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Stolen hotel case returned after 40 years

MUNICH, Germany, Feb. 4 (UPI) -- Officials at an upscale German hotel said a U.S. man who stole a letter writing set 40 years ago shipped the item back to the business.

The hotel in Munich's Maximilianstrasse area said the leather case, which was designed to hold paper, envelopes and cards, arrived in the mail with a handwritten note explaining the sender had taken the item from the hotel in the 1970s, The Local.de reported Monday.

The man, who was not identified by the hotel, said he lives in Paducah, Ky., near the Tennessee border.

Old French women's anti-pants law killed

PARIS, Feb. 4 (UPI) -- The French minister for women's rights confirmed a centuries-old law banning women from wearing trousers was struck down and "is nothing but a museum piece."

The law, passed in November 1799 and amended a century later to allow women to wear trousers when "holding the handlebars of a bicycle or the reins of a horse," was confirmed to have been repealed last week by French Minister for Women's Rights Najat Vallaud-Belkacem, France 24 reported Monday.

The law was "incompatible with the principles of equality between men and women that are written into the constitution, as well as in France's European engagements," Vallaud-Belkacem said.

"Because of this incompatibility, this [law] is implicitly repealed. It has absolutely no legal effect. The document is nothing but a museum piece."

Nobel laureate statue found in bushes

LANDSKRONA, Sweden, Feb. 4 (UPI) -- A statue of Nobel-winning Swedish author Selma Lagerlof was found in some bushes hours after it was noticed missing, officials in Landskrona, Sweden, said.

The 5-foot, 5-inch statue, erected in 2009, went missing Friday from the town's beach boulevard and was discovered several hours later in some nearby bushes, Swedish news agency TT reported Monday.

The statue was not damaged.

Lagerlof, who died at the age of 81 in 1940, was best known for her book "The Wonderful Adventures of Nils" and won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1909.

Giraffe falls fleeing amorous advances

MIAMI, Feb. 4 (UPI) -- Officials at a Florida zoo said a giraffe was not seriously injured when she took a spill while fleeing from an unwelcome suitor.

Zoo Miami officials said Kita, a 15-foot-tall, 29-year-old giraffe, was fleeing the amorous advances of an unwanted suitor in the public feeding area Sunday afternoon when she tripped over some rocks and was unable to pull herself back up, the Miami Herald reported Monday.

Zoo spokesman Ron Magill said about a dozen staff members helped the giraffe stand back up using some straps.

The spokesman said the giraffe did not appear to be seriously injured,.

"She should be fine," he said.

Magill said veterinarians will be monitoring Kita.