Coffin Conversations - by dementia

NIKOLSKOE, Russia (Reuters) - A Russian doomsday cult sheltering in a bunker say credit cards and food packaging bar codes are satanic, the official negotiating the release of children from the group said on Monday.


Around 30 followers, including four children, from across Russia and neighboring Belarus met last October and barricaded themselves into a hillside to escape an apocalypse their preacher says is looming in either April or May.

"For us right now, what's most important is the children," said Alexander Yelatontsev, an official from Russia's Penza Oblast region, who has been the chief point of contact for the cult since the siege began.

"They have burned their passports and say that all plastic (credit) cards and strip codes on food packaging are the work of Satan," he told reporters.

Yelatontsev said the people underground were in contact with him regularly, and would accept food only if it had not been processed with modern factory equipment.

"Right now they are asking for a cow so that they can have fresh, boiled milk that is not processed," he said.

He said progress was slow but local authorities were negotiating with the group to leave their refuge.

"In as much as their beliefs have been formed over a long period of time, convincing them to come out is not going to happen quickly," he said.

Local residents said the bunker was a pre-revolutionary convent, with a well, a kitchen and areas for sleeping and praying.

On Friday the entrance to the bunker partially collapsed after rain and melting snow soaked the muddy hillside and the ground gave way.

Seven women were isolated from the rest of the group by the mudslide, and had to emerge from their shelter and seek refuge in a nearby home. The bunker is near the village of Nikolskoe, 750 km (450 miles) southeast of Moscow.

Russian authorities said the splinter sect of the Russian Orthodox church was formed by preacher Pyotr Kuznetsov, who convinced members the world would end in April.

Kuznetsov did not join his followers underground, saying God had given him different tasks. He was arrested but psychiatrists determined he was unfit to stand trial.

Kuznetsov was freed temporarily from a psychiatric hospital to return to Nikolskoe to be with the women who left the bunker.

A controversial German doctor who invented a technique for preserving corpses plans to sell his stomach-churning creations online.

Gunther von Hagens, who wears a trademark black fedora even while performing TV dissections, will sell a whole “plastinated” body for £45,000.

Or, if owning a dead human has always been your dream but you can't quite spare the same amount of cash that would buy a top-of-the-range Mercedes, a slice of stomach costs just £200.

Until now, he has only sold cross-sections, where plastinated organs are clearly visible, to universities as teaching materials.

But now private individuals will be able to buy slices of corpses too.

Dr Von Hagens' assistant Nadine Diwersi told German newspaper Das Bild: "We are able to quickly produce large quantities with high quality and for a good price."

A cross-section down the length of the body will cost £9,000, while a cross-section across the body will be priced at £200, or “£1,200 for a 16-slice set.

A typical corpse can produce eight vertical cross-sections or 230 horizontal cross-sections.

However, only a minority of the donated bodies will be available for purchase by private individuals as 80 percent of donors, who make their bodies available free of charge to von Hagens, stipulate that they can only be used "for scientific progress."

There's another hitch: the German law against "disturbing the peace of the dead" which makes it illegal to commit "insulting mischief" with the body parts of the deceased.

Miss Diwersi said their lawyers were currently investigating the conditions under which corpse slices could be sold to private individuals.

However, she expressed optimism that "in three or four months, anyone will be able to buy the slices on the Internet or in our Plastinarium."

Around 25 million people have reportedly viewed Dr von Hagens' "Body Worlds" exhibitions, which show preserved human specimens in a variety of poses, in cities across Asia, Europe and North America over the last 10 years.

A thief visited a home in New Zealand twice in one day - first to steal and then to return the goods with an apology note.

Graeme Glass of Queenstown noticed his window was smashed and feared the worst. But when he got inside, he discovered a pile of his stuff on the kitchen table, along with goods the burglar bought using Glass' credit card.

This is a true blessing in disguise.

Envelopes stuffed with cash have been found all over Japan - crammed into public toilets.

For some it's a dream job: condom tester. Australian condom-maker Durex is recruiting 200 adults as product testers. Both male and female Australians are invited to apply for the positions. And their applications are to include an explanation of why they would make an "expert" condom tester. Durex says each member of its condom panel will receive a pack of Durex sex products and a chance to win a thousand Australian dollars. There's no pay for the job of condom tester, but just think about the fringe benefits.

They call it their Khamosh Colony. They say it is more peaceful to study here than in any other part of the city. And they may not be wrong. The Taj Goth Free Education Home is situated inside the premises of the Mewa Shah Graveyard and strangely enough students here feel their school is safer due to its peculiar location. “Unlike other schools in the city, our school is never closed during any riot or strike in the city,” a young student proudly proclaims. This is no idle claim in a city where school shut often due to one reason or another.

A ghoulish gravedigger stole a skull from a broken casket in a Massachusetts church cemetery and made an ashtray of it.

Keith Chartrand, of Fitchburg, also took a thighbone to make a pipe, police say.

Granny Feng's tom cat has sprouted two hairy 4ins long wings, reports the Huashang News.

A new adult entertainment website could be termed aural sex – because it is tailor-made for blind people.

The X-rated site features erotic stories read out by scantily-clad women. Users can also listen to graphic descriptions of saucy photos.