologists have shed a new light on the region around Nador" in northeastern Morocco.

"The team discovered three intact skeletons of children dating from the third millenium B.C."

According to OVNI Maroc, the skeletons were unusually large, about 190 centimeters (6 feet, 3 inches) in length.

"In a communique to the Moroccan Institute of Science, the team reported that the skeletons were found in a substrata in a grotto called Iffri Namar. The remains appear to be from an unknown culture dating from about 3,400 B.C. Eight samples of dessicated bone were taken from the remains and sent to Rime for DNA analysis." (See the newspaper El Ansa for April 13, 2001. Merci beaucoup au OVNI Maroc et Alfredo Lissoni de Centro Ufologico Nazionale d'Italia pour cette nouvelles.)

(Editor's Comment: Maybe Morocco was the original homeland of the Biblical giant, Goliath of Gath.)

"Bomb disposal experts wearing gas masks loaded trucks with shells of mustard gas and other toxic chemicals as they prepared to clear a stockpile of World War One munitions from a French town."

"More than 12,000 people from Vimy," a town near Arras about 144 kiloneters (90 miles) north of Paris, "and the surrounding region spent Easter (April 15, 2001) in hotels or schools after being evacuated amid fears that the ageing weapons collected from battlefields around France could explode or leak."

"The evacuation came after some of the canisters were discovered leaking," The munitions were transferred to a French Army base east of Paris.

"In Vimy on Friday, April 13, 2001, "police and firefighters were going door-to-door telling people to leave their homes within 24 hours."

"Those being evacuated live within a two-mile radius from a depot in the northern town of Vimy, where officials found signs of cracking in some munitions in storage containers at the site within the past few days."

Curiously enough, the discovery of the leaking mustard gas canisters came on April 9, which is the 84th anniversary of the battle of Vimy Ridge. On April 8, 1817, Lt. Gen. Edmond Allenby, commander of the British Third Army, sent the Canadian Corps to attack the German trenches along the heights near Vimy. The Canadians took the ridge but at a cost of a hundred thousand casualties.

French "Interior Minister Daniel Vaillant called it 'a very serious matter.' Hundreds of soldiers and police officers were rushed to Vimy, and more than 100 buses were brought in to shuttle residents to hotels." (See USA Today for April 16, 2001, "WWI weapons force town's evacuation," page 5A, and the Chicago Tribune for April 14, 2001, "France evacuating thousands near WWI depot," page 3.)

(Editor's Comment: Kind of makes you wonder what's going to happen in 2041 when all those cheapo 100-kiloton nukes get to be 90 years old and start leaking plutonium. I probably won't be around. But if I am, I can't wait to see what kind of spin President Jack Schlossberg puts on that mess.)

Tadeus Silowicz writes, "I would like to say that your newsletter in its original version is now available at our website here in Poland."

From the UFO Files...

In South America, the most common types of extraterrestrials sighted are the Hermanos Espaciales (Space Brothers), also known as Nordics of Off-World Humans (OWH).

The heyday of Space Brother sightings was in the 1950s, as this account from Argentina will show.

In April 1957, Ricardo Machado (real name is still classified by the Carabineros or state/provincial police of Argentina--J.T.) was one happy fella. After many years of careful saving, he had just bought a used 1952 Harley-Davidson motorcycle and was eager to try it out.

So, after gassing up in his home city of Cordoba, located about 480 kilometers (300 miles) west of Buenos Aires, the national capital, Ricardo hopped onto his machine, opened the throttles and thundered.

With the slipstream ruffling his dark hair and pushing his sunglasses flush against his face, Ricardo was "riding along a road about 15 kilometers (9 miles) from the (Cordoba) international airport, when his machine suddenly failed."

With a muttered cough, the Harley's powerful engine died out. Gaping in amazement, Ricardo coasted the motorcycle over to the side of the road, slid off the leather seat and set the kickstand.

"Dismounting to investigate, he perceived a huge disc some 18 meters (60 feet) wide." He estimated the central portion of the silver disc to be about 4 meters (13 feet) high. The saucer was "hovering about 15 meters (50 feet) above the ground just ahead of him."

"Terrified, he hid in the ditch."

"Silently, except for a sound like the faint hiss of air escaping from a valve, the disc came down to a height of about two meters (5 feet, 6 inches) and a sort of lift (pampasout onto the open roads of the elev in the USA--J.T.) descended from its base, coming down almost to the ground."

"In it was a man about 1.6 meters (5 feet, 8 inches) in height who came over and gently coaxed the motorcyclist out of the ditch."

The alien "then stroked his (Ricardo's) forehead to calm him. The stranger's garb was like a diver's suit, fitting his body closely, and seemingly (made) of some kind of plastic."

"Entering the disc via the lift-shaft with his companion," Ricardo found there were five or six similarly dressed men seated before instrument panels. An extraordinary light filled the cabin, and there were series of large square portholes which strangely enough he had been unable to see from outside."

"The motorcyclist was then escorted back to his own machine. His companion placed a hand on his shoulder in a gesture of farewell and re-entered the lift-shaft, which rapidly rose into the disc."

"The disc, (made) of an iridescent bluish-green metal, climbed swiftly to what he thought might be 750 meters (2,500 feet) and vanished rapidly towards the northwest (the high Andes--J.T.) During the next hour or so, the same machine (UFO) or another one was seen at six or seven places along the same" road.

Ricardo returned safely to Cordoba without, Jemry Regnery Co., Chicago, Ill., 1969, pages 87 and 88.)

Well, that's it for this week. You know, there hasn't been a sizeable earthquake for a couple of weeks now. Dare I say it? Could "Earthquake Season" finally, finally be over? We'll find out next week, with the return of "the paper that goes home-UFO Roundup. Join us then for more coverage of UFO and paranormal events from all over the planet Earth. Have a great week!

"Intense storms raging on the sun made the night sky shimmer red and green as far south as Palm Springs, California and southern New Mexico, and scientists say the storms could briefly disrupt telecommunications as they continue through the weekend."

""NASA scientists said a powerful flare that erupted Thursday," March 28, 2001 "rayed a class X, the most potent category."

"The eruptions triggered a powerful but brief blackout Friday," March 29, 2001, "on some high-frequency radio channels and low-frequency navigational signals, scientists said. They forecast at least a 30 percent chance of continuing disruptions" through Monday, April 2, 2001.

"The biggest sunspot cluster seen in the last ten years has developed on the upper right quarter of the side of the sun visible from Earth, according to satellite readings."

"On Friday night, the light from solar flares was reported near cities including Palm Springs and Sacramento, California, Flagstaff, Arizona and Albuquerque and Carlsbad, New Mexico."

"'It has totally lit up the sky. We've had dozens and dozens of calls. People want to know what it is,' said Bill Seigel, a producer at radio station KESQ in Palm Desert, 115 miles (185 kilometers) east of Los Angeles. 'Some people thought it was UFOs.'"

"Just north of Albuquerque, N.M., David MacKel was making the rounds at his security job when he saw the lights. He noted it on his report at 11:23 p.m."

"'It was blood red. That's all I can say. It was kind of opaque and you could see the stars through it,' MacKel said. He said he had seen the northern lights while in Alaska, but 'the northern lights move, and this was more gaseous. It kind of got me freaked out.'"

"Eddy County, New Mexico Deputy Danny Gonzalez described it as a purple haze. 'It was very distinct in color,' he said, 'I have never seen anything like it.'"

"Anthony Watts, a meteorologist in Chico, California, about 17- miles (272 kilometers) north of San Francisco , said the show from the coronal mass ejection was interesting but posed no threat."

"'There's no danger. However, there is a likelihood that that we'll have radio or television interruptions; he said."

"The sunspot, which is a cooler, darker region on the sun's surface, is caused by a concentration if temporarily distorted magnetic fields. It spawns tremendous eruptions, or flares, into the sun's atmosphere, hurling clouds of electrified gas toward Earth."