BERLIN, Germany (Reuters) — Numerous sightings of massive fireballs in the skies over Germany this week have led to an upsurge in reports of UFOs, but scientists believe the cause could be a bizarre annual meteor blitz.

According to the Web site of the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), such fireballs have been reported elsewhere in the world and may also be due to the fact that the Earth is now orbiting through a swarm of space debris.

Many people in Germany have noticed the fireballs, said Werner Walter, an amateur astronomer in Mannheim who runs a Web site on unexplained astronomical phenomena and a hotline for reports on unidentified flying objects (UFO).

“The last reported sighting was yesterday at 7:30 p.m. (1830 GMT) in a corridor near the border of the Netherlands,” he told Reuters in a telephone interview. “This week we have had at least 15 emails and phone calls from people reporting these fireballs,” he said. “Some people said it looks like something out of a science fiction horror film.”

In addition to a possible meteor streak, Walter said amateur and professional astronomers were considering the possibility that the blitz was the result of a “falling satellite or UFOs.” “It is possible that they are UFOs, which are after all things which we cannot explain,” he said.

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PORT MORESBY (Reuters) - Police in Papua New Guinea have arrested 320 people for practicing sorcery and religious cults, the National newspaper reported Thursday.

Belief in sorcery is widespread in this jungle-clad, mountainous South Pacific island nation where some villages only encountered Western civilization in the 1930s.

Police raided three villages Monday near the city of Lae on the north coast and arrested leaders of a “cargo cult” and their followers, the newspaper said. Those arrested were aged between 20 and 70.

Cargo cults believe that Western goods or cargo, first encountered through missionaries and explorers, are created by ancestral spirits. They have been known to build airstrips in the jungles in the belief that planes would land with cargo.

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LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A Colorado man who had a panic attack when he found he was glued to a toilet seat in a Home Depot restroom has sued the home improvement giant for negligence, saying staff ignored his plight.

Retired electrical engineer Bob Dougherty, 57, said on Thursday he was stuck in the stall with his pants down for about 20 minutes and that two years after the 2003 incident he was suffering from post-traumatic stress, which has triggered diabetes and heart complications.

“I have these nightmares every night where I am locked in this dark room, with no windows, no doors, no fresh air, no route for escape. I wake up in these cold sweats,” Dougherty said.

Spokesmen for Home Depot Inc. could not immediately be reached for comment.

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AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - A Dutch dentist who chopped off his finger and then faked a car crash before claiming 1.8 million euros ($2.2 million) from insurers was given a suspended sentence and fined by a court Thursday.

The man, aged 50, mutilated himself and crashed his car into a tree in Belgium in the hope of convincing insurers that the steering wheel had inflicted the injury, the court said.

However, the shape of the cut on his index finger, the level of anaesthetic in his blood and the absence of skid marks on the road suggested otherwise.

“It was not an accident but an amputation he carried out himself, or he had someone do it for him,” a court spokeswoman said.

The dentist was fined 25,000 euros and received a six-month suspended jail sentence with 240 hours community service.

[via Reuters]

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Dozens of children at a Baltimore-area elementary school were stung by bees after stumbling upon them during a science lesson on Thursday, fire department officials said.

The entire second-grade class of about 100 students at Deep Creek Elementary School was studying trees in nearby woods when one child disturbed a nest of bees.

The distressed bees stung 47 children, two of whom suffered a mild allergic reaction.

“There was a bit of pandemonium at the school for a while, but nobody was seriously hurt,” said a fire department spokeswoman, adding that classes continued.

Seven children went home with their parents, while the other 40 were taken to the hospital as a precaution, she said.

[via Reuters]

A British tourist described last night the horrifying moment when he realised his luxury cruise line was under gun and grenade attack from pirates, 100 miles off the coast of Somalia.

“I heard what sounded like a crack from outside [the ship] at 5.50am,” said Norman Fisher, 55, a solicitor from north London, one of 20 Britons on board the Seabourn Spirit which was carrying 312 passengers and crew.

“I looked out the window and saw a small boat with about five people in it, about 20 yards away. Two of them had rifles and one had some kind of rocket launcher. They were firing the rifle and then they fired the rocket launcher twice.”

Mr Fisher said that at least one rocket hit the Spirit, one of the most luxurious liners in the world. The rocket broke through the side of the liner into a passenger’s suite.

“The couple were in there at the time, so it was a bit of an unpleasant experience,” said Mr Fisher. “Fortunately they weren’t hurt, but you can just imagine what it would have been like if they had been standing up, because the cabin was very badly damaged.”

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BANJA LUKA, Bosnia (Reuters) - A hand grenade being used instead of a ball in a game of catch exploded early on Saturday killing three youths in this Bosnian town, police and news agencies said.

Two youths aged 19 and 20, one of them from neighboring Croatia, were killed instantly while a 20-year-old woman died on her way to hospital, police said. Her sister was slightly injured but two other youths suffered serious injuries.

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A young woman robbed four banks in Washington’s suburbs without ever interrupting conversations her cell phone, a sheriff’s spokesman said on Friday.

In the most recent heist, the woman, with sunglasses casually pushed up on her dark hair and a mobile phone at her ear, walked up to a bank teller in Ashburn, Virginia, on November 4 and opened her purse to show a handgun and a note demanding cash, said Loudoun County sheriff’s spokesman Kraig Troxell.

“During the entire sequence, she was on her cell phone,” Troxell said by telephone. “When we compared it with other robberies that have occurred in the area, we determined she was involved in three other robberies. … In those cases, she was also on the cell phone.”

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In a full-bodied blend of blasphemy and ingenuity, a Los Angeles couple is seeking to market a wine called “Jesus Juice” that bears a label showing a Michael Jackson-like figure appearing to be crucified.

Moonwalk this way to read the full story…

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. - Sam, the tiny dog whose hairless body and crooked teeth earned him a reputation as the World’s Ugliest Dog, has died.

The pooch died Friday, just short of his 15th birthday, his owner said.

“I don’t think there’ll ever be another Sam,” Susie Lockheed said, adding: “Some people would think that’s a good thing.”

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It’s the kind of rescue that can only happen around the holidays. Two people were trapped in a burning car in the western suburbs when bystanders pulled them free, one of them using a frozen turkey he just bought to smash the glass.

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More than 35 tons of tomatoes took a bruising Sunday when a semi flipped on an interstate ramp, closing a Downtown (indianapolis) artery for nearly eight hours.

The accident happened about 11:30 a.m. on the ramp from northbound I-65/70 to eastbound I-70, an area known as the north split, said an Indiana State Police spokesman.

He said the truck, carrying 77,000 pounds of tomatoes, likely overturned because it was going too fast.

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“Well, it’s juicy tomatoes,” Short said. “Just imagine 30,000 smashed tomatoes.”

[see story]

MOSTAR, Bosnia (Reuters) - Bosnia’s southern town of Mostar unveiled the world’s first statue of kung fu legend Bruce Lee on Saturday, paying homage to a childhood hero of all its divided ethnic groups.

The life-size 1.68 meter (5ft 7in) bronze statue is situated in Mostar’s central park, close to the former front line of Bosnia’s 1992-95 civil war. A decade after the conflict, Mostar’s Muslim and Croat inhabitants remain deeply split.

Unveiled by its initiators, Veselin Gatalo and Nino Raspudic of Mostar’s Urban Movement, the statue portrays the Chinese-American actor, who died 32 years ago, in a typical defensive fighting position.

“This does not mean that Bruce Lee will unite us, because people are different and cannot be united and we will always be Muslims, Serbs or Croats,” Gatalo said. “But one thing we all have in common is Bruce Lee.”

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VERSHIRE, Vt. - A Massachusetts man was shot while using the outhouse at his family’s camp by a boy who was target shooting.

Chris Flanagan, 41, of Holliston, Mass., was standing in the outhouse on Saturday morning when he was hit in the chest by a bullet that came through the door.

Police said the shot was fired from a .22-caliber rifle used by a young relative. They declined to give the relationship between the two.

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PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania (AP) — A man arrested for running onto the field during the Philadelphia Eagles’ game against the Green Bay Packers on Sunday told police he was spreading his late mother’s ashes.

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