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In 1951, a quiet, picturesque village in southern France was suddenly and mysteriously struck down with mass insanity and hallucinations. At least five people died, dozens were interned in asylums and hundreds afflicted.

For decades it was assumed that the local bread had been unwittingly poisoned with a psychedelic mould. Now, however, an American investigative journalist has uncovered evidence suggesting the CIA peppered local food with the hallucinogenic drug LSD as part of a mind control experiment at the height of the Cold War.

The mystery of Le Pain Maudit (Cursed Bread) still haunts the inhabitants of Pont-Saint-Esprit, in the Gard, southeast France.

On August 16, 1951, the inhabitants were suddenly racked with frightful hallucinations of terrifying beasts and fire.

One man tried to drown himself, screaming that his belly was being eaten by snakes. An 11-year-old tried to strangle his grandmother. Another man shouted: “I am a plane”, before jumping out of a second-floor window, breaking his legs. He then got up and carried on for 50 yards. Another saw his heart escaping through his feet and begged a doctor to put it back. Many were taken to the local asylum in strait jackets.

Time magazine wrote at the time: “Among the stricken, delirium rose: patients thrashed wildly on their beds, screaming that red flowers were blossoming from their bodies, that their heads had turned to molten lead.”

Eventually, it was determined that the best-known local baker had unwittingly contaminated his flour with ergot, a hallucinogenic mould that infects rye grain. Another theory was the bread had been poisoned with organic mercury.

However, H P Albarelli Jr., an investigative journalist, claims the outbreak resulted from a covert experiment directed by the CIA and the US Army’s top-secret Special Operations Division (SOD) at Fort Detrick, Maryland.

The scientists who produced both alternative explanations, he writes, worked for the Swiss-based Sandoz Pharmaceutical Company, which was then secretly supplying both the Army and CIA with LSD.

Mr Albarelli came across CIA documents while investigating the suspicious suicide of Frank Olson, a biochemist working for the SOD who fell from a 13th floor window two years after the Cursed Bread incident. One note transcribes a conversation between a CIA agent and a Sandoz official who mentions the “secret of Pont-Saint-Esprit” and explains that it was not “at all” caused by mould but by diethylamide, the D in LSD.

While compiling his book, A Terrible Mistake: The Murder of Frank Olson and the CIA’s Secret Cold War Experiments, Mr Albarelli spoke to former colleagues of Mr Olson, two of whom told him that the Pont-Saint-Esprit incident was part of a mind control experiment run by the CIA and US army.

After the Korean War the Americans launched a vast research programme into the mental manipulation of prisoners and enemy troops.

Scientists at Fort Detrick told him that agents had sprayed LSD into the air and also contaminated “local foot products”.

Mr Albarelli said the real “smoking gun” was a White House document sent to members of the Rockefeller Commission formed in 1975 to investigate CIA abuses. It contained the names of a number of French nationals who had been secretly employed by the CIA and made direct reference to the “Pont St. Esprit incident.” In its quest to research LSD as an offensive weapon, Mr Albarelli claims, the US army also drugged over 5,700 unwitting American servicemen between 1953 and 1965.

None of his sources would indicate whether the French secret services were aware of the alleged operation. According to US news reports, French intelligence chiefs have demanded the CIA explain itself following the book’s revelations. French intelligence officially denies this.

Locals in Pont-Saint-Esprit still want to know why they were hit by such apocalyptic scenes. “At the time people brought up the theory of an experiment aimed at controlling a popular revolt,” said Charles Granjoh, 71.

The board voted 5-4 after parents and community leaders made final pleas to spare the schools even as the beleaguered district seeks to erase a projected $50 million budget shortfall. The approved plan calls for shuttering 29 of 61 schools – a striking amount even as public school closures rise nationwide while the recession eats away at academic budgets.

“The urban core has suffered white flight post-the 1954 U.S. Supreme Court decision Brown v. the Board of Education, blockbusting by the real estate industry, redlining by banks and other financial institutions, retail and grocery store abandonment,” Kansas City Councilwoman Sharon Sanders Brooks said to applause from a standing-room-only crowd of more than 200 people.

“And now the public education system is aiding and abetting in the economic demise of our school district,” she said. “It is shameful and sinful.”

Many school board members said the vote was difficult. An emotional Duane Kelly called it “the most painful vote” he has cast in 10 years on the board.

If Italian media sources are to be believed, then the compromising shadow of a highly active gay prostitution ring currently hangs over both the Holy See and unnamed Rome seminary colleges.

The first casualty of this potentially explosive scandal was Thiomas Ehiem, who yesterday was dismissed from the choir of the Cappella Giulia, the choir used in St Peter’s for ceremonies which do not involve the pope.

The Cappella Giulia comes under the auspices of Cardinal Angelo Comastri, arch-priest of St Peter’s.

Vatican sources pointed out that Mr Ehiem was neither a priest nor a seminary student, but a lay member of the choir.

The revelations came to light during investigations into Angelo Balducci, former head of the Italian office of public works, who was arrested last month on suspicion of corruption. This related to the awarding of a series of public contracts for major events such as last year’s G8 Summit in La Maddalena, Sardinia (later moved to L’Aquila), the 2009 World Swimming Championships, and next year’s 150th anniversary celebrations of the Unity of Italy.

Phone taps of the last two years reveal that Mr Balducci regularly contacted two men, Mr Ehiem and Lorenzo Renzi, to ask them to set up “appointments” for him, “appointments” for which he would pay up to €2,000.

Mr Balducci would ask for a description of his “escort”, and would be furnished with details of the man’s height, weight, skin colour, age and sexual availability.

Transcripts of Mr Balducci’s conversations suggest that his “escorts” came from many different backgrounds, with some being illegal immigrants who badly needed money.

Others were seminary students in Rome.

Mr Balducci, who has been a Papal Gentleman since 1995, has long worked closely with the Holy See on behalf of the Italian state, overseeing the logistical and infrastructural requirements of events such as the Holy Year in 2000, the canonisations of Padre Pio and Opus Dei founder José Maria Escriva in 2002, and the beatification of Mother Teresa in 2003.

In the context of the investigation into the office of public works, investigators believe that Mr Balducci systematically abused his position, exacting favours that ranged from a job for his son to the construction of a swimming pool by builders who had been awarded public contracts.

Investigators believe that private sector contracts for last year’s G8 Summit were inflated from an initial €290 million to €600 million.

Father Gabriele Amorth, 85, who has been the Vatican’s chief exorcist for 25 years and says he has dealt with 70,000 cases of demonic possession, said that the consequences of satanic infiltration included power struggles at the Vatican as well as “cardinals who do not believe in Jesus, and bishops who are linked to the Demon”.

He added: “When one speaks of ‘the smoke of Satan’ [a phrase coined by Pope Paul VI in 1972] in the holy rooms, it is all true – including these latest stories of violence and paedophilia.”

The Brooklyn Democrat has introduced a bill that would ban the use of salt in New York restaurants – and violators would be smacked with a $1,000 fine for every salty dish.

The Treasury Department said Wednesday that the February deficit totaled $220.9 billion, 14 percent higher than the previous record set in February of last year.

The deficit through the first five months of this budget year totals $651.6 billion, 10.5 percent higher than a year ago.

I mean, “My garage door opener’s not working and I think the government’s involved”? That’s tinfoil hat territory.

But the calls kept coming, and soon Lopez and his District 6 staff confronted a mystery that led them to the doorstep of the National Security Agency, the nation’s code-maker and code-breaker, which is putting a data center into the old Sony microchip plant near Loop 410 and Military Drive.

Call it the Case of the Garage Door Gremlins.

It started in January with a trickle of calls and e-mails, but the complaints were oddly similar. West Side residents around Loop 410 and Military Drive were having problems with their garage door openers. Some had talked to one another and suspected a widespread problem.

Bobby Haguewood hadn’t talked to his neighbors on Leander but knew something was wrong. His remote worked if he stood directly below the mechanism, but not when he drove up in his car.

The 75-year-old Air Force veteran called a repairman and learned that he could replace the interior mechanism for $225 or buy a new unit for $450. So he went to Sears and bought a new one from a different manufacturer, but that didn’t solve the problem.

Lopez’s office, meanwhile, was hearing various theories from residents. Some blamed CPS Energy, but CPS officials said they had nothing to do with it.

Lopez and his staffers drove through neighborhoods and spoke to some of the people who had complained. When they saw residents watering their lawn or walking a dog, they heard the same story.

“It took us a couple of days, and I don’t know who suggested it might be NSA,” Lopez said. “We called them, and they wouldn’t talk but their response was peculiar in that they didn’t deny or confirm.”

Thinking he might be closing in on an answer, Lopez called the office of Rep. Charlie Gonzalez, who was hearing complaints, too. Gonzalez called the NSA, which acknowledged that a Land Mobile Radio antenna used by construction and security personnel at the NSA site was operating on a radio frequency also used by many garage door manufacturers. It turned out the same problem had arisen near federal facilities elsewhere.

The good news is that a fairly intensive frequency testing period has ended at NSA. The entire system was shut down from Jan. 29 to Feb. 28, but the calls have dropped off since it restarted early last week.

The bad news is that the NSA is taking a “buyer beware” approach to the problem, advising residents to contact the manufacturer or installer “for information on available immediate solutions.” No refunds from us, in other words.

Although it cost him, Haguewood took the whole episode in stride. He wonders if problems will continue but says he has a solution in mind if they do.

The government, he said, “is going to have to put a man down here on my house and open the door.”

Several airlines, including Fort Worth-based American and Houston-based Continental, say they will cancel flights rather than risk paying stiff penalties for delaying passengers on the runway.

Continental’s CEO told investors Tuesday that the airline will opt to cancel flights rather than chance being fined.

Aviation consultant Denny Kelly expects other airlines to follow suit.

“I think all of them will cancel flights,” he said. “They’ll do it partially because they think they are going to punish passengers, and if they punish them, someone will get this legislation removed.”

Under new federal guidelines that take effect next month, airlines can be fined up to $27,500 per passenger if a plane is stuck on the tarmac for longer than three hours.

“How can they say there is nothing wrong with having someone sit on a seat and run out of water and everything and sit on there for three, four, five hours? That’s ridiculous,” Kelly said.

With the new fines, a delayed MD-80 could cost American Airlines close to $4 million, and a fine for a full 757 could cost more than $5 million.

“It’s unavoidable that more flights will be canceled to avoid fines,” said American Airlines spokesman Steve Schlachter. “It’s one of the unintended consequences of a bill that has no flexibility.”

A spokesman for the U.S. Transportation Department said airlines can avoid fines by doing a better job of scheduling flights and crews.

“Carriers have it within their power to schedule their flights more realistically, to have spare aircraft and crews available to avoid cancellations” and to rebook passengers when there are cancellations, said Bill Mosley, a department spokesman.

Frequent flier Dave Wooldridge said he plans to punish airlines that cancel flights by taking his business elsewhere.

“I won’t fly that airline again,” he said. “They risk losing a lot of people if that’s what they become known for, canceling flights.”

Traveler Andrea Ramirez also didn’t agree with the airlines’ tactic.

“I would definitely rather be late than not go at all,” Ramirez said. “That’s for sure.”