Colorado balloon boy incident a hoax?

October 15th, 2009 WASHINGTON - A NASA scientist has said that the prophecy by the ancient Mayans that the world might end in the year 2012, is nothing but a hoax, which is only helping the promoters of the conspiracy theory to rake in huge profits. NASA scientist David Morrison's concise summary of the claims and the scientific response to the widespread Internet belief that December 21, 2012, will be doomsday for planet Earth, determines that the whole thing is nothing but a hoax.

October 15th, 2009 LOS ANGELES - A 6-year-old boy was initially feared Thursday to have taken off alone in an experimental balloon, leading authorities and national media on a wild goose chase for several hours, until the child was found hiding safely at home. It appeared he had been hiding to avoid a scolding from his father.

October 13th, 2009 NANNING - Four Dutch tourists, including one woman, died Wednesday when a hot-air balloon caught fire and crashed in Guilin, a popular tourist destination in south China. Five passengers, all from the Netherlands, and two Chinese pilots were aboard when the accident took place in Maling Township of Lipu County, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.

September 20th, 2009 LONDON - British explorer David Hempleman-Adams has broken the endurance record by spending more than 14 hours in a tiny hot air balloon over the United States. Hempleman-Adams, 52, of Box, Wiltshire, set the record over the US riding in a scaled-down basket.

August 27th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Astronomers have confirmed that an email promising a "Mars spectacular" event on August 27, when the Red Planet will look as large as the full moon, is nothing but a hoax. According to a report in National Geographic News, the anonymous message from an unknown part of the globe says that the red planet "will look as large as the full moon" in the night sky, and that "no one alive today will ever see this again." The claim has been bombarding people's inboxes worldwide every summer for five years.

August 12th, 2009 Chamber of Commerce ads hit Obama on health careWASHINGTON — The U.S. Chamber of Commerce will begin airing 30-second ads in about 20 states Wednesday criticizing the Democratic proposal to offer optional government health coverage.

August 1st, 2009 NEW YORK - Flights in many parts of the US were disrupted after New York's La Guadia airport was put out of action for three hours Saturday following a bomb threat apparently by a drunk man. Police said the man claimed to have a bomb in his bag and threatened security staff.

July 29th, 2009 LONDON - A cheesemaker's stunt to launch a wedge of cheddar cheese into space fell flat on its face after the organisers lost contact with its payload just minutes after lift-off. West Country Cheesemakers, who organised the stunt, attached 300kg chunk of cheese to a weather balloon, which lifted off from Pewsey, Wilts, at 4am on July 28.

July 24th, 2009 SEC charges Kuwaiti trader with hoax schemeWASHINGTON D.C. — The Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday charged a Kuwaiti trader connected with Citigroup with scheming to make millions off fake offers to acquire U.S.

July 20th, 2009 LONDON - Brit teenager Jamie Neale insists that the 12-day ordeal he went through after he was lost in the Australian bush is not a hoax. Neale, 19, has had to come to his own defence after experts cast doubts on his ability to survive sub-zero winter nights in the rugged Blue Mountains near Sydney without food or water.

July 18th, 2009 LONDON - One fourth of Britons believe that the 1969 Apollo 11 mission moon landings were nothing but a hoax, according to a survey. A total of 1009 people participated in the survey for E andT magazine, published by the Institution of Engineering and Technology.

June 26th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Scientists have developed a handheld device that can detect anthrax with outstanding accuracy and reliability. The device, called Ceeker (pronounced "seeker"), was made by scientists at Veritide Ltd., a developer of innovative biological identification and detection solutions.

June 5th, 2009 WASHINGTON - A man has claimed that the 'Montauk monster' found on a beach in New York was a hoax, and was the work of him and his friends. The 'Montauk Monster' was an unidentified hairless creature that allegedly washed ashore dead on a beach near the Montauk, New York business district in July 2008.

May 28th, 2009 WASHINGTON - A telescope designed by a University of Miami physicist and an international team of collaborators has produced the clearest images of starburst galaxies, revealing a new picture of the universe in its early stages. The innovative new telescope, called BLAST (Balloon-borne Large-Aperture Sub-millimeter Telescope), was built by an international research team, which included Joshua Gundersen, University of Miami professor of physics in the College of Arts and Sciences.

May 8th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Pakistan may have declared an all out war against the Taliban in the Swat and Malakand Division of the North West Frontier Province (NWFP), but many believe that it is almost impossible to contain the advancing militia, which they liken to a balloon that can not be stopped from popping up in different directions when subjected to pressure. With Swat and Malakand already under the Taliban's grip, fears are rife that it is almost a matter of time when Mardan, situated just 30 miles away from Swat, would cave in to the extremists.