UFOs in the daily Press:

CLOSE ENCOUNTER WITH 'ALIEN' SKULL

It may sound more at home in Roswell or on the X-Files, but a skull claimed to belong to a five-year-old alien child will be on display at Gloucester's city museum next month.

The strangely misshapen skull was discovered in a cave in Mexico about 70 years ago, and is currently undergoing scientific tests to discover its true identity and background. It is thought that the skull could have belonged to a hideously deformed child, but its owners have continued to argue that no known disease could have caused the odd shape.

The man behind the battle to find out the skull's origins, Lloyd Pye, will bring a replica of the skull, dubbed the "Starchild", and will lecture at Gloucester City Museum on March 22.

The real skull is currently in an unnamed laboratory undergoing detailed analysis.

The talk is part of Mr Pye's attempts to raise the funds to have the skull's ancient DNA tested, which will prove if it is of human origin or not.

The differences between the skull and a normal human skull of the same age are startling.

The brain area within the skull is larger than that of a fully grown human's, and the eye sockets are of a completely different shape.

The bone itself has just 40% of the density of normal human bone tissue, but also appears to be twice as hard.

Mr Pye has now carried the skull around the world to raise the necessary funding to have detailed DNA analysis carried out, but has refused to take part in any commercial activities.

He said: "We can't 'taint' the Starchild with commercial hype or merchandising of any kind.

"To do so would irreparably damage our credibility in the event of a positive result.

"The only acceptable means of obtaining funding for scientific endeavours of this nature is through gifts and bequests."

Most of the money required has now been raised, and the skull is at a laboratory in the UK, where the facilities to unravel ancient DNA exist.