[Watching our favorite aliens Monday through Friday and we thought it was time to take a look and see what the real UFOs were doing. Sure enough, there is a lot of UFO news getting buried by Bush Vs. Saddam. Enough for this eXoNews Special Report! BTW, Roswell airs weeknights on Sci Fi Channel. Oh, and most of the photos in this week's eXoNews are probably fakes. Trust no one! :o)>Ed.] 

UFO Spooks Rush-hour Drivers
By Judith Tonner

East Kilbride Scotland February 19, 2003 (Inside Scotland) - The appearance of a UFO in the sky above Kingsgate Retail Park last week caused spooked drivers to bump their cars. Several people reported seeing a huge silver object in the area as they drove past at around 8.45am last Wednesday.

Drivers were so distracted by the bizarre sighting that at least two minor bumps were reported, as the attention of motorists wandered from the more mundane forms of transport before them on the road.

A local woman, who did not wish to be named, contacted the News to describe the experience of a friend who was driving towards the retail park at that time.

She said: "My friend saw something hovering, which was silver in appearance and looked like the dishes you see on the side of television transmitters.

"It was huge, and it was pulsating — he wasn’t the only one who saw it, as you couldn’t have missed it.

"He saw it and just thought: ‘Good God’, and was really quite shaken by the whole thing.

"Then the object just suddenly disappeared — it was so strange.

"My friend thinks the accidents at Kingsgate were a result of other people seeing this thing as well."

The sighting has also intrigued East Kilbride UFO Club, whose members were warned in advance that they might be about to spot something strange in the sky. Colleagues in Cumbernauld had seen a similar object around half an hour previously, and alerted their South Lanarkshire counterparts that it appeared to be heading in their direction. Lee Close, of the Anglo-Scottish UFO Research Agency, has been investigating last week’s events in tandem with the local UFO club.

He said: "This is the first time I’ve come across a UFO causing a car crash, although I’m aware of it having happened in America before. People in Scotland tend to think: ‘oh, there’s something in the sky’ and just carry on, so the fact that it’s caused two fender benders is quite unusual. The fact that it’s in daylight interests us immensely too — previously 95 per cent of sightings were at night, although they’re now almost equal between day and night-time."

Anyone who saw last week’s UFO or witnessed either of the two reported vehicle bumps is asked to contact Lee on 07957 912500, or Noel Wallace of East Kilbride UFO Club on 07941.

Taking Photographs of UFOs and the Past 
By Vladimir Petropavlovsky 
Translated by Dmitry Sudakov 

Voronezh Russia February 17, 2003 (Pravda) - Henry Silanov, a resident of the city of Voronezh is well known amid anomalous phenomena researchers of Italy, Germany, Japan, the USA, France and Holland. As it turns out, a Voronezh ufologist is known for his technique, which allows to take photographs of the past. 

"My interest in UFOs emerged after I got acquainted with pilots’ messages, in which they said that they saw some weird objects in the air. Some of them said that those objects followed their planes, observing its flight course and altitude. UFOs would bother planes when they landed, they would imitate attacks and so on.

"Pilots asked researchers to set up an observation point, from which it would be possible to fix electromagnetic fields in flight areas. Researchers wanted to find out the dependence between UFOs and electromagnetic outbursts. All those things happened in the fall of the year 1985. They found a convenient spot for such observation, which later became a field laboratory. 

"For the time being, researchers have managed to take a lot of photographs of the so-called flying disks, plasma formations and even aliens. The latter were depicted on photographs as some luminous silhouettes. I still remember one of them that I personally saw – it was two and a half meters high. It was nighttime, and the silhouette was moving towards me. I was scared a lot, but then it started melting in the air until it disappeared completely. We identified the spots, on which aliens appeared quite often. With the help of magnetometers we found a meadow, where there were a lot of such places.

"Later, we determined that almost all UFOs appeared in various spots of one and the same area. This circumstance could not be incidental. The mystery was unveiled only in 1990. When we took pictures of those places with a special camera, we had pictures of torch-like figures. We called those places energetic channels. Those places probably serve for some sort of energetic exchange between the Earth and the space around it.

"Solar and abyssal activities result in huge potential of static electricity. This phenomenon can be visually seen as flash-like and luminous plasma formations. Such an abyssal tectonic break became the place, where our summer expedition would work. We suppose that numerous UFOs fly there not for their curiosity, but for their need to take some electromagnetic energy, which comes out from our planet. 

"There were also other mysterious phenomena that I had to deal with. One of them I call the 'memory of the field'. Our nature registers and fixes everything that happens around us. It works like a film. When ‘today’ goes in the past, it is possible to retrieve the ‘photographs’ of the past. It is possible to do that, if a camera manages to catch ultraviolet rays, which cannot be visible to human eyes. I invented such a camera.

The object-glass is made of pure quartz, which lets ultraviolet radiation run through it without any losses. As it turned out, it is the ultraviolet radiation that carries the images and the information of the past.

"We have already managed to take some pictures, for example, we photographed several days of World War II. I have a very good picture of two warriors, who aim their looks at the forest. Another picture depicts horsemen wearing pointed hats and holding bows and shields in their hands. There is an image of some leader with slanting eyes on their shields. We have another picture of a mammoth silhouette with big tusks standing against the background of some giant trees. This is a picture of the paleolith era. 

"I know that it sounds fantastic, but we receive encoded information from a source, which is some other kind of intellect. The highest point of those contacts was reached in 2002. When we developed a film, we saw some strange images on its frame lines.

One of them looked very like Raphael’s Sistine Madonna. There is a remarkable thing about this photograph: people sense unexplainable energy coming from it. Another amazing image depicts the image of the Creator, as researchers believe. Ufologists say that the Intellect of the Universe tries to bring us some message with that. It is not ruled out, that it is some kind of a warning.

"Unfortunately, my work is not in demand in Russia. However, they have heard a lot of my activities abroad. I was invited to go to Israel and to take pictures of its holy places with my camera. American ufologists invited me to come to the USA to read lectures to students. However, I cannot afford all those invitations. One hundred dollars is the maximum that I have a month. All my twenty assistants are my friends and they work simply of their enthusiasm. However, we do not complain. Patience is the art to hope and to believe that you work will be necessary to people one day." 

By the way, George Bush asserts that the humanity has a lot of various evidence to prove other reasonable forms of life on other planets. The American president made such a statement in the draft budget that was submitted to the US Congress. According to George Bush, space aliens exist, it is only a question of time, when the humanity gets into contact with them.

Extraterrestrial Bill Crashes in Santa Fe
By Ryan Stark
Roswell Daily Record Staff Writer

SANTA FE February 19, 2003 (RDR) — State Rep. Daniel Foley, R-Dist. 57, quite possibly took the New Mexico State Legislature where no legislature has gone before Tuesday when a bill to create an extraterrestrial holiday was brought to the floor of the House of Representatives.

The bill would have made the second Thursday of February each year "Extraterrestrial Culture Day." In a bipartisan show of interstellar altruism, the measure was also sponsored by Rep. Pauline Ponce, D-Dist. 58.

Despite goodwill that would have impressed Mr. Spock himself, it was not going to be E.T.’s day.

The bill was sent back to committee to be rewritten as a memorial on a motion by Albuquerque Democratic Rep. Danice Picreaux.

"I just think it’s another opportunity to entice people to the Capitol during the session and see that there’s stuff going on in New Mexico," Foley said of the bill. "We’ve already put millions of dollars into the film industry bills, and it’s an opportunity for the Sci-Fi Channel to come here and showcase Santa Fe and New Mexico."

The text of the bill states the day would be "in recognition of the many visitations, sightings, unexplained mysteries, attributed technological advances, experimentations, expeditions, explorations, intrigues, provision of story lines for Hollywood epics and other accomplishments of alien beings from throughout the universe that have contributed to New Mexico’s worldwide recognition as a unique and dynamic mosaic of cultural anomalies."

The bill continues, "The day should be observed to celebrate and honor all past, present and future extraterrestrial visitors in ways to enhance relationships among all the citizens of the cosmos, known and unknown."

In a state that can boast alleged UFO crashes in Roswell and Aztec, as well as many purported sightings of the aliens and their UFOs, Foley said he also feels tourism could be helped by the publicity created by such an annual observance.

As for the procedural roadblock in the bill’s brief discussion on the floor, Foley said, "They don’t want it to be on the books as a law, and I can understand that and respect that. So we’ll go ahead and draft it as a memorial and see what we can do."

NASA Photo Shows UFO? 

Bristol UK January 16, 2003 (thisisbristol.com) - A UFO expert from Winterbourne, near Bristol, says the latest flying saucer pictures captured by a NASA satellite prove beyond doubt that there are aliens in space.

Denis Plunkett, aged 71, one of the longest-serving members of the British Flying Saucer Bureau, is delighted the pictures are being made public.

The pictures show the UFOs failed to navigate a straight course and observers claim it was being steered by some sort of intelligent life form. The NASA satellite is stationed in space one million miles from Earth with its camera trained on the sun.

It has beamed back hundreds of images of different varieties of UFO traveling along what could be an 'alien superhighway'.

Mr. Plunkett said:

"People regularly phone me with details of sightings and these pictures will hopefully convert a few more people. More people than ever believe in UFOs - 50 years ago only one in ten people believed, but a survey in 1997 found eight in ten people believed there's something out there."

The NASA images are due to be made public at the National Space Centre in Leicester by Mike Murray, the owner of an electronics company in Manchester. They were shown to him by a Spanish businessman who picked them up from a huge satellite at his home near Barcelona.

Mr. Murray said: "When we asked NASA about it, they originally said it might be a fault on the camera, but by digitally enhancing the images, we proved this wasn't the case. NASA then told us it could be asteroids or comets, but when we pointed out that the objects appeared to move independently and make turns, they stopped answering our questions."

Graham Birdsall, editor of UFO Magazine , said:

"The images are irrefutable in that they are from official satellites owned by NASA. They resemble the kind of space craft we used to see in sci-fi films like Star Trek ."I'm excited at the prospect of seeing authenticated images coming into the public domain that have taxed a considerable number of people at NASA."

Mr. Murray said: "The very fact these crafts appear to be the same shape as other UFOs spotted in our stratosphere is very exciting."

Mr. Plunkett began to think we were not alone in the universe when his cousin disappeared on a flight to the El Salto observatory in Chile in 1952. Despite sending a message to the control tower saying they would land in four minutes, the plane never reached its destination. Authorities carried out a search covering a 250-mile radius but found nothing.

Mr. Plunkett said: "The last message my cousin had sent to the control tower was STENDEC, which the radio operator didn't understand and asked him to repeat himself. The same message was repeated."

Mr. Plunkett joined the Bristol-based British Flying Saucer Bureau which celebrates its 50th anniversary this year.

He said: "We look at reports and have the usual equipment which we follow activities with. Occasionally we get something come up in Bristol, and we have found that UFOs like water. When they are chased they have often been reported to head towards the sea. There have been lots of strange sightings over the Severn." 

National Space Centre - http://www.nssc.co.uk

UFO Crash in Ancient Rome 

Rome February 6, 2003 (Guardian UK) - In the early fifth century, rampaging Goths swept through Italy. Inviolate for 1,100 years, Rome was sacked by the hordes in 410 AD. St Augustine's apologia, the City of God, set the tone for Christians for the next 16 centuries. 

But the Rome of that era came close to suffering a far worse calamity. A small metallic asteroid descended from the sky, making a hypervelocity impact in an Apennine valley just 60 miles east of the city. This bus-sized lump of cosmic detritus vaporized as it hit the ground. In doing so, it released energy equivalent to around 200 kiloton of TNT: around 15 times the power of the atomic bomb that leveled Hiroshima in 1945. 

Pescara is on the Adriatic coast, located across the Italian peninsula from Rome. Housed there is the International Research School of Planetary Sciences, where staff and students study topics ranging from planetary geology to astrobiology. In 1999, a young impact cratering specialist from Sweden, Jens Ormö, arrived to take up a three-year position funded by the European Union. 

Ormö, it happens, is keen on hill walking, and just inland from Pescara are some of the most spectacular mountains in the Apennines. He decided that some hiking in the area of the Sirente Massif was in order, and so he consulted a local guidebook. As he thumbed its pages, Ormö came across a photograph of something that amazed him. What he saw, labeled as a natural lake, was surely an impact crater. 

An expedition to the site of the putative impact, on the Sirente plain, was hastily organized. Colleagues confirmed Ormö's initial suspicion. Here was an impact crater about 140 meters wide, previously unrecognized despite lying only a short distance from a busy road, and visible from miles away. It has appeared on maps for centuries, and in guidebooks for decades - but no one had recognized its significance. 

Natural lakes are common in the area. But this one has a raised rim, now about two meters high, but originally rather thicker. This was produced by the asteroid throwing material out from the impact zone, as it crashed at a speed of around 20km per second, producing a huge explosion. Later filled with rainwater, the crater is now only a few meters deep, and occasionally dries up during hot summers. But it was more than 30 meters to the bottom when first formed. Centuries of weathering has eroded its bank and gradually filled it in. 

Relatively modest craters like this are unusual, because small asteroids can only reach the ground intact if they are metallic, and thus strong enough to withstand the physical shock of slamming into the atmosphere at such speeds. The best guess at present is that the asteroid was about 10 meters across, and had a composition similar to nickel-iron meteorites. If it had been stony in composition, as most asteroids are, it would have shattered in flight and released all of its energy in a phenomenal explosion. This is what happened when a 50-metre rock blew up over Siberia in 1908, leaving no crater. The expectation of a metallic impactor is backed up by the identification of rust grains in the surrounding soil.

Confirmation of the impact origin comes from 17 smaller craters, typically 10 meters wide, scattered around the Sirente plain. These are due to fragments of the asteroid that separated in flight through the atmosphere. A magnetic survey shows that most are associated with anomalously high fields, indicating sub-surface metallic lumps. 

Crater fields like this are not unusual. In central Australia, 120km south of Alice Springs, the Henbury craters were formed in a similar way. What is peculiar about the Sirente crater is where it occurred, and its youth. Dozens of ancient craters are known in northern Europe, geological stability allowing their long-term preservation. Two examples are the Ries and Steinheim basins in Germany.

Many others are known in Scandinavia. But these are all huge, and millions of years old. There is a small, recently formed crater in Estonia, but the Sirente crater is of far greater interest: it was excavated around the time of the fall of the Roman Empire, and close to Rome itself. 

The crater has been dated through radiocarbon analysis of a drill core cut down through the bank. The uppermost material, having been thrown out of the cavity, contains organic matter older than the impact.

At the original ground level the radiocarbon ages minimize, and then deeper down the material is older again. 

The data indicate that the crater was formed in about 412 AD, with an uncertainty of 40 years in either direction. Additional sampling may allow this spread to be reduced, but it is clear that the event occurred close to the fall of Rome: some time between 370 AD and 450 AD, when the city was again under attack, this time by the Vandals. 

No matter what the trajectory of the asteroid entry, it would have been a phenomenal sight from Rome, and scarier still for those closer to ground zero. The fireball produced would have only lasted 10 seconds or so, but would have been brighter than the sun, and so visible even in daytime. The smoke trail left in the atmosphere would have been visible for some hours. 

Another remarkable aspect of the event is that the main crater sits squarely in the middle of the Sirente plain, which is only about a mile long, and half that wide, being surrounded by mountainous terrain. It could be that this is just luck. Alternatively, the array of craters now identified might represent only a tiny fraction of the havoc wreaked, with many other impacts on the mountainsides having long since eroded or been hidden by tree growth. 

Even considering simply the energy involved in forming the known crater, it is sobering to ponder what might have happened should the impact zone have been on the flat coastal plains nearer Rome, rather than in the mountains. Scaling from nuclear bomb tests indicates that a 200 kiloton surface explosion would devastate an area of 100 square kilometers. 

A frequently used aphorism says that Rome was not built in a day. That's true. But it did come awfully close to being destroyed in seconds.

Scare Tactics Sued Over Alien 'Murders' 
By Patrick Barrett

Hollywood February 20, 2003 (Guardian UK) - A woman who was forced to watch her two companions being "killed" by an alien is suing the makers of a US reality TV show that staged the incident.

In what is perhaps the clearest sign yet that reality TV has taken a step too far, the producers have been accused of invasion of privacy, assault and false imprisonment in a lawsuit filed in Los Angeles.

Due to air on the US Sci-Fi Channel in April, Scare Tactics was presented by former Beverly Hills 90210 star Shannen Doherty.

The item at the centre of the legal action started when teacher Kara Blanc was told she had been invited to a Hollywood party. The show's makers arranged for the car taking her to the event to break down on a remote stretch of desert highway. Her two companions, who were part of the Scare Tactics conspiracy, were then seen to be "killed" by a costumed alien. A terrified Ms Blanc was filmed by secret cameras as she fled into a "dark, desert canyon area" pursued by the "alien".

Other episodes in the series feature campers duped into believing they are being attacked by the giant ape known as Big Foot and government agents chasing hapless participants when they apparently drive into US military base Area 51.

Ms Blanc is seeking to prevent the show from being aired and claims the experience has caused her to be admitted to hospital on several occasions.

The lawsuit is also seeking to prevent the producers from engaging in "the unfair, unlawful and fraudulent business practice of surreptitiously recording the traumatized reactions of any other persons in the future".

Great Balls of Fire or UFO? 

Japan February 7, 2003 (Mainichi Daily News) - Observatories throughout western Japan were swamped overnight with calls from people claiming to have spotted a UFO, the Mainichi learned Friday.

Dozens witnessed the phenomenon at around 8:30 p.m. Thursday night, and though what they saw may have shook their nerves, there was little need for them to rattle their brains as it appears to have been great balls of fire caused by a falling meteor or comet.

Moving from west to east across the sky, the initial fireball split into three before disappearing.

"It was white at first and then turned yellow. It was like watching the headlights of a truck from a long distance. I thought it must have been a meteor, but I was shocked as I'd never experienced anything like this before," said Yoshitaka Hazenoki, a member of the board of education in the Wakayama Prefecture city of Arita.

Shinya Narusawa of the Nishi Harima Observatory in Hyogo Prefecture's Sayo told of receiving many reports about the phenomenon.

"We've received information of sightings in Tanegashima (Nagasaki Prefecture)," he said. "For the moment, we think it was a meteor that dropped into the Pacific Ocean."

Observatories around Fukuoka also reported seeing the flaming balls of fire streaming through the sky. Fukuoka Observatory officials said the fireballs were either a meteor or comet. Reports from Kitakyushu of a bright red light with a tail traveling across the sky in an easterly direction over Kitakyushu were also forwarded to the Mainichi.

UFO Experts Hunt for Scottish Sightings
By John Hutcheson

February 20, 2003 (Airdrie and Coatbridge Advertiser) - UFO experts are desperate to speak to people in Airdrie who have seen mysterious flying objects.

The Anglo-Scottish UFO Research Agency wants to track down anyone who witnessed a strange shape in the sky above Airdrie last June.

The Advertiser reported the occurrence at the time after Cairnhill man Stephen Dymock pictured two flying objects - one is a helicopter but the other is unknown. Experts at ASUFORA have been studying the photograph and are convinced that it shows a genuine UFO.

Investigator Lee Close now wants to speak to anyone who may also have seen the flying object or has had similar experiences.

He said: "We are a Scottish organization which attempts to investigate and resolve instances of Unidentified Flying Objects and related matters in and around Scotland.

"All information that is passed to us is kept in the strictest confidence unless the contact explicitly states otherwise. The photo taken in Airdrie has not been doctored with and we want to speak to anyone who might be able to help us investigate further."

The photo was taken at about 10.30am on June 27, on a clear, crisp summer morning above Strain Avenue, Cairnhill, in Airdrie.

The red helicopter is clearly visible as the lower of the two objects - but photographer Stephen Dymock was at a loss to explain what the other is.

He said at the time: "Reports on low budget airlines said that some pilots are flying their aeroplanes too low over towns when they are approaching the airport and, having seeing one of these aeroplanes on the previous night, I decided to have a camera ready for the next one. The following morning around 10.30am, I heard what sounded like a low-flying aeroplane, so I got the camera ready but it was a red helicopter. Since I had the camera in my hand I took a photo anyway. When I looked at the LCD screen on the camera there were not one but two objects in the sky."

Stephen then uploaded the image onto his PC and was startled to see what appeared to be a UFO just above the helicopter.

Stephen added: "Some people might say I uploaded an image onto the PC then put in the object. For that reason, I kept the image on the camera to prove it was in the sky at the time and not a fake or doctored photo.

"It's too big to be a bird. It's going up or down at an angle - I think up - so it's not a balloon and it’s not another aircraft.

If want to contact Lee, call him on 07957 912500 or visit the group’s website at www.asufora.com

British Columbia Best Bet for UFOs in 2002

WINNIPEG February 13, 2003 (CP) — From white cylinders in British Columbia to an object with windows and flashing lights near Inkerman, N.B., last year was a banner one for sightings of unidentified flying objects over Canada. 

"In 2002 we had the largest number of separate events for a single year in the history of collecting UFO data for Canada," Chris Rutkowski of Ufology Research of Manitoba said Wednesday. "We have some extraordinary cases in Canada last year reported literally from one end of the country to the other." Since 1989 his group has been compiling reports from across Canada. 

There were 483 UFO sightings reported in 2002 - almost 30 per cent more than in 2001 and a 250 per cent increase since 1998. 

That's a record if 1993 is excluded when one celestial fireball contributed to a high of 489 reports that year, explained Rutkowski, who added that 154 of them were easily explained because of the fireball. 

"Overall it's fascinating to see that the number of cases in Canada rose so dramatically last year," he said. There is no easy explanation for the increase, he added. 

Rutkowski said one of the strangest unexplained sightings occurred in January 2002 near the tiny community of Inkerman, N.B. 

"A large object with flashing lights and brightly lit windows flew slowly and fairly silently over a highway," he said. "A couple stopped their car and watched it as it moved down behind some trees." 

It was one of the sightings he looked into personally.

Overall, British Columbia was once again the place to be in 2002 to see a UFO. The province produced 176 sightings, more than Ontario and Quebec combined and up from 123 in 2001. 

B.C.'s numbers represent a third of all UFO sightings in Canada. Rutkowski said part of the reason is likely due to two UFO organizations in the province which have done a good job encouraging reports, although he suggested that doesn't tell the whole story. 

"I don't think that the increase can be ascribed completely to the fact people are looking up a little more or know where to report." 

Many of the reports from British Columbia come from the north of the province, not the densely populated south. 

"In the Yukon there (also) still seems to be an extraordinarily high number of cases," he noted. 

The Yukon produced 20 reports last year and has consistently produced about that many or more since 1998. 

Ontario produced 128 reports last year, Alberta 51, Manitoba 36, Quebec 34, Nova Scotia 23, Saskatchewan 6, New Brunswick 4, Newfoundland 3 and Nunavut 2. Prince Edward Island and the Northwest Territories were UFO-free zones in 2002. 

In general, more UFOs were reported in late summer than any other time of the year, although February also produced a peak.

About 18 per cent of all UFO reports remained unexplained but only about seven per cent were what researchers consider high-quality cases. Most sightings involved at least two witnesses and lasted approximately 15 minutes. 

Rutkowski and the other researchers who helped compile the report don't draw any conclusions from the sightings and don't suggest alien spacecraft are visiting planet Earth. 

"As with previous studies, the 2002 Canadian UFO survey does not offer any positive proof that UFOs are either alien spacecraft or a specific natural phenomenon," notes the report. 

"However, it does show that some phenomenon, which is often called a UFO, is continually being observed by witnesses." 

Here's a list of some of the most memorable UFO sightings by Canadians in 2002:

Jan. 12, 2002, 9:40 p.m., Inkerman, N.B. - A couple in a car watch a large object with flashing lights and brightly lit windows fly slowly and silently over a highway. Dozens report sightings about the same time. 
March 28, 2002, 10:30 p.m., Hamilton, B.C. - A pale-colored light rises from a mountain, then disappears. It repeats this performance several times. 
April 7, 2002, 1:57 a.m., Hudson's Bay, Nunavut - The aircrew of a cargo plane watch a small light grow in size to become a jagged ball, then fizzle out. 
May 7, 2002, 11:23 p.m., Winnipeg - A fuzzy patch of light is seen and photographed near the Big Dipper by an experienced astronomer and physicist. It was not a comet, cloud, or any other known phenomenon. 
May 26, 2002, 11:44 p.m., Winnipeg - Three people watch a dark object with three red circles on its underside silently glide across the sky. 
July 28, 2002, 10:00 p.m., Smithers, B.C. - A barrel-shaped silver object flies across the sky towards the southwest. 
Aug. 13, 2002, 1:00 a.m., Waterville, N.S. -Twelve witnesses watch two luminous silver objects fly silently over an RV park, then one of the objects angles sharply away and is lost to sight. 
Aug. 13, 2002, 2:15 a.m., Cow Bay, N.S. - A huge, slow-moving black triangular object appears to block out the sky. Inquiries with radar operators confirm a large unknown object had flown over the area at that time. 
Aug. 23, 2002, 7:00 p.m., Houston, B.C. - A shiny white cylindrical object flies overhead and is videotaped. 
Sept. 1, 2002, 8:47 p.m., Molega Lake, N.S. - Two witnesses watch an object with rectangular slit-like lights and a large red flashing light fly slowly eastward. 
Sept. 22, 2002, 3:13 p.m.,Vancouver - A small orange object moves slowly in the sky, changes direction and shape, and is observed for hours by more than a dozen people. 
Oct. 22, 2002, 10:25 p.m., Granisle, B.C. - An orange disc-shaped object hovers over a mine, then slowly rises and flies north until it's out of sight. 

UFOBC site - http://www.ufobc.ca 

Final Note: Why Aliens Wouldn't Want To Land Here
By FLAtRich

New York February 25, 2003 (eXoNews) - One of my all-time favorite artists, Gary Panter (Jimbo, RAW, Pee Wee's Playhouse, etc.) said it all when asked about aliens in a recent Comics Journal interview by John Kelly (excerpted on the Comics Journal website from The Comics Journal #250):

PANTER: The aliens aren't landing because we still eat animals and kill each other. If there's any aliens out there -- I wouldn't land here.

KELLY: Do you think there are any?

PANTER: I don't know. I think it's an extremely weird universe. I think it's a lot... It's so weird that it's really important for us to just pretend everything's normal and to just watch TV, and to hope the TV's going to come on again tomorrow. At some point, it's important to contemplate the heavy stuff. And these writers, poets, shamen are part of that... the risk-takers, in some way: OK. I'll risk going totally broke because I want to do this crazy comic, or recite this incantation, or eat this plant, or whatever, to try to have this vision. It's all part of a similar activity.

Comics Journal website - http://www.tcj.com/250/i_panter.html

Gary Panter's Official site - http://www.garypanter.com 

He said the manufacture of human tissue and body parts raised the specter of "heinous trafficking" and should be stopped, adding that some unscrupulous researchers were experimenting with new unproven molecules on poor populations. 

"The shock wave which shook the world when a sect alleged to have achieved the first human clone reminded everybody of the dangers attached to perverted knowledge," he said. 

The possible cloning of human embryos has raised passionate debate worldwide with critics, including France, lobbying for a global ban on such research.

Chirac urged the French parliament to adopt a new law on bioethics permitting limited embryo research in France, but keeping a ban on all forms of human cloning. 

Supporters of therapeutic cloning--the creation of stem cells for medical research--say the technique could prove valuable in the development of cures for a whole range of diseases, including Parkinson's disease and diabetes. 

Stem cells, or "master cells," have the potential to turn into any human cells and hold immense, though unproven, promise for treating many illnesses.

Bills Against Cloning!
By Richard Willing
USA TODAY 

February 25, 2003 (USA Today) - The Raelian religious sect may or may not have produced a cloned human baby. But its unproven claim to have done so is producing its own bumper crop of offspring.

At least 48 bills to ban or to regulate human cloning have been introduced in state legislatures and Congress since the Raelians' announcement in late December. Only one cloning bill, a ban enacted by the Iowa Legislature, was approved earlier in 2002, before the Raelians' claim. None of this year's proposals has become law.

Some of the new proposals to limit or ban cloning were in the works before the cloning claim by the Raelians, who believe that human life was created by space aliens. But legislators say anxiety over the Raelians' claim helped propel the wave of proposals.

"Cloning seemed like science fiction, until one day there it was on the news," says T.R. Rowe, a Republican in the Connecticut House of Representatives who has introduced a bill that would ban all cloning. "Just like that, it has become part of the public debate."

In cloning, scientists mimic reproduction by inserting DNA from the nucleus of an adult cell into an egg cell whose nucleus has been removed. The resulting embryo is a genetic copy of the adult from whom the nucleus was drawn.

Scientists have produced cloned sheep and cats but, despite the Raelians' claims, no known humans. Some legislators say the cell-transfer technique used to create a cloned embryo should be banned before that can happen. Others would permit it as long as the clones produced were used for research and not to produce babies.

Because of that division, getting cloning bans passed has proven difficult. The U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill banning the cloning technique in 2001. But such a plan stalled in the Senate last year, after biotech industry lobbyists, disease sufferers and others who favor preserving research cloning weighed in.

Six states have produced cloning regulations since 1997, when Scottish researchers announced the birth of Dolly, the first sheep cloned from an adult cell. (Dolly, suffering from lung disease, was euthanized this month.)

Michigan and Iowa ban all cloning, and California, Louisiana, Virginia and Rhode Island ban cloning aimed at producing a child, according the National Conference of State Legislatures.

The U.S. House is scheduled to vote Thursday on another full cloning ban. Its prospects for clearing the Senate remain cloudy.

If it passed, it likely would supersede the state laws already in place.

A hearing this month in Indiana's House of Representatives was typical of the recent debate. Advocates of a cloning ban argued that research cloning is akin to abortion because the clone is destroyed in the process.

They argued that it is wrong to create human life as a commodity, even for well-intentioned research. And they said permitting research cloning would lead to baby cloning by creating a pool of cloned embryos that rogue scientists could tap.

Proponents of research cloning argued that it is humanitarian and that baby cloning can be prevented by strict controls and criminal penalties. Academics and biotechnology industries in Indiana would move elsewhere if the state proved unfriendly to research such as cloning, proponents argued. Echoing scientists' claims, a multiple sclerosis sufferer said that cloning research offered hope for a cure.

"The (committee) chairman asked me if we couldn't get together on a compromise of some sort," says Rep. Peggy Welch, a Bloomington Democrat who has proposed banning all forms of cloning. "Ordinarily, I'd jump at the chance, but not with cloning. On an issue as fundamental as this, there just may not be any room to compromise."

"Since there is no cure for the common cold, it does not receive a lot of attention when compared to less common conditions. We wanted to calculate the total economic impact that the cold has on our economy." 

The U-M researchers conducted a nationwide telephone survey of more than four-thousand U.S. households to find out the number of self-reported cases of the common cold, as well as specific ways respondents treated their illness. Nearly three-quarters of the respondents reported suffering from a cold within the last year, with an average of 2.5 episodes. 

"A cold is the most commonly occurring illness in humans, so it was no surprise that there are approximately 500 million colds each year in the U.S.," says Fendrick. "What was a surprise is how often the public uses the health care system to treat a cold." 

The study measured doctor's bills, over-the-counter medication, and prescription drugs. It also recorded missed school and work days, a cost that is generally overlooked, added Fendrick. 

"For some, catching a cold may lead to a trip to the drug store to stock up on throat lozenges and nasal decongestants, and for others a brief doctor's visit," says Fendrick. "The public doesn't usually consider the costs associated with missing a day of work due to illness or having to stay home to take care of a sick child. Not surprisingly, lost work drives most of the cost." 

The study found that Americans spend $2.9 billion on over-the-counter drugs and another $400 million on prescription medicines for symptomatic relief. Additionally, more than $1.1 billion are spent annually on the estimated 41 million antibiotic prescriptions for cold sufferers, even though antibiotics have no effect on a viral illness. 

"We found that the common cold leads to more than 100 million physician visits annually at a conservative cost estimate of $7.7 billion per year," Fendrick says. "More than one third of patients who saw a doctor received an antibiotic prescription. While these unnecessary costs are problematic, what is more concerning is how these treatment patterns contribute to the development of antibiotic resistance, a significant public health concern." 

The study reports that an estimated 189 million school days (an average of nearly 1 day per episode) are missed annually due to a cold. As a result, parents missed 126 million workdays in order to stay home to care for their child. When added to the workdays missed by employees suffering from a cold, the total economic impact of cold-related work loss exceeds $20 billion. 

"Because there is no cure for the common cold it gets far less attention than many less common conditions," Fendrick says. "An intervention that would effectively prevent or treat the cold would have a huge clinical and economic impact, far greater than for chronic diseases that we hear about on a regular basis."

Production on the lovestruck spoof starts in August, ostensibly when Buffy would start filming on its eighth season.

The casting news put a stake through Gellar's return to the UPN series. 

Then word leaked of Gellar's come-clean interview in Entertainment Weekly's March 7 issue. "Buffy, in this incarnation, is over," said the actress, whose contract expires at the end of this season. 

Finally on Thursday, 20th Century Fox Television and UPN confirmed what insiders already knew, production on the series would end this April after seven seasons and 144 shows.

The series finale will air May 20. While Eliza Dushku and Alyson Hannigan are both making crossover appearance on Angel and Buffy, this season there's no word if the titular lovers separated by destiny, several hundred years and network rivals will finally reunite for the last episode. 

"It's hard to believe it's over," said creator Joss Whedon in a written statement released through UPN Thursday. "Well, it's hard to think at all, or stand, or form vowel sounds, so maybe it's time to take a break. I'm just glad I can say we did our best on every single episode. We didn't always succeed, but we never slacked, and I'm immensely proud of my writers, actors and crew for that. 

"And I'm proud of what this show means...I truly believe that in years to come, people will look back and say 'that was a show that was on TV.' Yessir. I truly do," said Whedon, who received an Emmy nomination for the creepy classic episode "Hush." 

The eulogies were echoed by execs at 20th Century Fox and UPN. "Buffy the Vampire Slayer will go down in history as one of television's best shows and an enduring testament to the vision and genius of its creator Joss Whedon," said 20th Century Fox Television prez Dana Walden. "For seven years, Joss, his team of writers led by Marti Noxon and an extraordinary cast led by Sarah Michelle Gellar captured the cultural zeitgeist and effortlessly combined drama, action and humor. Without question, Buffy will live on for generations to come." 

"We have been very fortunate to be the home to such a landmark series, always brilliantly written and acted," chimed in Dawn Ostroff UPN's entertainment boss. "I'd like to send a special thanks to the remarkably talented actors, producers, writers and crew who worked tirelessly through the years." 

Gellar won the role of the Chosen One back in 1997 when Buffy the Vampire Slayer was nothing more than a punchline, based on the box-office bomb starring Kristy Swanson and Luke Perry (how bummed are they not to have signed on for the series?). 

Prior to Buffy, Gellar was best known for her sudsy role as Kendall Hart, daughter of scheming Erica Kane (Susan Lucci) on All My Children, for which she won a Daytime Emmy. 

Despite its dedicated fan base, Buffy would never win the thespian an Emmy (or even a nomination, though she was nominated for a Best Actress Golden Globe), but during her seven-season tenure Gellar managed to add multiple credits to her résumé. While pulling double duty as wisecracking schoolgirl and vampire slayer, Gellar also moonlighted during her hiatus in movies like Scream 2, I Know What You Did Last Summer, Cruel Intentions, Simply Irresistible and Scooby-Doo.

Gellar's break-neck schedule won't slow down, with the actress slated to begin production on Scooby-Doo Too with husband Freddie Prinze Jr. as soon as Buffy wraps. Warner Bros. is eyeing a summer 2004 release for the sequel with a script already in the works for the third installment of the franchise. 

Rumors of Gellar's departure began lurking on the Internet last summer, when news that Buffy's sister Dawn (Michelle Trachtenberg) would have a larger role in the seventh season, prompting speculation that the demon-battling heroine would pass the stake on to her little sis. 

Most recently, Dushku's name was put forward as a possible slayer sub for a potential spin-off series. Dushku joined the Scooby gang in the third season as rogue Slayer Faith, but an alliance with the dark side put an end to her time in Sunnydale. 

Ultimately, the Hellmouth could go unprotected since a rep for the actress just confirmed she's inked a pilot deal with Fox for an untitled project from writer John Feldman, which would see Dushku as a morgue employee who talks to the dead instead of staking them. The corpses tell Dushku's character how they were murdered and every morning she relives the same day, hoping to set things right. 

In addition, Buffy's executive producer Noxon has already been tapped for a new one-hour drama next season, leaving the fate of Sunnydale uncertain. 

Still producers maintain the possibility that the slayer mythology lives on. According to the statement from 20th Century Fox and UPN: "Discussions regarding the future of the Buffy franchise and a possible spin-off are ongoing."

Official Buffy site - http://www.buffy.com

What will Life After Buffy be like? Read our January rant here.

Pilot Fever: Eliza Dushku and The Monkees 
By Nellie Andreeva 

Hollywood February 25, 2003 (Hollywood Reporter) - Eliza Dushku (Faith on Buffy and Angel) has been cast as the lead in Fox's untitled John Feldman drama pilot for director Phillip Noyce.

NBC has greenlighted "The Monkees," a half-hour pilot based on the 1960s NBC series, which was inspired by the Beatles film "A Hard Day's Night."

NBC Studios is producing the pilot with 19 Television and Rhino Films.

Bill Oakley and Josh Elvis Weinstein penned the script and are executive producing with Simon Fuller and Harold Bronson.

The WB Network has tapped "Gilmore Girls" co-star Jared Padalecki for the title role in its drama pilot "MacGyver."

At ABC, veteran screen and theater actor Frank Langella has been cast in the drama pilot "111 Grammercy Park," while Melora Walters ("Magnolia"), Will Lyman, Kurt Caceres ("American Family"), Anthony Azizi and Mahershalalhashbaz Ali round out the cast of the drama pilot "Threat Matrix."

The Monkees Official site - http://www.monkees.net 

Eliza Dushku fan site - http://eliza-dushku.com 

SG-1 Seventh Season in Production

Hollywood February 24, 2003 (Sci Fi Wire) - Production began Feb. 24 on the seventh season of SCI FI Channel's top-rated original series Stargate SG-1, the network announced. The series continues to score high with viewers, both in its original episodes and in its repeats from other seasons.

The Jan. 10 winter premiere of the series delivered a 1.7 rating (1.3 million households). The show continued to perform well throughout the month, peaking at 1.9 (1.5 million households), and earning a 1.7 (1.3 million households) average for January--a 70 percent improvement over the time-period average one year ago. This is the strongest January performance of any show in SCI FI Channel history.

The series also excelled on Monday nights with a regularly scheduled block of four back-to-back episodes from past seasons. The Monday episodes scored a 1.4 average for January, making it the second-highest-rated night of the week following SCI FI Fridays.

The upcoming season (the second original season produced exclusively for SCI FI) will feature the highly anticipated return of fan favorite Michael Shanks as civilian archaeologist Daniel Jackson.

After seven years on the air, Stargate SG-1 now ranks among the longest-running science fiction series on television.

Official Stargate SG-1 site - http://www.stargate-sg1.com 

Rob Lowe Revives King 
By John Dempsey

NEW YORK February 24, 2003 (Variety) - Actor Rob Lowe is going from "The West Wing" to a pair of bat wings. 

TNT has signed Lowe to star in its miniseries remake of the Stephen King novel "Salem's Lot," playing a journalist who returns to his New England hometown to find that it has become infested with vampires. 

In keeping with its willingness to pay more for high-end productions than any other cable network except HBO, TNT will lay out more than $15 million for the four-hour project. 

Although he declined to confirm the cost, TNT senior vice president of movies and miniseries Michael Wright said, "We're known for putting the production values up on the screen." 

Casting is under way for the other key roles, and Wright said the plan is to start production in Australia in about two months. 

The original 1979 miniseries "Salem's Lot," directed by Tobe Hooper, starred James Mason and David Soul. It did well overseas as a theatrical under the title "Blood Thirst" and spawned a low-budget 1987 sequel, "Return to Salem's Lot." 

Peter Filardi ("Flatliners," "The Craft") did the new script adaptation of "Salem's Lot," and Mikael Salomon will direct. 

Lowe, who starred as presidential speechwriter Sam Seaborn on "The West Wing" for four years, decided to leave the NBC political drama this season in a highly publicized salary dispute with the show's producers.

Beatles Museum Shows Harrison's First Guitar

LONDON February 25, 2003 (Reuters) - George Harrison's first guitar went on display at the Beatles museum in Liverpool Tuesday, the day the "Quiet Beatle" would have turned 60.

The small acoustic wooden guitar, which Harrison bought in the mid-1950s, is valued at $800,000 and has been loaned indefinitely to the Beatles Story museum by a British collector who recently bought it in the United States. 

Harrison died in Los Angeles in November 2001 after a long battle with throat cancer. 

"We are expecting a really busy day," museum curator Sandy Quayle told Reuters Tuesday. "This modest little guitar of George's is so beautiful because it captures the promise of what was to become a legend for millions of fans all over the world." 

Harrison's mother gave him the money to buy the Egmond guitar from a classmate when he was 12 or 13. 

"It was a wonderful exhibit, it is about time something was done for George," said one fan who visited the museum. 

Another said: "It is amazing to actually see this guitar. It is wonderful for the museum and wonderful for Liverpool." 

Harrison was the second Beatle to die -- John Lennon was gunned down by a crazed fan in New York in 1980.

The two surviving members of the world's most famous pop group, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, paid an emotional tribute to Harrison at a memorial concert in November to mark the first anniversary of his death. ($1=.6330 Pound) 

Beatles Story website - http://www.beatlesstory.com

Star Trek: Nemesis DVD/VHS Due in May
Star Trek Press Release

February 21, 2003 - A generation's final journey begins again on May 20 as "Star Trek Nemesis," the tenth feature film of the venerable franchise, arrives on video and DVD. 

The extras on the DVD include seven deleted scenes; a commentary by director Stuart Baird; four brand-new featurettes titled "New Frontiers: Stuart Baird on Directing Nemesis," "A Bold Vision of the Final Frontier," "A Star Trek Family's Final Journey" and "Red Alert! Shooting the Action of Nemesis"; plus a photo gallery. 

The DVD is presented in full-screen version and in widescreen format enhanced for 16:9 televisions. Both DVD and VHS feature Dolby Digital English 5.1, English Dolby Surround and French Dolby Surround, and both versions are closed-captioned and sub-titled for the hearing-impaired.

Ephron Writing 'Bewitched' for Kidman
By Zorianna Kit 

Hollywood February 25, 2003 (Hollywood Reporter) - Nora Ephron is in final negotiations to write and direct "Bewitched," a feature film adaptation based on the long-running television series of the same name that Doug Wick and Lucy Fisher's Red Wagon Prods. is producing for Columbia Pictures.

Ephron is writing the project specifically for Nicole Kidman, who in the fall expressed an interest in starring as pretty witch Samantha, who earnestly tries to abandon her powers for the sake of her mortal husband, Darren, but temptation constantly gets in the way.

However, no deals are yet in place for the actress, though one is expected to eventually be made with the hopes of going into production early next year.

Penny Marshall, who at one point had been developing the feature film version, is expected to produce the project in some capacity with Red Wagon.

[The TV version ran from 1964-1972. Bewitched starred Elizabeth Montgomery as Samantha/Serena, with Dick York as Darrin Stephens (1964-1969), Dick Sargent as Darrin Stephens (1969-1972), and Agnes Moorehead as Sam's mother Endora. Ed.]

DeVito To Marry a Witch
By Dana Harris 

HOLLYWOOD (Variety) - Danny DeVito has agreed to direct a remake of the 1942 comedy "I Married a Witch," for Columbia Pictures, with Tom Cruise possibly starring in the picture in addition to producing it.

The original starred Fredric March and Veronica Lake. 

Although the film has not been approved by Columbia for its production slate, DeVito told Daily Variety that he hopes to begin shooting toward the end of the year, and he expects the comedy to be his next directorial outing.

Michael Leeson ("War of the Roses") is writing the "Witch" remake script. In the original film, a witch burned at the stake in the 1600s puts a curse on her tormentor's family to ensure that his male descendants always marry the wrong woman.

[The original film version was directed by René Clair and co-starred Robert Benchley and Susan Hayward. It probably inspired the better-known witch comedy Bell, Book and Candle (1958), starring Kim Novak, James Stewart and Jack Lemmon - not to mention Bewitched. Ed.]

More on I Married A Witch - http://www.imdb.com/Details?0034881