World Briefs

Police are trying to trace the owner of a toy life-size tiger which sparked a major operation involving armed officers and a force helicopter.

The alert was raised by members of the public on Saturday when they spotted what they believed to be a live tiger in a field near Hedge End, Southampton, Hampshire.

The police helicopter was scrambled and a golf course cleared after police arrived at the scene. Armed police were called te in case the animal came too close to members of the public.Specialist staff from Marwell Zoo also attended to advise and potentially tranquilise the wild animal. But as police officers approached the “wild animal” they realised it was not moving and the helicopter crew, using thermal imaging equipment, realised there was no heat source coming from it.

A spokesman said: “After a brief stalk through the Hedge End savannah, the office realised the tiger was not moving...the tiger then rolled over in the down draft and it was at that point it became obvious it was a stuffed life-size toy.” (PA)

Cartoon heroes

Russia’s Vladimir Putin saves the day as a martial arts superhero in a comic strip spreading on the Russian internet, where he teams up with bearskin-wearing sidekick Dmitry Medvedev.

The comic strip, apparently the first in a series about Super Putin, Man Like Any Other is available on www.superputin.ru and is set in Moscow “one year before the end of the world”.

Russia will choose its next President next year and observers have their eyes peeled for any indication of whether current President Medvedev or PM Putin will seek the six-year-term as head of the country.

With a plot line resembling the 1990s US action film Speed, the strip shows a kimono-wearing Putin – described as a man “with a Nordic character” – save a busload of people from a bomb blast. (AFP)

Boy rescued

Chinese police have rescued a nine-year-old boy who was kidnapped by a gang and held for two days.

The child’s ordeal took place in the south-west Yunnan province of the country.

The gang took the boy on Monday and had demanded a ransom of six million yuan, which is just over £500,000.

Police attempted to arrest the gang the following day when they hoped to collect the ransom, but failed because the gang kept changing their location.

Armed police raided the gang’s hideout after arresting two suspects who told detectives where the child was being held. It took police just 30 seconds to enter the house once the operation started.

Four people were arrested and weapons found in the property were confiscated. (PA)

Apocalypse now? Some other time folks!

Warnings by a US fundamentalist preacher that Saturday was Judgment Day sent some people into hiding or scrambling to repent, while others planned parties to wave off good Christians.

Eighty-nine-year-old tele-evan-gelist Harold Camping’s prophecy said “the Rapture will begin with powerful earthquakes at 6 p.m. local time in each of the world’s regions, after which the good will be beamed up to heaven.“The not-so-good will suffer through hell on earth until October 21, when God will pull the plug on the planet once and for all,” the fundamentlist preacher predicted.

In the US, where Mr Camping’s evangelising organisation is based, some people had been quitting their job but nothing of what the US preacher prophesied, took place on Saturday! (AFP)