Posted on September 11, 2004

'Vampires' of Tehran desert nabbed for killing 22 kids
TEHRAN: Iranian police have arrested two men suspected of raping and savagely killing up to 22 children, and then disguising the smell of their rotting bodies by leaving a dead cat or dog near their makeshift graves. Newspapers on Saturday described the two 25-year-old suspected killers as "hyenas" or "vampires of the Tehran desert" where they preyed on youngsters, especially the children of illegal immigrants who would hesitate to report their disappearance to the police. The respected government newspaper Iran said the two men had killed 22 children, two men and a prostitute within the past year. Another paper, Hamvatan Salam, said the pair, Mohammad and his accomplice Ali, had slain eight children aged between nine and 11, while the state television daily Jam-e Jam put the figure at 15 victims, nine of whom were children. "To see blood makes me feel euphoric," Mohammad said, according to one paper, adding that his mother had beat him as a child and he was jealous of other children and wanted them to suffer. The men, both employed in a brickworks, would lure away the children in the desert south of the capital Tehran by saying they were going to dig out rabbits or foxes from their burrows. They then stunned their victims with blows from a stone, abused them and shattered their skulls. The bodies were buried in a hole or makeshift grave and the men would kill an animal to leave on the corpse's resting place to hide the smell of putrefaction. Sometimes, the two would burn the bodies and then bury them, the newspapers said. Police stumbled on the killings after finding two children, almost dead, about a month ago, said the newspaper Etemad. One child is still in a coma, but the other recovered enough to speak and put them on the trail of Ali. Ali swore that he acted alone but finally pointed the finger also at Mohammad, saying he was scared of his accomplice who was planning to kill him. Mohammad was arrested as he was spying with binoculars on children swimming. On September 8, the two men led police to the scene of their last killings where a bulldozer uncovered the burnt corpses of Milad Aminpour, Kayvan Khrosravi and Ahmad Azimi, all of whom had been kidnapped as they played football. In the next 48 hours, the body of Sajjad Sotoudeh who was killed a year ago, and six unidentified corpses were exhumed in a battery chicken farm.
Copyrite © 2004 Hindustan Times

Posted on September 11, 2004

Vampires seek teeth into Salem brew-haha
SALEM: Posters of a scantily clad busty blonde "vampire" have popped up in Salem, and some Witch City residents and officials are less than amused. "I consider this a big trick-or-treat on the city of Salem," said Shawn Poirier, who claims to be a witch. "This is stirring up the hotbed of sex in Salem." The posters - promoting the Oct. 29 Masquerade Ball, a vampire's dance that includes a burlesque show and flogging - features "Countess Bathoria," a voluptuous Canadian vamp starlet who is shown with her neck and chest covered in blood. Deborah Greel, head of Salem Main Streets, said a shop owner pulled her aside Wednesday and was "quite concerned" about the full-color ads. "'That doesn't reflect well on the city,'" Greel said the woman told her. "She said, 'It's going to give us a bad name.'" Other shocked residents called City Hall to complain about the sexed-up posters that surfaced this week. So city workers - with Poirier's help - tore the ads down. Poirier claims he gave the posters to friends and had nothing to do with them being publicly posted. Poirier said he co-hosts the ball with fellow witch Christian Day as a part of their Festival of the Dead. Salem is best known for its witches, but Poirier, who claims not to be a vampire, said there is a thriving subculture of 1,000 vampires from Salem to Cambridge. Some said Salem is reluctant to embrace that subculture. "Part of the city still thinks they are in Colonial times," said Sharon Fagley, who runs The Magic Parlor, where you can get a pair of custom-fit fake fangs for $25. Erik Verlaan, a 32-year-old visiting from Holland, was not offended by the vampire poster tacked briefly on a downtown kiosk. "It's a vampire party," Verlaan said. "You clearly get the message." Poirier pointed out that next to the poster of Countess Bathoria was an anti-President Bush [related, bio] flier using a derogatory word to describe the president. Poirier found that flier, which no one tore down, more offensive. "It's just so hypocritical," he said.
Copyrite © 2004 Boston Herald

Posted on August 22, 2004

'Vampire' rapist gets 12 years
LONDON: A rapist in Britain who tortured his victim and drank her blood was sentenced Sunday to 12 years imprisonment, Sky News reported. Luke Weekes subjected a victim to a nine-hour ordeal after she rejected his advances. She was left with more than 60 injuries during an attack described as "gratuitous, unprovoked and unremitting" by Judge Timothy King. The woman was reportedly ordered by Weekes to slice open one of her fingers so he could suck at the wound. The woman was raped, whipped, hit repeatedly with a bottle, hit with a chair, then beaten with the chair's leg when it smashed across her back. "I thought I was going to die, and hoped it would not be a long death. I felt powerless and exhausted. My blood was on the walls and the sheets," the victim said.King dismissed Weekes's claims that the victim's injuries were due to falling down the stairs as "laughable." Weekes has denied any wrongdoing. A jury unanimously convicted him of one charge of rape, two of indecent assault, as well as single counts of unlawful imprisonment, causing actual bodily harm and outraging public decency.
Copyright 2004 United Press International http://washingtontimes.com

Posted on July 24, 2004

Kerry the vampire slayer?
AUSTIN: Move over, Buffy. You've got competition - from John Kerry. In the current issue of the comic book ``Sword of Dracula,'' a character modeled after the Democratic presidential hopeful takes on the king of the undead, Dracula himself. "I chose Kerry because I am impressed with his background as a military man," writer Jason Henderson said yesterday. The flashback sequence illustrated by Terry Pallot finds an unnamed man piloting a CIA operative up a river in 1968 Vietnam - and discovering a village that serves as lair for the lord of the undead. While the character is only addressed as ``Lieutenant,'' it's definitely Kerry, said Henderson from Austin, Texas, deep in the heart of Bush country. Given Kerry's record of service, Henderson believed the man who received three Purple Hearts deserved a fictional homage. The sequence is a bit of a cliffhanger for the bimonthly black-and-white Image Comics publication, but the Kerry character will pop up again, Henderson said. In the series, Dracula is portrayed as a military mastermind, the greatest terrorist the world has ever seen, a leader of a dark cabal of evil against mankind. A spokesman for the Kerry camp could not be reached for comment, so it is unclear whether Kerry is aware of his fictional counterpart - or if he thinks the comic will put a stake in his chances of capturing the undead vote. According to Henderson, ``Die Hard'' producer Chuck Gordon has optioned the rights to make a movie based on the comic. Any chance of a Bush-like character appearing in the comic? "I believe in equal time. Just tell me where he was in 1968 and he's there," Henderson said, referring to questions about Bush's military service. "I just try to put things as they actually were and then with a little fantasy kick to it. I'm not going to invent a whole background for Bush." And if Kerry happens to be victorious in November, future installments will refer to him as "the president," Henderson said. For more information, go to www.swordofdracula.com.
By Mark A. Perigard © Copyright by the Boston Herald

Posted on July 26, 2004

Fighting the bite of the vampire
AFRICA: Researchers are claiming a breakthrough in the battle against leishmaniasis, a potentially fatal disease affecting millions, many of them in Africa. The Centers for Disease Control in the USA includes Southern Africa in its list of regions affected by the lethal illness, which produces fever, weight loss, anaemia, and swelling of the spleen and liver. The disease is thought to have significant negative impacts on economic productivity.

Leishmaniasis is caused by a microscopic parasite related to the one that causes malaria. It is transmitted to humans by bites from tiny, blood-sucking sand flies. Three forms occur: one affects internal organs, one triggers skin ulcers, and one causes the membranes of the nose and mouth to erode away.

Describing their findings as "a new picture" of how the disease is transmitted, the researchers say their work has important implications for developing drugs and vaccines. But the broader picture also underscores the many gaps between research and benefits for ordinary people, particularly given the lack of interest in so-called third-world illnesses by big pharmaceutical companies conscious of their fiduciary duty towards their shareholders. The good news is that these gaps are being filled in by researchers working in the developing world and in non-profit university laboratories.

The newest study, published in this week's edition of the journal Nature, reveals that the average sand fly bite can vomit up more than 1,000 parasites, most at a stage in their life cycle when they are primed to cause infection. By counting parasites in different parts of the sand flies' digestive tract, the researchers have shown that the flies "actively regurgitate" the parasite when they bite. But the sand fly does more than just inject. Animal testing showed that mice receiving a single infectious sand fly bite developed more severe skin lesions, and faster, than those injected with 1,000 infectious parasites from a syringe. This suggested that something else — dubbed an 'exacerbation factor' — was transmitted along with the parasites.

The exacerbation factor is in fact the main component of a gel released by the parasites while they are inside sand flies. The gel is known to block the sand fly gut, causing it to feed more often and for longer, which increases the chance of parasite transmission. Its additional role in enhancing infection was unknown until now. The research also shows how the parasite has evolved a chemical that functions both in the insect that transmits it and in its dog, human or other host. This, say the scientists, highlights the importance of studying all three organisms simultaneously - an important issue in an era of increased specialisation.

"This is an excellent example of collaborative research bringing together biology and chemistry to unravel key questions," says Mike Ferguson, one of the authors of the study, carried out by the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine and the Wellcome Trust Biocentre at the University of Dundee, both in the United Kingdom, and the Max-Planck-Institut f?r Biologie in Germany. Sometimes the problem is that information about third-world diseases is about as hard to come by as funding.

While infectious and parasitic diseases disproportionately wreak havoc in poor countries, authors and editors from these nations are significantly under-represented in journals that publish research in tropical medicine, according to work done by Jennifer Keiser of Princeton University's Office of Population Research and her colleagues.

More than 70 per cent of editorial and advisory board members for the dozen leading journals that publish research on tropical medicine are from rich countries, with a high ranking in the United Nations human development index, which considers life expectancy, education levels and income. Just five per cent of the board members are from poor countries and five journals had only board members from rich countries.

For the six top-rated journals, the researchers fund that only 14 per cent of the authors who published recent research papers were from poor countries. These findings contrast with the relatively common occurrence of international research collaborations between scientists in rich and poorer countries. But the research continues despite the difficulties in communicating about it.

Patients who cannot afford existing expensive medicines might benefit from a lower dose of the same drug, according to a pilot study carried out at the Kala-Azar Medical Research Centre at the Banaras Hindu University in Varanasi, India. The cost would not be astronomical but is still beyond the reach of many of the world's poor.

So Médicins sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders) launched an ambitious international effort to create a virtual industry driven by public needs rather than share price. The Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative began two years ago to create drugs for diseases that have poor commercial prospects because they affect mainly people in the developing world. (Not that the developed world is immune; most cases of leishmaniasis in the USA come from Mexico and Latin America.)

The Paris-based charity has put up an initial US$1 million for five pilot projects to develop and produce drugs for visceral leishmaniasis and sleeping sickness, both common in Africa. The parasites for both diseases can live inside the human body for months or even years, constantly dodging a gradually tiring immune system.

Pet dogs are a key source of the blood-sucking sand flies. But research from the Middle East recommends that children can be protected from potentially lethal leishmaniasis by fitting the animal with an insecticide-impregnanted collar. Work done by the Tabriz University of Medical Sciences in Iran found that dog collars can reduce the disease by 40 per cent.

The news should be of comfort to dog owners in at least 70 countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America and Europe where the disease is endemic and a common strategy in the war against the sand fly parasite has been to cull infected dogs.

This technique has been something of a failure because dog owners refuse to comply. In Brazil, animal-related visceral leishmaniasis has increased steadily over the past two decades despite spraying 200,000 houses with insecticide and killing 20,000 dogs a year. The problem is that stray dogs must still be culled and collars are unlikely to be fitted on jackals, foxes and other wild animals who can also carry the sand fly. So other researchers are investigating why some people infected with leishmaniasis sometimes manage to keep the disease at bay. A heavy first infection provokes an immune response that protects against re-infection, although the original pathogen may still be present.

Yasmine Belkaid and colleagues of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in the United States have studied this form of immunity in animal tests, using mice deliberately infected with a type of leishmaniasis. They reported that a certain type of immune cell is the key player. These cells, known by the snappy title of CD4+CD25+ suppressor T cells, have been the focus of intense study because of their role in autoimmunity, when the immune system attacks the body. The findings raise the question of whether vaccine designers should avoid or target these cells - and will be important for other research into fighting other diseases, such as tuberculosis.

Other researchers have identified a mutant form of the leishmaniasis parasite that can remain indefinitely in host animals and people without making them ill. When the parasite is reactivated, this causes the most severe forms of the disease. But little is known about the factors that enable the parasite to persist in this way. So far it has been difficult to carry out such studies owing to the need for lengthy experiments. The findings could assist the development of effective vaccines and chemotherapy.

So far, vaccine developers have drawn a blank in the fight against the parasites that cause leishmaniasis and sleeping sickness. Part of the problem is that many parasites are masters of disguise, able to rapidly shuffle the surface proteins that the human immune system uses to recognise intruders. Some scientists are now plotting an alternative, sweeter line of attack: they are trying to get the immune system to respond not to proteins, but to the complex sugars that parasites carry on their surfaces. Neither politics nor war is being allowed to get in the way of the research. Investigations into leishmaniasis as well as significant genetic hearing loss problems continue in troubled Palestine, although many other joint cross-border science collaborations have crashed under America's self-proclaimed "Road Map" for the Middle East.

And on the other side of the world, in financially-embattled Argentina, leishmaniasis researchers are among the beneficiaries of July's announcement of US $ 15 million in grants to replace decades-old scientific equipment. The Regional Medicines Institute in Resistencia in northern Argentina — which researches diseases of the poor such as leprosy and leishmaniasis — will receive special microscopes, portable ultrasound equipment and other instruments worth US$200,000. The equipment will assist disease diagnosis and allow researchers to analyse how environmental conditions affect human health. "We have not had new equipment since the 1970s," said director Jorge Gorodner.
-- Mike Shanahan SciDev.Net Copyright Mail&Guardian http://www.mg.co.za

Posted on August 14, 2004

Blood flows on Vampire Day in Brazil
SAO PAULO: For residents of South America's largest city, Friday the 13th was no ordinary day: it was the first annual Vampire Day. Though ghoulish-sounding, the day isn't meant to scare people but rather to encourage them to give blood as part of a city-wide drive for blood donations. In Brazil, less than two percent of the population donate blood, which frequently leaves blood banks dangerously low. Earlier this year, Sao Paulo legislators voted to designate August 13 Vampire Day on the official calendar, approving a proposal introduced by city councilman Jose Laurindo Oliveira. The idea, however, originated with Mariliz Marins, the daughter of a B-movie horror film maker Jose Mojica Marins, better known as Coffin Joe. For the blood drive, she has assumed an alter ego, Liz Vamp, the campaign's poster girl. "The day is intended to encourage the habit of donating blood and to bring in new donors," she said. Marins said that encouraging blood donations was only one of the reasons behind Vampire Day. "It's also a fight against labels and prejudice of any type. Just because a guy dresses in black and has a funny haircut doesn't mean he's bad," Marins told the Estado news agency at the Pro-Sangue Foundation, where she was giving away signed comic books to the first 500 blood donors.
- Sapa-AP © 2004 Independent Online http://www.iol.co.za

Posted on July 7, 2004

Forest Lab gets rights to vampire bat-like drug
MANHATTAN: Forest Laboratories Inc. has acquired the rights to market a drug that replicates the blood-clot-dissolving properties of vampire bat saliva. Researchers believe the experimental drug, created by a German drug maker, has the potential to save thousands of stroke victims each year from extensive permanent brain damage.

In an agreement announced Tuesday, Manhattan-based Forest will assume responsibility for Germany-based Paion GmbH's ongoing clinical trials of desmoteplase in the United States. Forest will also be responsible for obtaining Food and Drug Administration approval for the drug, which is expected to be available to U.S. patients no earlier than 2008. Paion will retain the rights to develop and market the drug outside of the United States.

The new drug is a genetically engineered version of the bat-saliva clot buster. When a vampire bat bites, a component of its saliva dissolves clots and keeps the victim's blood flowing. A representative for Forest refused to comment on the financial details of the deal or on the performance of the company's stock, which was selling Tuesday for the lowest price this year, closing at $54.72 per share, down $2.49 per share. The stock hit a 2004 high of $77.59 on Jan. 26.

Amy Stevens, senior analyst for specialty pharmaceuticals for Goldman Sachs, attributed the share price decline to a general slowdown in the market for the class of antidepressants that includes two of Forest's drugs, Lexapro and Celexa. Also, the company is expected to lose business when a generic for Celexa becomes available in January. "We'd be more hopeful for their earnings if they had invested in drugs that would be available sooner," Stevens said. For now, there is only one clot-dissolver drug available on the market, tissue plasminogen activator, or tPA, which works on symptoms of ischemic stroke. It must be administered within three hours of the appearance of symptoms of this type of stroke, which accounts for 88 percent of all strokes. Calif.-based Genentech manufactures tPA under the name Activase.

Clinical studies so far indicate that desmoteplase can be injected into patients up to nine hours after the onset of symptoms, which Forest said expands the number of patients who could be treated to 300,000. The company said that only 11 percent of the estimated 600,000 American stroke patients each year arrive at hospitals in time to benefit from tPA.
BY REGINA MARIE GLICK, STAFF WRITER. Copyright © 2004, Newsday, Inc. http://www.newsday.com

Posted on June 22, 2004

'Vampire' killer arrested
NEW DELHI: A man suspected of killing three people and then drinking their blood to ward off their spirits was arrested in north India on Tuesday, police said. Hiralal Totia was arrested in Shankarpur village in Uttar Pradesh state, police told the Press Trust of India. Police said Totia killed a police officer and then sucked his blood. He did the same with two other victims - a taxi driver and a woman. Totia told police under interrogation that he drank the blood of his victims as he believed this would keep away their "spirits".
Edited by Anthea Jonathan © News24 2003. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. [http://www.news24.com]

Posted on Monday, May 31, 2004

Vampire bats death toll in Brazil up to 22
RIO DE JANEIRO: Up to 22 people may have died after being bitten by rabies-carrying vampire bats in Brazil’s Amazon state of Para, scientists said yesterday after discovering a second affected area. Amiraldo Pinheiro, director of Para state’s epidemic research centre, said 17 deaths from rabies had been confirmed in people known to have been bitten by bats. In five more cases the deceased showed typical rabies symptoms but were buried without an autopsy. Fifteen of the confirmed deaths were in the remote riverside Portel area, next to the world’s biggest estuarine archipelago of Marajo and two more, including the latest on May 19, in the Viseu region 450 km to the east.

Pinheiro said epidemiologists from the state health authority found about 1,130 people who had been bitten by the thumb-sized bats over the past 12 months in Viseu and about 600 people in Portel. Health ministry representatives arrived in Para yesterday to help study the outbreak. Rabies has an incubation period of about a year, during which vaccine has to be applied. Otherwise, rabies leads to death in 100 per cent of the cases. All bite victims received vaccines and other anti-rabies treatment, and Pinheiro said the situation was now under control with an awareness campaign among the population. — Reuters

Posted on Monday 31 May 2004

Net Vampire 4.0
A free download manager. Net Vampire is an old kid on the block, but still holds its own against the newer competition. It doesn't have the modern styling of some, and isn't as multifunctional as others, but it does contains all the essential components in a slim package. Multiple downloads can be performed simultaneously, and a resume function ensures you can continue a download should your internet connection be lost.

Browser integration isn't seamless - you have to hold down the 'Alt' key when clicking on a link for it to be handled by Net Vampire. You can also enter URLs manually or, more conveniently, click on a link and drag it to the Drop Basket of Net Vampire. The Drop Basket is a small icon that floats in front of all open browser windows. Use this to discover a download's progress, via both a numerical and visual display. Files can be automatically saved to different folders based on their extension, which is easy to set up. [Paul Rowlingson, vnunet.com 26 Apr 2004] Download: http://www.vnunet.com/downloads/100680

Posted on Monday May 31, 2004

PUBLISHING: FIRST 'MYSTERIES OF HERA', DEDICATED TO DRACULA
ROME, Italy: 'Dracula: hero, monster or alchemist?', is dedicated to the legend and the esotericism of the figure of Count Vlad Dracula and vampirism from the mythological, alchemical, symbolic, literary and cinematographic point of view, the first number of the new bimonthly series, 'The Mysteries of Hera'. The publication, which consists of a 116 page colour booklet with dozens of photos and a 51 minute DVD documentary is available on news stands from today. Journalists, scholars and experts present an in-depth analysis of the myth of the vampire, celebrated worldwide in many books, hundreds of films, comics, documentaries, and internet sites. Among the most interesting subjects, the interview with the academic, Massimo Introvigne (founder and director of Cesnur, New Religions Study Centre), which introduces the phenomenon of vampirism; the life and the terrible actions of Vlad III Dracula, prince of the Rumanian region of Wallachia in the fifteenth century; the novel by Bram Stoker as a perfect parody of Jesus's parable to restate the truth of Christianity; the monstrous bloodsucking creatures present in the folklores of many cultures worldwide; the female demon par excellence, Lilith, who has lasted from ancient Mesopotamia down to our days; Anne Rice's analysis of the novel, 'Interview with the Vampire'; the affinities of famous serial killers with the history and mythological tradition of vampires; a review of the most famous films. The DVD documentary analyses the context of the Victorian period, where the myth and life of Bram Stoker began, born in Dublin in the year of the Great Famine and who grew up listening to stories of ghosts, demons, and screaming banshees. Stoker for the first time brought together the myth of the vampire and the historical personality of Vlad Tepes. The result is a mix of blood, horror, and mystery. The unfathomable mystery of the soul, of the human condition, always suspended between knowledge and ignorance, between desire for immortality and mortal life. Dracula is the other side of the coin, the attraction of the world of shadows to escape fleetingness or the difficult path towards the light. (AGI).
281136 APR 04 [COPYRIGHTS 2002-2003 AGI S.p.A.]

Posted on Friday, May 21, 2004

Operation Vampire exposes bloody rip off
BRAZIL: Investigators in Brazil have broken a racket that ripped hundreds of millions of dollars off the government for the highly inflated purchase of blood supplies. Police called it Operation Vampire and have now arrested 14 people, exposing the scam. The Brazilian Health Minister confirmed the Government had been paying 40 per cent extra for imported blood supplies. The minister admitted the scheme syphoned off more than $900 million until it was discovered. The clean blood was needed for transfusions, especially for treating haemophilia. Corrupt health officials billed the Government at an inflated price and pocketed the difference. One of those arrested was a senior accountant in the Brazilian health department. --ABC/Reuters

Posted on 23 April, 2004

Universal and NBC announce TRANSYLVANIA
A DRAMATIC SERIES INSPIRED BY
THE WORLD OF STEPHEN SOMMERS’ UPCOMING FEATURE-FILM EPIC VAN HELSING

UNIVERSAL CITY, CA — Universal Pictures, Universal Network Television and NBC today (September 16, 2003) announced a commitment to develop Transylvania, a dramatic fantasy television series conceived by Stephen Sommers and inspired by the world he’s created for Van Helsing, his feature-film epic which will be released on May 7, 2004.

NBC has given a pilot commitment to the project, executive produced by Sommers and his producing partner Bob Ducsay. Sommers will write the series’ initial episodes and has indicated that the weekly narrative planned for Transylvania will be connected in spirit and style to his big-budget feature film but will not share any major characters or storylines with Van Helsing.

Van Helsing, written and directed by Sommers and inspired by the classic Universal monster films of the 1930s and ‘40s which have endured as cinematic milestones, creates a world where evil is ever-present, where danger rises as the sun sets and where the monsters that inhabit man’s nightmares take form. In Sommers’ hands, Dracula, The Frankenstein Monster and The Wolf Man are reborn as dynamic heirs to their cinematic traditions. Van Helsing (Hugh Jackman), the legendary monster hunter from the pages of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, travels to Transylvania to face down a multitude of monsters in the tale of ultimate evil against a lone force of good.

The mythology and universe that Sommers has created for the feature film are so expansive that he and Universal recognized their potential to be explored in other mediums. Universal hopes that Van Helsing will launch a franchise film series for the studio, with Transylvania serving as a televised offshoot which shares the film’s rich mythic folklore and atmosphere of fantasy and dread.

“I didn’t want to stop imagining storylines and characters for this world when I finished writing and directing Van Helsing,” commented Sommers. “The source material is too rich and the basic narrative too promising to wait for further installments of the film series. A weekly series that introduces new characters, conflicts and creatures seemed like an invigorating way to continue my creative commitment to this project, and I’m so happy that Universal and NBC have provided the platform for doing just that.”

“Steve flourishes when given free artistic license and a big, blank canvas on which to express his ideas,” noted Universal Vice Chairman Marc Shmuger. “The basic conceit of the Van Helsing universe is so compelling that we know that Steve and his team won’t be limited to what can be contained in the film franchise. Transylvania is a place that exists in all of our collective literary and cinematic memories, so to explore its secrets and frights in a television series with real production value and Steve’s creative signature was an idea we wanted to give life, even before Van Helsing is completed.”

“Stephen Sommers has designed this series as a brilliant brand extension of the Van Helsing film franchise. He has an amazing grasp of the ingredients required for long-term success in a television series. The show is conceived as a vehicle for characters and Sommers has populated it with a vibrant conflict-filled collection of personalities that viewers will find fascinating,” said Universal Television Productions President David Kissinger.

“Stephen Sommers has demonstrated he knows how to revitalize a genre and cross it over to the mainstream audience. We know this promises to be exciting, compelling and unlike anything else on television,” said NBC Prime-Time Development President Kevin Reilly.

Van Helsing also stars Kate Beckinsale, Richard Roxburgh, David Wenham, Will Kemp, Shuler Hensley, Kevin J. O’Connor, Elena Anaya, Silvia Colloca and Josie Maran. Written and directed by Stephen Sommers, the film is produced by Sommers and Bob Ducsay. Sam Mercer is executive producer.

http://www.vanhelsingmovie.com/

Posted on Saturday, April 3, 2004

Vampire bats kill 13 people in Brazil
Reuters

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (Reuters) - Rabies-carrying vampire bats killed at least 13 people in a remote Amazon town in Brazil's northern state of Para last month, authorities said on Friday. The state health care department said the thumb-sized creatures had attacked about 300 people -- an unusually high number -- since March 2 in the riverside Portel area, next to the world's biggest estuarine archipelago of Marajo.

"All the deceased had a history of recent bat attacks and six of them had confirmed human rabies from bat bites," a department spokeswoman said.

Other bite victims received vaccines and other anti-rabies treatment after March 19, when authorities became aware of the problem.

The spokeswoman said government scientists suspect the attacks are linked to a change in the bats' migration pattern caused by deforestation.

"There is no guarantee that we won't have more cases," she added. The most recent death occurred last weekend.

Vampire bats normally feed on the blood of large birds and sleeping cattle, lapping it from cuts they make with their teeth. They often transmit rabies to cattle.

Copyright 2004 Reuters. All rights reserved.

Posted on March 24, 2004

Romanian villagers decry police investigation into vampire slaying
MercuryNews.com

MAROTINU DE SUS, Romania - Before Toma Petre's relatives pulled his body from the grave, ripped out his heart, burned it to ashes, mixed it with water and drank it, he hadn't been in the news much.

That's often the way here with vampires. Quiet lives, active deaths.

Villagers here aren't up in arms about the undead - they're pretty common - but they are outraged that the police are involved in a simple vampire slaying. After all, vampire slaying is an accepted, though hidden, bit of national heritage, even if illegal.

"What did we do?" pleaded Flora Marinescu, Petre's sister and the wife of the man accused of re-killing him. "If they're right, he was already dead. If we're right, we killed a vampire and saved three lives. ... Is that so wrong?"

Yes, according to the Romanian State Police. Its view, expressed by Constantin Ghindeano, the chief agent for the region, is that vampires aren't real, and dead bodies in graves aren't to be dug out and killed again, even by relatives.

He doesn't really have much more to say on this case, other than noting that Petre had been removed from his grave, his heart had been cut out and it was presumed to have been consumed by his relatives. Ghindeano added that police were expanding the investigation, which began in mid-January, to include the after-deaths of others in area.

"The investigation is ongoing, and we expect to file charges later," he said, referring to possible charges of disturbing the peace of the dead, which could carry a three-year jail term. "We are determining whether this was an isolated case or whether there is a pattern in the village."

Romania has been filled with news of the vampire-slaying investigation, and villagers admit there's a pattern, but they argue that that's the reason these matters shouldn't make it to court. There's too much of it going on, and too few complain about the practice.

Vampire slaying is a custom that's been passed down from mother to daughter, father to son, for generations beyond memory, not just in this tiny village of 300 huts astride a dirt cart path about 100 miles southwest of Bucharest, but in scores of villages throughout southern Romania.

Little has changed since the days that Turkish invaders rolled through 500 years ago, seeking the mineral riches of Transylvania just to the north. By day, the people are Roman Catholics. At night, they fear the strigoi, or vampires.

On a recent afternoon, the village's single store, which also serves as its lone bar, was filled with men drinking hard, as they explained the vampire facts to a stranger. Most had at least one vampire in their family histories, and many were related to vampire victims. Most had learned to kill a vampire while still children.

Theirs is not a Hollywood tale, and they laugh at Hollywood conventions: that vampires can be warded off by crosses or cloves of garlic, or that they can't be seen in mirrors. Utter nonsense. Vampires were once Catholics, were they not? And if a vampire can be seen, the mirror can see him. And why would you wear garlic around your neck? Are you adding taste?

No, vampires are humans who have died, commonly babies before baptism or people unfortunate enough to have black cats jump over their coffins. Vampires occur everywhere, but in busy cities no one notices, the men said.

Vampires are obvious when dug up because while they will have been laid to rest on their backs, arms folded neatly across their chests, they will be found on their sides or even their stomachs. They will not have decomposed. Beards will have continued to grow. Their arms will be at their sides, as if they are clawing out of their coffins. And they will have blood - sometimes dried, sometimes fresh - around their mouths.

But the biggest tip-off that a vampire is near is his or her family, for vampires always prey on their families. If family members fall ill after a death, odds are a vampire is draining their blood at night, looking for company.

"That's the problem with vampires," said Doru Morinescu, a 30-year-old shepherd who, like many in the village, has a family connection to the current case. "They'd be all right if you could set them after your enemies. But they only kill loved ones. I can understand why, but they have to be stopped."

Ion Balasa, 64, explained that there are two ways to stop a vampire, but only one after he or she has risen to feed.

"Before the burial, you can insert a long sewing needle, just into the bellybutton," he said. "That will stop them from becoming a vampire."

But once they've become vampires, all that's left is to dig them up, use a curved haying sickle to remove the heart, burn the heart to ashes on an iron plate, then have the ill relatives drink the ashes mixed with water.

"The heart of a vampire, while you burn it, will squeak like a mouse and try to escape," Balasa said. "It's best to take a wooden stake and pin it to the pan, so it won't get away."

Which is exactly what happened with Petre, according to Gheorghe Marinescu, a cheery, aging vampire slayer who was Petre's brother-in-law.

Marinescu's story goes like this: After Petre died, Marinescu's son, daughter-in-law and granddaughter fell ill. Marinescu knew the cause was his dead brother-in-law. So he had to go out to the cemetery.

The first time, he was frightened, so he had a little graveside drink, for courage. He ended up with a little too much courage and couldn't use the shovel. So the next night he returned, and with a proper amount of courage, was successful.

Marinescu said he found Petre on his side, his mouth bloody. His heart squeaked and jumped as it was burned. When it was mixed with water and taken to those who were sick, it worked.

His wife, Petre's sister, interrupted his story with a broom, swinging it at him and a stranger. She was worried that he would incur the wrath of the police, who would jail him.

But then his son Costel called what happened next a miracle. After weeks in bed, Costel got up to walk. His head wasn't pounding. His chest wasn't aching. His stomach felt fine.

"We were all saved," he said. "We had been saved from a vampire."

But how could he be sure his illness came from a vampire?

"What other explanation is possible?" he asked.

© 2004 Matthew Schofield, Knight Ridder Newspapers

Posted on 3/22/2004

'Vampire' Tour Guide Collapsed After Seeing Blood
World Entertainment News Network

EDINBURGH, Scotland - An actress playing a vampire on a horror tour of the Edinburgh Dungeons in Scotland fainted after seeing real blood. Marianne Sellar, 24, was about to take a bite from a 'victim' planted in the audience when another audience member told her she had a nosebleed. Sellar collapsed and is reported to be on other duties at the tourist attraction.

Copyright World Entertainment News Network 2004

Posted on March 15, 2004

'Vampire Slayer' Shoots Man In Face
Suspect Reportedly Fascinated With Zombies, Vampires
Local6.com

JACKSONVILLE, Florida - Police in Jacksonville, FL, arrested a man who believed he was a 'vampire slayer' after he allegedly shot his Domino's Pizza co-worker twice in the face because he thought he was a vampire, according to Local 6 News.

Timothy White, 35, who was described by friends as a born-again Christian with an unusual preoccupation with zombies and vampires, was arrested outside of a church after Friday's shooting.

Witnesses said he walked into the pizza shop on Normandy Boulevard and allegedly said David Harrison looked like a vampire. He then allegedly shot Harrison in the face and stomach. Police said White was heavily armed with a knife, a sawed-off shotgun and three pistols when he was taken into custody.

Harrison is listed in critical condition at a local hospital. A grief counselor was brought in to help Domino's employees. White remains in the Duval County Jail Monday.

© 2004 by Local6.com. All rights reserved.
http://www.local6.com/index.html

Updated on March 16, 2004

Victim of 'Vampire' Shooting Improving
Clear Channel Television

The victim of a bizarre pizza shop shooting was reported improving at Shands Jacksonville. David Harrison has been updated to critical but stable condition. According to police, Harrison was shot by co-worker Timothy White because White believed Harrison was a vampire. Friends of Harrison say he has severe jaw damage and could lose an eye and spleen. White is in jail accused of aggravated battery.

© 2004 Clear Channel Television-Jacksonville. All rights reserved.
http://www.wtev.com

Posted on 13 March 2004

New artificial blood shows promise
NewScientist.com

Numerous past attempts to develop synthetic blood have failed because doctors got the basic science wrong, claim a handful of researchers. This week it was announced that a blood substitute based on their alternative theories is looking promising in an early trial.

Developing a suitable blood substitute for people has been a major effort for decades. An artificial blood would relieve shortages and prevent patients being infected by contaminated supplies.

Ideally, it could be given to anyone without triggering rejection, so accident victims could be given transfusions immediately without testing to see what blood group they are. And a long-lasting form that does not need to be kept cold would be ideal for use in disasters, wars and remote areas. But company after company has worked on substitutes only to abandon their efforts because of safety concerns. Most blood substitutes are based on various forms of haemoglobin, the protein that carries oxygen in most animals.

The guiding principles are that artificial blood should be thinner than real blood, so that it circulates easily, and have a low affinity for oxygen, so that it releases oxygen easily. In the past decade, initial trials of several substitutes looked promising. But it turned out many had a disastrous effect - they made capillaries collapse, shutting off the oxygen supply to tissues.

Mopping up
The reason, most researchers think, is that the haemoglobin in artificial bloods is free-floating, instead of being enclosed in red blood cells. This allows it to enter the spaces between cells, where it mops up nitric oxide - a molecule that helps keep blood vessels open.

But Marcos Intaglietta of the University of California, San Diego, is one of a small number of scientists who think the physical characteristics of blood substitutes are to blame. He argues that they thin the blood, reducing shear stress in the capillaries and leading to vasoconstriction. Creating artificial blood with a low affinity for oxygen is also a mistake, says Robert Winslow, founder of blood substitute company Sangart of San Diego. He says current blood substitutes release their oxygen in the arteries instead of in the capillaries like normal blood. This early release can itself trigger vasoconstriction.

Winslow's company has put these ideas to the test with a blood substitute called MP4. It contains haemoglobin molecules coated with polyethylene glycol to make them bulkier, so the resulting fluid is thicker, or more viscous, than normal blood. The coating also gives MP4 a higher affinity for oxygen than other substitutes. Studies have shown that MP4 releases oxygen in the capillaries, as intended.

This week Sangart announced that a small trial involving around 20 patients in Sweden has produced positive results. Details have not yet been released, but other tests in which pigs were given MP4 revealed no signs of vasoconstriction (Journal of Applied Physiology, DOI: 10.1152/japplphysio.00530.2003).

Better than real
Tests in hamsters that had lost a lot of blood showed they actually fared better when given MP4 than real blood (Critical Care Medicine, vol 31, p 1824). The animals needed less MP4 than real blood to oxygenate their tissues. The researchers think this is because it releases oxygen only where levels are lowest.

Is the apparent success of MP4 proof that Winslow and his colleagues are right? Not necessarily, says John Olson, an expert in blood substitutes at Rice University in Houston, Texas. He thinks MP4 works well simply because the coated haemoglobin is too big to squeeze into the spaces between cells and destroy nitric oxide. Viscosity and oxygen affinity are probably not the key factors. Intaglietta, however, can point to recent experiments that suggest viscosity is important. At the moment, when patients lose blood, they are initially given salt water to replace the lost volume. But too much saline thins the blood, leading to vasoconstriction.

Intaglietta's team has shown that if animals are given a "plasma expander" that has a higher viscosity than saline, their capillaries stay open. Animals given this expander can survive longer than those given saline, even when their blood oxygen falls to levels that would normally be fatal.

© 2004 Sylvia Pagýn Westphal, New Scientist Print Edition.
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99994760