The manic depressed bear is already a big hit at Osnabruck Zoo, Germany. Visitors were excited to see Herman in a manic phase today performing tricks, dancing and riding around on a unicycle. One visitor said, ‘This is so much better than last week when he just sat there rocking backwards and forwards listening to Leonard Cohen’.

Critics have asked exactly what the zoo is doing to help Herman. ‘We’ve tried psychotherapy,’ said Dr Lemper, ‘but so far he’s mauled three analysts and eaten the couch.’

Police today urged London parents to be ‘ever so careful’ to keep their offspring from walking on cracks in the pavement, after an 80% increase in paving-related bear attacks.

‘There seems to be a general lack of appreciation of the risks presented by the current crack-stepping craze’ warned Metropolitan Police youth liaison officer Sir James James Morrison-Morrison. ‘We can only urge greater vigilance by parents; young people are all too ready to experiment with crack-stepping, bringing with it tragic consequences. The sillies.’

On a day of stark warnings for Britain’s youth, the BMA have issued fresh evidence of the dangers of swallowing chewing gum, showing that ingesters face a 90% chance of the gum wrapping itself around the heart, causing instant death.

‘We need a concerted campaign of health education’ said BMA chairman Dr Hamish Meldrum ‘our young people are treating serious health dangers as mere playground myths: only last week I had to remove a full sized apple tree from the stomach of young man who had blithely swallowed a pip as a dare … It’s Truuue! I DID!!’