And Finally

A man has named 17 of his cats as co-plaintiffs in a lawsuit against animal welfare authorities. Damon Fields has been told he can only keep five of the 17 cats after a neighbour filed a complaint about the smell.

A shuttle bus was allegedly hijacked at Dublin Airport yesterday morning without any passengers realising. Three people were sitting in the bus waiting to be taken to the nearby Carlton Hotel when two men boarded and drove it away, The Irish Times reports.

Police responding to reports of a woman screaming for help were relieved to find the screams were coming from a parrot. A woman called police after hearing screams of "help, help, let me out!" from inside her neighbour's house.

A terrified couple who thought they were being burgled were left red-faced after the intruder turned out to be a Roomba. Thomas and Elisa Milam called the police after they heard noises in their house at night, not realising it was the robotic vacuum cleaner they had bought for Christmas.

A judge has released a CD of original songs he wrote based on his courtroom experiences. Judge Michael Thorpe said song-writing has "helped me think about these folks and deal with them a little differently".

Luke Skywalker has been arrested for possession of cannabis following a traffic stop. Officers in Garden Ridge in the US state of Texas pulled over the 19-year-old because his car lacked a front license plate.

A bus driver who was sent home after turning up to work in a kilt did not suffer anti-Scottish discrimination, a court has ruled. Bosses at Grand River Transit in Ontario, Canada sent Tracy Macdonnell home after he came to work on a casual Friday in a kilt in tribute to his heritage.

The head of a cash-strapped law school has suggested that part-time staff could donate their pay back to the university. Ian Holloway, dean of law at the University of Calgary, told sessional instructors in an email that they could give their income back in return for a charitable donation tax recei

A city police chief sacked over social media misconduct was replaced by a deputy who was almost immediately sacked for the same thing. Chief Brandon del Pozo resigned last week as police chief in Burlington, a college town in the US state of Vermont, after questions were asked about an anonymous Twi

A tiny village in Sicily is fighting against depopulation by offering up €1 houses and hefty tax cuts. Bivona, with a population of around 4,000, is one of more than a dozen Italian towns which have slashed house prices to attract incomers.

A lawyer has been found guilty of assault after a bust-up in the front row of an opera house. Matthew Feargrieve, a solicitor specialising in corporate and investment funds law, punched fashion designer Ulrich Engler "at least once" after he took a seat next to Mr Feargrieve's wife.

Piglets have been listed as the plaintiffs in an animal rights case filed by campaign group PETA. The lawsuit brought to Germany's top court, the Constitutional Court, aims to end the practice of castrating young male piglets without anaesthetic.

A man has been arrested for impersonating his mum in a driving test. The 43-year-old put on a floral blouse, nail polish, make-up and a wig to fool a driving instructor into thinking he was his 60-year-old mother.

The EU's decision to gift 250 camels to a country known for having millions of camels has been derided by locals. The animals will be deployed in Mauritania's military camel cavalry units, but critics took to social media to say they would have preferred a high-tech contribution.

A neo-Nazi city councillor has launched a legal bid to force a left-wing mayor to shake his hand. Katja Wolf, mayor of the eastern German town of Eisenach, has refused to shake hands with any of the four councillors from the far-right National Democratic Party (NPD).