The German environment minister, Werner Schnappauf, on Tuesday ordered hunters to shoot and kill a rampaging bear in the south of the country. The animal is the first to show up in the region over the last 170 years. It has killed more than a dozen sheep and several chickens. The 200 pounds animal tears open its victims, eats their hearts leaving the rest of the carcass behind. Schnappauf admitted the animal had become a problem one, "A man-bear encounter could occur at any time. It cannot be allowed to roam freely. We will ask hunters to shoot the bear. "

Nurriyana Jamhari, a six-year-old Malaysian girl is collecting money by singing and acting to save her mother Dayang Herlina Jaafar, 37, who is suffering from cancer, reports The Star. She has four siblings but her father left the family last year and has since re-married.

It's a "factual reality" that beans make you break wind, says South Africa's advertising watchdog. A TV advert for sweet onions showed a rugby player eating beans that made him smell "stinky. " The advert claims that "with sweet onions there are no tears, no burn and definitely no stink. "

Sri Lanka's celebrity elephant, Raja, has fallen ill after eating too many sweets and chocolates given to him as gifts in part of the Buddhist new year celebrations. Thousands of Sri Lankans have paid a visit to Raja, 45, ahead of the new year celebration on Thursday, offering homemade cookies deep fried in coconut oil, chocolates, rice cooked in thick milk and fermented slices of sweet pineapple.

True believers are flocking to the Vietnamese Catholic Martyrs Church in Sacramento, where red liquid is apparently dripping from the left eye of a statue of the Virgin Mary. Crowds of pilgrims are filing in by the hundreds, carrying cameras, flowers and candles. Many pray for blessings, like Bao and Amber Tran, who brought their newborn son.