Giant catfish empty rivers, turn cannibal

Giant catfish are becoming an increasing problem in German rivers and lakes, with one monstrous 2.5-metre specimen even said to be eating swans in a river it has emptied of all other fish. Some are even becoming cannibals.

Ducks and even swans on the Isen River in Upper Bavaria have to fear for their lives, Die Welt newspaper reported on Saturday, because they are being targeted by the giant fish.

Fishermen have been alarmed by the increasing number – and size – of the catfish, which have no natural predators and grow their entire lives, the paper reported.

“The fish are not actually known to eat members of their own species, but by now they are also doing this,” Manfred Holzner, head of the local fisherman’s association told the newspaper tz.

Controlling their population is difficult - the fish themselves are notoriously tricky to catch, and nets are generally outlawed in the affected waters, Die Welt said.
http://www.thelocal.de/sci-tech/20120908-44849.html

Papua New Guinea Alleged Cannibals Charged

CANBERRA, Australia -- Authorities have arrested 29 people accused of being part of a cannibal cult in Papua New Guinea's jungle interior and charged them with the murders of seven suspected witch doctors, police said Friday.

Madang Police Commander Anthony Wagambie confirmed a report in The National newspaper that said the cult members allegedly ate their victims' brains raw and made soup from their penises.

"They don't think they've done anything wrong; they admit what they've done openly," Wagambie told The Associated Press by telephone.

He said the killers believed that their victims practiced "sanguma," or sorcery, and that they had been extorting money as well as demanding sex from poor villagers for their supernatural services.

By eating witch doctors' organs, the cult members believed they would attain supernatural powers and literally become bullet-proof, he said.

"It's prevalent cult activity," Wagambie said. He said he believes there could be between 700 and 1,000 cult members in several villages in Papua New Guinea's remote northeast interior. All of them might have eaten human flesh, he said.

According to the report in The National, which is published in Papua New Guinea, 28 men and women appeared in a Madang court on Tuesday. Wagambie said they were charged with willful murder.

It was not clear what happened to the 29th suspect. Murder is punishable by death in Papua New Guinea, a poor South Pacific island nation.

Wagambie said the suspects were not required to plea to the murder charges and were being held in custody.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/13/papua-new-guinea-cannibals_n_1670688.html