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Accused jihadist: We were hunting Loch Ness Monster Uh huh. And then when they went to find Bigfoot, they inadvertently left some explosives in the trunk of their car... "Terror Accused: We Were Hunting Loch Ness Monster," by Paul O'Hare for the Daily Record (thanks to Twostellas): AN ELECTRICIAN accused of being a Muslim holy warrior claimed he was hunting Nessie during an alleged jihad training course. Somali-born Kader Ahmed, 20, told a court he went on a trip arranged by preacher Mohammed Hamid, 50, to Scotland at Christmas 2004. He said they visited Inverness and Loch Ness and added:...

Fewer people are reporting sightings of the legendary Loch Ness monster in Scotland, prompting concerns that skepticism about its existence could threaten tourism in the region. There have only been two reports of sightings this year, compared to three in 2006 and much lower than a decade ago, when the annual number sightings was consistently in the double digits, The Times newspaper said Saturday. "It's becoming a potential crisis," said Mikko Takala, 39, a founding member of the Loch Ness Monster Fan Club who runs four webcams on the lake's north shore.

# Watch the Chinese Nessie on You Tube The Loch Ness monster has been the stuff of Scottish legend for centuries - and now China has its own version of the much-hunted Nessie. A rare video, filmed by a tourist in remote Western China, has captured what appears to be several huge creatures swimming across Lake Kanasi. advertisement State-run television station Chinese Central Television described the footage as the clearest yet seen of a legendary beast rumoured to live in the depths of the lake. Two years ago, two 10 metre-long black creatures were spotted on the surface of the...

AN English holidaymaker thinks he may have taken the first picture of the season of the elusive Loch Ness Monster. Sidney Wilson was in the city with his wife Janet when they decided on a cruise down the loch to take in the sights. And it was as they approached Urquhart Castle that he ended up taking this intriguing photograph. Sidney, who comes from Nottingham, said: "I was just taking pictures of everything as we sailed down the loch. "As we approached the castle, two power boats appeared and circled us at speed, leaving a large wash in their wake....

It has been described as a snake threaded through the body of a turtle, and some imaginative people think there's one living in Loch Ness. The plesiosaur, a marine reptile that lived 160 million years ago, looked like nothing alive today, with a neck that was some 2 metres long, the length of the body and tail combined. Why it needed such a long neck has been a mystery, but now Leslie Noè of the Sedgwick Museum in Cambridge, UK, has an answer. Plesiosaurs used their long necks to reach down and feed on soft-bodied animals living on the sea...

A LOCH Ness Monster theory which suggests the creature is a living dinosaur has been dealt a blow by scientists. Many believe that Nessie is a plesiosaur, a long-necked marine reptile which sought refuge in Scotland's second-largest freshwater loch when most of the species died out 160 million years ago. But Dr Leslie Noe, a palaeontologist at Cambridge University's Sedgwick Museum, discovered that the plesiosaur would have been unable to lift its head up, swan-like, out of the water. Most scientists believe the creatures became extinct with the other dinosaurs, but some insist it is possible that after the last...

NESSIE, the Loch Ness monster, is in fact an elephant, according to a Scottish palaeontologist who claims to have solved the riddle surrounding the unexplained sightings of a monster in a lake near Glasgow in Scotland. Neil Clark, curator of palaeontology at Glasgow University's Hunterian Museum, who has spent two years investigating the myth, said that the idea for Nessie was dreamt up as a "magnificent piece of marketing" by a circus impresario after he saw one of his elephants bathing in the loch. In 1933, the same year as the first modern "sighting" of Nessie, Bertram Mills offered £20,000...

A NESSIE hunt using a team of dolphins was planned by the Tory government, according to declassified secret documents. Within days of the 1979 election, officials in Margaret Thatcher's regime proposed importing the mammals from America and fitting them with hi-tech equipment to scour Loch Ness. Despite opposition from animal rights groups, it was argued that finding the monster would benefit local tourism. A letter from Environment Department civil servant David Waymouth to Stewart Walker at the Scottish Home and Health Department, showed the Government wanted a licence to initiate the plan. It stated: "This department is presently considering the...

Seen a sasquatch, ogled an abominable snowman or looked at the Loch Ness monster? If so, you could be in line for a $1-million reward. Loren Coleman, a professor at the University of Southern Maine, says anyone with a photo that leads to the live capture of one of the legendary creatures will get the money. Some believe this to be a female Sasquatch. Image from 16mm film taken in 1967, Six Rivers National Forest, California. (AP Photo/Sasquatch Research Project, Roger Patterson and Bob Gimlin )   INDEPTH: Fact or Fiction?  He plans to release details of the reward...

BILL Clinton ordered a bizarre spy unit to contact the Loch Ness monster by telepathy. The then-US president gave the go-ahead for his Psychic Spying Unit to find Nessie as part of a £15million operation. One of the leading lights in the hush-hush mission later claimed to have found a 'faint trace' of the elusive monster using his psychic powers. But in his report to the White House he admitted that the monster he 'saw' was only the ghost of a dinosaur. Operation Nessie was launched to establish whether psychic contact could be made with alien life forms. The spies'...

BBC team says it has shown there is no such thing as the Loch Ness monster. Using 600 separate sonar beams and satellite navigation technology to ensure that none of the loch was missed, the team surveyed the waters said to hide Scotland's legendary tourist attraction but found no trace of the monster. Previous reported sightings of the beast led to speculation that it might be a plesiosaur, a marine reptile which died out with the dinosaurs. The team was convinced that such an animal could have survived in the cold waters of Loch Ness, despite the normal preference...

Loch Ness in Scotland, home of Nessie, and Lake Champlain in the U.S., home of Champ, may be two of the most well-known residences of alleged lake monsters. But the Salt Lake City area has its own legendary sea serpents. Bear Lake, located northeast of Salt Lake City on the Utah-Idaho border, is a popular recreation spot for boating, fishing and camping. The stunning turquoise-colored lake, known as the "Caribbean of the Rockies," is also home to large, snake-like monsters that have been spotted for generations. The Shoshoni Indians may have been the first people to see the creature. Describing...

Herzog's epic quest for camera shy Nessie BRIAN PENDREIGH THE legend is about to take on the monster. Eccentric German film-maker Werner Herzog will shortly arrive in Scotland to pursue one of the world’s most elusive creatures. Herzog, widely regarded as one of the greatest film-makers alive because of his painstaking attention to detail, has become fascinated by the myth of the Loch Ness monster. He now intends to make the definitive documentary on Nessie for cinema release around the world. Friends say he has been obsessively collecting research material in advance of his trip to the Highlands next month....

The world lost the creators of two of its most celebrated bio-hoaxes recently: Douglas Herrick, father of the risibly ridiculous jackalope (half jackrabbit, half antelope), and Ray L. Wallace, paternal guardian of the less absurd Bigfoot. The jackalope enjoins laughter in response to such peripheral hokum as hunting licenses sold only to those whose IQs range between 50 and 72, bottles of the rare but rich jackalope milk, and additional evolutionary hybrids such as the jackapanda. Bigfoot, on the other hand, while occasionally eliciting an acerbic snicker, enjoys greater plausibility for a simple evolutionary reason: large hirsute apes currently roam...