If Immortals got into the news it could look like this... FT140 09 The Long Goodbye: Kenneth Andrews was accidentally poisoned with the wrong medecine in 1930 following an appendix operation in Hong Kong and was told he only had a short time to live. In World War II he was shot twice, stabbed, bitten by a rabid dog and contracted malaria. He died last March in Bournemouth, aged 106. /D.Telegraph, 16 Mar 2000/ Lucky Escapes FT105 12 ha! ha! you missed sucker! Providence employed the classic Prayer book defence in New Orleans. Two nuns were speaking to a policeman in front of the Sisters Servants of Mary Convent on 21 April 1994 when a fleeing armed robber fired at them several times, apparently thinking the policeman was going to give chase. A bullet passed through the prayer book of one nun, then hit her in the hip. The 38 year old woman was treated at a hospital and released. The gunman escaped, but Sgt Marlon Defillo said police were searching for a man wanted in connection with at least 16 armed robberies of convenience stores. /AP 24 April 1994/ Rabbit Catcher Tony Southwell, 32, of Bassett, Southampton, was chasing vermin on a Winchester golf course when he spotted a man in combat gear run into a copse. The next thing he knes a shot rang out and he felt a bullet striking his waist. Fearing the worst he looked down- only to see the shot lodged in a rabbit hanging from his belt. /The News (Portsmouth) 26 October 1993/ Patrick Gayle, 33, was on his way to exchange $40-worth of losing lottery tickets for new ones when he paused to watch a teenage gun fight in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, on 23 April and got caught in the crossfire. A bullet smashed through a lighter and credit card in his shirt pocket before burying itself in the tickets. Gayle was unhurt. He passed his tattered wad of tickets to the police as evidence, then went to play his lucky numbers again. /AP 29 Jan 1997/ A week later, a Brazilian lottery ticket seller escaped death when four small coins in his breast pocket blocked a bullet fired by a man trying to rob his store. "These coins are blessed" said Raimundo Dias Carneiro, a middle-aged vendor in Belo Horizonte, capital of the south-eastern state of Minas Gerais. /R 1 May 1997/ A Penny probably saved the life of an unnamed 36-year-old woman shot while being held hostage by a gunman who killed one man and injured another during a drug related dispute in Handsworth, Birmingham, on 21 June 1995. The coin, which was in the woman's jacket, deflected the bullet and she escaped with bruising. /D.Mail, D.Mirro, D.Telegraph, 23 June 1995/ A Teenager Walked into Jose Fana's grocery store in New York and ordered a ham and cheese sandwich. Fana, 39, wrapped the sandwich in paper and was about to hand it over when the teenager pulled a gun and fired. Fana shielded his head with the sandwich and escaped with a graze wound to the head. /NY Post, 27 Mar 1994/ Good Luck Doesn't always last. Hector Cuevas, 33, was a Chilean police officer who became a national celebrity in November 1995 when a bank robber's bullet was stopped by a pen inside his pocket and he suffered only an ink stain. On 4 June 1996, a eucalyptus tree fell on his squad car and crushed him to death. The Thredbo miracle: man found alive Seen in The Age (Melbourne AUS) 2 August 1997 By ALAN MORISON, GERVASE GREENE and BEN MITCHELL A ski instructor has been lifted out alive three days after being trapped in the rubble of the Thredbo ski lodge landslide. "A miracle has occurred," said one of the rescue team who had been scrabbling across dangerous material in the hunt for 20 missing people. Three bodies had already been found before sounds of life came from the wreckage about dawn. Another three were confirmed dead this afternoon as the dramatic rescue proceeded. The man was discovered at 5.37am this morning when sound detection equipment was lowered under a large concrete slab. It took almost 12 hours to free him. But just before nightfall a cheer went up as his rescue ended a day of dramatic anticipation. Just before daybreak, muffled noises were heard on the landslip rubble. All work stopped. Generators were shut down. Then it was confirmed: they had found a survivor, 55 hours after the landslip demolished two ski lodges in the resort village. "I can hear you," were the first words he spoke. Fears of more landslips had made searchers tread cautiously across the debris. Another slip movement came about 8.15am today after the discovery of the man, Stuart Diver, a ski instructor and year-round Thredbo resident. While other searchers left the scene, two paramedics stayed close to the trapped man, despite the danger. The two had tunnelled their way under a large slab to a point about two metres away, where voice contact was possible with Diver. He told them he could move his arms but had no feeling in his body. The tunnellers had engineered their way under a large slab of concrete, through rocks, building debris, mattresses and smashed furniture. Announcing the finding of the man, search leader Michael Cavanagh said: "A miracle had occurred and signs of life were detected, some muffled sounds from under the slab. . ." The amazing news brought fresh hope to relatives of the missing who had gone to Thredbo expecting the worst. The start of the search had been delayed for 10 hours because of safety concerns. Diver is in his 30s and his survival is attributed to his fitness. His wife, Sally, is also believed to be in the wreckage. Her fate is unknown. One of his brothers, Ewen, is a member of the search team. Today work went on with renewed fervor through the morning and into the afternoon. Bit by bit, mangled wreckage was carried away from the tunnel site. Rescuers kept talking to Diver. "He's been able to describe different aspects of the way he's feeling," a fire brigade spokesman said. And there is now fresh hope that others will be found. "The area that we are working on . . . there's a high probability of survivors," the spokesman said. "And we've proven to ourselves that we are correct because we found this survivor." Beneath the debris lay cavity spaces, created by the falling pieces of concrete slabs. Then the rescue intensified as the rescuing paramedics made physical contact with the trapped man. They punched a 10-centimetre hole through the rubble. Diver was suffering from three nights exposed to minus 9C temperatures and cuts from the collapse of the ski lodges. The paramedics ran a hose down into the cavity and pumped in hot air. Warm fluids were fed to him. Rescuers continued to talk. One of them held the man's hand. Then he was given a torch to shine around the cavity, so he could describe what he saw. "He's been able to describe different aspects of the way he's feeling," the fire brigade spokesman told waiting reporters. "I can assure you, we're trying to boost his morale. We also have to emphasise that we are not giving up hope on other survivors." The final two metres of material entombing the man consist of compacted soil, rock, vegetation and concrete bricks. "He's in high spirits," the spokesman said. "He keeps talking to them, he's relaying messages from in there on his condition, where his lacerations are, how he's feeling, and the best way they can remove some of the rubble around him. "Everyone has seen the tragedy of the slide. To find someone still alive under all that rubble is just fantastic." Rescuers believe that because most of the missing were in bed when the landslide came at 11.30pm on Wednesday, the mattresses and blankets could have shielded them from flying rubble and braced them against the cold. The cavities created under the pieces of concrete slabs would also have trapped air. As the rescue continued, a tarpaulin was erected over the entrance to the tunnel to keep out the sun. This afternoon three more bodies were found, bringing the confirmed dead to six. One body was removed yesterday but the other five remain in the wreckage. At 3.45pm, a special stretcher was lowered into the cavity for Diver. He had told rescuers he was unharmed, but spinal injuries are always a possibility in these circumstances. Another stretcher was being fetched at the same time, this one carrying the second body to be removed from the rubble. Later, a third body was brought out. At 4.45pm the rescue appeared to suffer a setback. Police told reporters at an impromptu conference among the rubble that Diver was entombed more deeply than they had thought. There were four layers of concrete and it had appeared he was between level two and level three. Now they had discovered he was actually between levels three and four. A stream of water was falling beside him and his condition was described as "serious but stable." But at 5.15pm, the moment Australia had been waiting for finally came. Stuart Diver was free. About 10 rescuers around the tunnel entrance lifted him out on a stretcher. Up went a giant cheer from all those looking on. Then he was passed from hand-to-hand by a chain of rescue workers, up and away from his tomb. He was destined for a medical check at Thredbo medical centre before doctors decide where he should be sent for recovery. Back at the site, the hunt for survivors resumed as darkness was falling. ©John Brown Publishing/ Fortean Times 1996 All rights reserved FT107 8 Where there's a will: Khadijeh Iran-Nejad, 55, survived for 22 days after two relatives threw her into a well in a dispute over an inheritance. They flung boulders to make sure she was dead; but they missed her and cracked a canal under the floor of the well. She survived by soaking a cloth in water seeping from cracks and sucking it. /AP 13 Oct 1997/ FT109 18-19 Medical Bag Violent trauma to the brain- having a foreign object rammed through it, for example- is not generally thought to be a readily survivable injury. However, down the years, the /Fortean Times/ has amassed a sizeable file which suggests that the old grey might not matter quite as much as we like to believe. Most recently, a 27-year-old Belfast woman working for the Multiple Sclerosis Society was stabbed in the head while travelling by train from London to Guildford. Alison Kennedy was attacked on 3 March 1997 by 17-year-old drifter Robert Buckland in an apparently motiveless assault; he plunged a 5in (13cm)- 6in(15cm) in some reports- hunting dagger into her skull, burying it almost to the hilt. As is often the case, Alison wasn't immediately aware that she had been stabbed. her first sensation, she said, was one of excrutiating pain: "I put my right hand up. I knew there was something in my head." She reportedly staggered along the carriage, obviously in extreme pain and with the knife still protruding, and asked another passenger "Can you help me? What has happened?" The blade missed both the brain stem and the major blood vessels and was removed in a two and a half hour operation at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery in London. Discharged after two weeks, she was left with some degree of numbness in one arm and a degree of tunnel vision, but was otherwise physically more-or-less unscathed. Her assailant was convicted of attempted murder in January; he was due to be sentenced in February following psychiatric reports. similar 1991 Reuben Poonkalya; Phineas Gage 1848; Ron Fenwick of Hatfield, Herts; Crow Indian Robert Stewart, 1993, aged nine; Kelvin Page 1991; Bill Horton Australia; becca says 'eeew' FT116 6 A splitting headache Travis Bogumill, 21, an engineering student from Eau Claire, Wisconsin, employed as a construction worker, was shot on 10 July with an industrial nail gun that drove a 3.25in (8.25cm) nail all the way into his skull. [theres more but the picture creeps me out] FT118 8 High Flyer A 23-year-old Chinaman, wearing only a light shirt and trousers, survived sub-zero temperatures and shortage of oxygen in the wheel well of a jumbo jet on a three hour flight from Shanghai to Tokyo on 29 July. The Northwest Airlines plane reached an altitude of 32800ft (10,000m) where the temperature would be about minus 27C. /The Times (of Malta) 30 July 1998/ FT128 17 Lucky Escape in car kebab Two motorists had a dramatic escape in Basingstoke, Hampshire, on 5 March when a 40ft (12m) metal crash barrier skewered both their cars, missing both drivers by inches. Alan Griffiths, 41, and Susan Coulson, 38, were rescued with only minor injuries. Mr griffiths hit the end of the barrier in his Mercedes at a roundabout. It plunged straight through his bonnet, out the boot, and through the windscreen of Mrs Coulson's Renault, brushing her head as it went past. It came to a halt several yards past her car. She was taken to hospital with concussion, but allowed home after X-Rays of her head and neck. Mr Griffiths was treated for a broken arm and minor head injuries. "You have more chance of winning the lottery than walking away from a crash like that" said a policeman. /D.Telegraph, D.Record, 6 Mar 1999/ The Had God On Their Side The Engine Driver of an express train had no chance to stop when he saw a woman walking on the tracks at Sjomarken near Boras, Sweden, on 12 May. The train hit her with a sickening thud at 60mph (96km/h). After another 300 or 400 metres (984-1312ft) the train finally stopped and the driver and guard went out to look for the body. Instead, they found the woman staggering abot on the embankment some 200 metres (656ft) away. she angrily straightened her crumpled clothes, brushed her coat with her hand and walked away. The two men were too dumbfounded to stop her. Judging from the impact, the police later thought the woman must have been seriously hurt, so they made a fruitless search with dogs and helicopters. Two days later it was discovered that the woman was a 59-year-old patient at a mental hospital in the vicinity. she didn't recall the accident, but had minor bruises on her left arm and forehead, proving that it's not absolutely safe to get run over by an express train. /Expressen (Sweden) 13+15 May; Sydsvenskan (Sweden) 14+15 May 1999/ AFTER Being In A Coma for 12 Days following a heart attack on 13 April 1998, Bill Morgan's luck changed. The 37-year-old truck driver from Cranbourne, near Melbourne, Australia, met Lisa Wells and proposed to her on 25 April 1999; then on 11 May he won a A$27,000 (£10,800) Toyota car on a A$5 (£2) lottery scratch card. When he agreed to re-enact his car win for local television cameras on 25 May, he bought another card- and wom A$250,000 (£100,000). People in the shop took some persuading that it wasn't a set up. Australian lottery company Tattersalls worked out the odds against Mr Morgan winning the car and money as 6.1billion to one. Mr Morgan, who believes he talked to his late mother when his heart stopped for 14 minutes during his heart attack, said the second win convinced him that God exists. /Herald Sun (Melbourne) 26 May 1999/ FT129 08 Lucky Escape 57-year-old Adalet Cetinol, who has been unable to walk or talk for 20 years after a stroke, spent 131 hours buried under the rubble of her apartment building in Golcuk after the Turkish earthquake of 17 August. Among the last survivors to be found as rescue teams began to pull out, she was discovered after appearing to her son Darcan in a dream, saying "I'm alive, come and save me." She was heard humming by a French search team. Cetinol means "be tough" in Turkish. /Times, Metro (London) 23 August 1999/ FT135 07 Man gets nail in the head blah blah again the miraculous not dead ness blah blah FT137 07 Boys pencil emergency; tougher than a vampire FT140 12 A crop of close shaves LIFE SAVING PHONES In another category of miraculous escape, mobile phones are getting some much-needed good publicity. In April last year, taxi driver Francisco de Assis Ferreira Neto was travelling on a bus in central Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, when a stray bullet from a failed robbery shot through an open window and lodged in the mobile phone he was carrying in a briefcase held against his chest. He looked inside his case and found his phone twisted out of shape, with a .38-calibre bullet wedged between the keypad and the battery. /[R] 18 April 1999/ Another mobile phone saved the life of an unnamed 29 year old undercover policeman in the Bronx, New York, on 23 November. He was not wearing a bullet proof vest when he went with a colleague into an apartment to 'sting' two suspected drug dealers; however, the suspects were waiting to steal the money the policemen had with them to make the bogus deal. The officer was coshed with a gun and then shot at close range. The bullet hit the NYPD issue cellphone in his jacket pocket, glanced off and grazed his side. The men were arrested as they fled the appartment. /NY Post, 25 Nov; d.Telegraph, 26 Nov 1999/ Like a hole in the head Travis Bogumill, a construction worker in Eau Claire, Wis., was shot with a nail gun that drove a 3 1/4 inch nail all the way into his skull, and the only difference he can see is that he's not quite the math whiz he used to be. A co-worker accidentally bumped his head with the gun, and the nail went in so deep that the only thing visible was a small hole in Bogumill's scalp. He remained conscious, turned to his co-worker and said, "You just nailed me in the head," Bogumill recalled. He said, "it felt like somebody was smacking my head repeatedly with a hammer." Doctors told Bogumill that he shouldn't have been able to walk or talk after the accident, and that they're baffled why he wasn't knocked unconscious. The nail lodged in an area of the brain typically involved in processing math according to Dr. John Lamoureux. "You could give me two two digit numbers and I could multiply them within seconds in my head. But now you give me a piece of paper and multiplying 56 by 23 is still difficult," Bogumill said. Subject: Pizza driver survives spike through head http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/index.ssf?/news/oregonian/00/08/nw_71rebar05.frame Ezra Bias was found conscious in his car after a 2-foot piece of steel crashed through his windshield Saturday, August 5, 2000 SPOKANE -- A pizza delivery driver whose head was speared by a 2-foot-long spike of construction steel that apparently crashed through his car's windshield faces a long recovery, a nurse caring for him said Thursday. "All the health care providers were amazed that he survived this initially, but . . . it didn't just pass through (the driver's head) and not cause injury," said Lori Taylor, a trauma nurse at Sacred Heart Medical Center. "He has significant deficits related to this injury." Ezra Bias, 22, was listed in serious condition. He was awake and able to talk but couldn't move on his left side, Taylor said. Bias was found conscious Tuesday in his wrecked vehicle with the piece of rebar protruding from his forehead and sticking 2 inches out the back of his skull, Spokane County sheriff's spokesman Cpl. David Reagan said. Investigators on Thursday thought Bias likely was the victim of an accident, Reagan said. But they hadn't ruled out the possibility that he had been assaulted. The Pizza Pipeline employee was on duty driving on a road just north of the city when an oncoming driver saw the delivery man's compact car drift off the road and down an embankment. The other driver checked on Bias and found him in the driver's seat with the rebar through his head. Bias was conscious and speaking with medical staff during some of the procedures to remove the steel bar, Reagan said. A sheriff's detective briefly interviewed Bias Wednesday, but the conversation yielded little information. The rod left a small hole in the windshield of Bias' car, apparently indicating it pierced the glass like a spear, Reagan said. Investigators were trying to contact the unidentified driver of a truck that reportedly had been in the area around the time Bias was injured. [just a scratch...] The Independent | 4 June 2000 http://www.inc.co.za/news/newsview.php3?click_id=29&set_id=1&art_id=qw960071341168A236 Man skewered by iron rod, phones wife Linz, Austria - A road construction worker in Austria who was skewered on an iron rod from his groin to his armpit phoned his wife from the ambulance to tell her not to worry - he was going to be fine. Stunned doctors at a Linz hospital later confirmed his diagnosis, saying the 2m rod had miraculously missed all major blood vessels and organs, said Austria's APA news agency. The man, identified only as a 35-year-old labourer, was working at an autobahn tunnel construction site in the Alps at about 8am on Saturday when he lost his balance and fell feet-first 10m - right onto the iron rod. The rod entered his body between his thigh and genitals and bore through his torso, emerging just below his armpit. Rescue crews used hydraulic pincers to sever the rod at its base so he could be transferred to hospital. Conscious and conversing with his rescuers the whole time, the man used a cellphone to inform his wife and family what had transpired and tell them not to worry since he felt fine, considering the circumstances. Following emergency surgery at a Linz hospital, doctors said the man was in stable condition and would make a full recovery. - Sapa-DPA Tue, 06 Jun 2000 18:08:33 -0700 Boy Recovers After Snooker Cue Impaling GRIMSBY, England (Reuters) - A British schoolboy impaled himself on a snooker cue which pierced his scrotum and emerged through his stomach. Surgeons at a the Diana, Princess of Wales hospital in Grimsby, northern England, worked for an hour to remove the cue. A spokesman said Monday the boy, Porl French, 11, was recovering at home. "Other children say he was stood on a chair pretending the cue was a pogo stick. He was apparently holding it between his legs when he slipped off," the manager of the snooker club, Tony Graham, told a Grimsby newspaper. [good excuse...] Date: Fri, 12 May 2000 13:10:06 -0700 (PDT) Subject: Three Pairs of Pants Prove Bulletproof http://www.apbnews.com/newscenter/breakingnews/2000/05/11/jeans0511_01.htm l Three Pairs of Pants Prove Bulletproof Overdressed Bystander Escapes Injury in Shooting May 11, 2000 By Rick Sarlat PHILADELPHIA (APBnews.com) -- A 53-year-old bystander at a shooting escaped serious injury when the three pairs of pants he was wearing stopped a stray bullet, police said today. The incident, which left a 22-year-old man seriously injured, began around 10:50 a.m. Wednesday. Vicky Perkins, 18, of North Philadelphia, confronted her ex-boyfriend Cephus East, 22, of Whitemarsh, with a knife inside a corner store, said Capt. Tom Nestel of the Northwest Detectives Division. Nestel said the argument eventually spilled onto the street, and Perkins' 22-year-old brother, Suliman Perkins, who was waiting outside, attacked East. While on patrol, Officer Carmen Dixon witnessed the two men fighting, Nestel said. "She sees an argument between the two men, and as she exits her car and goes over to break up the disturbance, [Suliman Perkins] pulls out a gun and shoots [East] twice in the chest and once in the groin," Nestel said. Perkins and her brother fled the scene on foot, and as Dixon chased them, Suliman Perkins turned and fired once, missing her but striking Willie Marbury, who was waiting for a bus about a block away from the gunfire. "He was wearing three pairs of pants and because of the distance the bullet didn't penetrate all the pairs of pants," Nestel said. The bullet was recovered from one of Marbury's pockets, he said. Dixon and another officer apprehended the Perkinses in a nearby apartment, police said. They were charged with attempted murder, aggravated assault and weapons offenses. East was admitted to Albert Einstein Medical Center in critical condition Wednesday. He was upgraded to stable condition this afternoon, officials said. Police said they did not care to know why Marbury was wearing three pairs of pants. "We don't ask those types of questions," Nestel said. "Sometimes the answers frighten us." [nefertiri] Date: Fri, 17 Dec 1999 23:14:07 -0600 Subject: When Police Meet the Paranormal ... http://www.apbnews.com/media/reviews/books/1999/12/16/hidden1216_01.html When Police Meet the Paranormal ... Hidden Files Examines Strange Cop Cases Dec. 16, 1999 By Maralyn Lois Polak Deep in the Appalachian Mountains of West Virginia, Morgantown Police Chief Bennie Palmer and Officer Ralph Chapman received a call from the town cemetery's caretaker about some apparent vandalism. The lid of a concrete vault had burst through the ground. There were no signs of digging -- in fact, the ground had broken from underneath, but it didn't look like it was caused by an explosion. It was the grave of Harry Spitz, a child who had died of cholera in 1912, but the body was well-preserved and still had some skin. "In fact, you could recognize Harry from his facial features. He even had lots of long blond hair," Chapman said. Even after Harry was re-buried and apparently behaving himself, the officers found themselves haunted by his memory. Not only had Harry been in remarkably good shape, but so was his clothing, a stuffed lion found at his feet and some dried flowers. Yet the fabric on the lid of the casket had rotted away. No one could explain why. FT Bury Strange Polish archaeologists have discovered a 12th century tomb containing bodies apparently executed for being vampires. A skeleton of a woman with hands and feet bound lay beneath the remains of two men, whose heads, feel and hands had been hacked off with an axe. It was thought that the woman had been buried alive. /AFP 24 Aug 1998/ Date: Thu, 24 Feb 2000 09:59:50 +0000 Subject: Cuttings will give new leaf of life to yew with a 5,000-year history The Scotsman - 24 February 2000 > Cuttings will give new leaf of life to yew with a 5,000-year history > > > CHRISTOPHER CAIRNS Environment Correspondent > A TREE which may have firsttaken root on a Perthshire hillside as the > Egyptian pharaohs became kings of the known world will be assured of > its place in history for thousands of years to come. > > Foresters yesterday took the first cuttings from the Fortingall Yew in > a churchyard above Loch Tay which, it is hoped, will grow into dozens > of individual yew trees to be planted in arboreta and church grounds > across the country. > > The tree is generally regarded as the oldest living thing in Europe, > with someestimates putting its first days as a sapling at 3,000 BC or > earlier. > > That would make it a vigorous 3,000-year-old when, according to local > legend, it would have been seen by Pontius Pilate, the eventual > governor of Judea, who is said to have been born at a Perthshire > military encampment. > > Mike Strachan, a woodland officer for the Forestry Commission, said: > "His father, a Roman envoy, was visiting local Celtic chieftains. > There is an archaeological site a few hundred yards away which is > thought to be the remains of a Roman encampment which will be > excavated this summer. > > "Quite apart from its obvious cultural and historical significance as > something that was alive and pretty old when the Picts were fighting > off the Romans, the Fortingall Yew is also of enormous scientific > interest as a living repository of ancient genetic material." > > The cuttings, which filled a couple of sacks, will be taken to the > commission's research agency at Roslin to be grown under controlled > conditions. > > It is thought that rooting the cuttings will be straightforward and > the seedlings will be planted initially at the national yew collection > at the National Pinetum in Kent and at the Scone Palace arboretum. > > Not that the Fortingall Yew itself is in any immediate danger of > keeling over - the Forestry Commission reports it is in fine fettle > for a 5,000-year-old. > > A spokesman for the commission said: "The yew is in remarkably good > condition - especially when you consider that its trunk has long since > been split in two and several fires have been lit at its base over the > centuries. > > "There is a slight issue with a younger yew [about 150 years-old] > which is casting some shade over the older tree and we are trimming > that back a little to allow more sunlight to get through." > > The yew was at one time thought to be around 3,000 years old, but the > late Alan Mitchell, a noted forestry scientist who founded the Tree > Register of the British Isles, dated it to at least 5,000 years old. > > His colleague, Alan Meredith, believed it could have been at least > 9,000 years old, but both experts faced the same problem - because of > the fractured trunk a full sample of the rings could not be obtained > for dating purposes. > > Yews are among several "Methuselahs" of the plant world. The oldest > known trees are California's bristlecone pines at more than 5,000 > years old, while Middle Eastern olive trees can also linger on for a > couple of millennia. > > The yew was a tree sacred to the ancient Celts and a church has stood > on the Fortingall site for 1,300 years. The church must have been > built around the tree since it was a common feature in the middle ages > to have yews in churchyards. Their poisonous bark and needles kept > cows and horses away. >