LILONGWE (AFP) – When Kanthukako Supaunyolo's grandson woke up in the night with a nosebleed, his parents were enraged by what they saw as a bad omen and a certain product of sorcery.

They accused the 82-year-old grandmother of casting a spell on him, and filed a criminal complaint of witchcraft, landing her in jail under a century-old law now under fire by both non-believers and self-proclaimed witches.

"How could I bewitch my own grandchild. For what?" said the soft-spoken woman.

She and two elderly friends were convicted and sentenced to $33 fines each, a steep sum for women who – like 62 percent of Malawians – live on less than $2 a day. When they could not pay, they were jailed.

"We suffered this injustice because we are poor and old. I blame the police who are overzealous in arresting innocent people and charging them with witchcraft, which cannot be proved in a court of law," Supaunyolo told AFP.

She was released along with her friends – Liness Nkhukuyalira, 72, and Nurse Nthala, 62 – after a local rights group paid the fine and secured their freedom from the notorious Maula prison in the administrative capital Lilongwe.

Surgery leads to alien accent

SALEM, Oregon (AP) – Karen Butler has a British-sounding accent, but she's never been to Europe. She woke up from dental surgery one day talking funny. A year and a half later her "foreign" accent remains, and her story has traveled around the world.

The 56-year-old tax consultant from Toledo, Oregon, has found her life transformed by the dental procedure, which left her with dentures, and — depending on whom you ask — an Eastern European, Swedish or British accent.

Butler had all her top teeth and front bottom teeth removed in November 2009 because of gingivitis. A week later the swelling had gone away, but she still sounded strange. Her dentist told her she just had to get used to her new teeth.

But as weeks stretched on with no change, Butler did some online research. She diagnosed herself with Foreign Accent Syndrome, a medical condition with only a few dozen documented cases.

The syndrome is often the result of brain injury; though it is uncommon, most neurologists will see at least one case in their career, said Dr. Helmi Lutsep, professor and vice-chair of the Department of Neurology at Oregon Health & Science University.

Sometimes a person just sounds slightly off; other times there may be a more dramatic-sounding accent, Lutsep said.

"We don't know exactly how or why it happens, but it simply affects rhythm of language," Lutsep said. "I'm absolutely convinced this is a real phenomenon. These people are not making it up."

Butler believes she hasn't had a stroke or any brain trauma. She said she has tried, but hasn't been able to get a brain scan because she said her medical insurance will not cover it.