MOSCOW: An elderly Russian woman came out on top in a showdown with a bear, dispatching the attacking beast with a knife, a news agency has reported. Nina Bogdanova, a retired post office manager from the village of Bobrovets in Western Russia, went to the woods one day earlier this month to cut tree branches to use as fishing rods, the Itar-Tass news agency reported yesterday. Little did she know that she was approaching the lair of a female bear and its four cubs.

Suddenly, she felt a blow to the back of her head, dealt by the charging animal. The bear broke and bit through the woman's left hand, Itar-Tass said. But Bogdanova who is slight and of a small height managed to use her other hand to stab the bear with a knife she used for cutting branches, the report said. After walking to a village doctor, Bogdanova was hospitalised and treated for her wounds, Itar-Tass said.

House fly's art

WASHINGTON: Biologists at the University of California in Berkeley havediscovered how a fly, the Ferrari of the insect world, manages to change course at less than 30 milliseconds. The secret of the fly's speed is a few tiny organs on its back which look like round lollipops. The team of biologists, led by Michael Dickinson, discovered that the small organs serve as "switches" between the insect's eyes and its flight muscles.

Until now, biologists thought these organs acted only as stabilisers for the insect's balance.