World Briefs

A fighting bull skewered a “reckless” Australian thrill-seeker in the leg yesterday after he taunted the beast in Spain’s San Fermin fiesta, organisers said.

A half-tonne bull pierced the tourist’s right thigh with its horn and tossed him across the sand of the bull ring in the final stage of a daily bull-run in Pamplona, northern Spain.

Doctors in the bull-ring’s surgery treated the man for damage to a major artery and his condition had improved, said a spokesman for the festival organisers.(AFP)

Set on fire

A presumed homeless man set on fire by three drunks on a street in central Helsinki earlier this week died from his injuries, police said, adding his attackers had been remanded in custody.

The 44-year-old man was lying unconscious on a bench at a tram stop early on Monday when two drunk men and a woman doused him with flammable liquid and set him alight. He died Thursday of his burn injuries, police said.

In a short statement, police added the attackers - two men aged 29 and 34 and a 27-year-old woman - were remanded in custody on Thursday.

According to Finnish media, the whole gruesome attack was caught on a surveillance camera, and the three will face murder charges by October at the latest.

All of those involved were Finnish nationals. (AFP)

Heroin haul

Bulgaria’s customs agency announced it had seized 53.5 kilogrammes of heroin in four separate vehicles entering from Turkey, leading to 10 arrests.

A total of 99 packages of heroin weighing 51.5 kilogrammes were found hidden in three Bulgarian cars at the southeastern Kapitan Andreevo border checkpoint late on Wednesday.

They were concealed at the bottom of three identical 30-litre plastic containers of washing detergent distributed between the cars. Customs later seized two more kilogrammes of heroin concealed in two packages of baby diapers in a Bulgarian minibus also crossing the checkpoint from Turkey. (AFP)

Police turns robber

A police officer working for the German Parliament robbed its post office at gunpoint before killing himself with a shot to the head, .

Berlin police said the man entered the post office in a building housing the Parliament’s library and archive late Wednesday wearing a paper mask. He allegedly threatened a female employee with the gun and demanded cash. (AFP)

Miracle rescue

A Dutch woman left a hospital in Spain on Thursday a day after she was rescued unharmed after spending 18 days trapped at the bottom of a ravine without any food.

Mary-Anne Goossens was in good health, having shown only signs of dehydration and malnutrition.

Her daughter Jantje said her mother lost 4.5 kilos and survived by drinking water from a nearby river and thinking about how in two years she would celebrate her 50th birthday.

She thought of how the party would be, the food that will be served and who she will invite. She just kept looking forwards to the future, a happy future, never backwards,” Jantje saidl.

Ms Goossens went for a hike on her own along a river near Nerja on June 16, a day after she arrived in Spain, and became trapped in a pit at the bottom of a steep ravine.

Three hikers spotted her on Wednesday and left her some food before alerting emergency services, who then evacuated her by helicopter. (AFP)

Monkeys wed

The tale, set in the forests of northwestern India, had all the ingredients of a perfect Bollywood love story: emotion, celebration, , star-crossed lovers and a nail-biting climax.

The only difference was that the lovers were monkeys, taking part in India’s first simian wedding - with the whole unfolding drama a classic clash between age-old village belief and the demands of modern life.

Hindu belief includes worship of animals as avatars of the gods. Monkeys have an especially significant role in Hindu mythology where they are worshipped as avatars of Hanuman, the mighty ape that aided Rama in his fight against evil.

So when plans for the wedding of “Raju” and “Chinki” were laid in the small village of Talwas, in the forests of Rajasthan, villagers responded with excitement. (PA)