Hoaxes

Nearly a month after Charter Oak High School began investigating how fake names for members of the Black Student Union and other students were published in the yearbook, school officials are still looking for a way to resolve the controversy. Administrators at the Covina school will meet with BSU members and their families Monday to determine the best solution, said Principal Kathleen Wiard.

Apple Inc. investors experienced palpitations Friday after an apparently false report that Chief Executive Steve Jobs had had a heart attack sent shares down 9% in a matter of minutes. The Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating the report, which appeared just before 7 a.m. EDT on iReport .com, a user-submitted news website run by CNN.

A Midwestern mother accused of using a fake MySpace account to torment a teenager who later committed suicide thought the plan was a clever and funny way to deal with a girl she suspected was spreading lies about her daughter, according to witnesses Thursday. Ashley Grills, who was testifying under a grant of immunity, said that Lori Drew was directly involved in creating the bogus MySpace profile of a 16-year-old boy that was used to lure Megan Meier, 13, into an online relationship.

A hoax caller claiming to be India's foreign minister threatened Pakistan's president with war during the final hours of the Mumbai attacks, prompting Islamabad to put its air force on its highest alert for nearly 24 hours, a news report said Saturday. Meanwhile, Indian authorities reported the first arrests since the end of last month's siege in India's commercial and entertainment capital, which killed more than 170 people.

Meagan McCormic's tearful pleas and photos of her ostensibly missing 6-month-old son riveted Miami television viewers and sent police scrambling on Christmas Day. But, police said Friday, McCormic made up the whole story -- even fabricating the infant in an effort to hang on to a boyfriend who lived 1,400 miles away. The boyfriend was coming for Christmas to see his son for the first time, or so he believed.

Sure, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles faces millions of dollars in bills from recent court case settlements. But are finances so tight that it has decided to sell advertising space on its grandest church steeple? That's the way it looked to startled motorists in downtown Los Angeles when they glimpsed a giant sign on the side of the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels. "Your Ad HERE," proclaimed the huge letters across the cathedral's landmark bell tower.

The ending to Ben Waldrep's "Why I Want to Live in Manhattan Beach" essay contest has finally been written -- on refund checks made out to 1,716 entrants. That's a far cry from the $1-million house with an ocean view that Waldrep offered to the winner of the writing competition he commissioned in 2000 as a charity fundraiser when he decided to move from the California beach city after the death of his wife. Essayists paid a $195 entry fee.

A man accused of conspiring to bomb London's public transport system told a court that he deliberately made fake devices that were not meant to explode but would spread fear, in protest against the invasion of Iraq. Muktar Said Ibrahim, 29, said he learned online how to make explosives using hydrogen peroxide. Ibrahim and five others are charged with conspiring to bomb the British capital's transport system on July 21, 2005. The bombs did not explode.

\o7 \f7IN late March, a striking young blondish woman going by the nom-de-Tube of "GreenTeaGirlie" posted a 10-second video on YouTube. "Hey YouTube viewers!" said the hopeful ingenue, "I'm new. I hope you welcome me. I'm actually going to be making some videos, and I hope they're going to be really neat, so I hope you check 'em out."

The 17-year-old girl who was found tied up in a Riverside County ravine had bound her own hands and feet and fabricated a story that two men had grabbed her and thrown her into a van Monday as she was leaving school, Corona police said Tuesday.