A brown bear roams Ponferrada in images released by the city’s police, who advised ‘maximum care be taken’. Photograph: Policía municipal de PonferradaA brown bear roams Ponferrada in images released by the city’s police, who advised ‘maximum care be taken’. Photograph: Policía municipal de PonferradaSpain This article is more than 1 year oldSpanish police guide bear back from city centre to mountainsThis article is more than 1 year oldResidents of Ponferrada advised to take care after animal spotted by taxi driver in early hours

MusicThey are the greatest of Colombians: Shakira, pop phenomenon, and Gabriel García Márquez, novelist. Naturally, they had to meet - and he, the magical realist, was astonished by her fantastical work-rateShakira flew from Miami to Buenos Aires on February 1, pursued by a journalist who wanted to ask her just one question over the phone for a radio programme. For a number of reasons, he failed to reach her over the next 27 days, then lost track of her in Spain in the first week of March.

Top 10sBooksThese dazzling shows and their dark flipside have inspired novelists from Dickens to Angela Carter – and the true stories are no less outlandish, writes Elizabeth Macneal The illusion. The tawdry glamour. The delicate balance between illusion and reality, a glittering spectacle and its dark underbelly. And above all, the wonder. It’s little surprise that novelists have been inspired by the circus since it first rolled into town, from Charles Dickens in Hard Times and The Old Curiosity Shop (“Dear, dear, what a place it looked, that Astley’s; with all the paint, gilding, and looking-glass”) to Angela Carter and her magnificent and bawdy invention, Sophie Fevvers.

US newsJoe Tacopina’s outdated tactics have won freedom for accused killers and rapists, but will they work in E Jean Carroll case? Donald Trump had good reason to believe he found the man to get him off the hook. Joseph Tacopina, a Brooklyn-born former prosecutor, made his name winning freedom for accused killers, rapists and celebrities. Twelve years ago, he successfully defended an on-duty police officer charged with escorting a drunk woman to her home and then raping her.

OpinionDeath and dying This article is more than 2 years oldAfter a year of great loss, walking in cemeteries can be strangely upliftingThis article is more than 2 years oldEmma BeddingtonFrom the birds in the trees to the fresh flowers laid on headstones, graveyards sustain life in surprising and touching ways Walking fatigue is everywhere. It is the idea of it, rather than the actual one-foot-in-front-of-another business. Much as I have enjoyed watching my usual route behind the dump and along the cycle path evolve from frozen to liquid mud, spotting the first nitrous oxide cartridges of the year blooming in the undergrowth, I am officially mad with boredom.