Star power

Tug of war

Three-year-old knut, a Olar bear, living in the Berlin Zoo, Germany, has become a celebrity over whom zoo officials are fighting. Born in 2006, Knut became a star attraction at the Berlin Zoo for his entertaining antics. However, trouble started recently after officials at the Neumuenster Zoo, to which Knut’s father Lars belongs, claimed not only legal rights over him but also a slice of the revenue that he has generated in the past few years. Lars was loaned to the Berlin Zoo by Neumunster Zoo for breeding in 1999 on the condition that the first cub would be given to them. Knut was controversially raised at the Berlin Zoo after his mother abandoned him soon after his birth. Although the Berlin Zoo offered Neumuenster 350,000 euros, a settlement was reached only after the latter was paid 700,000 euros. Knut generated 5 million euros in 2007 from the sale of tickets and Knut-branded merchandise such as soft toys, jigsaws and ring tones, reported BBCNews. Quite the crowd-puller there.

exam fever

Call a friend!

Writing exams has never been easier for some school students in Austria. Reinhard Peter, who teaches at a school in Bregenz, allows his students to ‘phone a friend’ or experts on various subjects to enable them to answer questions correctly. Inspired by the American TV show, Who Wants to be a Millionaire, Peter believes that this step would encourage his students to fare better. Students are allowed to call doctors, teachers and others to answer questions that they are stumped by. He also said that so far the worst anyone had scored by using the lifeline was a ‘satisfactory’.