ENTRY 14

Britain releases UFO files, dispels some mysteries

LONDON – Alitalia pilot Achille Zaghetti thought it was a missile.

Zaghetti was at the helm of a jet from Milan to London's Heathrow Airport on the evening of April 21, 1991 when a flying object streaked across his field of vision.

"At once I said, 'look out, look out,' to my co-pilot, who looked out and saw what I had seen," Zaghetti wrote in his report. "As soon as the object crossed us I asked to the ACC (area control center) operator if he saw something on his screen and he answered 'I see an unknown target 10 nautical miles behind you.'"

An investigation later ruled out a missile — but never ruled anything in, either.

The close encounter is one of many reported UFO sightings among 19 files that Britain's National Archives posted Monday to the Web. The new material covers UFO sightings between 1986 and 1992.

While the 1,500-page batch of documents debunks a host of UFO sightings, others like Zaghetti's near-miss with a UFO remain unexplained.

On June 17, 1991, four passengers on a Hamburg, Germany-bound Dan Air 737 spotted "a wingless projectile pass below and to the left of the aircraft" as the flight climbed out of London's Gatwick Airport.

"It would seem to have passed fairly close by as the passengers were able to see it quite clearly," the Civil Aviation Authority wrote in its report.

More disturbing was a sighting a month later by crew aboard a Gatwick-bound Britannia Airways Boeing 737, who saw a "a small black lozenge-shaped object" zipping past about 100 yards (90 meters) to the left of the aircraft.

The airport confirmed seeing an object on its radar and clocked it traveling at 120 miles (190 kilometers) per hour. Air traffic controllers quickly warned the next aircraft to turn out of the object's flight path, although by then the object had disappeared from view.

Speculation centered on a weather balloon released in the area the same day, but an investigation could not determine what the UFO was.

Monday's release is the second batch of UFO files that Britain's military has put out this year. David Clarke, a UFO expert who has worked with the National Archives, said in the next few years, a total of 160 UFO-related files will be made available to the public.

Some things in the newly released files were either unhinged or unverifiable.

One correspondent tells the military he was shouted at by aliens while sleeping outdoors. Another writes in "with extraordinary news," saying the "legendary 'feathered serpents'" are waiting for permission to land on earth. One U.S. pilot's tale of being ordered to shoot down a UFO over eastern England, forwarded to the Ministry of Defense by a UFO enthusiast, was kept on file though the military turned up no evidence of it in its official records.

Occasionally, though, officials got to the bottom of the sightings.

On a clear November afternoon in 1992, an office worker called the Ministry of Defense, saying a strange shimmering object was descending slowly over London's Regent's Park.

"As call progressed, it became clear that the object was a kite," an unidentified military staffer noted drily in his write-up.

___

On the Net:

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/

ENTRY 13

U.S. pilot was ordered to shoot down UFO

LONDON (Reuters) – Two U.S. fighter planes were scrambled and ordered to shoot down an unidentified flying object (UFO) over the English countryside during the Cold War, according to secret files made public on Monday.

One pilot said he was seconds away from firing 24 rockets at the object, which moved erratically and gave a radar reading like "a flying aircraft carrier."

The pilot, Milton Torres, now 77 and living in Miami, said it spent periods motionless in the sky before reaching estimated speeds of more than 7,600 mph (12,000 kph).

After the alert, a shadowy figure told Torres he must never talk about the incident and he duly kept silent for more than 30 years.

His story was among dozens of UFO sightings in defence ministry files released at the National Archives in London.

In a written account, Torres described how he scrambled his F-86 D Sabre jet in calm weather from the Royal Air Force base at Manston, Kent in May 1957.

"I was only a lieutenant and very much aware of the gravity of the situation. I felt very much like a one-legged man in an ass-kicking contest," he said.

"The order came to fire a salvo of rockets at the UFO. The authentication was valid and I selected 24 rockets.

"I had a lock-on that had the proportions of a flying aircraft carrier," he added. "The larger the airplane, the easier the lock-on. This blip almost locked itself."

At the last moment, the object disappeared from the radar screen and the high-speed chase was called off.

He returned to base and was debriefed the next day by an unnamed man who "looked like a well-dressed IBM salesman."

"He threatened me with a national security breach if I breathed a word about it to anyone," he said.

The documents contain no official explanation for the incident, which came at a time of heightened tension between the West and the Soviet Union. Planes were on constant stand-by at British bases for a possible Soviet attack.

The files blame other UFO sightings on weather balloons, clouds or normal aircraft. Torres said he had been waiting 50 years for an explanation.

"I shall never forget it," he told the Times. "On that night I was ordered to open fire even before I had taken off. That had never happened before."

UFO expert David Clarke said the sighting may have been part of a secret U.S. project to create phantom aircraft on radar screens to test Soviet air defences.

"Perhaps what this pilot had seen was some kind of experiment in electronic warfare or maybe it was a UFO," he said. "Something very unusual happened."

The files are online at: www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ufos

ENTRY 12

China's economy feels chill from global crisis

SHANGHAI, China – The laid-off factory workers and slumping car sales indicated China's booming economy had no immunity from the global meltdown. New figures confirm it: China's economy is still growing, but at the slowest pace in five years.

The National Statistics Bureau said Monday that China's economy expanded by just 9 percent in the third quarter. That marks the slowest rate since the second quarter of 2003, when the outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, or SARS, cooled growth to 6.7 percent.

In comparison, China realized 10.6 percent growth in the first quarter and 10.1 percent in the second quarter.

After years of feeding a voracious global appetite for its exports, China is seeing demand dry up as consumers in the U.S. and Europe cut back on spending in the wake of the mortgage-debt meltdown. The shift is a serious challenge for Beijing leaders as they struggle to keep job-creating growth on an even keel.

Protests by laid-off workers demanding their paychecks have already erupted as thousands of factories fold under the pressure of rising costs and slowing orders. Affluent city dwellers are feeling the pinch of sinking share prices and a weak housing market — sales of passenger cars fell 6.2 percent in August from a year earlier, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers.

"The growth rate of the world economy has slowed down noticeably. There are more uncertain and volatile factors in the international economic climate," National Statistics Bureau spokesman Li Xiaochao said in a nationally televised news conference.

"All these factors have started to release their negative impact on China's economy," Li said.

Exports have just begun to slow — the trade surplus hit a monthly record $29.3 billion in September as costs for imports eased thanks to lower prices for crude oil and other commodities.

A weaker China spells trouble for other Asian countries that have thrived on robust sales of raw materials and other manufacturing inputs to their giant neighbor.

"The problem is that China's economic growth is slowing down when it is most needed," said Huainan Zhao, a banking expert at Cass Business School in London.

Growth for the first nine months of the year was 9.9 percent, compared to 11.9 percent for all of 2007. Economists have cut China's forecasts for 2008 to as low as 9 percent.

Before the data's release, government leaders met to map a strategy for countering the slowdown. Monday newspapers carried news of planned measures to spur lending and stabilize China's volatile financial markets.

Leaders pledged to boost export rebates and provide more support for the ailing housing sector. They also vowed to spend more on welfare and construction, such as rebuilding the areas devastated by the May earthquake in central China.

Instead of bouncing back after a lull during the Beijing Olympics, China's industrial boom has slowed further, with output growing 11.4 percent year-on-year in September. That compares with 12.8 percent in August.

"China's manufacturing sector is not immune from the global economic downturn," said Sherman Chan, an analyst for Moody's Economy.com.

Share prices are still down nearly 70 percent from the peak they hit a year ago. On Monday, the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index drifted lower but then rebounded in the afternoon, gaining 2.3 percent to 1,974.01 as property developers and banks rallied in anticipation of favorable policy moves.

"As the golden rule goes, the time of maximum pessimism is the best time to buy, so prices rebounded on bargain hunting," said Zhai Peng, an analyst at Guotai Junan Securities in Shanghai.

Still, there are glimmers of good news.

Inflation slowed in September, the bureau said, to a 15-month low of 4.6 percent.

For Beijing, that means the effort spent on reining in bank lending and keeping inflation in check can now be refocused on keeping growth steady.

"The single important policy goal is growth, and the government will rapidly roll out fiscal, credit and trade policies to achieve this goal," investment bank Merrill Lynch said in a research report released Monday.

ENTRY 11

MALAYSIAN GP:ROSSI TAKE NINTH WIN

















Fiat Yamaha rider Valentino Rossi in action at the Malaysian
MotoGP enroute to winning the race at the
Sepang Circuit yesterday. - Pic by HASAN ISMAIL

IF Valentino Rossi's stock was thought to have reached its ceiling, the MotoGP world champion yesterday burst through that by joining the ranks of Australian legend Mick Doohan with an emphatic ninth win of the season in the Polini Malaysian Motorcycle Grand Prix at the Sepang Circuit.

Starting second on the grid, the 29-year old Fiat-Yamaha rider trailed Repsol Honda's pole sitter Dani Pedrosa for 11 laps, before poking the decisive puncture in the Spaniard's defence, taking the lead and never looking back, equalling five-time world champion Doohan's record five premier class wins on Malaysian soil.

From the start, it was always going to be a spectacle of Italian eight-time world champion Rossi against Pedrosa, who seemed to be on fire, especially after the record pole position lap clocked at the death in Saturday's qualifying session.

It turned out exactly so, while other sensations came in the form of the JiR Team Scot Honda, with 22-year old Andrea Dovizioso on board, holding off the rest of the field from start to finish, to register the Italian's first ever podium in MotoGP.

The day's moment, however, remained Rossi's sensational move in outbraking Pedrosa into Turn 12 on Lap 11, that had the bulk of the 38,650 crowd in pandemonium.
"I had a good start and I wanted to attack Dani earlier. But I thought I would just wait a bit. I knew how good our set-up was, and I was confident, but the last five laps in front and alone, was really difficult," said Rossi, who has also won the premier class of the Malaysian Grand Prix in 2001, 2003, 2004 and 2006.

"We knew it was going to be difficult, but in the pre-season tests in February here, we did a lot of simulations and I promised our tyre man then, that we will win the GP."



For Pedrosa, it was a battle lost not only to a superior rider, but it was also obvious that the Fiat-Yamaha team had solved the right puzzles on their M1 to their advantage in Sepang.

"I'm quite satisfied with the result, as we had improved all weekend. In the first free practice I was only 17th fastest and we moved up bit by bit, even taking the pole yesterday (Saturday).

"At the end, Valentino was just too fast," said Pedrosa, who will be joined by third-placed man Dovizioso in the Repsol Honda team next season.

ENTRY 10

8 Ways to Sport a Dishonest Date:


Chances are you're being lied to multiple times a day. It happens not only at work and with your friends and family, but in the intimate arena of love and dating, whether it's a first date or someone you are forming an exciting new relationship with.

Imagine this:

During a 10-minute conversation, people told an average of two to three lies, and 60 percent of people lied at least once, according to a study conducted by Robert Feldman of the University of Massachusetts.

Telling lies is a normal part of everyday life. People tell small lies to make themselves more likable or to spare other people's feelings.

However, it's when the lying gets out of hand that it becomes harmful to a budding relationship. If someone you are dating repeatedly lies to you for their own personal gain, you need to be aware of it. By becoming a better lie detector, you can prevent others from taking advantage of you, both literally and emotionally.

Here are eight ways to spot a liar:

1. Eyes aflutter. When people lie, their blink rate tends to go up.

2. The eyes have it. Conventional wisdom says that liars don't look you directly in the eye. And sometimes this is the case. However, research shows that practiced liars will actually give you more eye contact than people telling the truth!

3. Frankly, my dear. People who lie often feel the need to draw your attention to their trustworthiness. They may preface statements with words like "honestly," "frankly," and "truthfully." They're also likely to make assertions such as "I would never lie to you" and "I'm not lying."

4. Cool and casual. Most people expect liars to be nervous, but practiced liars know how to act casual while weaving a web. They may have their feet up or be slumped down in a chair as the lies flow.

5. Behind the smile. A liar's smile is different from a truth-teller's smile. According to research, true "enjoyment smiles" are so big and bright that you'll notice a crinkle around the eyes. These authentic smiles last for less than five seconds. The "masking smile," or lie smile, tends to last longer than five seconds, doesn't involve the eyes, has a hint of negative emotion, and may be crooked.

6. Sticking to it. Good liars stick to the true parts of their story as much as possible and insert lies at key points. If you suspect you're being lied to, don't be fooled into thinking that the whole story is true, even if you can confirm that parts of it are true.

7. Derailed by details. Liars often try to divert you from their falsehoods by detailing you to death. They'll get you so bogged down by the minutiae of the story that you lose track of what they're saying or you get tired of listening. Never hesitate to ask for clarification if the story seems confusing or doesn't add up.

8. It's not me, it's you! If you catch someone in a lie, they'll frequently try to turn it back on you. "You must be crazy. I never said that!" or "You must have memory loss because that's not the way it happened."

What do you do when you suspect someone you're dating is repeatedly lying to you? In order to feel more secure in the relationship, let them know that even though the truth can hurt, you want to deal with things honestly and openly. The truth will ultimately be better than losing trust and being devastated by lies.

The more people lie and get away with it, the more lies they tell. Stop the cycle by confronting the lies!

ENTRY 9

Too Much Sleep: Is It Possible?


Media reports tell us that America is a sleep-deprived nation of workaholics who are sacrificing their health to achieve the overscheduled modern lifestyle. But we seldom hear about those at the other end of the spectrum who sleep well beyond the recommended seven to eight hours a night.


Some studies have found that sleeping nine hours or more a night may have a negative impact on health. However, the evidence is not nearly as clear as data showing that too little sleep (four to five hours) can lead to illness, accidents, and lowered productivity. We do know that depression can manifest itself through both insomnia and low energy levels leading to extended periods of sleep.So is it possible to sleep too much? How can you develop healthy sleep habits? Here are some tips.


Don't Use Sleep to Escape


Sometimes when I feel overwhelmed, I can become a bit of a possum - curling up and falling asleep when threatened. While this isn't a particularly destructive way to escape uncomfortable emotions, it also isn't an indicator of being able to deal with them. If you are a "possum sleeper," I would suggest trying to sit through a period of discomfort using a different behavior, such as exercise, to lessen anxiety.



Don't Overdo the Napping



Naps have gotten a bad rap in the United States, but there has been a trend over the past few years to embrace the power nap (a fifteen- or twenty-minute refresher in the afternoon). Numerous studies have shown that these short naps are in fact an excellent way to sustain our energy and focus throughout the day. However, a power nap can easily turn into a two-hour deep sleep for some of us. This amount of sleep in the afternoon will leave you feeling groggy and likely disrupt your sleep pattern at night.



Don't Make Sleep the Weekend Reward



Those of us with busy work schedules often treat ourselves to long sleeps on the weekend. You shouldn't feel guilty about this, but I wonder if this behavior falls into the same pattern as overeating on the weekend and then starving yourself during the week. A consistent level of sleep throughout the week seems like a healthier option.


Don't Get Bored



If I don't know what to do with myself, I will often feel tired and sleep more than I think is necessary. The reality is that there is always something to do if we want to seek out activities, such as exercising or volunteering. Keep busy and you will feel less tired.Good health is usually dependent upon moderation, and it seems, sleep is no exception.

ENTRY 8

Russia's Medvedev test fires long-range missile

PLESETSK COSMODROME, Russia (Reuters) - President Dmitry Medvedev oversaw the test firing of an intercontinental Topol missile on Sunday and vowed to commission new generation weapons for Russia's armed forces.
A Reuters reporter said the truck-mounted Topol was fired at 3:23 a.m. EDT in drizzling rain from the Plesetsk cosmodrome, which is nestled among the taiga forests of Russia's north.
Half an hour later it hit the Kura testing site, 6000 km (3700 miles) away on the Kamchatka peninsula in the Pacific.
"I have just been told that the dummy warhead has landed in Kura," Medvedev said from the Topol launch pad where acrid smoke from the missile still hung thick in the air.
"We will continue to commission new types of weapons but we will also continue testing the ones we have now," said Medvedev. "Their effectiveness has been proved by time. Our shield is fine."
Russian nuclear submarines also successfully test fired two ballistic missiles from the Pacific Ocean and Barents Sea on Sunday to targets inside Russia, the navy said.
Medvedev, who was sworn in as president in May, has moved to beef up Russia's armed forces after a five-day conflict in Georgia this August which sparked a row with the United States and European Union.
Dressed in the army's new-style leather jacket -- with a badge saying commander-in-chief -- Medvedev inspected the 21.5 meter Topol rocket before the launch.
The rocket is designed to pierce anti-missile defense systems such as those that the United States wants to build in Eastern Europe. The Kremlin has opposed Washington's plans.
Medvedev's predecessor, Vladimir Putin, raised defense spending during his eight-year presidency to revive Russia's armed forces, which had been drained in the 1990s by corruption, low pay and a lack of funding.
Russia's strategic bombers have restarted regular patrols over the Atlantic Ocean, irking NATO, and a group of the Northern Fleet ships is on its way to the Caribbean to take part in joint exercises with U.S. foe Venezuela.
Two Russian warships and their support vessels docked in Tripoli ahead of making the transatlantic trip. Russia on Saturday test-launched a strategic missile to the equatorial part of the Pacific Ocean for the first time.
NEW WEAPONS
The RS-12M Topol, called the SS-25 Sickle by NATO, has a maximum range of 10,000 km (6,125 miles).
"This missile and others which will be commissioned in the next few years are capable of effectively providing the nuclear deterrent and ensuring the security of Russia and its allies," Colonel-General Nikolai Solovtsov, Commander of Russia's Strategic Missile Forces, told Medvedev.
The Topol, a highly mobile missile designed in Soviet times, is a key part of Russia's nuclear deterrent.
But Russia has extended their use way past the 10-year guaranteed operational life set by the manufacturer and the launch on Sunday was aimed partly at testing how the rockets would fire after having their operational life extended so far.
"An extension of the operational life of the Topol rocket complexes ... will allow the systematic replacement of rockets being taken out of use with new generation rockets without any peak load on the military budget," Interfax news agency quoted Alexander Vovk, an adviser to the head of Russia's strategic forces, as saying.