Mummy fried – woman sets fire to house while trying to reanimate long-dead sister
A night fire in an apartment block has been caused by a woman who tried to reanimate her long-dead elder sister with electricity.

The horrific story happened in Ekaterinburg, the biggest city in the Urals.

The suspected arsonist, 69, apparently was not completely of sound mind, judging by her mental health record. Read full story from rt.com

Whales return to New York City: Massive mammals appearing again in seas near city; draws sightseers
Whales, dolphins and seals have made a triumphant return to the waters just outside New York Harbor – and the comeback has even sparked whale and seal-watching tours.

Tom Paladino, captain of two ferry boats from the Rockaways, says pods of aquatic mammals off the city’s coast have “increased tenfold.”

“We used to see 10 whales a year – now we see 100,” he said. “We saw dolphins almost on a daily basis between June and September.” Read full story from nydailynews.com

The Muslim Brotherhood may gain power in Egypt by default
The spread of the contagion of protest across north Africa, from Tunisia to Egypt and beyond, has not just been exhilarating, it has also given the lie to the myth that people in Muslim countries have a different mindset to those in the west, and that democracy and secularism are western concepts alien to the political culture of Egypt or Jordan or Yemen. What the demonstrators in Cairo and Tunis have been demanding is not an Islamic state, but a more open, democratic society, with freedom of expression and the protection of individual liberties.

For many, however, the worry remains that the fall of Hosni Mubarak may lead not to a secular, democratic Egypt but to one in thrall to the fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood; the fear, in other words, that Egypt in 2011 could go the way of Iran in 1979. The outcome of change – especially change as dramatic and anarchic as in Egypt – can never be certain. It could be that the Muslim Brotherhood grasps the reins of power in a post-Mubarak Egypt. But if it does so, it is as likely to have been because of the bad faith of secular politicians as of popular support for Islamism. Read full story from guardian.co.uk

‘Ghost Hunters International’s’ Kris Williams Compares Foreign and Domestic Haunts
As the newest member of Syfy’s  “Ghost Hunters International” team, Kris Williams is among the few paranormal investigators qualified to answer the question of whether stories of hauntings are alike or different in North America and other parts of the world.

She says, “There is a difference in that there is so much history overseas.”  With the domestic version of “Ghost Hunters,” “The 1700s seemed old.  But, well, for example we walked into a castle in Germany and asked how old it was, and they very matter-of-factly said it was built in 1190.  Also, you hear more stories of torture.”  Ew.

Williams says the team has been exploring stories of hauntings that date back to World War II and World War I as well.  Next Wednesday’s (2/2) show has the team “at a fort in Serbia that dates back to the late 1600s, but there was a settlement at the same location that goes back thousands of years.  There were some battles.  There was an execution wall where they’d line up prisoners.  It was creepy.  People felt like they were being watched.  There were lights and apparitions.” Read full story from bethsmithhollywood.com

Jeffs’ pre-trial hearing scheduled for today
Leader of breakaway church accused of sex assault, bigamy
SAN ANGELO, Texas — Warren Jeffs, the leader of the FLDS, is scheduled for a pretrial hearing today as his trial date for sexual assault is less than a month from now.

Jeffs is charged with two counts of sexual assault of a child and bigamy.

“Pretrial motions will be heard beginning at 9 a.m. in preparation for trial scheduled for Feb. 21,” said Jerry Strickland, spokesman for the state attorney general’s office.

The venue of the trial has not been determined.

Jeffs has undergone five pretrial hearings since November, when he arrived to Texas. Read full story from gosangelo.com

Great Pyramid has two secret chambers: French architect
A French architect campaigning for a new exploration of the 4,500-year-old Great Pyramid of Giza said on Thursday that the edifice may contain two chambers housing funereal furniture.

Jean-Pierre Houdin — who was rebuffed three years ago by Egypt in his appeal for a probe into how the Pyramid was built — said 3-D simulation and data from a US egyptologist, Bob Brier, pointed to two secret chambers in the heart of the structure.

The rooms would have housed furniture for use in the afterlife by the pharaoh Khufu, also known as Cheops in Greek, he told a press conference.

“I am convinced there are antechambers in this pyramid. What I want is to find them,” he said.

In March 2007, Houdin advanced the theory that the Great Pyramid had been built inside-out using an internal spiral ramp, as opposed to an external ramp as had long been suggested. Read full story from physorg.com

Tools Suggest Earlier Human Exit From Africa
A cache of stone tools found on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula has reopened the critical question of when and how modern humans escaped from their ancestral homeland in eastern Africa.

The present view, based on both archaeological and genetic evidence, holds that modern humans, although they first emerged in Africa some 200,000 years ago, were hemmed in by deserts and other human species like Neanderthals and did not escape to the rest of the world until some 50,000 years ago.

An archaeological team led by Hans-Peter Uerpmann of the University of Tübingen in Germany now reports the discovery of stone tools 127,000 years old from a site called Jebel Faya in what is now the United Arab Emirates, just south of the entrance to the Persian Gulf. If the new tools were made by modern humans, as the researchers assert, then modern humans got out of Africa much earlier than believed. Read full story from nytimes.com

Did Vikings navigate by polarized light?
A Viking legend tells of a glowing “sunstone” that, when held up to the sky, revealed the position of the sun even on a cloudy day. It sounds like magic, but scientists measuring the properties of light in the sky say that polarizing crystals–which function in the same way as the mythical sunstone–could have helped ancient sailors to cross the northern Atlantic. A review of their evidence was published January 31 in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B.

The Vikings, seafarers from Scandinavia who traveled widely and settled in swathes of Northern Europe, the British Isles and the northern Atlantic from around 750 to 1050 AD, were skilled navigators, able to cross thousands of kilometers of open sea between Norway, Iceland and Greenland. Perpetual daylight during the summer sailing season in the far north would have prevented them from using the stars as a guide to their positions, and the magnetic compass had yet to be introduced in Europe–in any case, it would have been of limited use so close to the North Pole. Read full story from scientificamerican.com

Is UFO orb over Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem a context communication by ET?
A second independent video and news report emerged today on January 30, 2011 confirming the authenticity of the UFO orb over Mount Zion and the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem at 1 AM on the morning of January 28, 2011.

On January 28, 2011 at 1 AM, a UFO orb appeared over the Mount Zion and the Dome of the Rock-Temple Mount in Jerusalem.  A video of the UFO orb states, “Two men capture a film of what might be one of the most interesting UFO clips ever caught.

“Witnesses noticed the large oval shaped UFO suspended on the night skyline. At about one minute into the clip the UFO descends almost to ground level directly over the Dome of the Rock-Temple Mount. The oval UFO hovers there for a short while, flashes lights into surrounding buildings then shoots upwards at an incredible speed.  Witnesses were totally taken back and amazed at what they had just seen.” Read full story from examiner.com

Ancient Treasures Looted, Destroyed in Egypt’s Chaos
Archaeologist Zahi Hawass, Secretary General of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities, reports that several of the country’s museums have been attacked by looters taking advantage of the political turmoil in the country. Read full story from nationalgeographic.com

Video appears to show police using CS spray on protester
Video footage has emerged that appears to show the moment a police officer used CS spray on protesters at Sunday’s UK Uncut protest.

Hundreds of people staged sit-ins at high street stores around the country as part of a day of action designed to highlight companies it says are avoiding millions of pounds in tax.

In London, protesters successfully forced a Boots (one of the companies campaigners accuse of tax avoidance) branch in Oxford Street to close when police tried to arrest a woman for pushing a leaflet through the store’s doors. Read full story from guardian.co.uk