WIRE:                        USER:                    PRINTED: 04/03/92 21:03
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28501 PM-AR--UFOConvention AP-RG LOCAL   NEWS    RUSH   575 04/03/92 12:04:24
  PM-AR--UFO Convent1on,0650                        (3106j0mo--nr010)
   UFO Convention Speaker Describes Mysterious Encounters
   Eds: Note Missouri Interest.
   By JULIE STEWART
   Associated Press Writer
    LITTLE ROCK (AP) - For years, Karla Turner thought a terrifying
  childhood memory was a dream.
    But now, she said she believes creatures like the one she saw as
  a little girl have retuned to visit her several times.
    Ms. Turner, 44, Is a guest speaker at this weekend's Ozark UFO
  Conference In Eureka Springs. Other lecturers will discuss
  unexplained animal mutilations, mysterious circles formed In crops
  in Britain and reported UFO activity In the United States and other
  countries.
   Ms. Turner said she is not sure whether the ''beings'' she
  reports seeing are from other planets.
    ''One thing I do believe: These things actually exist,'' Ms.
  Turner said In a telephone interview.
    The former college English teacher said other members of her
  family, including her husband, have encountered the insect-like
  creatures, which render them helpless and sometimes abduct them for
  hours at a time.
    Ms. Turner, fearing possible harassment of her family, will say
  only that she lives in the "general Little Rock area." She also
  refused to provide her husband's first name or identify where he
  works.
    Ms. Turner said her encounters were buried in her subconscious
  for decades. She said memories began flooding when she underwent
  psychological counseling for stress-related problems in the late
  1980s.
    She said her earliest encounter was at age five or six. She said
  she found herself outdoors at night, looking up at "what looked
  like a giant grasshopper. And it was telling me It was my mother.
  And I screamed back, 'No, you're not!"'
    Her husband also began recalling past encounters, she said.
    "The nature of our experiences include sightings of UFOs,
  missing time episodes in which we have either had conscious,
  partially conscious or totally unconscious episodes with whatever
  these beings are," she said. "We didn't tell anybody, our closest
  friends or family, anything."
    She began to do research and found reports of similar
  experiences, she said.
    "There seems to be a general pattern," she said. "People have
  abduction encounters throughout their lives. It doesn't seem to be
  a random thing, that they pick up this person at age 35."
    The encounters often "cluster" in families, Ms. Turner said.
     The first encounter usually comes in early childhood, she said,
  followed by another at puberty and again in young adulthood. In
  most cases, the creatures conduct some kind of physical
  examination. Sometimes, sperm and ovum are taken, she said.
    Ms. Turner said several types of creatures have been reported.
  The most frequent reports, she said, involve smooth, gray, hairless
  creatures about 3 1/2 feet tall, with thin bodies, no ears and
  "extremely large black eyes.''
    Others have reported encounters with creatures resembling either
  insects or reptiles.
    Large and small aircraft have been reported, she said. Most are
  disc-shaped, but some are described as triangular, cigar-shaped, or
  bright red-and-orange balls of fire.
    The creatures can be "benevolent or evil,'' she said. Her
  experiences have been fearful.
    "I do not think what they are doing this with us is for our own
  benefit,'' she said.
    Some researchers theorize that the creatures are taking human
  genetic material to further their own survival, she said.
    According to the "salvation theory,'' the creatures are
  gathering genetic samples to propagate the human race if Earth
  become uninhabitable because of nuclear war or another ecological
  disaster.
    Ms. Turner hopes more people will come forward with similar
  encounters, and believes conventions such as the one in Eureka
  Springs provide them a sympathetic ear.
    "We may get more answers when more people are able to talk
  about his without fear,'' she said.
    Ms. Turner has written a book about her family's experiences.
  "Into the Fringe'' is scheduled to be published in November by the
  Berkley Publishing Group in New York, according to Andrew Zack, her
  editor at Berkley.
    "I think she makes a good case and she certainly gives you a
  lot of food for thought," Zack said.
   AP-NY-04-03-92 1201EST
*****************************************************************************
   ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT, Little Rock, AR. - Feb. 9, 1988
   UFO sighting reported near Persian Gulf
  DOHA, Qatar - The official Qatar News Agency said Monday it had received
several reports of an unidentified flying object over the northern Qatar
peninsula Sunday night.
   The agency said many people described a "bright revolving disc with
changing color that emits a low hissing sound".
   The apparition lasted for three hours, from 8 p.m. to 11 p.m., and the
object, "which was shaped like a helicopter pilot's cabin", eventually took
off "like a rocket", the accounts said. It did not say whether
photographs were taken.
   The agency said that earlier UFO sightings were reported in Qatar on
December 30 and that similar sightings were reported recently in Kuwait.
   The reports prompted one Arab publication to quip that "alien powers"
may have decided to join the current foreign military buildup in the troubled
Persian Gulf region.  (DPA)