A motorist in California had a deer slam into him just as he was checking his car for signs of an animal collision, the highway patrol said. Robert Brooks, 55, was driving about 45km from San Francisco at dusk when he swerved to miss a deer that leapt into the roadway. Brooks pulled over and was checking his car for damage when a vehicle coming the other way knocked a deer into Brooks. "It was a one-in-a-million-type situation," Creel said. "The irony of thinking you struck a deer and then having a deer strike you." It turned out that Brooks missed the deer with his car but by stopping, wound up "in the wrong place at the wrong time," Creel said.
■ GERMANY
"Parties close in on deal
Almost two months after the general election, the main political parties were returned to the negotiating table yesterday hoping to reach agreement on the program of a left-right coalition government. Despite intense talks on Thursday, they were left without a consensus on tax rises and spending cuts. The Christian Democrats of incoming chancellor Angela Merkel and outgoing leader Gerhard Schroeder's Social Democrats are racing to seal a deal by the week's end.
■ SWITZERLAND
Lemur named after comic
Most people know him as the crazy English hotel owner in Fawlty Towers. But John Cleese will also go down in history for another reason: lemurs. The University of Zurich named a newly discovered species of lemur after the comedian in honor of his work with the animal. The avahi cleesei, which weights less than 1kg and eats leaves, was discovered in Madagascar in 1990 by anthropologist Urs Thalmann. Cleese's drew attention to the plight of lemurs in the documentary Operation Lemur with John Cleese. ``Woolly lemurs can't really walk -- but they do enjoy silly jumps,'' Thalmann said.
■ UNITED KINGDOM
Napoleon's tooth sold
A tooth believed to have been extracted from Napoleon's mouth was sold at auction in London for US$22,600. The tooth, part of a small collection of Napoleon Bonaparte items, was bought by a private collector from England who asked to remain anonymous. The previous owner, who died recently, was a Napoleonic scholar. The tooth came with papers tracing it back to Napoleon's physician Barry O'Meara, who apparently extracted it from the former French emperor's mouth in 1817 during his exile on the island of St. Helena.
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