Its a Weird and Wacky World

A cat with contraband items strapped to its body, including a mobile phone, saws and drill bits, was discovered by guards at Arapiraca prison in the north-east of Brazil. Convicts had apparently trained the cat to deliver mobile phones and tools that could help them dig a tunnel out of the prison.The cat had attracted the attention of prison guards because of its frequent trips to and from the jail. Upon closer inspection they found blades and a drill attached to the cat’s stomach.“An agent saw the cat and went to look at it closely because something about it seemed wrong,” Marcelo Avelino, head of the prison guards’ union told the O Globo newspaper.Squirrel rescued from pond by three fire enginesHow many firefighters does it take to rescue a squirrel from a pond? It may sound like the first line of a joke, but this was a genuine operation involving three fire engines, two ladders, and one very soggy rodent. At least six highly trained firefighters helped to recover the grey squirrel when it became stranded on a tiny island of reeds in the middle of the town centre pond in Watford, UK. A local called Hertfordshire Fire and Rescue to say that the animal had fallen into the water and could not climb out up the steep concrete banks. The fire crews laid a ladder between the pavement and the island in an attempt to persuade the squirrel to crawl its way back to safety.Chinese millionaire street sweeper refuses to give up workAfter nearly four decades of hard labour as a farmer, cook, lorry driver and street sweeper, a sudden million pound windfall might tempt sweet thought of retirement. But 53-year-old Yu Youzhen has a rather more unbending work ethic.Five years ago, her family land in Donghu village, near the city of Wuhan, was bought by the government for a property development. She used the compensation money to build a property empire which now includes 17 apartments worth some 10 million yuan (£1 Million).Nevertheless, six days a week she goes to work as a street sweeper, earning a monthly wage of £142. “Work is not just about the salary, it makes one focused. Laziness gives rise to all sorts of bad habits,” she said, to the Chinese newspaper.Giant squid captured on film for the first timeJapan’s National Science Museum succeeded in filming the deep-sea creature at a depth of more than half a kilometer after teaming up with Japanese public broadcaster NHK and the US Discovery Channel.The massive invertebrate is the stuff of legend, with sightings of a huge ocean-dwelling beast reported by sailors for centuries. The creature is thought to be the genesis of the Nordic legend of Kraken, a sea monster believed to have attacked ships in waters off Scandinavia over the last millennium.