A 2-year-old cat from Providence, Rhode Island is making news for his unusual ability to predict the death of patients. Oscar the cat curls up next to the dying patients during their final hours, usually meaning they have less than four hours to live. According to hospital doctors, Oscar's ability, observed in 25 cases, has led the staff to call family members once he has chosen someone. AP quotes Dr. David Dosa as writing in the Thursday's issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, "He doesn't make too many mistakes. He seems to understand when patients are about to die. "

In an attempt to gain healing powers, villagers in central China boiled a ton of dinosaur bones into soup or ground them to a powder for traditional medicine. They believe that the bones belong to flying dragons had special powers. According to AP reports, these fossils were being sold in the Henan province as "dragon bones" at about 4 yuan (50 cents) per kilogram (2. 2 pounds). Villagers also feed the calcium-rich bones, boiled with other ingredients to children as a treatment for dizziness and leg cramps.

An apparently upper-caste principal of a primary school in the Bhandara district of Maharshtra, India had a new way to "purify" the school premises and children from a previously employed lower-caste teacher. The principal sprinkled cow's urine in the school premises and on students to "purify" them from lower-caste teacher's "evil spirit. " A startling reminder that caste consciousness is still prevalent in India after more than 50 years of independence.

A Canadian woman and her 1-year-old dog ended up in the hospital with almost identical symptoms after the two ate the same moist pet food that was recalled in North America some time back. In an attempt to trick her terrier into trying a new kind of food, Elaine Larabie ate it herself and suffered from "embarrassing" symptoms including foaming at the mouth, problems urinating, vomiting and loss of appetite.

In a bid to control the ever-growing population of squirrels, officials at Santa Monica's Palisades Park are injecting them with birth control medicine. The squirrels will be injected with an immuno-contraceptive vaccine meant to stunt sexual development as a form of birth control. The officials decided to opt for this method of birth control after other methods like euthanasia; poison or gassing failed to control their population. There are around 1,000 squirrels in the Park that can be aggressive and dangerous to the health of people they come in contact with.