A bear weighing nearly 300lb has been tranquillized and removed from a homeowner's backyard after it was discovered resting up a tree.

Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officials say the male black bear climbed into the tree in a Florida neighbourhood late on Thursday night.

A tranquillizer dart was used to subdue the bear, causing him to fall from a high tree branch into a tarp that was held above ground by a group of wildlife officials.

The animal was then carried away to be relocated to the Ocala National Forest.

The same bear was found in an Orlando neighbourhood in June last year when it was first relocated to the forest.

A spokesman for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, Gary Morse, said the local population of bears had outgrown their natural habitat.

Venezuelans have been hit by a chronic toilet paper shortage leading to empty supermarket shelves and long queues to snap up the remaining rolls.

When new stocks arrive at supermarkets customers have been rushing in to fill their trollies.

The country is used to a scarcity of basic food items such as milk and sugar but even by the country’s usual standards the toilet paper shortage has caused considerable consumer panic.

One 70-year-old woman said she had been trying to find toilet rolls for two weeks before locating a few rolls in a supermarket in Caracas. Maria Rojas said: "Even at my age, I've never seen this."

A lucky customer leaves with a bag full of toilet roll

Another customer in the same supermarket, Maria Perez, said: "Here there's a shortage of everything - butter, sugar, flour." But, she added: "There always used to be toilet paper."

President Nicolas Maduro, who was chosen by the dying Hugo Chavez to carry on running the country and won April’s election, claims it is a conspiracy to destabilise the country.

However, the government has agreed to import an extra 50 million toilet rolls to cope with demand.

His Commerce Minister Alejandro Fleming said "excessive demand" for tissue had built up due to a "media campaign that has been generated to disrupt the country."

He said monthly consumption of toilet paper was normally 125 million rolls, but current demand "leads us to think that 40 million more are required."

"We will bring in 50 million to show those groups that they won't make us bow down," he said.

Economists say Venezuela's shortages of some consumer products stem from price controls meant to make basic goods available to the poorest parts of society and the government's controls on foreign currency.

Supermarket workers examine the empty shelves

Steve Hanke, professor of economics at Johns Hopkins University in the US, said: "State-controlled prices - prices that are set below market-clearing price - always result in shortages. The shortage problem will only get worse, as it did over the years in the Soviet Union."

But economic theory does little to help those down to their last few sheets.

"I've been looking for it for two weeks," Cristina Ramos said at one store. "I was told that they had some here and now I'm in the queue."

Many factories operate at half capacity because the currency controls make it hard for them to pay for imported parts and materials.

 

Pop star Justin Bieber has until midnight to claim his pet monkey – or lose it to the Federal Republic of Germany.

The singer's 17-week-old capuchin, called Mally, was seized by customs staff at Munich's Franz Josef Strauss Airport after he failed to produce the correct papers for the animal.

The Canadian star was detained "for some time" while customs officials took Mally into quarantine at the airport.

Mally was sent to a Munich Animal Protection League (MAPL) animal shelter, where he has remained, unclaimed, since March 28.

Customs officials have said that if Bieber does not produce the papers by midnight on May 17 then Mally will become the property of Germany.

Bieber performing as part of his 'Believe' World Tour

They will also be billing the pop star for the monkey's care, vet visits and food - an invoice that will run to several thousand dollars.

MAPL said that they had received two emails claiming to be from Bieber's management company.

In the messages they were asked how long they had to produce the paperwork before the monkey would be put down, and secondly whether it could be given to a zoo.

Custom officials say they have yet to receive any formal request for that from Bieber or any of his representatives.

Speaking last month, customs spokesman Thomas Meister, said: "If by May 17 there is nothing, then he loses ownership of the animal and it becomes the property of the Federal Republic of Germany.

"If Bieber really does want to place the animal in a zoo, he is welcome to contact customs authorities and forfeit Mally at any time, but will likely have to pay costs associated with keeping the monkey so far and a fine."

Bieber posts a picture of himself recovering from his collapse

Bieber flew his pet, understood to have been a 19th birthday president from music producer Jamal Rashid on March 1, to Munich on the Cessna Citation X he rents for £13,000-a-time.

He was performing in the city on his world tour, which had been blighted by a series of unfortunate headlines.

He was booed for lateness of arrival for his concert at the O2 in London and had to apologise to fans. At a later gig he collapsed on stage and had to be treated in hospital.

He then cancelled a concert in Portugal, saying he had had a "rough week" in London.

In March, Bieber and his entourage were asked to leave the Hotel Le Meurice in Paris apparently because of the "nuisance caused by the presence of his fans around the buildings".

In April he came under fire for a message he wrote in the guestbook at the Amsterdam home where Anne Frank once lived. He wrote he hoped the Holocaust victim "would have been a belieber".

An Australian politician has been attacked by a kangaroo as he went for a morning jog.

Shane Rattenbury said he was out running in a suburb of the capital Canberra when he suddenly came up against an eastern grey kangaroo grazing on a front lawn.

"We both got a nasty fright, and of course when kangaroos are startled, they lash out," the 41-year-old said.

"As the kangaroo sought to escape, it landed on me, and its claws dug into my leg."

Mr Rattenbury tweeted his encounter along with a picture of his bloodied legs, saying: "Mugged by a kangaroo! And this was in the suburbs, had not even got to the nature park!"

The politician said the 1.4 metre (4ft 7ins) tall kangaroo knocked him to the pavement, the claws of its powerful hind legs drawing blood with two scratches to his left leg. His right leg was painfully bruised by the pavement.

Moments later, a passer-by noticed Mr Rattenbury was injured and drove him home.

MP Shane Rattenbury injured his left leg in the attack

His mother heard of her son's plight on a radio news bulletin and took him to a walk-in clinic, where a nurse cleaned his wounds and gave him a tetanus shot.

"The nurse who treated me had treated someone before who had been scratched by a kangaroo and ended up with a very bad infection," Mr Rattenbury said. "So she was quite keen to give it a good clean-out."

Mr Rattenbury limped into the Australian Capital Territory state parliament a few minutes before Thursday's session began and more than three hours after his painful brush with nature.

He was bemused that many people seemed more concerned about the kangaroo's welfare than his.

"I can assure people that the kangaroo is fine," he said. "It was last seen hopping off into the distance quite comfortably."

Kangaroos are among Australia's most loved native species. A kangaroo and an emu feature on the nation's coat of arms. But kangaroos are so numerous around Canberra that the ACT government maintains a controversial culling program to contain them.

Mr Rattenbury, who is a member of the environmentally focused Greens party, said he accepts the scientific evidence that kangaroo numbers have to be controlled around Canberra. Thursday's close encounter did not change that.

"Without a predator, kangaroos have increased their abundance and have a detrimental impact on the rest of the ecosystem," he said. "The Greens have not opposed that cull."

He added: "I really enjoy seeing kangaroos and we're very lucky in Canberra to have them as part of our neighbourhoods, but I usually prefer to keep them at a bit more of a distance than this."

Kangaroos rarely harm people, although in 2009 one jumped through a bedroom window of a Canberra home late at night and terrorised a family before a householder wrestled it out the front door.

Wildlife veterinarian Karen Vickers said more kangaroos were likely to venture deeper into Canberra suburbs in search of watered lawns to feed in the drier months ahead and that people should be wary.

"It sounds like they startled each other and Shane came off worse," she told Australian Broadcasting Corp radio. "They're really not out to get us."

The attack clearly did not cause Mr Rattenbury to lose his sense of humour. He added later on twitter: "I believe the roo is fine - escaped the scene quickly, but did fail to get my watch or wallet for those who were wondering ..."