It must be true... I read it in the tabloids

■ A pilot in South Africa felt “something cold” slide across his lower back, and saw a highly venomous Cape cobra slithering under his seat. In shock, Rudolf Erasmus told the four wide-eyed passengers on his small aircraft they had uninvited company and then informed air traffic control he had “a bit of a situation.” Erasmus made an emergency landing with the cobra still curled beneath him. It was “definitely the longest 10, 15 minutes of my life,” he said.

■ The Northern Maine Ice Busters have set a record for the largest “ice carousel,” a rotating ice disk cut into a frozen lake. Volunteers had to cut through ice nearly 30 inches thick to create a perfect circle 1,776 feet in diameter, covering 56 acres and weighing 140,000 tons. The ice circle made full revolution with the help of numerous boat engines, a motor from a potato harvester, and several wheeled vehicles.The previous record was set in Finland.

■ Federal agents and specialops military personnel conducting a training exercise at a Boston hotel handcuffed and interrogated a terrified guest for more than 45 minutes before realizing they had entered the wrong room by mistake. Members of the Army Special Operations Command, assisted by FBI agents,“detained an individual unaffiliated with the exercise” instead of a roleplaying actor, said an Army spokesman.The hotel guest, a Delta Airlines pilot, was asleep when agents banged on his door, handcuffed him, and shoved him into the shower. “We’d like to extend our deepest apologies,” the spokesman said.