■ United States
Armed man `saves' woman
A sword-wielding Wisconsin man who rushed to the aid of a woman he thought was being raped in the apartment upstairs was carted off to jail after police discovered his neighbor was just watching porn. The cries for help pouring through the floorboards sounded far too real to James Van Iveren, who told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that he was just acting on instinct. "It was a woman screaming," he said in an interview published on Wednesday. Van Iveren, 39, was listening to music in his apartment when he heard repeated cries for help. He grabbed his 1m long cavalry sword, a family heirloom, rushed up the stairs and broke the door down.
■ Serbia
Surgeons abandon patient
A routine appendix operation in Belgrade went badly wrong when two surgeons started fighting and stormed from the operating theater to settle their dispute outside, the daily Politika reported on Wednesday. Surgeon Spasoje Radulovic was operating when his colleague Dragan Vukanic entered and made a remark that started a quarrel, said the anesthesiologist on duty. "At one moment Vukanic pulled the ear of the operating doctor, slapped him in the face and walked out," she said. Radulovic followed and an all-out fight ensued, resulting in bruises, a split lip, loose teeth and a fractured finger.
■ South Africa
Winnie's home robbed
Two people were arrested on Wednesday over the theft of jewelery worth more than US$500,000 from the home of Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, former wife of ex-president Nelson Mandela. Two of her safes were stolen and a third tampered with, in the fortress-like house protected by security guards, cameras and dogs in the township of Soweto on the outskirts of Johannesburg. Two domestic workers were later found in possession of the jewelery and were scheduled to appear before magistrates yesterday.
■ United States
Spears checks out of rehab
Britney Spears checked out of rehab for the second time in a week on Wednesday, while her estranged husband was making plans to go to court amid a custody dispute over their two children. Kevin Federline and his lawyer were scheduled to appear at a downtown courthouse yesterday for an emergency hearing in family law court, Superior Court spokesman Allan Parachini said. It was not known what Federline intended to ask the court. He sought support and sole custody of their two children after Spears moved to end their two-year marriage last November, but a temporary order issued on Feb. 1 granted joint custody through this month.
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