Yan Yan -dead. Just like it's cousin the Chicago Bear

Knut -cute

Today's Newspapers

Several stories from today's Bath Chronicle and The Times left me scratching my head.

The lead story in the Chronicle began with this rather unfortunate wording: "Stay away" -that is the message from Bath's main hospital after more than 50 people were struck down by a diarrhoea and vomiting bug. I think I know what they meant but I couldn't help thinking that the hospital needed to call Orkin.

From the Times comes a story about Knut the cuddly little polar bear in the Berlin Zoo that was abandoned by its mother. The Times reports: Up to 30,000 people a day have been queueing for a glimpse of the cub who has been bottle fed since his mother, a surly ex-East German circus animal, rejected him.

As many visitors were unable to see Knut through the crowds, they moved on to pay their respects to Yan Yan, the Panda Bear who until Knut's arrival was the zoo's most popular resident. Flash bulbs popped from dawn to dusk. That, according to Bild (a German newspaper) may have been too much for Yan Yan to bear. "She seemed nervous and intimidated, " the newspaper said. The verdict: fatal stress induced by Knut, or at least by his fans.

Yan Yan spent much of her time lying on her back chomping at bamboo shoots and was by all accounts a happy panda. But something changed on Monday, days after Knut's introduction to tumultuous crowds, and Yan Yan lay down and died.

And finally, also from the Times: Hotels in Britain are the costliest in Europe, with the price of an overnight stay in London averaging £107 ($210 USD) but Bath, at an average of £114 ($224 USD) per night, offers the nation's most expensive lodging. We're thinking about renting out the spare bedrooms!