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Fires have been breaking out spontaneously on the island of Sicily recently, and in 1990, the same thing happened near Venice. Twenty years ago, similar fires in Italy were blamed on the supernatural powers of a woman who was put in jail for starting them.

While the U.S. has its history of persecuting witches in Salem, Massachusetts, it’s hard to believe that someone could be put in jail for practicing witchcraft in a developed country as late as 1982, but that’s what happened to Carole Compton. Tracey Lawson writes in The Scotsman that she was accused of using pyrokinesis to start fires in the homes where she worked as a nanny.
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When we think of killing in the name of religion, we think of 911, but there is more than one way to do it. Two children in two different states in the U.S. have been killed by exorcists recently. In Atlanta, a six-year-old girl was found strangled and stabbed, with a broken back. In Milwaukee, an eight-year-old boy was smothered by being wrapped in sheets during an exorcism ceremony designed to “cure” him of autism. And in Peru, a child was recently sacrificed for a good harvest in an ancient ceremony.
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What will we do if ET contacts us? The International Academy of Astronautics in Paris has a list of volunteer astronomers who are willing to help. In the U.S., an international agreement called the “Declaration of Principles Concerning Activities Following the Detection of Extraterrestrial Intelligence,” written by SETI, lays out the basic rules for contact. The scientists who sign the “Declaration” must agree to keep the news about contact secret until the government has been alerted. As soon as SETI detects an alien radio signal, the International Telecommunications Union will ask governments around the world to stop using that part of the radio band, so communication can be established.
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Fires have broken out in part of a Sicilian village, and no one can figure out what’s causing them. It can’t be electricity, since the power has been cut off. Despite this, washing machines, dishwashers, refrigerators, electricity meters and cables have been spontaneously bursting into flames. A fire even started in a water pipe. There’s no evidence of arson.

In the Guardian, John Hooper quotes Gianfranco Allegra, of the Italian Center for Electro-technical Experimentation, as saying he watched as “an electrical wire lying on the floor that was not plugged in to the mains inexplicably caught fire.”
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