World Briefs

Less than 36 hours after a dramatic rescue after capsizing in treacherous waters off Cape Horn, French round-the-world yachtsman Jean Le Cam had to be rescued again.

Mr Le Cam was sailing to Ushuaia in southern Argentina on Wednesday aboard the yacht of fellow-Frenchman Vincent Riou, who rescued him after he was trapped in his upturned hull for hours, when the mast snapped and the engine failed. The accident left the pair drifting 86 miles southeast of Port Williams in Chile's far south.

Chile's navy, which had abandoned an earlier rescue bid for Mr Le Cam on Tuesday after he clambered aboard Mr Riou's yacht, sent a vessel overnight to rescue the two yachtsmen.

"The yacht which rescued the original yachtsman was sailing to Ushuaia...when the mast broke," a navy spokesman said. "It had nothing to do with (Le Cam's) original accident. What irony."

A naval official in Punta Arenas said the launch carrying Mr Le Cam and Mr Riou had arrived in Puerto Williams yesterday morning, with the second stricken yacht in tow, and added that the pair were both safe and well.

Meteo cat on TV weather forecast

A cat wandered onto the set of a live weather forecast by Germany's leading meteorologist Joerg Kachelmann and waved its tail in front of the camera as it rubbed up against his leg.

Mr Kachelmann had just started his two-minute forecast after the news on Tuesday when the cat appeared. Without missing a beat, he scooped Lupin up and finished his forecast while the cat pointed a paw at the weather map.

"I don't know how he got into the studio," Mr Kachelmann said, adding Lupin belonged to a staffer who was out of town.

"I noticed him when he rubbed against my leg and thought people might wonder what was happening. I figured it would be easier to control the cat by picking him up. Cats get annoyed if they feel ignored. So I made sure he didn't feel ignored."

Panda bites trespasser

A panda with a record of aggressive behaviour attacked a man who jumped into its enclosure at a Beijing zoo to pick up a toy, local media said yesterday.

The nine-year-old panda, Gugu, bit the man on his legs but was driven away by a zoo worker brandishing a broom, the Beijing Youth Daily said.

The man, who jumped into the enclosure to retrieve a toy dropped by a child, was taken to hospital and given a rabies shot, but his injuries were light, the report said.

This was not the first time Gugu has bitten somebody.

Twice before he has attacked people who climbed in to his cage, one of whom was drunk and the other who was simply curious, the newspaper added.

Man, girlfriend in grandma disguise

A Chilean man tried to steal $80,000 from his 82-year-old grandmother by disguising his 21-year-old girlfriend as the elderly woman and having her withdraw money from the bank, but the plot was foiled.

The man falsified his grandmother's identity card and his girlfriend wore a latex mask. They might have gotten away with it if it weren't for a bank worker who called the grandmother's home and learned she was visiting relatives in Venezuela.

"She acted like an elderly woman, was dressed as elderly woman and moved like one.

It was a good impersonation," Victor Mellado, head of client service at the Banco de Chile in the port city of Talcahuano in southern Chile told local television.

The pair have been arrested by the police for attempted fraud and falsification of documents and face a maximum of up to three years in jail if convicted.

Mule brays alarm, saves owner

Add a 38-year-old mule named Lou to the list of heroic dogs, dolphins and other animal rescuers.

When fire broke out at Jolene Salomon's farmhouse near Morrison, Tennessee, yesterday, her pet mule sounded the alarm by braying loudly and loping around its pasture, she told the Southern Standard newspaper in McMinnville.

A semi-invalid, the 63-year-old Salomon was able to get to safety as the house burned to the ground.

"I lost everything but I still have Lou, who saved my life," Ms Salomon told firefighters.