A wild bear on the prowl in the forests of Tyrol is being feted by locals after inadvertently helping unravel the mystery of a missing man.
According to police, the brown bear, which for several weeks had been rampaging in the area close to the border between Austria and Switzerland, knocked down a tree which fell on an electricity pylon and started a fire.
Police and firefighters called to the remote region discovered the body of a man who had been reported missing by his wife two days earlier.
The 100kg, two and a half year old animal has been dubbed Inspector Bear by locals, in place of his less catchy scientific label, M13.
A spokesman for Tyrolean state police said: “This is an ongoing investigation, so I cannot give more information, other than to say we consider the bear to be innocent.”
The man has been identified as Peter Hilber, 40, who was known to move in criminal circles, according to the police.
M13 and his brother, M12, have been living in the border region between Austria, Switzerland and Italy for several weeks.
M13 has wreaked havoc in some areas, overturning beehives and killing a goat. Both animals come from a repopulation programme in Trentino, northern Italy.
The whereabouts of M12 and M13 are being monitored by a GPS tag around their necks which sends text messages to the authorities every seven hours.
M13 was also in a collision with a Swiss train on Monday night but was not believed to have been seriously injured.
A regional Tactical Rescue Team and other emergency personnel from Indiana worked on Friday night to get a man out of a large hole in the backyard of his Elkhart home.
According to the 25-year-old man’s father, a spirit had told him to dig for treasure, and that’s what he did for three days before becoming mired in dirt and water.
The father said the spirit told his son there was gold buried in the backyard of the home, which they are renting.
The father helped him dig for three days until hitting water, which the son was sucked into and became stuck up to his knees.
The father made it out alright.
Firefighters, who arrived at the scene at around 6:30 p.m., found a hole about eight-feet deep that became a tunnel at the bottom.
They used a vacuum truck to suck out the water and sand and used plywood to hold up the side walls.
At around 8:30 p.m. the rescuers were able to pull the man up on a ladder.
He walked a short distance to a waiting ambulance where he was given IV liquids and taken to Elkhart General Hospital.
The father said his son is under observation and is doing OK.
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A 25-year-old Nicholas Rutkowski was working with two other men, removing a tree at Sky Farm Nudist Club in New Jersey.
While they were working, a 4-foot, 40-pound branch came hurtling down from a height of 70 feet to make fatal contact with him.
He was wearing all the required safety gear, including a hardhat, but died on-site before he could be taken to the hospital.
“Based on witness accounts and interviews immediately after the accident, all safety measures were followed,” a Bernards-based Tamke Tree Express spokesperson said.
“He was part of the Tamke family and will be missed by all. Our heartfelt condolences go out to all his family and friends.”
The federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration is investigating the accident.
A Swedish father of two who traveled to Norway for work said he was stunned when he was forced to prove he isn’t a woman.
Daniel Pohjantahti, from southern Sweden, said that he traveled to Bergen, Norway, for work and went to the Norwegian social benefits agency Nav to obtain a Norwegian personal ID number.
Pohjantahti told the Aftenposten newspaper he presented his Swedish ID card and papers from the Swedish Tax Authority to verify his identity and he was shocked when the female official at Nav asked him if he was a woman.
“I looked like a bear when I got there, surely the beard must have given it away,” Pohjantahti said.
He said he showed her all of his documents and mentioned fathering two children, but the woman was not satisfied until he went back to Sweden and returned with his passport.
Police in Connecticut were faced with an odd reversal of their traditional role: They had to break a man OUT of handcuffs.
Assistant Chief Ed Koether said that officers were called on Thursday afternoon to an adult entertainment store in Orange, a town just west of New Haven. The man had been trying on the cuffs and locked himself in a pair.
Koether says shop employees couldn’t get the man free and called the fire department and then police.
The cuffs were similar to the kind police officers carry. But Koether says the officers tried several keys that didn’t work.
Eventually the handcuffs had to be removed with bolt cutters.
Koether says he doesn’t know if the man had to pay for the broken handcuffs.
One South African man has died and sixteen others were rushed to hospital after they collapsed at a faith healing event run by a controversial Nigerian televangelist.
The Higher Life Conference, which also takes place in Britain and the United States, is staged by Pastor Chris Oyakhilome, who can reputedly perform miracles such as healing the paralysed.
An estimated 150,000 people, among them children and terminally ill patients, travelled to the Greenpoint Stadium in Cape Town, Soth Africa, to attend the three-day Pentecostal event over the weekend.
“Pastor Chris”, one of Nigeria’s most wealthy evangelist preachers with a global following of millions, is believed to be worth as much as £30 million.
Simon Williams, a 56-year-old pastor from nearby Paarl, was taken from hospital intensive care to the event by his family. He collapsed and died from renal failure inside the stadium.
Dr Wayne Smith, head of disaster medicine for Cape Town, said he treated about 30 patients in the stadium’s medical centre and sent 16 to hospital.
“Some of them had travelled long distances to get there, they had ongoing medical issues and were in a lot of pain,” he said.
