Tiger

The Africa Wildlife Park, in Camp Verde, Arizona, has a really strange attraction. At first glance, it appears as if a group of swimmers are about to become a tiger's lunch. But despite appearances, pictures taken by a wildflife photographer actually shows the animal playing with zoo keepers in a pool. Used to human contact, the tigers play a harmless game of chase with their trainers around the pool before diving in. Although they look ferocious, the animals don't protract their claws, so no harm comes to the trainers. The game involving six Bengal and Siberian tigers is a popular attraction at the Africa Wildlife Park, in Camp Verde, Arizona. Kathleen Reeder, 52, a wildlife photographer who captured the images, said "There will always be two keepers in the water to make sure that things don't get out of hand."

"Elephant" Emerald

Gemstone producer Gemfields has announced the discovery of an "exceptional" 6,225 carat rough emerald in its Kagem mine in Zambia. The emerald was recovered during normal mining operations on February 5, the company said in a statement, and is being examined by Gemfields' experts to establish a clearer understanding of its value and significance. The emerald has been named "Insofu" (which means "elephant" in the language of the Bemba people of the region) due to its size and in honor of the World Land Trust's "Wild Lands Elephant Corridor Project", of which Gemfields is a participant.

British archives Released

 The British government has released over 2000 pages of files containing reports made by people who saw UFOs. The sightings range from incredible tales of little green men visiting the Wirral to corroborated accounts from policemen and pilots of Unidentified Flying Objects hovering above towns and cities. All are recorded on official forms, held by air bases and police stations, and compiled by the Ministry of Defence between 1978 and 2002.

Disclosed for the first time is a report from three experienced air traffic controllers who attempted to "talk in" a UFO which landed on the runway before them. The incident occurred on April 19, 1984, at an East Anglian airfield which was operating two runways called 22 and 27. In the control tower a senior air traffic controller  was supervising his deputy and an assistant. According to the report, the deputy was in contact with a light aircraft preparing to land on runway 22 when the Air traffic controller noticed lights approaching the other runway. The unidentified object came in at speed, made a touch and go on runway 27 then departed at terrific speed in a near vertical climb, according to the files. It was described as a "brilliant solid ball of light, bright silvery in color". The file noted that "witnesses do not wish to be identified in case their professional integrity is questioned". Others in the aviation industry also encountered unidentified flying objects, including a Sea King helicopter crew who tracked two objects on their radar for 40 miles, travelling at almost one nautical mile per second, in September 1985.

A couple in the Wirral claimed to have had an encounter of an altogether closer kind Claiming to have visited the alien's bases in Cheshire and seen their ship.They even claimed to have interacted with the aliens including one who was killed in 1984 by another alien race.

Nick Pope, who worked for the MoD for 21 years and was responsible for investigating the sightings, said: "Most of the UFO sightings here are probably misidentifications of aircraft lights and meteors, but some are more difficult to explain." 

These files can be found on www.ufos.nationalarchives.gov.uk/

Tax office version of 9/11

A TEXAS man, Joseph Andrew Stack, set his house on fire, then stole a small plane and crashed it into a building containing a federal tax office on Thursday, CNN reported citing federal officials. "This was apparently -- according to an official -- a deliberate act," CNN anchor Tony Harris said.

The inset shows the building after the small plane crashed into it. The plane struck the second floor of the seven-story building in Austin, Texas about 10 am and burst into flames in a massive explosion that forced people to flee out of the windows, witnesses and officials said. There was "no known link to terrorism" the Department of Homeland Security said, noting that the cause of the crash was not yet known.

North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) launched two F-16 fighter aircraft from Ellington Field in Houston, Texas to conduct an air patrol in response to the crash.
Two people were taken to hospital and one person was unaccounted for, but fire officials said they believed everyone else had been evacuated.

Fate of the pilot was not immediately clear. Now it is known that he has left the world and left the people still on it an angry anti-tax agency web page.

Berlusconi on immigration

Silvio Berlusconi has said that while illegal immigrants were not welcome in Italy he would make an exception for "beautiful girls". The Italian PM, who is renowned for making jokes of questionable taste, was speaking to journalists after holding talks with Albanian PM Sali Berisha. He said an accord between Italy and Albania had successfully clamped down on the trafficking of illegal immigrants across the Adriatic Sea. He then joked: "I said to Sali -- we'd make exceptions for anyone bringing over beautiful girls."