Last Updated: November 27, 1998.

FIRST U.S. STATION ELEMENT TO BE LAUNCHED DEC. 3

    NASA program managers set Dec. 3 as the official launch date for  the STS-88 mission aboard Space Shuttle Endeavour. This is the first   Shuttle mission dedicated to the assembly of the International Space  Station (ISS), the largest and most complex international cooperative  science and engineering venture in history.

The six-member flight crew will work to mate Endeavour's primary  payload, the U.S.-made Unity connecting module, to the Russian-built  Zarya control module during the 12-day mission. Zarya was launched  on a Proton rocket from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakstan on Nov. 20.  While the STS-88 Flight Readiness Review was in progress, Russian  flight controllers performed tests on Zarya's onboard systems and   adjusted its orbital position.

The Flight Readiness Review, held at NASA's Kennedy Space  Center, FL, began Monday afternoon allowing all Shuttle and ISS  project offices to evaluate the flight readiness of the astronaut  crew, vehicle and cargo, along with the launch and mission control  teams.

"Following Zarya's successful launch last week, it is now NASA's  responsibility to begin the International Space Station assembly  process," said NASA's Johnson Space Center Director George Abbey.  "This flight will clearly demonstrate the unique capabilities of the  Space Shuttle and of astronauts and cosmonauts to assemble large  structures in space. STS-88 will showcase the Shuttle as the safe and   reliable workhorse of the space station era and other future  activities in Earth orbit."

Endeavour is scheduled for launch on Dec. 3 at 3:59 a.m. EST  from launch pad 39A. The exact launch time will be determined during  the final hour of the launch countdown as mission controllers  pinpoint Zarya's exact orbital position. The mission is slated to last 11 days, 19 hours and 49 minutes. An on-time launch will lead to a Kennedy Space Center landing on Monday, Dec. 14, at 11:48 p.m. EST.

The STS-88 Mission Commander is Robert Cabana. The pilot is Fredrick Sturckow. Nancy Currie, Russian cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev, Jerry Ross and James Newman will serve as mission specialists on this flight.

STS-88 will be the 13th flight of Shuttle Endeavour and the 93rd mission in Shuttle program history.

WHITEHALL PLANS TROOP MOBILIZATION IN Y2K CRISIS

UFO Roundup: Volume 3, Number 47. Editor:Joseph Trainor
Whitehall plans to call up thousands of UK Territorial Army reserves to deal with civil unrest sparked by the Year 2000 Computer Crisis, the British newspaper Sunday Mirror reported last week.

The United Kingdom is now the second NATO member to announce deployment of troops during December 1999 as part of Operation Abacus. Two weeks ago, the Globe and Mail of Toronto announced that Canada would call up 60,000 troops to deal with the crisis.

If Whitehall goes through with the plan, it will be the biggest deployment of Territorial Army troops since the start of World War II in September 1939.

According to the Sunday Mirror, "Officers from British Army reserves have been put on alert to deal with the chaos of New Year's Eve 1999."

"They have been asked to cope with possible civil unrest and communications disasters as the year 2000 begins. Whitehall fears the huge celebrations, plus integral computer failures due to the 'Millenium Bug' all have the capacity to bring about a 'Doomsday' scenario."

"In a secret letter seen by the Sunday Mirror, the Army officer reservists are asked about their availability between December 22, 1999 and January 9, 2000."

"The letter was posted from the Army Reservist Communications Centre at the Ministry of Defence (MoD) headquarters in Whitehall. It says problems on a national scale are expected, and it provides the first clear indication that troops will be on standby to cope with the expected Millenium Bug chaos."

"The letter makes special reference to new reservist legislation with sections on civil unrest, defense of the nation, resources and national security."

"An MoD spokesman would not confirm that the letter had been sent. 'Clearly the Army stands by for any form of assistance that civil authorities feel they need over the Millenium."

Major UK metropolitan areas that may be affected by deployment could include London, Liverpool, Bristol, Manchester, Birmingham, Leeds, Sheffield, Southampton, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, plus Edinburgh and Glasgow in Scotland and Cardiff in Wales. (See the Sunday Mirror for November 15, 1998, "Army calls in reserves for Millenium chaos," by Tim Luckett. Many thanks to John Hayes for forwarding this newspaper article.)

DAZZLING UFO STARTLES A CROWD IN INDIA

UFO Roundup: Volume 3, Number 47. Editor:Joseph Trainor
On Wednesday, November 11, 1998, at 5:30 p.m., Gaurav Hamish D., his family members, several neighbors and his college professor were standing outdoors in Malad Evershine Nagar, a suburb just west of the Kandivali section of Mumbai (Bombay) when they spotted an unusually bright UFO.

"The anomalous light caught my attention because it was in a direction opposite from the setting sun," Gaurav reported. "That is, in the east. The source seemed as if it was the sun shining behind some clouds. The intensity of the light was about the brilliance of the sun in early morning--8:30 a.m. It was about 70 degrees from ground level. It could be compared to a great mirror in the sky, reflecting the rays of the setting sun."

Gaurav said the crowd had the UFO in view until 7 p.m. (Email Interview)

GUNBOATS FIRE AT UFOs OFF THE COAST OF SRI LANKA

UFO Roundup: Volume 3, Number 47. Editor:Joseph Trainor
On Wednesday night, November 18, 1998, naval gunboats opened fire on UFOs at sea off Point Pedro, on the northern shore of Sri Lanka, an island nation adjacent to India.

The small patrol craft of the Sri Lankan navy opened fire with 20mm cannon and small arms after spotting "unidentified aircraft" over the Indian Ocean north of the island.

According to the Hindu Times, "The mystery over the 'unidentified aircraft' which was 'spotted by Navy personnel' over the northern seas off Sri Lanka continues with no indication of either the type of aircraft or its origin or purpose."

"Sri Lankan military spokesman Brigadier Sunil Tenakkoon said that (although) the lights" seen were similar to an aircraft, 'There is no definite proof."

"With no conclusive evidence to such reports, it would not be possible to say 'if it was an aeroplane or a helicopter,' he said."

"All of the 'sightings' of the 'unidentified aircraft' took place 'during the nighttime' and 'only the lights were visible,' Brigadier Tenakkon said."

The brigadier added that the sightings "were reportedly made by 'Navy personnel' running naval gunboars, who opened fire in the direction of the lights." (See the Hindu Times for November 20, 1998, "Mystery over aircraft continues," by V.S. Sambandan. Many thanks to Stig Agermose and Errol Bruce-Knapp for forwarding this newspaper article.)

UFO FLIES OVER A SEAPORT IN SOUTHERN CHINA

UFO Roundup: Volume 3, Number 47. Editor:Joseph Trainor
A UFO described as "apple-shaped" with "a trail of red and yellow flame" appeared over the port city of Xiamen in southern China on Tuesday, November 10, 1998 and was seen by hundreds of residents.

The Communist Party newspaper People's Daily quoted "a China News Agency report saying the UFO was first spotted at dusk Tuesday (November 10), flying in a southwesterly direction for 20 minutes before disappearing, and again the next day."

"Residents in the southern city of Xiamen had sighted an apple-like UFO with a tail of red and yellow flames...The report said the sighting of the UFO, which was also captured on film by the local television station, had Xiamen residents craning their heads skyward for the past two days, hoping for another appearance."

"The report said aerospace experts had said that possibly a satellite had fallen out of orbit, causing the phenomenon."

"It said most people had seen an optical illusion caused by light reflecting from the emissions of an aircraft."

Xiamen is a port on the Taiwan Strait located 370 kilometers (222 miles) northeast of Hong Kong. (See People's Daily for November 14, 1998. Many thanks to Peter A. Gersten of CAUS for forwarding this newspaper article.)

BLUE TRIANGULAR UFO SIGHTED IN COLOMBIA

UFO Roundup: Volume 3, Number 47. Editor:Joseph Trainor
On Saturday, November 14, 1998, at 11 p.m., a UFO described as "a bluish triangular object" was spotted flying over the city of Riohacha in northern Colombia and "was seen by many people, although it was partially raining."

The OVNI (Spanish acronym for UFO--J.T.) "could clearly be seen flying at about 3,500 feet on a controlled flight path heading southeast at about 450 to 500 nautical miles per hour."

Eyewitness J.C.M. reported, "The object was certainly not part of the (Leonid) meteor showers occurring this week."

J.C.M. added that, "in another recent incident" near Riohacha, "an object was seen in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta (elevation 18,000 feet or 5,454 meters) The object hovered at about 3,500 feet above ground level for a good long time. It was very bright, blue in color, then suddenly flew away at very high speed. Unfortunately, no pictures had been taken in this area."

Riohacha is a port on the Caribbean Sea, in Colombia's La Guaira state, approximately 760 kilometers (475 miles) north of Bogota, the national capital. (Muchas gracias a J.C.M. para esas noticias colombianas.)

BLACK HELICOPTERS LAY SIEGE TO MOUNTAIN TOWN

UFO Roundup: Volume 3, Number 47. Editor:Joseph Trainor
Black helicopters laid siege to the town of Andrews, North Carolina (population 2,551) again last week, with sightings reported at all hours of the day and night.

According to eyewitness Ramon S., town residents have seen "at least seven Army choppers that we are aware of. They have Hueys and Kiowa Cobras," i.e. U.S. Army UH-1H and OH-58D helicopters.

"They have, among other things, virtually run people off the road. They hover 50 feet over homes at night," Ramon reported. "On Monday (November 16) they were running rappelling training during a light rain while hovering at 30 feet above the ground."

"Last night (Wednesday, November 18, 1998) they were flying and stated on the scanner...they called themselves the Bad Boys...that they were testing their NODS (Night Optical Detection Systems), night optical lenses and photographic equipment by following cars and hovering over houses."

Andrews, located on North Carolina Highways 19 and 129 about 325 miles (520 kilometers) southwest of Raleigh, has been the focus of an intensive law enforcement search for the past seven weeks. The search's quarry is Eric Rudolph, 32, who is wanted in connection with an abortion clinic bombing in Atlanta, Georgia.

According to researcher Joseph Burton, who visited the town on Wednesday, November 11, and interviewed Ramon and other residents, "Others talk of the intentional harassment done by helicopters, and when they complained to the local sheriff, the FBI told the sheriff they couldn't have done it...their (National Guard) choppers were not equipped to fly at night."

Ramon confirmed Burton's story that he and another resident, Phillip, were captured by the FBI the evening of November 11.

According to Burton, "Apparently, Ramon's neighbor, a patriot named Phillip, had flashed one of the choppers with a toy laser that says I Love You."

Unknown to Ramon and Phillip, however, an unidentified sniper had fired several shots at the FBI field headquarters, a renovated warehouse on Highway 129 in Andrews, at about 8 p.m.

At 11 p.m., Ramon drove Phillip to the local police station so he could turn himself in. When they arrived in the parking lot, Ramon reported, a platoon of FBI agents in PSGAT helmets and body armor surrounded the truck and "ordered us to step away from the vehicle and lie face-down on the concrete."

The two men were handcuffed and taken into custody. Ramon was released the next morning without being charged. Phillip was sent by van to the U.S. Marshals' field headquarters in Bryson City, N.C. (population 1,145), located 30 miles (48 kilometers) northeast of Andrews. He was detained for two days and then released on Friday, November 13.

According to Burton, FBI Special Agent Terry Terchie "revealed that the Governor of North Carolina had declared a Special State of Emergency in western North Carolina."

Andrews residents attempting to confirm this received conflicting replies from the governor's office as to whether or not the "special state of emergency" had actually been declared.

Rumors of the presence of United Nations (UN) personnel in Andrews also circulated widely.

Ramon said, "One newspaper stated that Russian troops training at Fort Bragg have helped in the search here with the FBI."

Other residents claimed to have seen three UN observers at the Cherokee Restaurant in town. The men were described as Caucasian, ranging in age from 30 to 45, and wearing navy-blue jackets with the letters UN on the back and a white UN symbol patch on the shoulder. They reportedly were driving a white Chevy Suburban and paid for their meals with a Diner's Club credit card.

As for Rudolph, the federal fugitive remains at large. Burton stated, "The sightings of Eric have now surpassed sightings of Elvis." (Many thanks to Joseph Burton, Dorothy H. Bibee, Rev. Billy Dee, plus thanks to Ramon S. for the email interview.)

SILVER-GRAY FIREBALL SEEN IN SOUTHWESTERN OHIO

UFO Roundup: Volume 3, Number 47. Editor:Joseph Trainor
Last week two women from Franklin, Tennessee were driving on Interstate Highway I-75 in Ohio when they spotted "a fireball in the sky."

The women's car was travelling from Dayton south to Cincinnati when they spotted the object, which "looked comet-like. Then it stopped, because the tail of the comet disappeared." They described the UFO as "silver-gray and disc-shaped, but rounded on the top and sides."

"We were traveling down I-75 when I looked up and saw what looked like a comet in the sky," the witness reported. "I pointed it out to my friend, and she saw it clearly also."

"We both knew it definitely wasn't a plane. Then the 'tail' of the object disappeared, and it looked like it came to a stop. It was a little far away, and it went right over us. It was silvery-gray in color. It moved horizontally very quickly." (Many thanks to Ohio UFO researcher Kenneth Young for this news story.)

VIRGINIA MAN SPOTS UFO DURING METEOR SHOWER

UFO Roundup: Volume 3, Number 47. Editor:Joseph Trainor
On Wednesday, November 18, 1998, at approximately 1:40 a.m., Neal F. was "sitting in a lawn chair in a field directly behind my house" in New Kent, Virginia (population 500) when his wife came out to join him. He pointed out to her the radiant, the point in space where the Leonid meteors were coming from. "I was looking at (the constellation) Leo, which was fairly low, maybe 10 to 15 degrees above the horizon, in the east/ northeast."

"Then I saw, right below Leo, a large triangle consisting of three small white lights. I couldn't see any body or solid part for the craft. At first I thought it was just a constellation. Then I realized that it wasn't there a second ago, and it couldn't have 'risen' that quickly."

"I looked very closely and could detect slow movement to the north," Neal reported. "The triangle was about the size of a dime at arm's length. It was just above the tree line approximately 1,000 to 1,500 feet away. I got my wife to look at it, and it 'glided' away and went below the tree line northward. We stayed and watched for about 15 minutes but didn't see it again." (Many thanks to Jim Hickman of Skywatch International for forwarding this report.)

UFO SEEN DURING LEONID SHOWER IN AUSTRALIA

UFO Roundup: Volume 3, Number 47. Editor:Joseph Trainor
Australia reported three sightings of a bright UFO during the Leonid meteor shower last week.

On Wednesday, November 18, 1998, at 3:20 a.m., ufologist George Mackay spied "a UFO going from left to right, then shot straight up" in Jimboomba, Queensland.

Also at 3:20 a.m., in Stafford, South Australia, an amateur astronomer saw "a bright light going from left to right, then straight up."

And, on Mount Nebo at 3:20 a.m., a witness "who was watching the meteor shower" from the upper slopes "said he believes he saw a UFO at around 3:20 a.m., northwest of the mountain. It did zigzag and shot straight up. His girlfriend and a friend saw it, too." (Many thanks to Diane Harrison of UFO Network Australasia for these reports.)

MYSTERY GAS LAYS LOW STUDENTS IN TENNESSEE

UFO Roundup: Volume 3, Number 47. Editor:Joseph Trainor
A strange, invisible gas has incapacitated students and faculty alike at the Warren County High School in McMinnville, Tennessee (population 12,000).

According to USA Today, "Federal officials say they may never find what's causing mysterious fumes that have sickened students and teachers at Warren County High School."

McMinnville is on Highway 55 approximately 86 miles (137 kilometers) southeast of Nashville.

"Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) officials said lab tests of air samples confirm there is nothing wrong with air at the school. The noxious odor was first detected one-and-a-half weeks ago, sickening more than 90 students and teachers." (See USA Today for November 23, 1998, page 13A)

ZARYA DEPARTS FOR SPACE

UFO Roundup: Volume 3, Number 47. Editor:Joseph Trainor
Zarya (Russian for Sunrise), the first orbital component of the International Space Station, blasted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Friday, November 20, 1998.

"A Russian Proton booster carried the module into its initial orbit 125 miles (200 kilometers) above Earth and the unit was operating as planned, officials said."

"Space officials from 16 nations taking part in the project observed as the rocket soared into the cloudy sky above the central Asian steppe from the Baikonur launch pad yesterday--exactly a year later than planned.

"'Now we have only 44 launches to go, 1,000 hours of space walks and countless problems, but because of the trust and mutual respect, the international space station is going to be a reality,' NASA chief Daniel Goldin told a press conference after the launch." (See the Boston, Mass. Herald for November 21, 1998, "Russian rocket launch marks new era in space exploration.")

At a cost of $240 million, Zarya is the first of about 100 modules that will be used to build the space station. Zarya will provide the station's power, propulsion and early communications system.

The next station-related launch will take place on December 3, 1998, when the space shuttle Endeavor heads for orbit. Endeavor's payload will consist of a $300 million connecting tunnel called Unity.

"Zarya's launch 'opens the floodgates, and we start going,' says Bob Cabana, commander of space shuttle Endeavor, which is taking the second piece up next month. 'This is going to be one heck of a busy five years coming up.'" (See USA Today for November 20, 1998, "Space station finally getting off the ground," by Paul Hovenstern, page A4.)

CHINESE AIR FORCE CHASES UFO

Flier's Files #45-1998: MUFON Skywatch Investigations, George A. Flier
SHANGHAI -- Nov. 05, 1998 -- (Agence France Presse) The air force had a prolonged up-close encounter with a UFO last month that one fighter pilot described as "just like ones in foreign movies," a government-controlled newspaper reported Thursday. A Hebei Daily report -- carried in the news digest Baokan Wenzhai -- gave a detailed pilot's account of an aerial cat-and- mouse game played between the object and a jet fighter ordered to intercept it. At least 140 people on the ground also saw the object, it said. An editor with the Hebei Daily said the events took place on Oct. 19 and were still being investigated by local government departments. The newspaper's report and military sources quoted show an openness that contrast sharply with Washington's notorious secrecy on the topic of unidentified flying objects (UFOs). It said the encounter began when four different radar stations in northern Hebei province picked up an unknown moving target in airspace directly above a military flight training base near Changzhou City. To observers at the base, the UFO first appeared like "a small star," and then grew larger and larger, perhaps as it descended to a lower altitude, the report said. They described an object with a mushroom-shaped dome on top and a flat bottom covered with bright, continually rotating lights. A base commander surnamed Li reported to his superiors, who ordered a Jianjiao-6 armed interceptor airborne to pursue the object once checks showed no other civilian or military aircraft in the area. The two pilots aboard said the object closely resembled depiction's they had seen in foreign science fiction films. When they got within 4,000 meters (13,200 feet) of the UFO over Qing County, it abruptly shot upward, easily evading subsequent attempts to get closer. It appeared to be toying with the fighter by repeatedly outdistancing it and then reappearing just above it, the pilots said. The report said a request for permission to fire on the UFO with an onboard cannon was denied by ground command at one point. The interceptor was eventually forced to return to base after it ran out of fuel at an altitude of 12,000 meters (39,600 feet). The UFO then disappeared before two newer-model planes could get airborne, the article said. While China's racy tabloids often run stories of strange phenomena alongside celebrity-gossip and crime stories, UFO reports are seldom carried by more official papers like the Hebei Daily. c) 1998 Agence France Presse) Inside China today, http://www.insidechina.com/china/news/98110521.html
Thanks to Dr. Richard Haines

MACCABEE RESPONDS TO GOVERNMENT DISCS

Flier's Files #45-1998: MUFON Skywatch Investigations, George A. Flier
Last week British Aviation expert Bill Rose claimed many of the craft in our skies are US Government Discs. He states: "After all, they built their postwar aerospace industry on a lot of UK and Nazi technology. I doubt if Arnold was that accurate on his estimates of performance, but I think it is quite possible that a few US high performance prototypes were flown in secret which fell between the Horten lX and the Skyray. Because of Yeager's flight, they will never be revealed. But who knows?" I might add that I spoke to a man who wishes to remain anonymous who conducted the first tests on the Horten lX."

Bruce Maccabee responds: "This man doubts that Arnold's speed estimate was correct. However, it is more likely correct than off by nearly a factor of three. Arnold used his dashboard clock to time the number of seconds it took for the objects to travel from Mt. Rainier to Mt. Adams. At the time he thought he was looking at some to Air Force development, so we can presume that he was being reasonably careful in his measurements. The distance was about 50 miles covered in 103 seconds. This calculates to a speed of about 1,750 mph or about 2.5 Mach. This is far above any speed attained by manned craft or projectiles in 1947. Arnold couldn't believe his own calculations and arbitrarily lowered the speed to over 1200 mph in his public statements. This is still much higher than Mach 1.

GOVERNMENT HELP FOR "STAR TREK"

Flier's Files #45-1998: MUFON Skywatch Investigations, George A. Flier
Robert Collins reports that during a recent interview of "Star Trek" movie actor Leonard Nimoy for a magazine article he was quoted as saying, "We did receive Government help in making several of the "Star Trek" movies." The Government seemed to want to make sure we portrayed some items about Alien Lifeforms in the correct manner. I was amazed at this since the Government always made the official statement that they don't know anything about Alien Life!" Nimoy played the famous Dr. Spock in several movies and on television. Thanks to Robert Collins.

NEW TWISTS AND TURNS IN EQ PEGASI CONTACT CASE

UFO Roundup: Volume 3, Number 46. Editor:Joseph Trainor
Controversy over the alleged alien radio signals from the star system EQ Pegasi continued this week, with many surprising twists and turns.

On October 22, 1998, a UK man calling himself "Paul Dore" claimed that he had picked up a radio signal from EQ Pegasi, a binary star system 22 light years from Earth. Since then, the alleged contact has been the subject of much debate.

On Tuesday, November 10, 1998, Richard C. Hoagland interviewed the "real" Paul Dore. Hoagland reported, "In summary, he (Dore) denied being the 'other' Paul Dore, denied meeting with NSA, denied printing anything or having any
connection to the website. He has no idea why he was chosen, didn't know about SETI until the incident but is a real X-Files fan."

The following day, Wednesday, November 11, computer operator David Dubowski announced that he "had evidence to show that (the real) Paul Dore is most likely the original" author of the EQ Pegasi message."

The "smoking gun" was "a posting by Paul Dore on 11-7-98 (November 7, 1998) showing his email address and 'seticontact' name on the email."

Dore, however, has consistently denied that he is the author of the "seticontact" messages and website.

Meanwhile, strange coincidences involving EQ Pegasi popped up all last week.

In the November 15, 1998 issue of CyberSpace Orbit, editor Kent Steadman reported that a new comet had been spotted in the constellation Pegasus.

According to the Orbit, "On November 12, Timo Karhula," an astronomer "in Virsbo, Sweden" reported that Comet C/1998 U-5 was now "two magnitudes brighter than a week ago." (See the International Astronomical Union Circular #7045 for November 12, 1998.)

In an interview, Steadman asked, "What constellation is the comet in now?"

The astronomer replied, "Heading for Cassiopeia."

"Was it ever in Pegasus?" Steadman asked.

"Just left it. It's moving so fast. Reminds me of Comet Hyakutake."

Karhula reportedly said the comet has shown "spectacular" outgassing and may be visible on Earth just before Christmas.

On Friday, November 6, 1998, David Oates, a guest on Jeff Rense's Sightings on the Radio show, played tape recordings of USA Defense Department news conferences. "In one, 'December 7' can be heard, in the other 'Samson.'"

This led a few ufologists to speculate that a UFO would land in the desert north of Phoenix, Arizona on December 7, 1998 as part of a military activity known as Project Samson.

On Saturday, November 7, 1998, a caller on Laura Lee's show pointed out that the "star map" drawn by UFO contactee Betty Hill in 1964 shows the region of space where EQ Pegasi is located. A map of Pegasus was included in John G. Fuller's 1965 book on the Hill case, THE INTERRUPTED JOURNEY.

Curiously enough, in 1965, Russian astronomer Dr. A.G. Sholomitsky said that an interstellar radio source, CTA-102, "may be sending out intelligent radio signals."

The caller said, "If CTA-102, appearing near the 'globes' in her (Mrs. Hill's) map is in reality an artificial radio source, this would give the EQ Pegasi signal much additional credibility."

However, astronomers dispute Sholomitsky's theory, insisting that CTA-102 is just another quasar, not some sort of interstellar "space buoy."

Another strange coincidence surfaced later in the week when an item appeared, pointing out that "on October 22, 1995, Swiss astronomers Didier Queloz and Michael Mayor discovered a star that was a twin of our own sun," with a giant planet orbiting it. "The star was 51 Pegasus."

The planet around 51 Pegasus was subsequently confirmed by astronomers Geoffrey March and Paul Butler of San Francisco State University.

EQ Pegasi has even had an impact on religion. One researcher found this item in the Bible. It's from Revelation 19:11--"And I saw heaven opened, and I beheld a white horse," and added, "The only white horse in the sky is the constellation
Pegasus." (Many thanks to Stig Agermose, Peter A. Gersten, Errol Bruce-Knapp and others for the reports on the EQ Pegasi controversy.)

ALIENS ENCOUNTERED AT EL YUNQUE, PUERTO RICO

UFO Roundup: Volume 3, Number 46. Editor:Joseph Trainor
On Saturday, November 7, 1998, a party of 15 members of UFOSICPR, led by Frederico Alvarez, and including Sra. Alvarez, eight regular members, two new members and four guests, drove out to the El Yunque National Forest for a skywatch.

The group waited on Monte Brito between the peak and the television towers. Suddenly, Nestor, the group's treasurer, "began to show extreme nervousness. He began trembling and speaking in a faltering manner."

Alvarez split the group in half and sent one team, including Nestor, back to the highway further down the slopes of Monte Brito.

No sooner had they reached the road than Alvarez received a call on his cell phone.

"They're here!" Alvarez was told. "They're right here in front of us."

"What's going on?" Alvarez asked.

By way of reply, all he heard were strange sounds coming from the telephone. Later, he reported, "No one could speak. Everyone down there was crying."

When Alvarez and his team rejoined the seven members, they told him that they had seen aliens on the road's edge.

"The creatures stopped and then said telepathically, 'Don't come any closer!'"

The seven Puerto Ricans "remained there, instantly paralyzed by an unknown force. For three minutes, they were frozen in place, and then the creatures went into a nearby field and disappeared from view."

Although carrying cameras and video equipment, the UFOSICPR team was unable to obtain any pictures. "One member had a pair of binoculars, and these refused to function." (Muchas gracias a Lucy Guzman para eso piso.)

ORANGE UFO SEEN SOUTH OF SINGAPORE

UFO Roundup: Volume 3, Number 46. Editor:Joseph Trainor
On Saturday, November 7, 1998, a group of men went fishing in the strait between city of Singapore and Pulau Batam Island. The island has a number of  oil refineries and petrochemical complexes.

"We first saw a band of orange light at about 7:20 p.m.," the witness reported, "At first we thought it was a light from a large building but, if it was, it was a tremendously huge sort of building, as the light was hovering above the ground about three times the height of the tallest (industrial) chimneys, and at that distance it had to be the length of three oil tankers."

The fishermen watched "as it appeared to grow larger for about a minute. When he sought my opinion and pointed me toward the light, it was already at its longest length. A few seconds after this, the light seemed to grow smaller and smaller and eventually disappeared. I could not explain the phenomenon, and he can't either." (Many thanks to Ross Dowe of Australasian UFO Hotline for this news story.)

A BUSY WEEK FOR UFOs ALL OVER AUSTRALIA

UFO Roundup: Volume 3, Number 46. Editor:Joseph Trainor
Last week saw multiple UFO sightings down under, with incidents in South Australia, Western Australia and New South Wales.

On Tuesday, November 10, 1998, witnesses spotted "a slow-moving bright orange fireball" in Newcastle, N.S.W., located 192 kilometers (120 miles) north of Sydney.

The fireball "was in the southern sky travelling eastward for about four minutes. The illumination was extremely bright, and it appeared to be about 3 or 4 kilometers away and about 200 to 300 meters (660 to 990 feet) in altitude." At times the UFO appeared "to drop a bit, only to speed up. The illumination seemed to be heading out to sea with no sound."

The same night, at Golden Bay in Perth, W.A., at 8:55 p.m., residents "reported sighting two bright orange fireballs, arcing from the southeast, heading east, and then changing back to the north. The illuminations passed directly over the BP (British Petroleum) Kwiwana oil refinery...They looked a bit like arc-welding emissions but without the sparks. They were four times bigger than Jupiter. As they approached the area, they changed from following each other to pair up next one another. The sky was clear, no moon, no clouds. They travelled faster than a twin propellor light airplane."

On Thursday, November 12, 1998, at 1:30 a.m., residents in Arthurton, a town on the Yorke Peninsula in South Australia, located about 150 kilometers (90 miles) west of Adelaide, "reported seeing a large bright white light one kilometer away to the northeast, slowly moving downward. It was so bright it cast shadows from the buildings. It descended below the treeline, and still the glow from its light cast shadows." The UFO remained in the area for ten minutes before flying away. (Thanks to Ross Dowe of Australasian UFO Hotline for these news stories.)

UFO SEEN BY HUNDREDS IN CENTRAL ARGENTINA

UFO Roundup: Volume 3, Number 46. Editor:Joseph Trainor
The evening of Thursday, November 5, 1998, an objeto volador no identificado (OVNI) appeared over three cities in south central Argentina.

The OVNI (Spanish acronym for UFO--J.T.) "crossed the sky in the provinces of Neuquen and Rio Negro on Thursday night, according to the testimony of numerous witnesses in the Patagonian cities."

"The object could be seen by the residents of Neuquen, Cipolletti and General Roca, in the Alto Valle, in Rio Colorado and Viedma, as well as in the neighboring city of Carmen de Patagones," traveling from northeast to southeast.

Neuquen and Cipolletti, its sister city across the Rio Neuquen, are located 520 kilometers (312 miles) southwest of Buenos Aires, the national capital. General Roca is 50 kilometers (30 miles) east of Neuquen.

"Jose Luis Mazzone, an official in the town of Villa Chocsin, said he saw the phenomenon hover above (lake) Lago Ramos Mexia and described it as 'a ball of fire with a tail that hovered for several minutes above the horizon.'"

"In Rio Negro are many, many police officers who saw it along the highway. On the bridge over the Rio Homenimi, at the entrance to Viedma, they said the OVNI 'was a very intense light, color blue, and that it developed other colors in shades of blue and yellow.'"

"From testimonies received, it appears that the OVNI was seen between 9:15 and 9:30 p.m." (See Diario Popular of Buenos Aires for November 7, 1998. Muchas gracias a Carlos Iurchuk para esas noticias.)

NEW UFO SIGHTING IN NORTHUMBERLAND, UK

UFO Roundup: Volume 3, Number 46. Editor:Joseph Trainor
On Friday, November 6, 1998, Derrick G. Carvell "was out with my wife Anne for a walk with our dog" in Seghill, Northumberland, UK, about 250 miles (400 kilometers) north of London.

"As we approached out parked van at 6 p.m.," Carvell reported, "I happened to look upward. Travelling in a northerly direction, I was amazed to see 12 white lights moving in a perfect line, one behind the other, almost like a train in the sky with white windows."

"At arm's length, the row of lights appeared approximately three feet (0.9 meters) long. As they were more or less straight above us, their powerful lights flashed beams down to the ground, one after the other. They did this only once. The beams appeared angled and silvery in colour. Almost instantly, all of the lights dimmed but could still be made out as they moved off into the distance-- before fading completely from view."

"The area of the sighting is only 6 miles from Norwich International Airport," he added, "I noticed that there were two more aircraft moving in toward the airport. Also, another aircraft was lining up to follow it in. The lights travelled across the area of sky near the two aircraft but at a much higher altitude. My brother tells me that the altitude of the aircraft on the path of approach to the airport would have been about 1,500 feet. The objects were at a much higher altitude. It is very difficult to be exact, but I would say in excess of 5,000 feet, taking into account the beams of light that reached ground level." (Many thanks to Dave Ledger of UFO Scotland and John Hayes for this report.)

GREEN FIREBALL SEEN IN PLYMOUTH, MINNESOTA

UFO Roundup: Volume 3, Number 46. Editor:Joseph Trainor
On Friday, November 4, 1998, at approximately 8:30 p.m., Ryan S. Eagan was at the intersection of County Road 9 and Plymouth Boulevard in Plymouth, Minnesota (population 50,889), located 12 miles (18 kilometers) west of Minneapolis, when he spotted a UFO.

"I was waiting in a parking lot in Plymouth when I watched a large green fireball streak overhead, heading towards the northwest and descending towards the Earth. The object left a long green tail much like a comet. It seemed very low in altitude because it was below the overcast ceiling, and it was bright enough that I could see it descend behind some apartment houses, even though the flourescent lights of a nearby gas station were between me and the object. This sighting lasted between one and two seconds." (Many thanks to Ryan S. Eagan and Joel Henry of Minnesota MUFON for this news story.)

(Editor's Comment: Two seconds to the horizon is much too fast for a conventional meteor, especially one flying below 12,000 feet, the cloud ceiling.)

UFOs APPEAR TWICE IN SOUTHERN COLORADO

UFO Roundup: Volume 3, Number 46. Editor:Joseph Trainor
More UFO action was reported last week in Colorado's San Luis Valley, about 280 miles (448 kilometers) southwest of Denver.

On Thursday, November 12, 1998, at about 6:15 p.m., author/researcher Christopher O'Brien and his brother, Brendan, "were driving north in the Baca Grande (housing) development, and suddenly in front of us, framed in the windshield, we watched an extremely bright steady light rise quickly from behind the mountain in the Salida/Howard area."

Salida (population 4,737) and Howard are on Colorado Highway 50, just west of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains.

"The light, which was brighter and slightly larger than Venus and visible for about two minutes, shot upward, southwest to northeast, at a 25-degree angle. It rose upward, its speed, which at first appeared the same as a conventional jetliner, reached 1,000 to 1,200 miles per hour. As it climbed higher, it became smaller and smaller and disappeared in the southeast."

Three hours later, at 9:45 p.m., two witnesses in Mesita, Colorado "were returning home when they spotted two bright, unblinking lights about 100 miles (160 kilometers) away to the northwest. The lights moved in tandem about one degree apart and appeared to be a single object. One witness observed the 30-second sighting with binoculars. The lights appeared to head southeast at an altitude of 3,500 to 4,000 feet" before heading for the San Luis Hills.

"At its closest point" to the witnesses, "the object blacked out the background stars between its lights. Witness estimated that the distance between the lights was 'about 600 feet,' and he described the sighting as 'by far the most spectacular night sighting' he has witnessed." (Many thanks to Christopher O'Brien, author of THE MYSTERIOUS VALLEY, for these news stories.)

LARGE TRIANGULAR UFO SEEN AGAIN IN MONTANA

UFO Roundup: Volume 3, Number 46. Editor:Joseph Trainor
On Tuesday, November 10, 1998, at 1:27 a.m., a very large UFO, dull gray in color and triangular in shape, was seen hovering above the Mission Mountains just east of St. Ignatius, Montana (population 778).

According to former NASA contractor Robert A.M. Stephenson, the UFO was identical to the object seen hovering near Polson and Ronan, Montana between October 16 and October 30.

"Cloud cover broke for the night, and the UFO was there as it had been only lower in altitude and slightly further south near the town of St. Ignatius," Stephenson reported. "Roughly ten miles south of Ronan and along the edge of the Mission Valley."

The UFO was in view between 1:27 a.m. and 3:34 a.m. "During the time of clearing, the sky was exceptionally clear, stars in abundance, temperature in the 5 degree Fahrenheit range. No moon as it had set over the horizon to the west."

Stephenson estimated that "the craft was eight nautical miles from my viewing locale at the manufacturing facility" in Ronan, Montana "and at an altitude of approximately 14,000 feet and four miles further south than the previous sightings."

St. Ignatius is on Montana Highway 93 approximately 44 miles (70 kilometers) north of Missoula. (Many thanks to Robert A.M. Stephenson for this news story.)

BLACK HELICOPTERS SEEN IN NORTH CAROLINA AND ARIZONA

UFO Roundup: Volume 3, Number 46. Editor:Joseph Trainor
On Friday, November 13, 1998, at around 10 a.m., motorists driving past the airport in Murphy, North Carolina (population 1,575) were startled to see a black helicopter hovering right over the field in daylight.

Unable to name the model helicopter, the witnesses described it as having a "narrow body" and "a sharp nose." Two Cherokee County women reportedly shot a videotape of the hovering chopper.

According to local author Jon C. Ryter, there have been many black helicopter sightings in the towns of Andrews, Murphy and Topton, and the Nantahala National Forest, since October 10, 1998.

The helicopters' presence is believed to be related to the ongoing federal effort to apprehend bombing suspect Eric Rudolph. Rudolph, 32, is wanted in connection with the bombing of an abortion clinic in Atlanta, Georgia.

On Thursday, November 12, 1998, FBI agents spent the day "looking for the culprit who fired several shots into their command post," a warehouse in Andrews, N.C. (population 2,551).

"The shots were fired Wednesday (November 11) about 8 p.m. One bullet penetrated an office wall, 'brushed the hair' of one agent and just missed hitting another, authorities said. Neither agent was injured."

"Investigators recovered a handful of shell casings from a soccer field about 300 yards from the building, but they have not yet determined what prompted the shooting." (See USA Today for November 13, 1998, "Bullets fly into camp of
agents on manhunt," page 19A).

According to Ryter, residents of Andrews have been awakened nightly by low-flying black helicopters aiming high-intensity "Nightsun" spotlights through their windows.

Ryter also reported that witnesses had seen two U.S. Army tank transporters stop at the intersection of a Nantahala Forest road and Highway 129 and offload two M1 Abrams tanks.

On Thursday, November 12, 1998, an eyewitness, Robert C., reported, "Definite increase of military activity north of the San Francisco Peaks" west of Highway 89, about 15 miles (25 kilometers) north of Flagstaff, Arizona. He described a convoy of heavy cargo trucks guarded by black helicopters and an anti-aircraft vehicle "up near Deadmans Pass. What is going on?" (Many thanks to UFO Sky Searchers International for forwarding these reports.)

DEEP SPACE ONE SUFFERS MYSTERIOUS ENGINE FAILURE

UFO Roundup: Volume 3, Number 46. Editor:Joseph Trainor
Deep Space One began the first test of its ion propulsion engine on Tuesday, November 10, 1998. But, after four and a half minutes of operation, the engine mysteriously shut down.

"The ion propulsion engine ran for four and a half minutes Tuesday before turning off," said John Watson, a spokesman for NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

"Ground controllers tried several times without success to restart the engine."

"It was the first time since Deep Space One's launch two weeks ago that controllers turned on the ion engine, the most intriguing of the 12 Star Trek style technologies being tested on the $152 million mission."

"Watson said similar shutdowns have been observed during ground tests and on communication satellites equipped with ion engines."

If the ion engine cannot be restarted, the spacecraft will be unable to complete its mission of a rendezvous with asteroid 1992 KD in July 1999. (See the Providence, R.I. Journal for November 12, 1998, "Experimental NASA engine shuts down.")

MILLENIUM CEREMONY PLANNED FOR THE GREAT PYRAMID

UFO Roundup: Volume 3, Number 46. Editor:Joseph Trainor
Last week, Dr. Zahi Hawass, Egypt's director of antiquities, announced plans to place a golden cap on top of the Great Pyramid as part of a ceremony celebrating the new millenium.

"The pyramid has lost 30 feet of height, and the missing stones at the top give it a craggy appearance like the opening of a small volcano."

"Now Egypt plans to make the Phraonic structure whole again by affixing a gold-encased capstone--if only for one night--to celebrate the advent of the third millenium on Dec. 31, 1999, the pyramid's custodian, Zahi Hawass, says."

"At the same time, he proposed closing entry into the Pyramid forever to prevent it from being damaged beyond repair by the salty breath and curious fingers of 4,000 visitors a day."

"'Why do you want to visit a tomb?' he asked. 'The magic is from the outside. Not from the inside.'"

"Hawass said the millenium ceremony will be telecast live to a world audience, will mirror the pomp and revelry that must have accompanied the installation of the capstone by the Pyramid's builder, Pharoah Cheops, in a nationwide celebration some 4,600 years ago."

"'You know it was built in the third millenium B.C. We are celebrating the third millenium A.D. Therefore, we should have something important to mark the occasion,' Hawass said." (See the Boston, Mass. Herald for November 14, 1998, "Egypt caps off plans for millenium pyramid party," page 14)

(Editor's Comment: Why do we want to visit a tomb? Well, for one thing, I'd like to see the extent of the damage done to the interior by the "Hawass School of Jackhammer Archaeology." It would be nice if they reopened the Pyramid after the Illuminati have finished looting the Hall of Records. But don't bet your mortgage payment on that.)

NEW ROSWELL CRASH DATA:

Flier's Files #44-1998: MUFON Skywatch Investigations, George A. Flier
Dr. Edgar Mitchell is quoted as saying, "Make no mistake, Roswell happened! I've seen secret files which show the government knew about it -- but decided not to tell the public." Edgar Mitchell the sixth astronaut to walk on the moon is making new statements concerning our Earth being visited extraterrestrial beings. He claims that he has interviewed people who have been in the military and are willing to testify to their UFO experiences, if congress grants immunity. He is saying that from his interviews with these people and the checking of their stories as far as was possible, that he is personally convinced that there have been crashed saucers and alien bodies retrieved. (I am one of those who talked to Edgar during briefings of Congressional personnel in Washington, DC.) He is further convinced that although the initial presidents were aware of the situation, subsequent elected officials were not. His major concern is that black budget money funds the research of people in control of alien technology with no accountability to either the elected government or its citizens.

The Roswell Photo Interpretation Team (RPIT) has been updating some of its findings regarding the message held in General Roger Ramey’s hand in July of 1947. On the top left hand corner of the letter is a small logo. From what we can make out from the logo a small parachute can be seen in the top left of the logo, next to this is what we think to be a plane and under the plane, you can see five dots, in a cross like formation (maybe stars).

Editors Note: I spent several hours going over the message myself. The logo could be from an airlift wing involved in moving the bodies. The 1st Air Transport Unit was at Roswell. The word Magdalena also seems readable. This information infers that a second crash occurred near Magdelena some 200 miles from Roswell. The message also appears to indicate four victims were being brought to Fort Worth, Texas. This seems like an unusual decision if this was a normal aircraft crash. We need other neutral experts to confirm what the RPIT team is deciphering. We are moving towards irrefutable evidence that some type of aircraft or multiple aircraft crashed in New Mexico in 1947. The message does seem to rule out the Air Forces explanation of the crash as being a Mogul balloon. However before we all jump to conclusions, the message does not thus far prove the crash of an alien craft. The witnesses we have talked with describe a large crash site with the wreckage of what appears to be a B-29 without engines. The case is becoming more complicated. The greatly enlarged message can be viewed at http://www.abcfield.force9.co.uk/rpit/letter.html

GOVERNMENT DISCS

Flier's Files #44-1998: MUFON Skywatch Investigations, George A. Flier
In response to recent comments about the real flying discs -- those designed, built and flown by the US Navy and USAF from 1946, UK aviation, astronomy and photographic expert Bill Rose had this to say: "Judging by the e-mail you sent me, there seems to be a fair bit of confusion about supersonic flight prior to Chuck Yeager. I've personally never suggested that discs with supersonic performance were operational prior to 1947 -- but who knows? The Germans flew the first winged vehicle beyond Mach One in 1945, which was an unmanned A-4b rocket. They were going to fly these second generation V-2s with pilots had the war lasted longer. As I recall, the design wasn't right and the wings came off the second prototype!! Arnold said, the craft he sighted were boomerang shaped, which strongly suggests a top secret development of Horten or Lippisch work -- maybe by Jack Northrop. The F-6 Douglas 'Skyray' (followed the XF5-U1 Flying Pancake) was heavily Lippisch and featured transonic performance with reheat. As a low aspect ratio design, it looked very saucerish with its manta-ray shape and reflects 1940s thinking. The key element to pre-Yeager supersonics is undoubtedly afterburner design (rather than rocket power) and the British and Germans knew all about this long before the Americans. After all, they built their postwar aerospace industry on a lot of UK and Nazi technology. I doubt if Arnold was that accurate on his estimates of performance, but I think it is quite possible that a few US high performance prototypes were flown in secret which fell between the Horten lX and the Skyray. Because of Yeager's flight, they will never be revealed. But who knows?" I might add that I spoke to a man who wishes to remain anonymous who conducted the first tests on the Horten lX in 1947 and who strongly suggested that these and similar advanced aircraft were up and flying at the time. What is more, the Americans were testing all sorts of stuff back
then and were starting to use their German assets. Thanks to Bill Rose.

Chinese Air Force Pilot Plays Chase with UFO

From: Andy Denne - A.U.R.A. (aura@telekabel2.nl)
Date: Fri, 06 Nov 1998 00:55:11 +0100
SHANGHAI, Nov. 05, 1998 -- (Agence France Presse) The air force had a prolonged up-close encounter with a UFO last month that one fighter pilot described as "just like ones in foreign movies," a government-controlled newspaper reported Thursday.

A Hebei Daily report -- carried in the news digest Baokan Wenzhai -- gave a detailed pilot's account of an aerial cat-and-mouse game played between the object and a jet fighter ordered to intercept it.

At least 140 people on the ground also saw the object, it said.

An editor with the Hebei Daily said the events took place on Oct. 19 and were still being investigated by local government departments.

The newspaper's report and military sources quoted show an openness that contrast sharply with Washington's notorious secrecy on the topic of unidentified flying objects (UFOs).

It said the encounter began when four different radar stations in northern Hebei province picked up an unknown moving target in airspace directly above a military flight training base near Changzhou city.

To observers at the base, the UFO first appeared like "a small star," and then grew larger and larger, perhaps as it descended
to a lower altitude, the report said.

They described an object with a mushroom-shaped dome on top and a flat bottom covered with bright, continually rotating lights.

A base commander surnamed Li reported to his superiors, who ordered a Jianjiao-6 armed interceptor airborne to pursue the
object once checks showed no other civilian or military aircraft in the area.

The two pilots aboard said the object closely resembled depictions they had seen in foreign science fiction films.

When they got within 4,000 meters (13,200 feet) of the UFO over Qing county, it abruptly shot upward, easily evading subsequent attempts to get closer.

It appeared to be toying with the fighter by repeatedly outdistancing it and then reappearing just above it, the pilots said.

The report said a request for permission to fire on the UFO with an onboard cannon was denied by ground command at one point.

The interceptor was eventually forced to return to base after it ran out of fuel at an altitude of 12,000 meters (39,600 feet).
The UFO then disappeared before two newer-model planes could get airborne, the article said.

While China's racy tabloids often run stories of strange phenomena alongside celebrity-gossip and crime stories, UFO reports are seldom carried by more official papers like the Hebei Daily. ( (c) 1998 Agence France Presse)

GREAT BALLS OF FIRE!
HUBBLE SEES BRIGHT KNOTS EJECTED FROM BRILLIANT STAR

Resembling an aerial fireworks explosion, this dramatic NASA  Hubble Space Telescope picture of the energetic star WR124 reveals  it is surrounded by hot clumps of gas being ejected into space at  speeds of over 100,000 miles per hour.

Also remarkable are vast arcs of glowing gas around the star, which are resolved into filamentary, chaotic substructures, yet  with no overall global shell structure. Though the existence of  clumps in the winds of hot stars has been deduced through spectro- scopic observations of their inner winds, Hubble resolves them directly in the nebula M1-67 around WR124 as 100 billion-mile  wide glowing gas blobs. Each blob is about 30 times the mass of the Earth.

The massive, hot central star is known as a Wolf-Rayet star.  This extremely rare and short-lived class of super-hot star (in  this case 50,000 degrees Kelvin) is going through a violent,  transitional phase characterized by the fierce ejection of mass. The blobs may result from the furious stellar wind that does not flow smoothly into space but has instabilities which make it clumpy.

The surrounding nebula is estimated to be no older than 10,000 years, which means that it is so young it has not yet slammed into the gasses comprising the surrounding interstellar medium.

As the blobs cool they will eventually dissipate into space and so don't pose any threat to neighboring stars.

The star is 15,000 light-years away, located in the constel-lation Sagittarius. The picture was taken with Hubble's Wide
Field Planetary Camera 2 in March 1997. The image is false-colored to reveal details in the nebula's structure.

Credit: Yves Grosdidier (University of Montreal and Observatoire de Strasbourg), Anthony Moffat (Universitie de Montreal), Gilles Joncas (Universite Laval), Agnes Acker (Observatoire de Strasbourg), and NASA

ALLEGED ALIEN RADIO SIGNAL CAUSES CONTROVERSY

UFO Roundup: Volume 3, Number 43. Editor:Joseph Trainor
On Thursday, October 22, 1998, at 21:13 UTC (9:13 p.m. UK time), Paul Dore, an engineer with Siemens Corp., reportedly picked up a strange signal emanating from the constellation Pegasus.

In an Internet post, Dore stated that he had been doing SETI research for "a year and a half," using the company's 10-meter (30-foot) dish antenna, plus "Inmarsat LNA with about 25db gain."

Dore reported that he was running two Pentium II processors with FFTDSP42 and SETIFOX programs. While he was out of the office, the FFTDSP42 "logged a Hit...when I came inside to take a look, I saw the last of the signal fading into static. I quickly ran the REPLAY.EXE program to replay the data."

He also calculated the coordinates of the transmission: Right Ascension - 23 degrees, 31 minutes, 48 seconds; Declination - 19 hours, 55 minutes, 50 seconds. The signal had come from the star system EQ Pegasi about 22 light-years (132,000,000,000,000 miles) from Earth.

After a careful check of the equipment, Dore began scanning again at approximately 21:17 UTC on Friday, October 23. "The same signal was picked up, and it was at the same right ascension and declination."

Once Dore posted his information, a lively debate ensued on the Internet.

Grad student John M. Dollan of the University of Montana cautioned against optimism, noting that "EQ Pegasi is an unlikely, if not impossible site for indigenous intelligent life."

"EQ Pegasi is a double star system, with both members being red dwarf stars," Dollan explained in an interview with UFO Roundup. "(Type) M4 and M6 respectively. Being of this class star, an Earthlike world is almost certainly out of the question, since either member will be too dim to support a viable ecosphere...Also, both stars are flare stars, meaning that they are quite young, and that their massive solar flares would be quite lethal to life."

While the debate raged, Dore logged three more hits, on Monday, October 26, at 5:58 and 6:45 UTC and on Tuesday, October 27, at 7:15 UTC, all from the EQ Pegasi system. He said he had picked up the signal on frequency 1453.07512Mhz, plus or minus 400hz Doppler.

While proponents claimed that a similar anomalous signal had been detected coming from EQ Pegasi on September 17, 1998, the SETI League branded the incident a hoax.

"A hoax," said Prof. Nathan Cohen of Boston University, "Not even a good one."

"It stuck out like a sore thumb," Cohen said, adding that he was unwilling to share the data used to determine that it was a hoax, adding, "My colleagues and I share the belief that we shouldn't aid the hoaxsters by telling them" how to improve on a fraud.

Cohen did reveal that the signal "lacked the bandwidth required of a SETI signal."

In an official statement, Dr. Paul Shuch of the SETI League said, "The non-profit, membership-supported SETI League has been analyzing this claim since Friday night (October 23). None of our 63 active stations around the world have been able to confirm it."

"The 'signal' has been discredited by a host of radio astronomers, amateur and professional, who have analyzed the GIFs posted to the Internet," Dr. Shuch said, "The person who reported the alleged signal has violated every principle of responsible science. He has not fulfilled the carefully-crafted SETI League signal detection protocols to which all of our members are signatory." (Many thanks to Stig Agermose and John M. Dollan for this story.)

(Editor's Comment: If you go outdoors tonight, look up at the nearly full moon. To the right is a bright star. That's the planet Saturn. At a two o'clock position relative to Saturn is the constellation Pegasus, the region of space from which the alleged signal came.)

TWO GOATS MUTILATED IN NORTHERN OHIO

UFO Roundup: Volume 3, Number 43. Editor:Joseph Trainor
Two goats were found dead and mutilated in Thompson, Ohio in early October, stirring up talk of cult activity in rural Geuga County.

"Some Geuga County residents are expressing concern that the mutilation of two dead goats may be an indication of cult activity. But a law enforcement officer says he needs more evidence."

"'Until somebody can prove this is satanic stuff, it's not satanic stuff,' Thompson Township Police Chief Robert Fowler said."

"One goat was found dead with its horn cleanly cut off and a square of skin cut from its neck."

Thompson is on Ohio Route 528 about 10 miles (16 kilometers) south of Lake Erie and 30 miles (48 kilometers) east of Cleveland. (Many thanks to Lou Farrish of UFO Newsclipping Service for this news story. See the Columbus Dispatch
for October 5, 1998, "Mutilated goats spark fears of cult activity.")

UFOs ACTIVE ON THE GULF COAST OF TEXAS

UFO Roundup: Volume 3, Number 43. Editor:Joseph Trainor
On Friday, October 23, 1998, at 3 a.m., James C. and a friend were in a backyard in South Houston, Texas (population 14,209), not far from Genoa Bluff Road and Almeda Mall when they saw a UFO.

The men "were actually just watching the stars and talking about life, problems, etc.," James reported. "We viewed this object for a period of seven seconds. I first saw it in the east, maybe a little southeast of where I was, and last saw it in the northeast."

"It had a tail like a comet that was very long. It flew directly over our house and then across the sky and disappeared over the horizon. It was very fast. It was following the earth's curvature. It was very bright and had that tail...Its tail was very colorful, it was red and orange on the outline and blue in the middle, kind of like a butane lighter." (Email Interview)

On Friday, October 9, 1998, two residents of South Padre Island, Texas (population 1,677) reported seeing a red, white and green UFO hovering near the shoreline condominium towers.

According to the Brownsville Herald, "U.S. Coast Guard officials received two independent reports of a UFO hovering about a mile off the coast of South Padre Island. In separate telephone calls Friday night, at about 9:15 p.m., callers told a Coast Guard officer that they had seen a round object hovering in the air over the condos for between 20 to 30 seconds."

"'What was described was red, white and green rotating lights over the city, just staying there,' (Coast Guard Officer Steve) Williams said."

"The first report came from Seabreeze Condominiums, and the second, which came almost immediately after the first, was from Saida Towers."

According to Williams, the Coast Guardsman who took the calls "notified Kelly Air Force Base in San Antonio."

South Padre Island is near Brownsville and the USA/Mexico border about 550 miles (848 kilometers) south of Dallas. (See the Brownsville, Tex. Herald for October 12, 1998. See also Filer's Files #42 for 1998. Many thanks to George A. Filer of MUFON, John Thompson and Philip Freeman for forwarding this news story.)

CANADA PLANS MILITARY RESPONSE TO Y2K CRISIS

UFO Roundup: Volume 3, Number 43. Editor:Joseph Trainor
Canadian Armed Forces have begun contigency plans to deal with the Year 2000 computer crisis, including the call-up of 60,000 reserve troops, the biggest peactime deployment ever.

According to the Toronto Globe and Mail, "The Army is studying everything from the number of flashlights and batteries it will need if power is cut for weeks to which military air-traffic-control field equipment should be set up at civilian airports. Logistics officers are plotting where to position supplies, fuel, tents, cots" and other equipment.

All formations have been told that the "planning for the Year 2000 computer crisis is their highest priority and will be the focus of all training from January (1999) on."

Last September, Ottawa sent a 24-page order to all Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) commanders, regional headquarters and reserve units. The order stated, "There is potential for disruption of major infrastructure systems...that may require Canadian Forces support to civil authorities."

Navy captains were advised that their frigates may be docked in large seaports "to provide garrisons, power plants, field hospitals and soup kitchens."

In the October 1998 issue of Maple Leaf, Lt. Gen. Roy Crabbe, recently retired deputy chief of defence, wrote, "As far as Christmas (1999) goes, I don't think you can deploy 60,000 troops away from their homes at Christmas, especially from a morale point of view. I'm not sure you can say the same for New Year's Eve."

The code name for the deployment is Operation Abacus, with military activities planned for Toronto, Montreal, Calgary and Vancouver. (See the Toronto Globe and Mail for October 27, 1998, "Army fears civil chaos from Millenium Bug," by Jeff Sallot and John Saunders.)

(Editor's Comment: All rail transportation is now run by computers, so defective Y2K chips could disrupt delivery of food supplies. In cities reasonably close to food-producing areas, such as San Francisco, Milwaukee, Kansas City and Minneapolis, that's not a big problem. But in cities far away from farm districts, where there is only a seven-day supply of food, things could get really hairy. That would include New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Cleveland, St. Louis, Philadelphia and Boston. In South America, disruption of food deliveries could cause chaos in major metropolitan areas such as Caracas, Bogota, Lima, Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Buenos Aires and Santiago de Chile.)

UFO SIGHTED IN NORTH CENTRAL ARIZONA

UFO Roundup: Volume 3, Number 43. Editor:Joseph Trainor
On Friday, October 30, 1998, at 5:30 a.m., a witness spotted a bright reddish-orange UFO over Camp Verde, Arizona (population 6,243), a city on Interstate Highway 17 approximately 75 miles (120 kilometers) north of Phoenix.

The witness reported, "I was near the west end of town, and the light was a considerable distance to the south. At first I thought I was seeing something like the big UFO over Phoenix from last year (March 13, 1997--J.T.) as the unusual
lights were in a rigid V-formation."

"It seemed very solid, and I first supposed it was a large object. In fact, I first thought it was a large object which was approximately 225 yards from where I was. But when I got out of my car and put on my glasses, I could tell it was
several miles distant. It moved more or less east from the southwest and disappeared among the hills, then reappeared some 30 seconds later."

"When it came back again, however, it was no longer in a V-formation," he added. The bright reddish-orange lights "moved east again across my field of vision and were flying more like a 'swarm.' I can't describe it exactly. But they were sort of flying around each other...The group paused for a second or two, then moved off to the south and were gone. They made no sound, and the entire sighting from beginning to end lasted maybe a minute, no longer." (Many thanks to Jim Hickman of Skywatchers International for this report.)

UFO FLIES UP COLORADO'S MYSTERIOUS VALLEY

UFO Roundup: Volume 3, Number 43. Editor:Joseph Trainor
On Wednesday, October 28, 1998, ufologist Christopher O'Brien, author of THE MYSTERIOUS VALLEY, heard his cell phone ringing and picked it up. The caller was fellow ufologist Fabian Sauvo in Center, Colorado, located 30 miles (48 kilometers) southwest of O'Brien's home in Crestone.

Sauvo was "reporting a brilliant red light flying west to east just north of Center," O'Brien reported. "I ran outside with the cellular phone and, sure enough, there was a large red light between Crestone and Center. The light ducked into a cloud around the sandpiles on Highway 17 and wouldn't come out. I waited to see if I could get a better look, and it either turned the light off or remained inside the cloud. If it wasn't a chopper, I don't know what it was. After waiting around for fifteen minutes, I gave up."

On the phone, Sauvo had told him that the UFO "exhibited several ballistic moves, i.e. bobbing up and down and hovering." (Many thanks to Chris O'Brien for this report. THE MYSTERIOUS VALLEY is published by St. Martin's Press and is still in print.)

UFO HOVERS OVER TWO CITIES IN ARGENTINA

UFO Roundup: Volume 3, Number 43. Editor:Joseph Trainor
On Sunday evening, October 25, 1998, residents of two cities of La Pampa province in Argentina reported seeing a UFO "shaped like a rugby ball and as bright as day."

The luminous UFO was first reported in Santa Rosa, the provincial capital. "The strange phenomenon appeared to take the form of a rugby ball and hovered without sound at a point 60 degrees above the horizon, reported Manuel Augustin Perez in a statement to the press."

"The object produced a glow similar to that produced by the reflection of the sun on a mirror or a piece of sheet metal, and, after several moments, disappeared in a southwesterly direction, he said."

Residents of Santa Rosa had "the mysterious apparition" in view for approximately 19 minutes.

"A pair of senior citizens who live on Ruta Provincial 7, near Camino (Highway) 5, 40 kilometers (24 miles) east of Santa Rosa, saw the object in the midst of dense clouds which dropped an intense rainfall on the area."

Santa Rosa is located 420 kilometers (252 miles) southwest of Buenos Aires, the national capital.

"Residents of the barrio Frederico Calandri in the city of Eduardo Castex, 80 kilometers (48 miles) north of Santa Rosa, described it as the visible form of a solid object."

"An OVNI (Spanish acronym for UFO--J.T.) specialist of the province, Oscar Mario, said that the object seen could be a flying saucer." (See the newspaper Diario Popular of Buenos Aires for October 28, 1998, "Vieron un OVNI en Santa Rosa." Muchas gracias a Carlos Iurchuk para esas noticias.)

(Editor's Note: Santa Rosa was the site of an encounter between three Argentinian police officers and a UFO in June 1997.)

GLENN RETURNS TO SPACE ABOARD DISCOVERY

UFO Roundup: Volume 3, Number 44. Editor:Joseph Trainor
Former astronaut and USA senator John Glenn, 77, returned to space last week as a payload specialist aboard the shuttle Discovery.

The shuttle blasted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida at 2:19 p.m. on Thursday, October 29, 1998, cheered by thousands as it hurtled into the blue, wind-free sky. After jettisoning its fuel tanks, Discovery entered an orbit 340 miles (568 kilometers) above Earth.

"'This is beautiful. It's still a trite, old statement: Zero G and I feel fine,' he added, repeating the words he uttered on his first flight 36 years ago."

Then an astronaut with Project Mercury, Glenn rode into orbit aboard the Friendship 7, circling Earth three times on March 20, 1962.

This is Discovery's 25th mission, commanded by Curtis Brown Jr., 42, a former lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Air Force. A resident of North Carolina, Col. Brown has flown four previous shuttle missions.

Pilot Steven Lindsey, 38, is another USAF veteran. A resident of California with a wife and three children, Lindsey is on his second shuttle flight.

Mission Specialist Stephen Robinson, 42, also from California, is a private pilot and a NASA research scientist.

Mission Specialist Scott Parazynski, 37, divides his time between California and his new home in Boulder, Colorado. Parazynski was originally scheduled to fly aboard the Russian space station Mir but he was pulled from the mission in 1995 because he was too tall for station's seats.

Representing the European Space Agency (ESA) is Mission Specialist Pedro Duque, 35, of Spain. This mission, STS-95, is Duque's first spaceflight.

The only woman aboard is Payload Specialist Chiaki Mukai, 46, a cardiologist from Japan. This is her second flight aboard a space shuttle.

Commenting on his first day back in orbit, Sen. Glenn said, "Being able to float around like this in Zero G--I just wish everybody could experience this...I was keyed in to every noise and quiver. It was quite a different ride than I got long ago."

As in 1962, the residents of Perth, Western Australia, left their lights on as an earthbound greeting to the spacecraft.

"We got a good view of Perth, a nice glow and spread out," Glenn said, "It looks even bigger now than it did back then. They've really got'em lit up tonight here."

The Discovery crew's third day in orbit began with a Nat King Cole song, Cachito, and a surprise announcement for Spanish astronaut Pedro Duque-- he's a new father.

"Crew member and physician Scott Parazynski- whom Glenn jokingly calls Igor--after Dr. Frankenstein's assistant--drew the first of 10 blood samples from Glenn" who "also gulped down an amino acid pill before being injected with amino acid. Researchers want to see how well alanine and histidine are absorbed by Glenn's weightless muscles and how fast protein in his muscles builds up and breaks down."

On Sunday, November 1, 1998, Discovery "released a solar science satellite for 48 hours of observation...Using the shuttle's robotic arm, astronaut Steve Robinson gently dropped the 3,000-pound Spartan satellite into space while the shuttle soared 341 miles above Mexico's Baja peninsula."

Mission Commander Curt "Brown then eased Discovery away from the $6 million satellite so it could go to work."

"Spartan will spend two days studying the sun's outer edge, or corona, and its atmosphere and solar wind before Discovery moves back in to retrieve it on Tuesday." (See the New York Post for October 30, 1998, page 2; the New York Post for October 31, 1998, page 5; the New York Daily News for November 1, 1998, page 7, and USA Today for November 2, 1998.)

(Editor's Comment: Seeing that photo of Glenn suiting up in NASA orange last week, I was struck by how natural--how essentially right-- the scene was. I thought, Flying through space is what you were born to do, John. Like they said in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home about Captain Kirk--"It is your first, best destiny.")

ROSWELL DOCUMENTS

Flier's Files #42-1998: MUFON Skywatch Investigations, George A. Flier
Joe Stefula writes that at John White's UFO Conference in New Haven, CT, on Sunday afternoon October 11, l998, Dr Bob Woods and his son, Ryan Woods, announced that they have obtained approximately 200 pages on Roswell related
documents from former Military Intelligence source. These pages include the "SOM-1 Operations Manual". The documents describe a debris field near Roswell AAF and a vehicle crash site over near Socorro, NM. Details were lacking concerning the Source of these new documents. I would hope that time is taken to verify the source of these documents before releasing them in a book and TV Special. Thanks to: Joe Stefula. josephs843@aol.com. Editors Note: We are happy to volunteer Eastern MUFON resources to help verify the authenticity of these documents.

NSA SPY SYSTEM ECHELON

Flier's Files #42-1998: MUFON Skywatch Investigations, George A. Flier
Niall McKay writes: If the European Parliament has its way, the lid is about to come off what is reputedly one of the most powerful, secretive, and extensive spy networks in history -- if, in fact, it really exists. This month, Europe's governing body will commission a full report into the workings of Echelon, a global network of highly sensitive listening posts operated in part by America's most clandestine intelligence organization, the National Security Agency. "Frankly, the only people who have any doubt about the existence of Echelon are in the United States," said Glyn Ford, a British member of the European Parliament and a director of Scientific and Technical Options Assessment, or STOA, a technology advisory committee to the parliament. Echelon is reportedly able to intercept, record, and translate any electronic communication -- telephone, data, cellular, fax, e-mail, telex -- sent anywhere in the world. The parliamentary report will focus on concerns that the system has expanded and is now zeroed in on the secrets of European companies and elected officials. The parliament is alarmed at reports of Echelon's impressive capabilities, and during a debate on 19 September, the European Union called for accountability. The parliament stressed that the NSA and the Government Communications Headquarters, which jointly operate Echelon, must adopt measures to guard against the system's abuse. International cooperation on law enforcement is important, Ford said, but there are limits. "We want to establish a code of conduct for the systems to protect EU citizens and governments." Across the Atlantic, Patrick Poole, deputy director for the Free Congress Foundation, a conservative Washington think tank, is preparing a report on Echelon to present to Republican members of Congress. "I believe it's time we start to bring this matter to our elected officials," he said. Poole and Ford have their work cut out for them: Neither Britain nor the United States will admit that Echelon even exists. An article called Eavesdropping on Europe. 9/30/98. Thanks to Bob Shell.

PROJECT WINTERHAVEN ELECTROGRAVITCIC SAUCER

Flier's Files #42-1998: MUFON Skywatch Investigations, George A. Flier
British aviation writer Bill Rose writes that one of the first scientists to conduct serious research into electrogravitics was Thomas Townsend Brown, who discovered that a highly charged electrical field could marginally distort gravity. Much of Townsend Brown's work remains cloaked in mystery, but some researchers believe that he participated in the US Navy's alleged 1943 Philadelphia Experiment which may have been an attempt to make a warship (U.S.S Eldridge) radar-invisible. By the mid 1950s, Townsend Brown's research into electrogravitics was being taken seriously by the USAF. They were so impressed with his work, that ten major aerospace companies were commissioned to evaluate proposals for disc shaped aircraft which used gravity modification technology. This led to Project Winterhaven, which was a top secret ten year USAF programme to develop a high performance combat saucer using a combination of electrogravitic and turbojet propulsion. In simple terms, the principle of this system was to positively charge the leading edge of the aircraft and negatively charge the exhaust stream. It was expected to significantly improve airflow, reduce the radar cross section and a lower the aircraft's thermal signature, while the aircraft literally rode on a gravity wave! Officially, Project Winterhaven never progressed beyond a series of feasibility studies and the physics were later described as proving non-viable. Nevertheless, it has been suggested that a prototype vehicle was built which led to an entire family of increasingly advanced black budget aircraft using gravity modification technology. Three decades later, Project Winterhaven had faded into obscurity, but in early 1992, reports began to circulate that the B-2 stealth bomber used a highly classified electrogravitic system to boost its performance. According to an
article which appeared in the well respected journal "Aviation Week and Space Technology," the B-2's leading wing edges and its exhaust flow might be electrostatically charged like the Project Winterhaven proposal. Whether such a system is being employed to enhance the performance of the B-2 (or other black aircraft) remains open to speculation, but it could explain a number of curious shortcomings identified in the B-2's basic design. Winterhaven seems to have run in parallel to Project Silver-Bug and it was handled by the same group at Wright-Patterson. Townsend Brown demonstrated flying disc models in the 1950s using his techniques. The full size military craft would have been similar in size and performance to the advanced Silver Bug. A great deal of money was spent on Winterhaven and while I have strong reservations about gravity modification technology, I don't think it can be ruled out as a hidden black technology. As I recall, Tony Gonsalves made a number of very good points about the B-2’s payload, performance, fuel capacity, range shortcomings a few years back. Thanks to Bill Rose at bill.rose@virgin.net

JAPAN LOSES ANOTHER ASDF FIGHTER JET

UFO Roundup: Volume 3, Number 43. Editor:Joseph Trainor
On Friday, October 9, 1998, at 8:02 p.m., a two-seater F4EJ fighter jet took off from Chitose airbase on Hokkaido Island in northern Japan. The crew included two officers of Japan's Air Self-Defense Force (ASDF)--Lieutenant Suetake, 28, and Lieutenant Ogasawara, 26. The men were returning to the ASDF air base at Misawa, on Honshu Island 450 kilometers (270 miles) north of Tokyo.

At precisely 8:40 p.m., as the jet was flying over the Pacific Ocean approximately 55 kilometers (33 miles) northeast of Misawa, "the F4EJ fighter dropped off the radar screen. The crew abruptly lost radio contact (with the tower at Misawa) and reportedly crashed."

An air-sea rescue operation was launched. On Saturday, October 10, "An MSDF (Maritime Self Defense Force) destroyer-escort had retrieved documents floating on the sea and part of one wing."

Lt. Suetake and Lt. Ogasawara remain missing in action. Their jet disappeared in an area where two Mitsubishi jet fighters vanished six weeks ago. (See the newspaper Yomiuri Shinbun for October 10 and October 11, 1998, "Two pilots on ASDF fighter lost." Many thanks to Miyuki Tamura, UFO Roundup correspondent in Japan, for forwarding the articles.)

FAMILY VIDEOTAPES A UFO IN SOUTHERN CHINA

UFO Roundup: Volume 3, Number 43. Editor:Joseph Trainor
On Saturday, October 3, 1998, the Han family visited a mountainside cemetery on the outskirts of Kunming, a large city in China's Yunnan province, 1,050 kilometers (630 miles) southwest of Shanghai.

While they were paying their respects to their ancestors, "at about 11:50 a.m., Han took a look back into downtown Kunming and all of a sudden discovered an extremely dazzling object flying over the city. He tracked the flying object with his video camera and shot about three minutes of videotape of the UFO."

The object, which emitted "a dazzling light," first took "the shape of a blazing ball surrounded by two pieces of black rubber, and then five diamond- shaped objects flying in a diamond formation, said Han. This process continued for more than ten minutes." (See the newspaper Guangzhou Morning Post for October 16, 1998, "UFO over Kunming," by Alan Zhang. Many thanks to Stig Agermose for forwarding this newspaper article.)

PACACCINI, WITNESSES HUNT FOR BALDIM CAVE CREATURE

UFO Roundup: Volume 3, Number 43. Editor:Joseph Trainor
On Wednesday, October 14, 1998, Vittorio Pacaccini, UFO researcher and author of the book INCIDENTE EM VARGINHA, visited Sete Lagoas in Minas Gerais state, Brazil and met with men who claimed to have seen a Chupacabra in a cave in the Serra do Espinhaco mountains.

The sighting took place at 7 a.m. on October 1, 1998 in a mountaintop limestone cave east of Baldim, a small city on the Rio das Velhas 100 kilometers (66 miles) north of Belo Horizonte. An amateur speleologist, Marcelo Uchoa, and two companions encountered the creature in a cavern 150 meters underground. Uchoa shot two photos of the Chupacabra with a Kodak digital camera. His friend and fellow resident of Sete Lagoas, Leandro da Silva, then posted the photos on his webpage on October 10.

In an interview with UFO Roundup, Pacaccini reported that Uchoa "could not be sure (how tall the creature was) but it was bigger than a dog."

The creature escaped through one of the many wall fissures in the cave after Uchoa snapped his pictures.

Pacaccini, Uchoa and da Silva left Sete Lagoas by car and drove east to Baldim. "The cavern entrance is almost on top of a mountain," Pacaccini reported, "Our way up was a little vertical."

"Right at the cave's entrance, it became obvious that we'd have a hard time getting inside that place. We had to use ropes to get in the first gallery, going down about 9 meters (29 feet). The cave's walls were very slippery and dangerous."

"Usually the first gallery of a cave is particularly dangerous because it is the easiest place to find the scorpions, the spiders, the snakes, the jaguars."

"To reach the second gallery, we went down for 60 more meters (198 feet). Our goal was to reach the fifth gallery--150 meters (495 feet) below the surface--where the picture was taken."

"After a lot of struggle, we went down 30 more meters (100 feet) We hadn't heard anything so far, but in that gallery, we started to hear a strange sound. We could not identify the sound. Something was moving below us."

Pacaccini described the noise as "something large dragging itself up from down there."

"That sound continued, sometimes nearer, sometimes further away, and, due to the crevices, it seemed to be coming from everywhere."

"Leandro shouted, 'Pacaccini, watch out! There's something coming towards us!'"

"His (da Silva's) flashlight slipped through his fingers and fell down the tunnel. We heard it smash in the fourth gallery. I said, 'Okay, fellows, enough is enough. We're going to leave this place now. Let's get out of here immediately. Okay, move it, move it!'"

Pacaccini said he drew his 9mm pistol, which was loaded with Hydra-Shok ammunition, and acted as a rearguard as Uchoa and da Silva climbed back up the tunnel. Forty minutes later, they reached the surface.

Once back in Sete Lagoas, the trio made plans for a second descent on Saturday, October 17, but heavy rains that day cancelled their plans.

Pacaccini added that he hopes to return to the cave in another week, this time with a party of 10 researchers and a full array of equipment, including a digital camera, a 36mm camera and a videocamera. (Muito obrigado a Vittorio Pacaccini por eso caso.)

(Editor's Comment: In May 1978, I visited Ouro Preto, the old capital of Minas Gerais, with my lady friend, Ana Maria Fagundes. While at one of Aleijadinho's 18th Century churches, we talked to an elderly Brazilian, and he told us some amazing stories about Itacolomi, an unusually-shaped mountain near the city. He said "luminous discs" were often seen over the peak, and there was a large tunnel leading from Itacolomi hundreds of miles into "the Inner World." Strangely enough, two weekends later, when Ana Maria and I were in Diamantina, 250 kilometers (150 miles) north of Ouro Preto, we heard the exact same story about a mountain in that vicinity. UFOs and mysterious caverns are part and parcel of the folklore of the Serra do Espinhaco.)

UFO BLAMED IN FATAL FIRE IN NORTHERN BRAZIL

UFO Roundup: Volume 3, Number 43. Editor:Joseph Trainor
The family of two children killed in a mysterious fire near Itapecuru-Mirim in Maranhao state in northern Brazil blame a "floating fireball" for causing the blaze.

Killed in the rural district house fire were Antonio Cardoso, age 10, and his sister, Maria Lucia Cardoso, age 10 months.

Trouble began in June 1998 when the children's uncle, Francisco Oliveira dos Santos, 49, reported that he had been chased out of a farm field, "pursued by this fireball and had to run to escape."

Following this episode, Oliveira "was disturbed." His brother, Jose de Sacramento Oliveira, brought him to a psychiatric clinic in Sao Luis, the state capital.

On Saturday, October 10, Oliveira left the house to forage for food. A short time later, Sra. Elaine Oliveira de Cardoso, 29, the children's mother, "left the house to get a bucket of water. A few minutes after 2 p.m., the house began to catch fire. By the time he (Oliveira) and Elaine returned, the house was completely destroyed."

UFO FLAP HEATS UP IN CENTRAL ITALY

UFO Roundup: Volume 3, Number 43. Editor:Joseph Trainor
More UFO sightings were reported in central Italy last week.

On Tuesday, October 13, 1998, residents of Collechio, a town near Parma 400 kilometers (250 miles) northwest of Rome, spotted "an ovoid object, silver in color, observed at 6 p.m. by three local people. The object seemed to move horizontally through the sky for over a minute."

On Wednesday, October 14, 1998, at 9 a.m., "two residents on the highway between Rieti and Avezzano observed in the sky for a tenth of a second a silver object in the form of a cigarette that seemed to reflect the light of the sun and remained stationary. Afterwards it moved slowly away."

Avezzano is 70 kilometers (42 miles) east of Rome. Rieti is 100 kilometers (60 miles) northeast of Rome. A UFO was seen in Rieti on October 3, 1998.

The evening of October 14, 1998, at 7:45 p.m., dozens of witnesses in the Adriatic seaports of Civitanova Marche and Porto Potonza "saw a strange apparition of strong luminosity, flying in a zigzag pattern out to sea." Some said it was a UFO; others insisted it was a NATO spy plane heading for embattled Kosovo province across the Adriatic Sea in the Balkans.

Civitanova Marche is in Macerata province, approximately 125 miles (75 kilometers) northeast of Rome. (See the newspaper Il Resto del Carlino for October 16, 1998. Grazie a Renzo Cabassi, Francesco Castagna, Goffredo Pierpaoli, Simone Grandicelli e Edoardo Russo di Centro Italiano di Studi Ufologici, CISU, per questo rapporto.)

EIGHT WITNESS SPHERICAL UFO NEAR BRISBANE

UFO Roundup: Volume 3, Number 43. Editor:Joseph Trainor
On Sunday, October 4, 1998, at 6:33 p.m., eight people witnessed a UFO flyover in the Albany area of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia "at an altitude of 2,000 to 3,000 feet."

According to eyewitnesses Mr. and Mrs. Eddy, "Object was half the size of the moon, and at arm's length the size of a tennis ball. Shape was spherical with a squarish bottom. Color was orange to red. Moving from north to south on a straight path. The object had flames coming from it. But they were different, not like the flames of an object coming in from space, but more like a small plane on fire. The flames were jagged in shape."

"Mr Eddy said that's what he thought it was at first," a burning plane, "but there was no sound to be heard. Speed moving a little faster than a hot-air balloon but slower than a Tiger Moth (light airplane)." (Many thanks to Diane Harrison of UFO Network Australasia for this report.)

UFO STARTLES MOTORISTS IN STAFFORDSHIRE, UK

UFO Roundup: Volume 3, Number 43. Editor:Joseph Trainor
On Friday, October 16, 1998, at 9 p.m., a glowing UFO appeared over motorway A34 in Congleton, Staffordshire, UK, 38 miles (60 kilometers) southeast of Liverpool, frightening several drivers.

"Theresa Hewitt, from Bromley Road, Congleton, was driving on the A34 when she spotted a bright object hovering above Moreton Level. She said, 'I saw what looked like a grey cloud moving around in the sky. It looked like a school of fish and was quite bright.'"

"'At first I thought it was a cloud lit up by one of the laser lights. But we have no nightclub in Congleton, and I checked the paper and nothing else was going on that night.'"

"The lights were also spotted by Bill Edey from Scholar Green who was travelling along the same stretch of road at 9 p.m. He said, 'i was near Little Moreton Hall when I saw about 25 lights in a perfect spherical shape above the car. The lights seemed to follow me until I reached Congleton. I am quite a rational man and thought it might have been an aircraft, but it was travelling too slow and the lights seemed to be spinning. I nearly crashed the car because of what I saw, and I was covered in goose bumps." (See the newspaper The Sentinel of Stoke-on-Trent, Staffs. for October 19, 1998, "Drivers alarmed by UFO sightings on the A34." Many thanks to Gerry Lovell of Far Shores for this newspaper article.)

UFOs REMAIN ACTIVE IN WESTERN OHIO

UFO Roundup: Volume 3, Number 43. Editor:Joseph Trainor
On Friday, October 16, 1998, at 7:15 p.m., ufologist Steven Neeley was returning home from archery practice in rural Hardin County, near Kenton, Ohio when he saw "what appeared to be a star with red and blue lights...ahead of me in the southern sky."

"Using my game binoculars, it was clearly visible and stationary," Steve reported, "I watched it for two to five minutes."

"I stood there watching, and it began to move away and up from its original position. I walked on and came around a bend in the trail," only to see the UFO glowing "on the opposite side of the sky. It was then 180 degrees northerly. It was closer and lower and left no doubt that this was what I had seen minutes before. It was a medium-sized star of white bright light with red and blue lights seemingly moving in a circle around its equator. Then it disappeared. In the blink of an eye, it vanished from sight."

Hardin County is 72 miles (115 kilometers) south of Toledo, Ohio. (Many thanks to Errol Bruce-Knapp for forwarding this report.)

On Thursday, October 22, 1998, Samuel X. and his wife were driving "on Camden/West Elkton Road, just north of Wayne Trace" in Gratis, Ohio (population 998), a town at the intersection of Routes 122 and 725 about 25 miles (40 kilometers) north of Cincinnati. Then Sam noticed "a bright light in the sky, flying low, headed eastward. We supposed the light to be the headlight of a light aircraft. Yet it pulsated instead of flashing on and off."

"As the craft got closer, we noticed two flashing lights on both sides of the center light. We parked our vehicle in the middle to the road and just observed the craft as it came closer. I was out of the car, listening for the recognizable sound of a helicopter. I knew it couldn't be a plane, as it didn't travel like a plane does."

"As it came fairly close into view, I noticed that it didn't make any noise like a plane, jet or helicopter. This craft hummed. I also noticed a bright rear light as it moved. I asked my wife how she would describe the light in the rear of the craft, and we were in agreement that it was yellowish-amber in color and illuminated the rear section of the craft."

This is the third UFO sighting in Gratis during the past year. A UFO was seen in town on November 17, 1997. A second one was spotted in Gratis on February 5, 1998.

(Many thanks to Kenneth Young, public relations director for Tri-States Advocates for Scientific Knowledge, T.A.S.K., for this news story.)

CROP CIRCLE FOUND NEAR LOWVILLE, ONTARIO

UFO Roundup: Volume 3, Number 43. Editor:Joseph Trainor
On Saturday, October 17, 1998, a large crop circle formation was found in a field of cattle corn near Lowville, Ontario, Canada.

The formation was found by Mike Bird, a local researcher, and Drew Cauley, Ontario coordinator for Circles Phenomenon Research-Canada. They estimated the structures to be "a few weeks old."

It was "a large crop formation, roughly in the shape of a crescent or C...Found in cattle corn 8 to 12 feet high," measuring "approximately 210 feet north to south by 177 feet east to west." There was "a teardrop-shaped area of standing corn inside the crescent approximately 10 feet" with "two 'companion' shapes attached to the same formation, one on the edge of the field, the other to the south, each about 5 feet by 15 feet. Stalks were broken and 'burned' at the break points."

Investigators also found a "white cobweb-like material' under one area of flattened corn. Samples of the plants, soil and "white cobweb" were taken by the men for analysis. (Many thanks to Paul Anderson of Circles Phenomenon Research-Canada for this news story.)

1952 UFO FLAP ALARMED WINSTON CHURCHILL

UFO Roundup: Volume 3, Number 43. Editor:Joseph Trainor
In 1952, during his second term as the UK's prime minister, Winston S. Churchill ordered a Top Secret clandestine probe of UFOs, a British newspaper reported last weekend.

According to Sunday People for October 18, 1998, "Worried Winston Churchill ordered a top-level probe into UFOs, when he was prime minister" for the second time.

"Lord Chancellor Lord Irvine revealed the enquiry as he admitted the Goernment is holding at least 33 top-secret files on UFOs. The documents are held under lock and key at the Public Records Office in Kew, West London, and Lord Irvine says there may be more."

"But the information is so restricted that it cannot be released with the other with the other 23 files reporting sightings between 1943 and 1967, which have already been made public."

"Churchill asked his air minister Lord Cherwell to investigate in 1952, writing, 'What does all this stuff about flying saucers amount to? What is the truth?'"

"Official documents show the War Office received reports that flying saucers were spotted by the RAF's 115 Squadron on bombing raids over Germany in 1943." (See Sunday People for October 18, 1998, "Churchill's fear of a UFO war." Many thanks to John Hayes for forwarding the newspaper article.)

(Editor's Comment: In 1943, the same month the Lancaster bombers of the RAF's 115 Squadron were encountering UFOs, a daylight disc was seen hovering above the town of Pushkino in northern Russia by Spanish soldiers of Division Azul, a volunteer Axis unit fighting alongside the German Wehrmacht. We know for a fact that in January 1945 Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF) asked all military units in the European Theatre of Operations (ETO) to send in their reports of "foo fighters" or UFOs. This would have included the 115 Squadron reports from Sir Arthur Harris's Bomber Command and all of the sightings by American GIs in Europe. But nobody seems to know what happened to this massive SHAEF archive after May 8, 1945. Was there a UFO flap in 1943? The answer is probably in the SHAEF files, and in the files of the Ground Observer Corps in the USA, which Uncle Sam has been sitting on for the past 55 years.)

DEEP SPACE ONE LAUNCHES ON SHAKEDOWN CRUISE

UFO Roundup: Volume 3, Number 43. Editor:Joseph Trainor
On Saturday, October 24, 1998, Deep Space One, NASA's "futuristic" spacecraft, blasted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida on its maiden flight.

The $152 million "solar electric" or "ion-powered" spacecraft is headed for a rendezvous with an asteroid 120 million miles (192 kilometers) from Earth.

"Marc Rayman, chief engineer and deputy mission manager at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, said the term ion propulsion may be familiar to TV viewers."

"In Star Trek, the refer to ion propulsion as being even faster than the capability that the Enterprise had--and NASA isn't quite ready to fly a faster-than-light spacecraft het,' he said."

"But he added, 'It's been known for a long time that it has the potential to provide very, very high velocity and that aspect of it was accurately reflected in Star Trek and is what we'll be doing with Deep Space One.'"

The key to Deep Space One's higher speed capacity is its solar-electric or ion propulsion system. Here's how it works:

A HIDDEN OCEAN ON CALLISTO?

UFO Roundup: Volume 3, Number 43. Editor:Joseph Trainor
Scientists have detected evidence of underground oceans on two of Jupiter's moons-- Europa and Callisto.

While a subsurface ocean was expected in Europa's case, the revelations about Callisto have come as a shock to the scientific community.

During the flybys of Voyagers 1 and 2 back in 1979, scientists calculated that Callisto had "a water ice and silicate rock composition like that of Ganymede...Callisto's icy crust is more than 150 miles thick and this is not prone to break into (tectonic) plates."

But now it appears that Callisto's cratered icy crust is not as thick as they originally thought.

"Scientists hypothesized the existence of underground seas from data gathered by the Galileo spacecraft. As the spacecraft zipped past Callisto, Galileo measured strong disturbances to Jupiter's magnetic field that could be caused by huge underground bodies of salt water about 60 miles below the frozen surface."

"'One could expect life in such oceans,' said said Krishan Kurana, a geophysicist at the University of California Los Angeles and lead author of the research."

"If we find out four-and-a-half billion years after the formation of the solar system that there's still enough heat that ice will melt on the interior of these bodies, we have to do a little bit of rethinking,' said one of the researchers, UCLA physicist Margaret G. Kivelson."

Callisto is 390 million miles (624 million kilometers) from Earth, orbiting the gas giant Jupiter at a distance of 1,170,041 miles (1,883,000 kilometers). Callisto is 2,995 miles (4,820 kilometers) in diameter and takes about 17 Earth days to complete a rotation. The moon is named for a woman in Greek mythology who had a son by Zeus. (See the Boston, Mass. Herald for October 22, 1998, "By Jove! Planet's moons may be home to oceans," page 34.)

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