BERLIN – Justin Bieber’s pet monkey is no longer his.

The capuchin monkey named Mally was seized by German customs on March 28 when the 19-year-old Canadian pop star failed to produce the required vaccination and import papers after landing in Munich for a European tour.

Authorities issued an order Tuesday transferring ownership of the animal to Germany after Bieber missed a deadline to send the documents, customs spokesman Thomas Meister said.

Bieber has six weeks to contest the decision.

Mally, now 20 weeks old, was being cared for at Munich’s animal shelter. He has fared well and gained weight and even got a visit Tuesday from Germany’s environment minister.

“We are going to make sure that Mally can grow up appropriately for its species,” said minister Peter Altmaier.

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The shelter has criticized Bieber for keeping such a young monkey as a pet, saying it shouldn’t have been taken away from its mother until it was a year old. Experts say capuchin monkeys also need to be kept in groups, not alone.

“Monkeys are very sociable animals,” Altmaier added. “That’s why we’re going to take Mally to a place where he can live safely and in the company of others.”

Germany’s Federal Agency for Nature Conservation said the monkey would be sent to a German zoo but officials declined to say exactly where to avoid security problems.

Meister said a bill for Mally’s care would be sent to Bieber.

Book annotatedby Rowling gets charity $228,000

LONDON – For fans of the boy wizard, this could be the most coveted copy of all the “Harry Potter” books in the world.

A first edition copy of “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone” that contains author J.K. Rowling’s notes and original illustrations fetched 150,000 pounds ($228,000) at a London auction on Tuesday.

Sotheby’s said the work, offered as part of a charity book sale jointly organized with the English PEN writers’ association, was sold to an anonymous bidder by telephone.

Rowling peppered the book with many personal annotations, including editorial decisions, comments on the writing process and a note on how she came to create the game of Quidditch.


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