The "News" thread.

[Buster's Uncle]

Bea Arthur topless painting fetches $1.9M in NYC
Painting of late 'Golden Girls' actress Bea Arthur topless fetches $1.9 million at NYC auction
Associated Press – Fri, May 17, 2013..


NEW YORK (AP) -- A painting of actress Bea Arthur topless has sold for $1.9 million at a New York City auction.

The painting is by artist John Currin and is titled "Bea Arthur Naked." It sold at Christie's auction of postwar and contemporary art on Wednesday. It had been expected to bring in between $1.8 million and $2.5 million.

Christie's hasn't said who bought it.

The 1991 oil painting depicts the late television actress nude from the waist up. Christie's said Thursday the image was based on a photograph of her with her clothes on.

Arthur gained fame for her Emmy Award-winning roles in "Maude" and "The Golden Girls" in the 1970s and '80s. She died of cancer in 2009 at age 86.

http://news.yahoo.com/bea-arthur-topless-painting-fetches-131634944.html

[Unorthodox]

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2013/05/19/could-honeybees-save-europe-from-land-mines-croatian-scientists-think-so/

AGREB, Croatia –  Mirjana Filipovic is still haunted by the land mine blast that killed her boyfriend and blew off her left leg while on fishing trip nearly a decade ago. It happened in a field that was supposedly de-mined.

Now, unlikely heroes may be coming to the rescue to prevent similar tragedies: sugar-craving honeybees. Croatian researchers are training them to find unexploded mines littering their country and the rest of the Balkans.

When Croatia joins the European Union on July 1, in addition to the beauty of its aquamarine Adriatic sea, deep blue mountain lakes and lush green forests, it will also bring numerous un-cleared minefields to the bloc's territory. About 750 square kilometers (466 square miles) are still suspected to be filled with mines from the Balkan wars in the 1990s.

Nikola Kezic, an expert on the behavior of honeybees, sat quietly together with a group of young researchers on a recent day in a large net tent filled with the buzzing insects on a grass field lined with acacia trees. The professor at Zagreb University outlined the idea for the experiment: Bees have a perfect sense of smell that can quickly detect the scent of the explosives. They are being trained to identify their food with the scent of TNT.

"Our basic conclusion is that the bees can clearly detect this target, and we are very satisfied," said Kezic, who leads a part of a larger multimillion-euro program, called "Tiramisu," sponsored by the EU to detect land mines on the continent.

Several feeding points were set up on the ground around the tent, but only a few have TNT particles in them. The method of training the bees by authenticating the scent of explosives with the food they eat appears to work: bees gather mainly at the pots containing a sugar solution mixed with TNT, and not the ones that have a different smell.

Kezic said the feeding points containing the TNT traces offer "a sugar solution as a reward, so they can find the food in the middle."

"It is not a problem for a bee to learn the smell of an explosive, which it can then search," Kezic said. "You can train a bee, but training their colony of thousands becomes a problem."

Croatian officials estimate that since the beginning of the Balkan wars in 1991, about 2,500 people have died from land mine explosions. During the four-year war, around 90,000 land mines were placed across the entire country, mostly at random and without any plan or existing maps.

Dijana Plestina, the head of the Croatian government's de-mining bureau, said the suspected devices represent a large obstacle for the country's population and industry, including agriculture and tourism. In the nearly two decades since the end of the war, land mines have taken the lives of 316 people, including 66 de-miners, she said.

"While this exists, we are living in a kind of terror, at least for the people who are living in areas suspected to have mines," she said. "And of course, that is unacceptable. We will not be a country in peace until this problem is solved."

In 2004, Filipovic and her boyfriend were on a fishing trip that took them to a river between Croatia and Bosnia.

"As we were returning hand-in-hand, my boyfriend stepped on a mine," the 41-year-old Filipovic said. "It was an awful, deafening explosion ... thousands of shrapnel parts went flying, hundreds ending up in my body. He was found dead several meters away, while I remained in a pool of blood sitting on the ground."

She sued the Croatian government, saying the area wasn't clearly marked as a former minefield.

"At first I thought I was asleep," she recalled. "Then I heard the voice of my father. I opened my eyes, and saw nothing. I thought I lost my eyes."

The government admitted guilt in the case for failing to keep the minefield sign, but the court has yet to determine financial compensation.

It may be a while before the honeybees hit real minefields, Kezic said. First, they will conduct controlled tests, with real mines but which are marked.

Kezic said American researchers have in the past experimented with mine-searching bees, but TNT — the most common explosive used in the Balkan wars — wasn't part of their experiment because its smell evaporates quickly, and only small traces remain after time. Rats and dogs are also used to detect explosives worldwide, but unlike bees, they could set off blasts on the minefields because of their weight.

Even after the de-miners have done their job in an area, some land mines are missed and remain in the soil, and they are most often the cause of deadly explosions. Once the experiment with bees proves scientifically reliable, the idea is to use them in the areas that have already been de-mined, where their movement would be followed with heat-seeking cameras, Kezic said.

"We are not saying that we will discover all the mines on a minefield, but the fact is that it should be checked if a minefield is really de-mined," he said. "It has been scientifically proven that there are never zero mines on a de-mined field, and that's where bees could come in."



Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2013/05/19/could-honeybees-save-europe-from-land-mines-croatian-scientists-think-so/#ixzz2TrdhkelW

.....

[Unorthodox]

Bah, rub some dirt in it. 

http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2013-05/antibacterial-clays-can-kill-antibiotic-resistant-e-coli-and-mrsa

The colloquial medical advice “rub some dirt in it” appears to have some merit. Researchers at Arizona State University’s Biodesign Institute have been experimenting with different clays, and it appears in research presented in the journal PLoS ONE that they’ve come across a family of antibacterial clays capable of killing pathogens ranging from E. coli to methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, otherwise known as hard-to-kill MRSA.

Clays have been used as medical tools for ages, appearing in ancient medical texts going back as far as 3,000 B.C. Topically, they were used to treat wounds, a practice that became common in the 19th century. Early practitioners of clay therapy noted that clays tended to aid in healing, in reducing inflammation of wounds, and in pain management--though they couldn’t have known why exactly.

It turns out that’s probably because some clays--particularly clays rich in a certain group of metallic ions--work as antibacterial agents. In their study, the ASU researchers tested a variety of different clays with similar mineral composition but ranging compositions of metallic ions against E. coli and MRSA. They found that five metal ions--iron, copper, cobalt, nickel, and zinc--could fight the two bacterial strains, both of which are increasingly difficult to kill using standard antibiotics and antibacterials.

That doesn’t mean these clays are silver bullet or any kind of antibacterial panacea. Not all clays are created equal and some lack the necessary concentrations of the necessary metal ions. Moreover, clays can contain other metals as well, like cadmium, lead, mercury, and arsenic (if you weren’t paying attention in chem class, these are not metals you particularly want to introduce to your bloodstream).

But the researchers are optimistic that medicinal clays could find widespread use in certain therapeutic roles, particularly as bandaging agents as their absorptive and adhering characteristics make them somewhat ideal for sealing out external pathogens as well as absorbing and removing unwanted particulates or devitalized tissues from wounds--all while delivering a dose of antibacterial ions to the affected area.

[Buster's Uncle]

Missing man walks up to news crew reporting on … missing man
By Dylan Stableford, Yahoo! News | The Sideshow – 6 hrs ago..


A local television news crew reporting on a missing Maine man found him as they were about to shoot a live update near his home.

Robert McDonough, a 73-year-old who suffers from dementia, had been missing for more than 14 hours when he walked past the WMTW News 8 crew camped out on the side of his road in rural Limington.

News 8 reporter Norm Karkos was preparing to deliver a live report on "News 8 This Morning" early Tuesday when McDonough walked into the frame. Karkos did not immediately recognize McDonough, who then identified himself to the stunned TV crew. They notified the Maine Warden Service, which had been searching for McDonough since late Monday afternoon.

The game wardens said they were just about to ramp up their search for McDonough when he returned home.

The man appeared to be in good condition, although Karkos said he spotted "some blood on McDonough's hand."



Robert McDonough (background) approaches the WMTW News 8 crew. (WMTW)

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/news-crew-reporting-missing-man-finds-him-during-144040400.html

[Unorthodox]

Utah...

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/05/30/utah-top-gun-lobbyist-arrested-for-threatening-ex-wife-with-zombie-response-vehicle/

One of Utah’s top gun lobbyists was arrested this week after he allegedly used a 2.5-ton Army surplus vehicle to threaten the lives of his ex-wife’s family, but his lawyer insisted that he was simply “having fun in his big boy toy.”

According to a KTSU report, Utah Shooting Sports Council Chairman Clark Aposhian was arrested by Salt Lake police on Monday for domestic violence. If Aposhian is convicted, he would have to give up his arsenal of weapons and possibly his job as chairman.

Police Sgt. Mark Askerlund told KTSU that a woman reported that Aposhian had driven his 2.5-ton army surplus truck onto her property.


“[He] honked the air horn, pulled into the residence, running over the lawn and almost striking her vehicle,” Askerlund said, adding that Aposhian returned to the victim’s home while police were investigating.

“And while we’re there investigating the trespassing and the threats, he comes back, and to make a long story short: Mr. Aposhian was arrested for domestic violence and trespassing,” he explained.

“He did indicate to the officers that he was carrying a weapon,” Askerlund recalled. “The officers took his weapon away. He was charged with a crime. They booked the weapon into evidence and transported Mr. Aposhian to jail.”

KTSU reported that the arrest report indicated that Aposhian “allegedly told the victim that he will go wherever he wants and he would run over the victim’s cars and bury the victim.”

Video of Aposhian’s M35 Army surplus truck — often referred to as a “deuce and a half” — showed that he spray-painted the words “CTWD HGTS NEIGHBORHOOD WATCH” and “ZOMBIE RESPONSE VEHICLE” on the side. Salon noted earlier this year that gun owners seemed to have an obsession with zombies. The National Rifle Association’s (NRA) conference earlier this month feature zombie targets resembling President Barack Obama and an “ex-girlfriend” that actually bleed when shot. And the NRA has even picked “Zombieland” as one of “Coolest Gun Movies.”

Aposhian’s attorney, Mitch Vilos, told The Salt Lake Tribune on Wednesday that his client was “having fun in his big boy toy.”


Vilos explained that the dispute is related to a custody dispute between Aposhian and his ex-wife, who lives in the same neighborhood. Vilos said that it was “starting to get under his skin that he was being denied custody” of his 11-year-old daughter and that’s why his client was on edge when police arrested him.

“I’m trying to figure out why this family would go so ballistic for [him] backing into a driveway,” the attorney remarked. “It’s a non-event.”

“I would blame the Cottonwood Heights police for doing an incompetent investigation,” he added.

Aposhian found himself in hot water earlier this year when his assault rifle was stolen from where he left it on the top of his vehicle.

Watch this video from KTSU, broadcast May 30, 2013.

[Buster's Uncle]

'Poop Transplants' Stall Amid New Rules
By Rachael Rettner, LiveScience Senior Health Writer  | LiveScience.com – Fri, May 31, 2013..

 
Poop transplants, which have become a more common way to treat potentially deadly bacterial infections in the intestines in recent years, have come to a near standstill amid new rules from the Food and Drug Administration regarding the procedure.

The FDA said last month that it considers the procedure, formally known as fecal microbiota transplantation, to be a biological product, and so it falls under the agency's regulation. The new rules require doctors to submit a special application before they are allowed to perform the procedure.

Fecal matter transplants had been essentially unregulated before the FDA statement. The transplants — which involve taking fecal matter from a donor and delivering it to patients' colons through a tube — have been shown in studies to be a very effective therapy for treating the bacterial infection Clostridium difficile. The infection, which causes severe diarrhea, is notoriously difficult to cure.

The new rules are intended to make sure the procedure is safe — to ensure for instance that donors are screened for certain infectious diseases, and that doctors do not perform the procedure unnecessarily.

However, some say the rules are hindering sick patients from getting access to a treatment that they need.
 "The regulation by the FDA has created a denial, or an interrupted access, of care for patients," said Dr. Johan Bakken, an infectious disease specialist at the University of Minnesota.

The application process is extensive, and doctors may wait up to 30 to 45 days before they hear back from the FDA, Bakken said. "It becomes a very significant stumbling block, and most clinicians won't take the time to do that," if they aren't already filing paperwork to conduct a research project, he said.

"It's really made a limited-availability procedure basically unavailable for a period of time," said Dr. Trevor Van Schooneveld, an assistant professor of infectious disease at the Nebraska Medical Center's Department of Internal Medicine.

The FDA's goal to make the procedure safe is an excellent one, Van Schooneveld said, but "to just basically stop people from being able to do it, without guidance on where to go from here, is unfortunate."

In an emergency (when the patient's condition is life-threatening) the FDA can give a special approval for the procedure over the telephone without needing the paperwork. But doctors will still have to complete the application eventually, so it doesn't eliminate the extra work, Bakken said.

The spectrum of disease among patients who are candidates for fecal transplantation ranges from recurrent diarrhea that lasts for years, to life-threatening complications that may require the removal of the colon, Bakken said.

C. difficile causes 14,000 American deaths each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Many patients already have trouble accessing the procedure because it is not always covered by insurance.

Although more than 700 fecal transplants have been preformed — some going back to the 1950s — the FDA still has questions about the long-term effects of the treatment, Bakken said. More studies are needed that randomly assign patients to receive either fecal transplants or an alternative treatment to better understand the side effects, Bakken said.

Once such studies have been conducted, the FDA could approve fecal transplants as a treatment of C. difficile if there appear to be no adverse effects, he said.

Until then, groups such as the Infectious Disease Society of America, the American Gastroenterological Association and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are discussing how they can provide the transplants so that those who need them can get them, Bakken said.

http://news.yahoo.com/poop-transplants-stall-amid-rules-140227187.html

[Buster's Uncle]

Bad behavior on reality TV is tested path to fame
By CRISTINA SILVA | Associated Press – 34 mins ago..

 
PHOENIX (AP) — Arizona restaurateur Amy Bouzaglo became an instant Internet celebrity last month after demonstrating an impressively short temper on a reality TV show that helps reform struggling businesses.

The episode of "Kitchen Nightmares" drew more than a million viewers on YouTube, and Bouzaglo's vitriolic rants became popular fodder on Twitter and Facebook.

So it should surprise no one that her next step was to announce she was shopping around her own reality TV show.

These days, head butting, table flipping, belly slapping, hair pulling, smack talking and other behavior generally considered impolite have become a tested strategy for reality TV fame, as seen in the proliferation of such shows as "Here Comes Honey Boo Boo," ''Basketball Wives" and the "Real Housewives" franchise.

Some reality "stars" have become brands of their own after churning out self-help books, hair products, cocktail lines and flavored water. And the next generation of more shocking, immoral and declassee reality celebrities always seems just one face-slap away.

"That's the easiest kind of reality show to make and to sell," said Jason Carbone, a veteran reality TV producer behind shows such as "Road Rules," ''The Bachelor" and "Run's House."

"It's something where there are loud characters doing stupid, obnoxious things and you are either laughing with them or at them," he said.

Richard Hatch became America's favorite villain when he won the first season of the CBS reality series "Survivor" in 2000 by forming alliances and otherwise acting strategically. His behavior likely would be considered tame compared to the current crop of bad boys and girls, said Max Dawson, a reality TV show consultant in Los Angeles.

"He didn't pull weaves out and attack the other contestants on social media while the show was airing," Dawson said.

While cast members once had an entire season to build a character arc, social media now incentivizes villains to immediately act outrageous.

"Any moment is not only going to be discussed ad nauseam on Twitter, it's going to be uploaded on YouTube, it will be turned into an image meme, it will instantly, in most cases, go viral," Dawson said.

Modern television has become so predictably vulgar that a PBS station in New York recently launched a series of subway ads lampooning reality shows. The posters promote fake shows including "Bad Bad Bag Boys" and "Knitting Wars," alongside the slogan: "The fact you thought this was a real show says a lot about the state of TV."

Bouzaglo, who has repeatedly ignored requests for comment, was expected to discuss her proposed reality show on the television newsmagazine "Inside Edition" late Tuesday. She and her husband, Samy Bouzaglo, said they went on the show to disprove bad online reviews of their business, Amy's Baking Co., in Scottsdale, Ariz. But their story went viral after host and celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay ended up walking away when they grew incensed over his constructive criticism.

It's not hard to imagine the foul-mouthed, defensive couple launching a TV series and creating a line of, say, Amy's Angry Kitchen products if only because so many others have already blazed that path.

On Bravo's "The Real Housewives of New Jersey," Teresa Giudice launched a line of cookbooks and hair products after flipping over a table at a dinner party. Beauty pageant participant Alana "Honey Boo Boo" Thompson became a household name after the TLC network created a show capitalizing on her family's redneck stereotypes.

On MTV, the nastiest "Real World" contestants are often the ones invited back each year for an athletic competition show that can sometimes feel like the cast is reliving their cruelest high school memories.

"People who yell and scream sell because they attract the eyeballs and the eyeballs attract the advertisers," said June Deery, a communications professor at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York and the author of "Consuming Reality: The Commercialization of Factual Entertainment."

TV networks are drawn to the shows because they are relatively inexpensive to produce.

"If it doesn't work, you cancel it after three shows. You haven't lost that much money," said James Wiltz, a licensed psychologist in Indiana who has studied reality TV viewership. "But if you get 10 million viewers, you are making a lot of money and you don't have to pay anybody for it."

But what do viewers get out of it? Why do they love to watch these people misbehave?

For one thing, anything taboo always has a certain seductive quality, said Jim Taylor, a University of San Francisco professor who has studied reality television.

"Our inner baby wants to have a tantrum or go off on somebody else because they hurt our feelings, but typically in our society that type of behavior is not rewarded," he said.

For others, the shows are aspirational.

"People fantasize about fame and fortune," Wiltz said. "It's interesting to see someone else who is just sort of a regular person become famous."

That doesn't mean reality TV is a positive distraction. A growing body of research suggests watching people act like jerks on TV inspires others to be less kind or sympathetic. Call it the Kardashian effect. If TV consistently portrays people as selfish and uncouth, it basically sends the message that such behavior is acceptable and lucrative.

"Reality TV normalizes narcissism," said Audrey Longson, a New Jersey psychiatrist who recently presented research at the American Psychiatric Association's annual meeting linking bad behavior and reality TV viewership. "It's alarming."

http://news.yahoo.com/bad-behavior-reality-tv-tested-path-fame-182717508.html

Posted for the sake of that last paragraph, which says something that needs saying.

-Also?  Unfair crack at the Kardashians, who are definitely not very bright or very classy, but not actually terrible people aside from Kris Jenner, who IS horrible.  I pity Bruce Jenner for marrying that mouthy [prostitute].

[Buster's Uncle]

Toddler's Exorcism Death Part of Dark History
By Benjamin Radford, LiveScience Bad Science Columnist  | LiveScience.com – 1 hr 35 mins ago..

 
A Virginia man was convicted earlier this week in the death of a 2-year-old who died during a 2011 exorcism. Eder Guzman-Rodriguez beat his daughter Jocelyn to death in an attempt to rid her of the demon he believed was inside her.

Police summoned to the scene encountered several people holding Bibles outside the home, where Guzman-Rodriguez stated that he had also become possessed by a "bad spirit" when he punched and choked Jocelyn to death. The girl was found on a bed, wrapped in a blanket surrounded by Bibles.

Such beliefs in demonic possession and the violent exorcisms that may follow have a long history and can harm the most innocent among us, children.


Psychology of the exorcism

The belief that demons can possess people is one of the most widely held religious beliefs in the world. The Vatican first issued guidelines on exorcisms in 1614 and revised them in 1999. According to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, signs of demonic possession in adults include superhuman strength, spitting, cursing, aversion to holy water, and the ability to speak in unknown languages.

Those conducting exorcisms are devoutly religious and truly believe they are doing good through the beating and torture of innocents. Though spirits are said to be able to possess anyone, children are especially likely to be suspected of being possessed. Not only are children often thought to be more corruptible and susceptible to evil influences, but their misbehavior (and even innocent actions) may also seem to be manipulated by dark forces. Parents and caregivers who believe in spiritual possession may look for signs their child is possessed: According to police, Guzman-Rodriguez said he believed his daughter was "gesturing to him as if she wanted to fight."

In other cases, believers assume bad behavior is driven by evil spirits — "the devil made me (or him, or her) do it" is very much alive in many people's minds. The beatings and abuse are not seen as a punishment for the child, because the physical aggression, in the exorcist's mind, is directed at the evil spirit within. The child's body is simply seen as a temporary vessel for the bad spirit. The physical and emotional abuse is seen as an unfortunate but necessary price to pay for the child's spiritual salvation.


Child exorcisms

As disturbing as this case is, there are many similar historical precedents. A century ago in Ireland, it was not demons but other supernatural, malevolent entities — fairies — that were believed to possess babies and children. Some children were believed by their parents to be changelings, either "false children" or children possessed by an evil spirit that could be driven from the child through abuse and punishment. In her book "The Burning of Bridget Cleary" (about a woman killed by her husband in an attempt to exorcise fairy spirits from her), folklorist Angela Bourke of the National University of Ireland notes that many "accounts can be found in nineteenth-century newspapers and police reports of suspected child-changelings in Ireland being placed on red-hot shovels, drowned, or otherwise mistreated or killed."

Bourke cites an example from 1828 in which a woman named Ann Roche drowned a 4-year-old boy she believed was possessed; like Guzman-Rodriguez, she claimed that she didn't mean to harm or kill the child, just to drive the spirits out of him. Unlike Guzman-Rodriguez, who was sentenced to just under 21 years in prison, Roche was found not guilty and released.

Though belief in fairies has waned in modern times, belief in spiritual possession by demons and other supernatural entities remains very much with us.  In 2003, an autistic 8-year-old boy in Milwaukee was killed during an exorcism by church members who blamed an invading demon for his disability; and in 2005, a young nun in Romania died at the hands of a priest during an exorcism after being bound to a cross, gagged, and left for days without food or water in an effort to expel demons. In 2010, a 14-year-old boy in England was beaten and drowned to death by relatives trying to exorcise an evil spirit from him.

Though belief in spirits and demons has been a part of humanity for millennia, it also has a dark side and can inflict terrible harm on the most innocent among us.

http://news.yahoo.com/toddlers-exorcism-death-part-dark-history-185139085.html

[Unorthodox]

Confused...so the dad became possessed? 

[Buster's Uncle]

Yes, that is his theory/story.

[Unorthodox]

uh huh.

[Buster's Uncle]

It actually follows if the girl was possessed.

[Unorthodox]

Not only do I believe in possession, but I believe something has attempted to possess me.  I don't buy his story.   

[Buster's Uncle]

I don't either, but if there was already a possessing spirit in the room...

[Buster's Uncle]

Witchcraft Accusations Lead to Torture, Murders
By Marc Lallanilla, Assistant Editor  | LiveScience.com – 2 hrs 39 mins ago..


The witch hunts and subsequent killings that took place in colonial New England are considered a dark chapter in U.S. history.

But across Papua New Guinea and in other places around the world, accusations of witchcraft and sorcery may be on the rise, with tragic results.

In April, an elderly school teacher was beheaded in Papua New Guinea after her neighbors accused her of witchcraft, TIME reports.

A few days earlier, seven people were kidnapped and tortured with hot irons over suspicions of sorcery in Papua New Guinea's Southern Highlands province.

Last year, 29 people in the poor island nation located north of Australia were arrested for killing and cannibalizing the brains and genitals of seven people accused of sorcery.

And in February, Kepari Leniata, a 20-year-old mother in Papua New Guinea's Western Highlands region, was accused of witchcraft by the family of a 6-year-old boy who had recently died.

Leniata was stripped, bound, tortured with a hot iron, doused with gasoline and burned to death on a pile of trash in broad daylight in front of hundreds of onlookers, The Associated Press reports.

The brutal killing was condemned by officials, including Prime Minister Peter O'Neill, but no arrests of Leniata's killers were made.


Superstitions exist worldwide

Papua New Guinea is hardly alone in its embrace of superstitions about witchcraft, sorcery and other "black arts."

In Saudi Arabia, two housemaids were sentenced to 10 years in prison and given 1,000 lashes each after a court found them guilty of sorcery in May, Emirates 24/7 reports.

Throughout Tanzania, albinos have been targeted for killings, because people with the congenital condition are viewed as evil demons. Their body parts, however, are believed to have magical powers — so they are often the victims of mutilation.

"We are killed, we are hunted, we are chopped," albino activist Josephat Torner told CNN.

And a civil aviation director in the southeastern African country of Swaziland recently made headlines when he told a newspaper that "a witch on a broomstick should not fly above the limit" of 492 feet (150 meters) established for small objects like kites, toy helicopters and other airborne items.

Any witch caught flying higher than the limit will be arrested and fined, according to the Times Live.


Officials decry killings

Authorities and academics, however, are pushing back against the rising tide of witchcraft-related killings, torture and other crimes.

Australian National University this month convened a three-day conference in Canberra on sorcery- and witchcraft-related killings. Participants in the event included researchers, human-rights activists, government officials and victims of violence.

"It is reprehensible that women, the old and the weak in our society should be targeted for alleged sorcery or wrongs that they actually have nothing to do with," O'Neill told the AP.

In response, Papua New Guinea has repealed its 1971 Sorcery Act, which criminalized "evil sorcery," known locally as sanguma.

Papua New Guinea also brought back the death penalty for anyone found guilty of murdering a suspected witch (a move that has been condemned by groups including the United Nations and Amnesty International).

Torner is now the subject of a documentary called "In the Shadow of the Sun" (directed by Harry Freeland), which details the plight of albinos in Africa.

"It's my dream in my life that people with albinism are respected and given all rights which other human beings are being given," Torner told CNN.

http://news.yahoo.com/witchcraft-accusations-lead-torture-murders-123456799.html