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Residents of the city of Newburgh, N.Y., are feeling angered — and saddened — over news that they may have fallen for the worst kind of hoax.

Back in April, the local paper ran a story about Jessica Vega, a bride-to-be in her early 20s who had less than a year to live. She said she had acute myeloid leukemia, and she wanted to marry her fiancé before she had to say goodbye to him and their 11-month-old baby girl.

Her story generated an outpouring of sympathy and support from big-hearted locals. They donated a wedding dress, wedding rings, wedding flowers, wedding photos, hair-styling and makeup for the entire bridal party, and a honeymoon in Aruba.

But over Labor Day weekend, those same locals were stunned to learn they may have been tricked. In an article in the Times Herald-Record — the same paper that ran the original piece about Vega — her husband Michael O’Connell alleged that Vega’s cancer diagnosis had been faked.

The newspaper reported that O’Connell said Vega pretended to have terminal leukemia “in order to scam him, everyone they knew and a long list of strangers who heard her story and wanted to help.” The couple is now in the process of divorcing, and O’Connell is pursuing full custody of their now-1-year-old daughter.

Vega denied deliberately tricking anyone. She told the Times Herald-Record that she now doubts the accuracy of her original diagnosis. She said she has a new doctor and has seen her health improve by exercising, eating fresh foods and drinking only water and tea.

‘Never a patient here’
At issue is the trustworthiness of a letter Vega showed a Times Herald-Record reporter back in April to confirm her leukemia diagnosis. That letter appeared to come from a Dr. Dan Costin.

O’Connell said he simply believed Vega when she told him about the cancer diagnosis while they were still dating. He said he didn’t examine the doctor’s letter closely until recently, and he wishes he had looked at it sooner.

With the Times Herald-Record reporter present and listening over speaker phone, O’Connell called Costin’s office and was told that Vega had not been a patient there.

“I can tell you for sure this person was never a patient here,” an office administrator said.

Vega said she would take the reporter with her to see both Dr. Costin and her new doctor about her condition. On the day they were to visit her new doctor, she canceled with the explanation that she had just received her divorce papers.

“I have to meet up wit my lawyer instead hope u understand that settlin my divorce is more important and time consuming than this article,” she wrote in a text message. Over the following week, she contacted the reporter again and mentioned “legal consequences” if the newspaper ran a story about her husband’s allegations.

Vega also said her husband had been physically abusive and her health was actually improving now that they were apart. O’Connell acknowledged an incident when he bit Vega’s elbow to escape her headlock, and another incident when he slapped her during an argument shortly before they separated.

Vega’s mother, Diana Vega, defended her daughter in the Times Herald-Record story. “Jessie would never do something so manipulative,” she said.

Recent hoaxes
Wish Upon a Wedding, a new charity featured on TODAYshow.com in July , grants weddings to people like Vega who say they have terminal illnesses and limited time to live. To avoid being tricked or embarrassed by hoaxes, that organization requires applicants to sign Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) forms giving doctors permission to communicate directly with Wish Upon a Wedding. That way doctors themselves can share clear information about a person’s diagnosis and prognosis.

Cancer hoaxes are not particularly common, but they do happen, and they sometimes result in jail time. To name just a few recent examples:

•Dina Perouty-Leone, a Maryland mother of two teenagers, allegedly lied about having terminal stomach cancer in order to bilk friends and acquaintances out of money. She pleaded guilty to a charge of felony theft in June, and her sentencing is set for October. She faces a maximum of 15 years in prison.

•Ashley Anne Kirilow, a 23-year-old from Ontario, Canada, admitted last month that she shaved her head and eyebrows and plucked out her eyelashes to make herself look like a chemotherapy patient. Kirilow capitalized on her “condition” to run a charity that brought in thousands of dollars in donations. “What I did was wrong,” Kirilow told the Toronto Star. “I was trying to be noticed.” Her parents described her as manipulative and desperate for fame and attention from others.

•Last year Keele Maynor, a Tennessee woman in her late 30s, was charged with theft and forgery after maintaining a ruse for five years about having breast cancer. She collected donations of sick leave and money from co-workers until she resigned from her job with the city of Chattanooga in December 2008. “I started fabricating this story about cancer in 2003 and it has snowballed and finally came to a head,” she wrote in her resignation e-mail message. “I am relieved for two reasons. I don’t have to keep up the charade anymore and I am finally getting some help to figure out why I did this in the first place.”

One by one, Michiko walked through the legal steps of finalizing her divorce: dividing property, determining child custody and arranging her daughter's college fund. But when it came to settling the heartache over the end of her eight-year marriage to Taka, the legal system had no formal process.

That's when she decided to go through a divorce ceremony.

One in four marriages in Japan now ends in divorce, yet it's still considered a cultural taboo. Increasingly popular ceremonies help some Japanese cope with the country's changing social norms, according to divorce ceremony planner Hiroki Terai.

Michiko's soon-to-be ex-husband, Taka, says the idea was surprising to him. He had never heard of a divorce ceremony when Michiko brought it up.

But when he looked at the brochures on-line -- which explained that the divorce ceremony was like a wedding ceremony, with a different outcome -- he decided some sort of formal closure to their marriage might provide him with emotional closure as well.

Wearing her summer yukata, Michiko meets Taka outside a temple in Tokyo.

"It marks the end of this phase of our lives," says Taka, clad in a simple business suit.

They ask that their last names not be used, but allow CNN to attend the ceremony.

It begins with the couple stepping into separate rickshaws. It's a quiet and solemn walk through the streets.

Walking behind the couple are friends, brought as witnesses.

"I like that you have a lot of time to contemplate this," says Michiko's friend, Isao Yokoyama. "Isn't it better this way than to just split up?"

The rickshaw ride ends at a purposely shabby storefront, marked with the words "Refresh" and "Divorce" outside.

"Thank you very much for coming," says ceremony planner Terai. In a short speech, he explains how Taka and Michiko have grown apart since their marriage in 2002. It is time to say farewell, Terai says.

Then holding a heavy hammer painted green like a frog, Michiko and Taka smash Michiko's diamond and platinum wedding ring. The strong ring doesn't crack, despite the direct hit.

The couple hits the ring six times until finally it is bent beyond repair, and the diamonds have cracked off the ring.

"I feel free," Michiko says, relaxed and smiling for the first time this day. "After I smashed the ring, I feel free."

The feeling's mutual, Taka says. "I feel better than before we did this," he says. "It's over."

This is not just one couple's eccentric move to cope with their divorce. Terai claims his business is booming. He's received thousands of calls and has ceremonies booked for weeks in Japan and Korea.

"There's no mistaking that divorce is a sad process," Terai says. "But I believe that by declaring your new start in life in front of your friends, relatives and family, you draw a clear line. It helps emotionally."

A short reception follows Michiko and Taka's ceremony. Symbolizing their now separate lives, they sit back to back at separate tables. Their party favors are chopsticks, because they are two sticks that are easily pulled apart.

At the end of the day, Taka and Michiko say their thanks to their friends and their farewells to each other.

With a polite bow, they walk off their separate ways.

Some 240 women, girls and babies may have been raped after rebels recently seized a town in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the United Nations says.

Officials had previously said they had received reports of 150 rapes in and around the town of Luvungi, the British Broadcasting Corporation reports.

The UN mission has been heavily criticised for not doing more to protect the local population as it had peacekeepers based nearby.

But it says it was only told of the rapes after the rebels had left.

The incident prompted an emergency session of the UN Security Council, and Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has sent a senior envoy to find out what happened after rebels moved into Luvungi on 30 July, staying for four days.

The council also said peacekeepers in the area should have done more to protect local people from the Congolese Mai Mai and Rwandan FDLR armed groups.

The FDLR has, however, denied that its forces took part in the attack.

The peacekeepers say they were not told about the attacks until 10 days later, even though they have a base 20 miles (30km) away.

They say local people may have been afraid of rebel reprisals or ashamed by the rapes.

The UN mission in DR Congo, known as Monusco - until recently the world‘s largest peacekeeping mission - says it has stepped up patrols in the area ”to reassure the local population”, reports the Agence France Presse.

Some of the women report being abused by several men in front of their husbands and children.

The DR Congo conflict has become notorious for the sexual abuse of women and girls - one UN envoy called it the ”rape capital of the world” earlier this year.

Eastern DR Congo is still plagued by army and militia violence despite the end of the country‘s five-year war in 2003.

UN peacekeeping troops have been backing efforts to defeat the FDLR, whose leaders are linked to the 1994 genocide in Rwanda and who are operating in eastern DR Congo.

A new report by Huffington Post has listed the Niger Delta and Los Angeles, United States among the most contaminated places in the world.

Others on the report, which was compiled with slideshows and studies from various sources, are Linfen, China; Los Angeles, United States; Greater London, United Kingdom; Dzerzhinsk, Russia; Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale, US; Citarum, Indonesia; La Oroya Peru, Peru; and Russia’s Lake Karachay.

It described Linfen as “the most polluted city on earth” and Russia’s Lake Karachay region as “the most polluted location on Planet Earth.” Using excerpts from Mother Nature Network, the report said of Linfen, “If one puts laundry out to dry, it will turn black before finishing drying. Located in China’s coal belt, spending one day in Linfen is equivalent to smoking three packs of cigarettes. Three million people are affected by Linfen’s coal and particulates pollution, which is residue from automobile and industrial emissions.”

Next is Los Angeles, which according to the American Lung Association, “is the city with the most polluted ozone. The average ozone level in Los Angeles is 138.8 and the average particulates level is 16.8. The California Air Resources Board states that 18,000 deaths a year are ‘premature deaths’ caused by air pollution.”

On the Niger Delta, it wrote, “With more than 6,800 oil spills, which amounts to 300 spills a year, roughly one spill a day, and nine to 13 million barrels of oil spilled over 50 years, the Niger Delta remains one of the most oil-polluted locations on the planet. The nine to 13 million barrels of oil have been spilled into the third largest wetland on the planet.

“Due to continuously ruptured pipelines and the presence of oil contaminates, the Delta’s mangroves, rivers, and wildlife are perpetually damaged. The United States imports eight per cent of its oil from Nigeria, which is almost half of the country’s oil spill production. Nigeria is the fifth largest supplier of oil to the United States. Shell has stated that 90 per cent of spills are caused by militant thieves who access the pipelines to steal oil.”

It said that Greater London “has experienced some of the worst air pollution worldwide as a result of car, factory, agriculture and house pollution. The life expectancy of Britons has been reduced by nine years due to air pollution.

“Britain is considered to be Europe’s greatest releaser of nitrogen oxides, exposing 1.5 million people to unsafe quantities of the pollution. According to a report from Parliament, 50,000 people die prematurely each year due to man-made air pollution.”

The report said Dzerzhinsk, Russia was the dumping site for 300,000 tons of improperly disposed chemical waste, between 1930 and 1998. It stated that 300,000 people “are affected by the city’s chemical and toxic byproduct pollution, such as sarin and VX gas. The pollution is a result of Cold War-era manufacturing of chemical weapons. According to Mother Nature Network, in 2003, the city’s death rate surpassed its birth rate by 260 per cent.”

Huffington Post rates the Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale area as “2010’s worst place in the United States for year round particle pollution, a mix of dust, soot and aerosols. The Arizona region experiences year-round particle pollution at all hours of the day.”

Next is Citarum, Indonesia, which “hosts the most polluted river on the planet, the Citarum River. With nearly five million residents living near the river, Citarum is a main water source.”

The paper accuses metal mining and smelting company, Doe Run Peru, of contaminating La Oroya in Peru. It stated that “over 35,000 of La Oroya residents have been affected by lead, zinc, copper and sulfur dioxide pollution from the company’s metal mining and processing. According to Time, 99 per cent of the mining town’s children have blood levels that surpass suitable limits of exposure. Since 1922, the town in Peru’s Andes Mountains has been polluted by mining missions.’

It said that Russia’s Lake Karachay region, which is “a nuclear weapon production site turned Soviet Union nuclear dumping location has 120 million curies of radioactivity. This radiation level is equivalent to a lethal dose after merely an hour of exposure.

“According to the NRDC, it is also equal to dumping all of the waste tanks at Washington’s Hanford Reservation into a 30-acre lake. In true environmental crime fashion, the radiation has infiltrated the region‘s groundwater supply.”

Nepalese investigators have found the flight data recorders from the wreckage of a small plane that crashed last week en route to the Mount Everest area, killing 14 people including six foreigners, officials said Thursday.

Suresh Acharya, a spokesman for the government-appointed investigation team, said searchers have found both the devices and have flown them back to Katmandu. The devices will be sent abroad for analysis, Acharya said.

The private Agni Air flight had crashed on Aug. 24 crash near Shikharpur village, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) south of Katmandu, the capital. It was heading to the Mount Everest region when it crashed in heavy rain, killing all 14 people aboard, including four Americans, a Briton and a Japanese.

Acharyasaid the flight data recorder was damaged in the crash but the memory plate inside it appeared to be fine. The voice recorder was in good condition.

The devices were found inside the crater the crash created. The crater has since filled with 10 feet (3 meters) of water.

RALEIGH, N.C. — A powerful Hurricane Earl threatened to sideswipe much of the East Coast just ahead of Labor Day, worrying countless vacationers who planned to spend the traditional last week of summer at the beach.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency warned people along the Eastern Seaboard to prepare for possible evacuations and islanders in the Turks and Caicos hunkered down in their homes Tuesday as the Category 4 hurricane steamed across the Caribbean with winds of 135 mph late Tuesday.

North Carolina officials announced the first evacuation would be Ocracoke Island beginning at 5 a.m. Wednesday. Tourists would be ordered to leave the barrier island accessible only by ferries, but those who live there year-round have the option to stay.

BAKERSFIELD, Calif. — A doctor involved in an "on-again, off-again" relationship apparently tried to force her way into her boyfriend's home by sliding down the chimney, police said Tuesday. Her decomposing body was found there three days later.

Dr. Jacquelyn Kotarac, 49, first tried to get into the house with a shovel, then climbed a ladder to the roof last Wednesday night, removed the chimney cap and slid feet first down the flue, Bakersfield police Sgt. Mary DeGeare said.

While she was trying to break in, the man she was pursuing escaped unnoticed from another exit "to avoid a confrontation," authorities said.

DeGeare said the two were in an "on-again, off-again" relationship.

The man's identity was not revealed by police, but the man who resides in the home is William Moodie. He declined to comment when reached Tuesday by The Associated Press, saying police instructed him not to discuss the matter.
Kotarac apparently died in the chimney, but her body was not discovered until a house-sitter noticed a stench and fluids coming from the fireplace Saturday, according to a police statement. The house-sitter and her son investigated with a flashlight and found Kotarac dead, wedged about two feet above the top of the interior fireplace opening.

Firefighters spent five hours late Saturday dismantling the chimney and flue from outside the home to extract Kotarac's body, DeGeare said.

Officials said Kotarac's office staff reported her missing two days prior when she failed to show for work. Her car and belongings remained near the man's house.

A cause of death has not been determined, and an autopsy was scheduled for Tuesday. Foul play is not suspected, though investigators have been looking into the incident as suspicious.

A Nigerian man who swallowed bags of cocaine in an attempt to smuggle the drugs to Europe has died after one of the bags ruptured in his stomach, the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) said.

"Hakeem Adesegun Habeeb died last week at a Lagos hospital after a surgical intervention revealed an exploded bag of cocaine in his intestines," said NDLEA spokesperson Mitchel Ofoyeju.

Habeeb, who was acting as a "mule" for drug smugglers, had swallowed 30 small bags of cocaine. He fell ill at his home due the effect of the drug in his stomach, and was taken to emergency care.

"When he was close to the point of dying, Habeen admitted to having swallowed the bags of cocaine and we operated on him," said the NDLEA official.

The operation removed all the cocaine bags except the exploded one that caused his death, he added.

West Africa, with Nigeria at its hub, is a major drug route between South America and Europe.

Moving closer to joining the growing ranks of African oil producers, Liberia has selected one of the world's largest oil companies as lead partner to explore potential offshore reserves. The announcement puts the spotlight on President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf's pledge that Liberia will use its natural resources for growth and development and avoid the pitfalls that have plagued many oil- and mineral-rich nations.

The government said a statement on Friday that a three-year exploration agreement with the Chevron Corporation involving three deep-water concessions in Liberian waters "has been approved by the Executive and submitted to the Legislature for consideration and ratification."

"We are delighted to welcome Chevron as a partner for Liberia to explore our oil and gas assets," Johnson Sirleaf said in the Executive Mansion statement. "Energy is one of my top priorities, and with Chevron's technical skills we will be able to build our own capacity in the sector making a meaningful contribution to economic growth and job creation. A Chevron spokesman, Scott Walker , confirmed to AllAfrica "that an agreement to explore three deepwater concessions in Liberia has been submitted to the Legislature for ratification." Additional information will be provided when the process is concluded, he said.

"This is a crucial partnership for Liberia," she said in an apparent appeal to the legislative branch to act promptly so exploration can begin before the end of the year. She said Chevron would bring to the country not only an important investment but also "the latest technologies, best practices in transparency and efficiencies, and an excellent record of community and social responsibility."

But ratification may not come easily. Many legislators have been less-than-eager to support the popular president's ambitious agenda, and political tensions are on the rise as the country moves towards elections in October 2011. Johnson Sirleaf, who is seeking a second term, is likely to be opposed by several contenders, including George Weah, the soccer star who was lost in a 2005 run-off in the country's first elections following 25 years of disruption and civil war.

Following a visit to the United States in May, Johnson Sirleaf said she had met Chevron executives to encourage the oil giant "to come and do business," which she said "will send a big signal" that Liberia is a place investors should take seriously. Negotiations continued in Monrovia between a team of senior Chevron officials and the Liberian leader and her advisers.

The Executive Mansion statement called the agreement "a further vote of confidence in the country's future" and cited other major investors who have committed to projects in the country, including ArcelorMittal, Firestone, BHP Billiton, Sime Darby, Anadarko Petroleum, China Union and Golden Veroleum, an Indonesian firm which this month approved a $1.6 billion palm oil deal.

The statement also pointed to the September 5 launch by Delta Airlines of service between Atlanta and Monrovia - "the first direct flights from the U.S. to Monrovia in 20 years." The flight, which will also stop in Accra, will operate on a 215-seat Boeing 767-300ER aircraft, Delta has said. The service had been scheduled to begin in June 2009 but was delayed by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security pending completion of upgrades at Roberts International Airport outside the capital, Monrovia.

Since taking office in 2006, Johnson Sirleaf has made the fight against corruption a cornerstone of her platform. In a May 2010 AllAfrica interview, she called corruption "systemic" in Liberia and said: "The only way to solve it is to take it from under the carpet and deal with it." She expressed confidence that the country is "moving in the right direction and that, in a few years, we'll solve this problem."

Chevron currently has major operations in Africa's two largest oil producing nations, Nigeria and Angola, and also is engaged in exploration and production in Chad, the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Republic of Congo.

Exploration in Liberia to date has been carried out by the U.S.-based independent producer Anadarko and UK-based Oranto, which operates in Nigeria and has interests in several other West African countries. Seismic data produced by Oranto from two offshore blocks showed prospects for sufficient undersea petroleum reserves to interest a big player like Chevron.

Liberia sits at the western edge of the Gulf of Guinea, which extends along the coast to Nigeria, a major producer since the 1960s. Oil prospects have risen for Liberia's neighbors to the east, including Cote d'Ivoire and Ghana, where production is slated to begin later this year in a large offshore field called Jubilee.

Advances in both exploration and production techniques have opened the way for expanded oil and gas production across Africa. According to a U.S. Geologic Survey Fact Sheet issued in February, there have been more than 275 new fields discovered in West Africa since 2000.

Karamoja — Uganda is set to send thousands of its reserve troops for deployment to Somalia if the US government provides promised funding for the mission, the Chief of Defence Forces has said.

Gen. Aronda Nyakairima, in an interview in Kotido District on Thursday, said: "We can even call up to 10,000 [reservists] but that will depend on whether the United States supports us or not." A final decision on the matter is yet to be taken, he stressed, but it will be anchored on "our conclusive talks" with President Obama's administration.

Top US diplomat for Africa, Ambassador Johnnie Carson, who was in Kampala to attend the African Union summit held days after the July 11 terrorist attacks, promised increased support to the AU Peacekeeping Mission in Somalia (Amisom).

Uganda presently has more than 4, 000 troops in Mogadishu, ostensibly to support Sheikh Sharif's Transitional Federal Government that most African countries appear reluctant to directly support in its quest to rein-in myriad fighting groups, including the al Shabaab the US classifies as a "terrorist" group. Gen. Aronda, in the Thursday interview conducted at the UPDF 405 brigade headquarters in Nakapirimoru, made clear they require military hardware, armoured vehicles and helicopters and money for salaries.

Financial issues

"We don't want to overstretch our budget by calling up our [reserve] forces and then we have to even pay [their] salary," he said, adding: "To my knowledge, America has undertaken to support that undertaking; that when we call up [the reserves], they will do this. But we will be waiting and see what happens."

Defence and Military Spokesman, Lt. Col. Felix Kulayigye, yesterday said there are more than 100, 000 members under the Uganda National Reserve Forces that is commanded by Maj. Gen. Levi Karuhanga.

The reserve force comprises former soldiers who left active service within the past five years; Chaka Mchaka graduates (para-militarily graduates) and retired Special Police Constables.

"Ordinarily, reserve forces do their own things," Lt. Col. Kulayigye said, "But when there is a disaster or emergency, they are called up to augment the regular army."

Yesterday, Ms Joann Lockard, the public affairs officer at the US Mission in Kampala, said she is aware of promised American assistance to Amisom but has no specific details. "I don't believe any specific commitments have been made yet," she said.

On Thursday, Gen. Nyakairima said inadequate financing by the international community and failure by other countries to put troops on the ground could compel Uganda to re-think its continued presence in the Horn of Africa.