FT138 08
Shock Therapy
A court in Dublin was told in june that a young girl's leukemia cleared up after a car accident.  Aoife Tiernan, seven, of Millrace, Co Meath, suffered severe bruising to her thighs and abdomen in the accident in September 1997 on her way to hospital where she had been undergoing treatment for leukaemia.  /Irish Independent, 3 June 2000/

FT106 8
Cult Icon:  parishioners at 11th-century St Peter-at-Gowts, Lincoln, have unwittingly been praying to Arimanius, god of the dark in the mystery cult of Mithras (a form of Zoroastrianism), thinking it was the Virgin Mary.  The effigy, 60ft (18m) up the wall of the tower, was thought to be Anglo-Saxon, "a woman with a funny hair-do," according to archaeologist David Stocker, who matched the image to other representations of Arimanius.  /D. Telegraph 14 June 1997/

FT133 09
Dead Line: Startled mourners fled when a mobile phone went off from inside a grave at a cemetery in wester Poland.  The phone had apparently been interred with its owner the previous day.  One woman fainted.  /[AFP] 12 Nov 1999/

{be- personally I'd have only been worried when it *stopped* ringing...}




FT142 66 ball lightning


FT126 08
You've Made a Grave Mistake
Imagine you come home to find a funeral taking place- then you discover that it's yours

Robinson Gonzalez, 21: his mother had mistakenly identified him, when he appeared alive, she suffered a nervous breakdown.

Suvicha Saengmanee, 26, Mourners took to their heels and Buddhist monks performing the last rites froze.

Dassy Tselpedi, 34, reappeared causing her mother to faint from shock.  "On Sunday I went to the local cafe and everyone who knew me started running away," she said.  "It was really embarrassing.  People said I was a ghost.  I tried to stop them to explain but only a few would listen to me.  some wanted to touch me to feel if I was a real human being." 

Delfin Urbeso, a 41 year old Filipino metalworker.The wake became a reunion party- despite the mystery corpse in the middle of the room. 

Ahmed Ibrahim Awadh
Nyekulu Mdluli
Sarath Chandralal
Valentin Stoian
Nicu Mihaila
Dulal Chandra Das
Liu/Luo

all these are mistaken identity with another corpse around.  not immies really.

FT 127 13
India's Undead in Protest
Members of mritak Sangh (Union of Dead People) in northern India are campaigning to prove they are still alive, years after being declared that they are no more.  It is an uphill task, as 10 of the estimated 10,000 'living dead' discovered when they protested in the Uttar Pradesh state capital, Lucknow.  Many have been fighting their cases for 25 years and at least two have died while still trying to prove they were alive.

The association claims that most are victims of greedy relatives who report a person dead and have the land of the 'deceased' transferred to their own name, with the connivance of corrupt officials.  Few find out until much later, when India's mammoth bureaucracy makes it extremely difficult to reverse the process.

The association's founder, Lal Behari Mritak (the late Lal Behari), contested two elections against former prime ministers V P Singh and the late Rajiv Gandhi just to prove he was alive.  He also commited a kidnapping to force police to register a case against him, and finally his strategy paid off.  But others are not so fortunate.  Many have spent years shuttling between the district councils, state bureaucrats and the High Court.  The oldest to take part in the protest was 85-year-old Jhulari Devi, who was deprived of her land in 1974.  she found out her fate when relatives evicted her.

Mr Behari demanded an inquiry to establish the scale of the problem.  /South China Morning Post 15 June; Times 18 June 1999/