Loch Ness Monster spotted alive in Albania

Some are wondering if Nessie has gone on a winter break after the ‘creature’ was filmed in the middle of the Great Prespa Lake — which is shared by Albania, Greece and Macedonia

The Loch Ness Monster has been spotted alive and well ... just not in Scotland. This video actually captures the moment the ‘creature’ was filmed in Albania — just north west of Greece in central Europe. More specifically it was spotted in the middle of the Great Prespa Lake, which is shared by Albania, Greece and Macedonia.

The footage — which appears to show the head and neck of a large creature emerging from the water — is proving popular with viewers on video-sharing platforms. However, a video said to show the monster was previously filmed in the Greek section of the lake, near the village of Nivica, five years ago.

The latest footage has sparked an investigation by a party of journalists who were led on a tour of the lakeside by retired geography professor, Sima Jonoski. However, they failed to see any further sign of the monster in the area where it was seen, near the Albanian tourist village of Pretor. Many local residents believe in the legend of the monster of the lake but others are certain that it is a giant catfish.

Firefighters rescue woman trapped in home by six feet of snow

A New York state fire department was summoned to the home of a woman who was trapped in her house by six feet of snowfall.

The Lorraine Volunteer Fire Company posted photos to Facebook showing firefighters digging the woman out of her home after six feet of snowfall barricaded her inside the house.

The fire company called on residents to make sure their neighbours weren’t also stranded by the snow.

“Residents in the Town of Lorraine and Worth, please check on your neighbours. We were called to this residence this morning on French Settlement Road, where the resident couldn’t get out of her home. Over six feet of snow fell in parts of the area,” the post said.

Could Jurassic Park come true?

Recently scientists announced that they had discovered dinosaur blood inside a piece of amber that is almost 100 million years old.

The incredible find echoed Steven Spielberg’s cult hit Jurassic Park, based around dinosaurs being resurrected from DNA extracted from mosquitoes trapped in amber. A ‘Dracula’ tick had bloated to eight times its size with what is believed to be dinosaur blood.

This tick and two others trapped together in a third amber piece were assigned to a new extinct group named Deinocroton draculi — which translates as ‘Dracula’s terrible tick’. Inside another ancient piece of Burmese amber researchers found a tick still gripping a dinosaur feather after 99 million years.

The scientists behind the new discovery stress that all attempts to remove DNA from such ancient amber specimens have failed due to deterioration of the complex molecule over time — dashing hopes the blood-filled tick could lead to the creation of a walking dinosaur.

Dr Ricardo Perez-de-la-Fuente, a member of the international team from Oxford University, said: “Although we can’t be sure what kind of dinosaur the tick was feeding on, the mid-Cretaceous age of the Burmese amber confirms that the feather inside certainly did not belong to a modern bird, as these appeared much later in theropod evolution according to current fossil and molecular evidence.”

Published in Dawn, Young World, January 13th, 2018