JAKARTA, Indonesia — Indonesian authorities have arrested two men for carrying 40 pythons on board a flight to Dubai.

Jakarta airport official Salahudin Rafi says the two Kuwaitis were about to enter the departure area Friday when X-rays showed their bags were filled with sedated snakes.

Fourteen passengers have died from snake bites, including two flight attendants and one of the pilots.

The men told investigators they planned to sell the pythons to collectors in the United Arab Emirates.

The men are being questioned after being charged with carrying wild animals on board the Emirates plane, attempted murder and murder.  They could face up to seventy years in jail and a fine of $30 million and the death penalty.

In December, police at Abu Dhabi’s airport stopped a passenger who passed through an Indonesian airport carrying a box containing four snakes, two parrots and a squirrel.  But that passenger was stopped.

What have they done with the pythons?  Well, PETA has stepped in to protect the pythons, but the UAE authorities want the snakes beheaded and fed to the camels.  We’ll see who wins that battle?

In the meantime, aren’t the snakes cute:

JAKARTA – New footage has emerged of what appears to be a UFO hiding behind a cover of clouds!

UFOs sightings that occur during the day are much harder to explain away, especially when caught on camera.

This video was recently released, supposedly shot in Indonesia:

So is it a UFO or just strange weather phenomena?

Meteorologist Karsten Brandt believes the footage is actually showing two layers of cloud, one on top of the other, with the upper layer being heavily illuminated by the sunlight.

]]> http://weeklyworldnews.com/aliens/15437/ufo-in-clouds-2/feed/ 18 Erik Van Datiken ufo_in_clouds http://weeklyworldnews.com/mutants/7836/the-hobbit-species/ http://weeklyworldnews.com/mutants/7836/the-hobbit-species/#comments Wed, 22 Apr 2009 22:29:19 +0000 Gerry Dorsey http://weeklyworldnews.com/?p=7836 ]]>

STONY BROOK, NY – A skeleton cast of the possibly new species nicknamed “The Hobbit” has gone on display for the first time.

The skeleton of Homo floresiensis was discovered in 2003 in Indonesia. Scientists continue to argue whether the remains are that of a human dwarf or an entirely new hominin species. The discovery of partial remains of eight other individuals as well as small stone tools have left researchers puzzled.

The Homo floresiensis would have only stood about three feet tall, weighed around 70 pounds, walked upright and may have hunted and used fire.

The cast was on display at Stony Brook University during a one-day symposium that debated the nature of the proposed new species. One anthropologist, Dean Falk, explained how she had compared the size and shape of the brain to various other kinds, including chimpanzees, the early species Homo erectus, and humans with a disorder called microcephaly, a common hypotheses for those who believe the Homo floresiensis are merely deformed humans.

Falk stated, “In our view we dispensed at that point with the microcephaly hypothesis. It’s not just that their brains are small; they’re differently shaped. It’s its own species.”

Homo floresiensis is thought to have survived until as recently as 12,000 years ago. If it is ultimately considered an entirely new species, it will considered the longest-lasting non-modern human, surviving long past the Neanderthals by at least 12,000 years!