A number of Gloucestershire villagers are petitioning the village parish council for a grant to help them get a donkey aimed at helping them trek their way from a shopping mall all the way to their residences atop a steep hill. According to a local newspaper, around 30 residents from Rack Hill in Chalford are complaining they cannot reach their homes by car. They say they are fed up with carrying their groceries up to their 100-yard high community on top of a hill.

Teaming up with real estate developer Live Smart Home, furniture giant IKEA has built Britain's first flat-pack village at St. James in Tyne and Wear, northeast of England. Amazingly, almost all of the 93 timber-framed homes, the price of which range from $180,000 to $320,000, were immediately cornered by first-time buyers.

An entire family managed to escape the flames engulfing their Allendale home, thanks to the screaming of the family cat. Dianne Busscher was woken up at 4:45 a. m. by the cries of the black-and-white cat, Oreo, coming from the garage. Upon investigating, Busscher saw the smoke and flames, prompting her to grab the cat, rush back inside and wake up Warren, her husband, and their five children.

ree press advocates in China are sounding the alarms after a Chinese man was beaten to death by officials after trying to film a confrontation between city officials and residents of Wanba village in Tianmen over the dumping of waste near their village. According to the report, 24 municipal inspectors have been detained so far for their involvement in the incident, in which 41-year-old construction company executive Wei Wenhua was beaten to death for trying to record a scuffle between city officials and village residents on his cell phone. The villagers were attempting to stop trucks from unloading waste near their homes when the fight broke out.

Idaho power officials have blamed a cat for a blackout on Monday afternoon that affected more than 12,000 homes and businesses in Nampa City. The blackout lasted more than two hours, and officials say it was started when feeder lines blew up after a cat touched a live circuit inside a power substation. The cat was electrocuted to death.