Subscribe | UPI Odd Newsletter Subscribe Knut the baby bear can stand on his own BERLIN, Oct. 16 (UPI) -- Proud "parents" at the Berlin Zoo are falling all over themselves with joy as shaggy baby polar bear Knut is standing on his own two (hind) feet. Advertisement "He started standing up this month. It's a sign that he's getting increasing control of his body," Heiner Klos, the zoo's expert on bears, told Der Spiegel. Knut, raised by humans after his mother rejected him at birth, has been trying to stand on two legs ever since he could walk, but always needed to support himself. Whenever he tried the feat on two feet unassisted, Knut ended on his backside. Standing on hind legs is important in the wild because it can help polar bears look more threatening, Klos said. The bears often stand up and bare their sharp teeth to intimidate each other and avoid fights. Advertisement Klos said he wasn't sure weather Knut would keep close contact with his keepers when he celebrates his first birthday Dec. 5. "But we've definitely got a party planned for him," he added. Couple may split to pass both names to son STOCKHOLM, Sweden, Oct. 16 (UPI) -- An arcane law to protect Swedish aristocracy may be responsible for a couple's threatening to divorce if their son cannot take both his parents' names. Lars Jensen and Lina Wernstrom Jensen want their son, Aksel, to be Aksel Wernstrom Jensen. But a Swedish law enacted to protect the names of the aristocracy is preventing the couple from passing down the Wernstrom name, The Local reported Tuesday. Under Swedish law, only unmarried parents can give their child dual names. In such instances, the child technically can take the mother's name as a middle name. The Wernstrom Jensens say that the decision by the Swedish tax authority not to allow their son to have both names is "absolutely absurd." A District Administrative Court rejected the couple's appeal of the lower court's decision. If higher courts refuse their requests, the couple said they may embrace Danish citizenship or even divorce. "If we'd known about these rules we would have waited before getting married. Getting divorced and remarried is an option," Wernstrom Jensen said. Advertisement Burglar steals ZZZs on stranger's couch PIERSON, Fla., Oct. 16 (UPI) -- A bleary-eyed burglar took a quick catnap on a stranger's couch, stumbling into a Florida couple's home after stumbling out of a bar, police said. The couple found the nearly nude man on their couch sleeping in his briefs and he was in jail Tuesday for his nap-stealing, Tampa, Fla., television station WFTV reported. "(It's) something I'll probably laugh about in about a week," said Jeremy Hinson, who found Hugo Acosta snoozing on the sofa in the living room of his Pierson, Fla., home. When he first saw someone slumbering, Hinson thought it was his girlfriend, but realized she was in bed. "I came back in here and looked, saw it was a stranger. By that time ... the fear set in," he said. The couple came back out together with a gun and found Acosta passed out. Police said after a night of drinking at a neighboring bar, Acosta broke into the home, strew his clothes on the floor, grabbed some munchies from the fridge and found a sheet to use as a cover. Woman pleads guilty in Craigslist ad case TACOMA, Wash., Oct. 16 (UPI) -- A Tacoma, Wash., woman has pleaded guilty to posting a Craigslist ad that resulted in her aunt's house being gutted. Advertisement Nichole Marie Blackwell entered modified guilty pleas to second-degree burglary and first-degree malicious mischief for posting an ad on the Web site March 24 inviting the public to "come and take whatever you want" from an East 64th Street house, the Tacoma News-Tribune reported Tuesday. Blackwell's pleas did not amount to an admission of guilt, but instead recognized that existing evidence made convictions likely. Prosecutors dropped one count of first-degree criminal impersonation in exchange for the pleas. The prosecution alleged that Blackwell maliciously posted the ad as an attack against her aunt, Laurie Raye, who had been feuding with Blackwell's mother. The ad led to baseboards, the kitchen sink and other items being removed from the home. Blackwell contends the ad was meant to get rid of items outside the house and no one was meant to enter. “I didn’t do it for whatever reasons they said I did it,” Blackwell said. “I just wanted to offer it to people before it went to the dump.” Blackwell was sentenced to three months of electric home monitoring.
