A crocodile's break for freedom from a reptile show proved shortlived on Saturday when it was cornered at a building site in Frankfurt's financial district, police said.
Acting on a tip from a shark-eyed motorist, police discovered the crocodile - about three metres long, 170 kilograms and 65 years old - and returned it to its rightful owners.
In any event, it did not get far: the reptile show has been underway just next door to where it was found.
Only 10 days ago another runaway crocodile - this time from a small travelling circus - was captured in the small German town of Gross-Rohrheim, about 50 kilometres south of Frankfurt. (AFP)
Rape charges are 'set-up' - conductor
Acclaimed Russian conductor Mikhail Pletnev again protested over the weekend his innocence after being charged with raping a teenage boy in Thailand, saying the affair was a "set-up."
"A big company wants to present me as a criminal, which I am not," Mr Pletnev told a press conference at this Macedonian lake resort, without elaborating.
"Nowhere in the world I did anything wrong. On the contrary, I have done a lot of good things in Thailand, which inhabitants there could tell about," Mr Pletnev said.
"I hope all this will be solved soon or later and justice will prevail," he said.
Mr Pletnev and his Russian National Orchestra (RNO) were to perform today at the opening ceremony of the summer music festival in the southern Macedonian town of Ohrid, where he had come along with members of the RNO aboard a charter flight from Moscow.
The artistic director of the RNO has been allowed by a Thai court to travel overseas after posting extra bail, but is required to report back to the court every 12 days, starting from next Sunday. (AFP)
Hell's Angels chapel brawl
Thirteen men, including 11 members of the Hell's Angels motorcycle gang, are facing charges in connection with a 2008 brawl with a rival gang at a Las Vegas wedding chapel.
According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, the Clark County grand jury indictment said the 13 attacked members of the Mongols biker gang and bludgeoned them with their fists, feet, bottles and dustbins.
Jeffrey Murray and John Merchant are accused of stabbing two Mongols members during the December 2008 fight at A Special Memory Wedding Chapel. All 13 defendants are charged with four counts of battery, two counts of attempted murder and one count of assault. (PA)
Air France bomb threat
An Air France passenger jet heading from Rio de Janeiro to Paris made an emergency landing in north-eastern Brazil, following a bomb threat.
All 405 passengers and 18 crew members were safely evacuated from Flight 443, said Jorge Andrade, a spokesman for airport authority Infraero.
A spokesman for Air France in Brazil said the bomb threat was phoned in to Rio's international airport by a female voice about 30 minutes after the plane took off.
The control tower contacted the jet and the decision was made to land in Recife, the Air France spokesman said.
The spokesman said authorities had not found any explosives after a five-hour search, and was cleared to continue to Paris. (PA)
Runaway car kills fishermen
A Frenchman killed two men fishing in Lake Zurich yesterday morning when he lost control of his car, smashed into the anglers and plunged into the lake, police said.
The driver, a 42-year-old Swiss resident, drove over the pavement and down stairs leading to the waterside where the two men, a 34-year-old Serb and a Swiss man in his sixties, were fishing.
The Serb was killed instantly and the Swiss died after being taken to hospital, police said in a statement.
The driver escaped with minor injuries. Police are investigating what caused him to lose control of the car, including tests for alcohol or drugs in his blood. (AFP)
Boy kills brother
A nine-year-old boy playing with a loaded gun accidentally shot dead his two-year-old brother.
Los Angeles police said officers and paramedics found the toddler with a bullet wound to the torso after they were called to the boys' home in the San Fernando Valley. The child died in hospital on Friday night.(PA)