Germany news: Oktoberfest extension proposed after scare

 German hospitality group DEHOGA has suggested prolonging Munich's Oktoberfest after Wednesday's bomb threat forced an hourslong closure.

Managing director Thomas Geppert said the festival remains a symbol of Bavarian hospitality and that visitors will quickly return once tents reopen.

However, festival organizers have pushed back, saying the idea is impractical because of staffing shortages.

Dozens of people in the western German city of Bonn have joined a playful trend of eating pudding with forks, gathering on the city's Hofgarten green space to take part. As a smooth, semi-liquid dessert, a spoon has long been the utensil of choice for pudding, but people in Germany have lately taken to the awkward experience of eating with a fork. The unusual idea began in Karlsruhe, where a flyer invited people to a "pudding with a fork" meet-up. Posts on social media helped spread the concept quickly to other cities. "We found the idea so charming and funny that we thought: let’s post something about it," said Mehran Nadimi, who runs the Instagram account karlsruher.memes with about 84,000 followers. The first meeting in Karlsruhe in late August drew a large turnout. Participants film themselves eating the desserts and share the clips online. The Bonn gathering was also organized through social media.