The Telegraph (UK) reports that betting officials have slashed the odds that either Prime Minister David Cameron or President Barack Obama would admit that aliens exist within one year from placing the bet, from 100/1 to 80/1.

Betting officials have experienced a surge of bets after the declassification of files that show that Winston Churchill banned a “bizarre” UFO incident from disclosure. Churchill issued the order due to fears of mass hysteria and loss of faith in religion.

The incident in question involved a reconnaissance plane and its crew that was approached by a metallic UFO, which subsequently shadowed them on the English coast.

The files in question can be viewed online at the UK National Archives.

A spokesperson from William Hill, one of the largest bookmakers in the UK, says:  “We have had loads of calls. There are thousands of believers out there many of whom are putting their money on an imminent announcement.”

On a related note, Bet or Trade reports that William Hill has teamed up with the Fortean Times for a paranormal photo competition. You can earn four figures if your photo is selected. There are three categories in which you can enter your photos: extraterrestrial, paranormal and cryptozoological.

To enter your photos, and for full terms and conditions, visit : www.forteantimes.com

The staff at Sutton Council in south London is helpful. In fact, their contact page clearly asks: “How can we help?”

Sutton residents take this offer quite seriously, as reported by the UK Press Association.

While normal queries to the call center range from normal questions about area housing, schools and parking services, the call center receives many odd questions. For example, “How long can I safely store ginger powder for?” and “Can I put a dead fox in my recycling bin?”

A woman called Sutton Council’s call center, related to “parking”, since her car failed to stay parked where she left it. She called to ask if her car was haunted after her vehicle “moved of its own accord.”

After a “paranormal investigation” was conducted, the Sutton Council revealed that a ghost did not move her car: “CCTV footage showed the car rolled into a different parking bay after she failed to apply her handbrake properly.”

Mary King’s Close is located under buildings in the Old Town area of Edinburgh, Scotland. It has long been associated with reports of ghostly activity.

Perhaps you’ve seen paranormal investigations conducted at Mary King’s Close on television’s Most Haunted or Ghost Hunters International.

If you have had the opportunity to visit, you may want to dig out those old vacation photos. The same apparition has been caught on camera on at least two separate occasions, according to a recent report by STV Scotland.

What appears to be the same blond-haired woman appears in both photos, both taken during late night tours in 2009.

The staff at Mary King’s Close is certain that the woman who appears in both photos was not a customer. The extra person in each of the photos does not correlate with tour attendance records.

Mary King's Close Ghostly Tourist / Courtesy STV Scotland

Staff at Mary King’s Close is asking anyone who sees a strange apparition in their pictures to allow them to be examined.

In the meantime, the tour hours will be extended for the month of August, with hopes that this same anomaly will reappear in photos.

We’ve long been associated with supernatural and unexplained stories. We’ve had sightings of dark shadowy figures who lurk in the myriad of passageways, rooms and corners of the Closes, and reports of lots of strange noises – these images seem to give us even more evidence. By running tours late in to the night with the last one finishing at midnight, we hope that this might make the ghostly image reappear.” – Lisa Robshaw, spokesperson for The Real Mary King’s Close

Ms Robshaw insists that images had not been doctored by staff, and hopes that by making the images public that someone might be able to help. She added, “If there are people in the images who can explain who the lady is we would love to hear from them.  We’ve tested the static camera that we use and it appears to be working normally so we really do not have an explanation.  We just want to try and understand what has happened.”