Persistent rumours about the activities of the party treasurer Michael Ashcroft furthered this impression.

In this research, she follows organs as they are transferred through various legal and illegal networks of capitalism, as well as the rumours and urban legends that circulate in impoverished communities about child kidnapping and organ theft.

While there are constant rumours that she has affairs with male celebrities in order to build her profile, in some cases she simply creates the rumours herself ; in The Desert Angel ( series 1 ) she confesses to Pat Cash that she started a rumour about having an affair with him.

After having been assured by James that all rumours about a French alliance were malevolent fabrications, Dijkvelt returned to the Republic, with letters of varying importance from leading English statesmen.

A report of fatal incidences with cat food in Australia led to rumours and speculation about the safety of irradiated food and a nationwide recall.

" Among the popular newspaper rumours about Nurmi was that he had a " freakish heart " with a very low pulse rate.

Philip at this time also began spreading rumours about Richard's action in the east to discredit the English king in the eyes of his subjects.

One night, before he leaves for Paris, Basil arrives to question Dorian about rumours of his indulgences.

Durant manipulated market prices on his stocks by spreading rumours about which railroads were to be connected to the Union Pacific.

Beesley said, " Some of the stuff written about him is enough to make me mad, the rumours about him being gay, for example.

Concerned over rumours that Alexander III was about to enter into an alliance with the Byzantine Emperor Manuel I, in October 1166, he embarked on his fourth Italian campaign, hoping as well to secure the claim of Paschal III, and the coronation of his wife Beatrice as Holy Roman Empress.

Pliny the Elder refers to a certain Julius Caesar ( not the famous statesman, but a remote ancestor of his ) as ab utero caeso, " cut from the womb ", a godly attribute comparable to rumours about the birth of Alexander the Great.

At university, Dirk, seemingly deliberately, created rumours about having clairvoyant abilities by vigorously denying that he had any.

Confronted by a Puritan friend with rumours about his " ungodly life ", Dudley defended himself in 1576: I stand on the top of the hill, where ... the smallest slip seemeth a fall ...

The question of how serious a threat to democracy may have existed during these years continues to be contentious — a key point at issue being who of any consequence would have been ready to move beyond grumbling about the government ( or spreading rumours ) to actively taking unconstitutional action.

* Roy Hattersley, The truth about Harold Wilson – after 30 years of scandalous rumours, Daily Mail, 24 June 2007

There were rumours about Kent releasing an EP, as they had been spotted in studio and guitarist Sami had said, " We might release an EP, but if we do it will only be digitally released.

In 995, rumours began to surface in Norway about a king in Ireland of Norwegian blood.

The source of much of the animosity between the two men can be traced back to Byron ’ s belief that Southey had spread rumours about himself and Percy Shelley being in a " League of Incest " during their time on Lake Geneva in 1816, a claim that Southey strenuously denied.

Sauvé remained secretive about the exact nature of the illness, and did not pay attention to rumours that she had developed Hodgkin's lymphoma, stating in interviews that it was a private matter, and that she was well enough to uphold her responsibilities.

" As a result of Hadrian's devotion to luxury and lasciviousness ( luxus lasciviaeque ), hostile rumours arose about his debauching of young men ( stupra puberibus ) and his burning passion for his notorious attendant Antinous ( Antinoi flagravisse famoso ministerio ); and that it was for no other reason that a city was founded named after Antinous, or that Hadrian set up statues of the ephebe.

( Antinoum suum, dum per Nilum navigat, quem muliebriter flevit ) There are various rumours about this person, some asserting that he offered himself as a sacrifice on behalf of Hadrian, others-what both his beauty and Hadrian's excessive pleasure-seeking suggest.

The prosecution did not examine the rumours that Bokassa had served the flesh of his victims to French President Giscard d ' Estaing and other visiting dignitaries.

In surviving private letters from Somerset to his friend Lord Esher, Somerset denies knowing anything about Albert Victor, but confirms that he has heard the rumours and hopes that they will help quash any prosecution.

In Austrian quality newspapers, Grasser's case is now seen as a test of credibility for the Austrian judicial system: the legal protection from prosecution of former politicians is confronted with rumours about Grasser's alleged quagmire of corruption.

Newton may have invented and spread the rumours about Prince Albert Victor in an attempt to protect his clients from prosecution by forcing a cover-up.

In 1998 the Russian broadcaster Channel One prepared to run internal preselections, but soon organisers realised that because of low average results in previous years Russia would not qualify to compete in 1998 ( though there were rumours that Channel One had planned to name Tatyana Ovsienko as their representative, performing " Solntse moyo ").

In her memoirs, Tsaritsa Catherine spread rumours that he was the actual father of her son Paul I of Russia.

It was Evreinov, in the service of Empress Elisabeth, who squarely warned around the period 1745 – 1746 the 16-year-old German-born married lady Sophie Friederike Auguste von Anhalt-Zerbst-Dornburg, later Dowager Empress Catherine II of Russia, about the rumours about her at the Imperial Court, then, candid and innocent mixings with the Tchernysov siblings, particularly Zakhar, the eldest.

Despite recurrent rumours of financial mismanagement, Stürmer became one of the most trusted bureaucrats working under Vyacheslav von Plehve and was admitted into the State Council of Imperial Russia in 1904.

Disgraced by the Emperor Paul I of Russia as a result of rumours spread by the emperor's courtiers, he was exiled to Kostroma, but later confined to the Peter and Paul Fortress.

It is also common for writers to include psychological tactics behind the line, using Fifth columnists to spread rumours and untruths among the civil population in the theatre of operations.

There were rumours that Agnes and Heraclius were lovers, but this information comes from the partisan 13th-century continuations of William of Tyre's history, and there is no other evidence to substantiate such a claim.

Despite rumours of devil worship and other dark arts being practised during the meetings, there is no evidence to prove this.

With reference to rumours which I believe were at one time afloat, though I know not with what degree of currency: and also with reference to the times when I shall not be here to answer for myself, I desire to record my solemn declaration and assurance, as in the sight of God and before His Judgment Seat, that at no period of my life have I been guilty of the act which is known as that of infidelity to the marriage bed.

** In Paris, French Foreign Minister Georges Bonnet, in response to rumours ( which are true ) that he is seeking to end the French alliance system in Eastern Europe, gives a speech highlighting his government's commitment to the cordon sanitaire.

* March 18 – " Romanian War Scare ": Virgil Tilea, the Romanian Minister in London, spreads false rumours that Romania is on the verge of a German attack.

* May 20 – Ottoman Sultan Osman II is strangled by rebelling Janissaries, who revolted when they heard rumours that Osman II was planning to move against them.

There were rumours that Agnes and Heraclius were lovers, but this information comes from the partisan 13th-century continuations of the Historia, and there is no other evidence to substantiate such a claim.

Since the pentito himself is physically protected by the police, retribution on his family is common ; therefore, when there are rumours of a mafioso collaborating with the police, the family usually condemns that person immediately to avoid retaliation.

There were rumours of Super 8 cameras and films being manufactured and sold in North Korea, partly to be found in specialty photography stores in a few Southeast Asian countries, by a company named Kim Chek, and indeed this has been confirmed by North Korean embassies, but the only way to buy such products is to visit those countries.

While the members of that first expedition of the Mariposa Battalion had heard rumours of what could be found up the Merced River, none were prepared for what they saw March 27, 1851 from what is now called Old Inspiration Point ( close to the better visited Tunnel View ).

McEwen is reported to have despised McMahon personally, and it is very possible that he disliked McMahon because of his rumoured homosexuality, which has been the subject of persistent rumours in Australia.

She was later rumoured to have been Edward the Elder's concubine, but Barbara Yorke and Sarah Foot argue that the rumours were a product of the dispute over the succession in 924, and that there is no reason to doubt that she was Edward's legitimate wife.

It is, however, unclear to what extent such rumours could be substantiated.

Mary's husband, Lord Darnley, is said to have been jealous of their friendship, because of rumours that he had made Mary pregnant, and joined in a conspiracy of Protestant nobles, led by Patrick Ruthven, 3rd Lord Ruthven, to murder him.

One view is that Thomas schemed to marry either Princess Mary or Princess Elizabeth, Henry VIII's daughters by his first two marriages, and there were rumours that he attempted to pursue a relationship with Elizabeth, still in her early teens.

He was born shortly after Livia divorced Tiberius Nero and married Augustus ( 17 January, 38 BC ), giving rise to rumours that Augustus was the real father, although this is widely discredited by modern historians as Augustus had not yet met Livia when Drusus would have been conceived ( During his reign, Claudius revived this rumor to give the impression that Augustus was his paternal grandfather in addition to being his maternal great-uncle ).

Ron Roisen reports rumours that he was still alive in Magdeburg Prison in January 1945, but there is no definitive evidence of this.

There were rumours after the war that he had survived and was living under another name in Paris, but there is no evidence for this.

* In the video game Persona 2, the final dungeon is Xibalba, which due to a curse on Sumaru City involving rumours becoming reality, is an ancient spaceship that levitates the entire city in the air.