Justin Bieber to the rescue

This story suggests like it's something that a Croatian made up and is now being repeated as fact, but let's pretend it's been double-source checked. Justin Bieber saved a man's life by being awful:

The Croatian Times reports that a Russian fisherman, under attack by a brown bear, was saved when his phone went off, playing polarizing pop star Justin Bieber’s hit “Baby” as its ringtone.

Igor Vorozhbitsyn, 42, says [...] a bear pounced on him from behind and began clawing his face and chest. [...] Suddenly his phone went off, startling the bear, which took off.

Vorozhbitsyn added, “I know that sort of ringtone isn’t to everyone’s taste, but my granddaughter loaded it onto my phone for a joke.”

In a bar in Croatia, right now, a man is talking to Igor saying "you know, any loud music suddenly bursting out of nowhere would have startled the bear; you didn't have to say it was Bieber."

And Igor is looking crestfallen, and ordering another beer.

Could Nas be hiding from all of Croatia?

Ten days ago, Nerys Hucker emailed us in response to the story about Nas insisting on a police escort through the mean streets of Birmingham. And, erm, we put the email into a pile of things to respond to and forgot.

However, belatedly, we can bring you Nerys' theory: Seeing as Nas pulled out of going to Croatia, because it was too dangerous, could he be afraid of bumping into Balkans?

On the other hand, a man who thinks Croatia is too dangerous might be nervous about going to Birmingham for its own sake. After all, it's the only city in England to have shut itself down for the night because of fear of... erm, something or other.