Free Republic

A slimy, glob-like creature dubbed Gollum has terrified children after it slithered out of a lake and clambered over the rocks towards them. The young teenagers were playing by the waterfront in a Panama lake near Cerro Azul when the bald beast emerged from a cave behind a waterfall. They started screaming as it shuffled out "as if to attack them". Locals told Panama news the monster was like "Gollum from Lord of the Rings". One said: "I have only seen that creature once before - and it was in the Tolkien film." But in a "desperate bid to defend...

Cult movie director David Lynch has received a lifetime achievement award at the Venice Film Festival. Lynch, 60, has gained a reputation for complex films, including Eraserhead, The Elephant Man, Blue Velvet, Wild At Heart and cult TV series Twin Peaks. He was also at the festival to premiere his latest film, Inland Empire, which includes hallucinatory scenes and a talking rabbit voiced by Naomi Watts. Lynch assured baffled critics "it's supposed to make perfect sense". "Every film is like going into a new world, going into the unknown. But you should be not afraid of using your intuition, and...