Police in San Sebastián de la Gomera have cordoned off an abandoned house after finding a seven-metre-long wasp nest.

Officers were called out by worried neighbours of the empty home in the island's capital and say the nest was in an indoor hallway and contained literally millions of wasps.

Experts have examined the nest, which is said to be 21'9" in length, and say the common type of wasp found in gardens would never normally build a nest of this size.

They believe it must be an invasive species of wasp which had migrated from Africa.

The Canary Islands are less than 100 kilometres from Morocco by water.

Authorities have been unable to trace the owner of the house.

Lisa Kilbourne-Smith and boyfriend James Davis were looking after the pet hamster, called Tink, for friends when they found her lying lifeless in her cage.

They thought she was dead and wrapped her body in kitchen roll, dug a 1ft deep grave in their flower bed and laid her to rest.

The pair then phoned Tink's owners Nicki Gamble and Jamie Wynn to break the news that the two-and-a-half-year-old had passed away.

But the next day - Good Friday - Mr Davies called back to announce that the hamster had been 'resurrected' after going into hibernation.

She had eaten her way out of her paper shroud, dug her way out of her grave, edged along a narrow wall and then climbed a waste pipe to land in a recycling box.

Nicholas and Beverly Serna's daughter Caitlin was only four years old, but they already knew there was a problem.

Day after day, upon arriving home from preschool, Caitlin would retreat into a bizarre fantasy world. Sometimes, she would pretend to be people and things she was not. Other times, without warning, she would burst into nonsensical song. Some days she would run directionless through the backyard of the Sernas' comfortable Redlands home, laughing and shrieking as she chased imaginary objects.

When months of sessions with a local psychologist failed to yield an answer, Nicholas and Beverly took Caitlin to a prominent Los Angeles pediatric neurologist for more exhaustive testing. Finally, on Sept. 11, the Sernas received the heartbreaking news: Caitlin was among a growing legion of U.S. children suffering from Youthful Tendency Disorder.

"As horrible as the diagnosis was, it was a relief to finally know," said Beverly. "At least we knew we weren't bad parents. We simply had a child who was born with a medical disorder."

In a study published Monday by The Journal of Comparative Psychology, researchers at the University of California Santa Cruz announced that they've discovered "the first non-human mammal to be able to keep a beat."

The creature who earned that distinction is a seal named Ronan, trained to follow a simple repetitive sound with her head. While that may not sound all too impressive, what happened next shocked the researchers, who captured the amazing sight on camera and shared the footage on YouTube, embedded below.

"Once she had learned, without any further training, Ronan was able to find and keep the beat in complex stimuli, including music," one of the researchers explains in the video as the seal dances to "Boogie Wonderland" by Earth, Wind and Fire, and "Everybody (Backstreet's Back)" by the Backstreet Boys.

While the skill of beat mimicry has previously only been observed in humans and some types of birds capable of vocal mimicry, Ronan's ability suggests that many more species could have untapped musical abilities.

In a public broadcast yesterday the Venezuelan government announced the transition to democracy. Measures include the sale of community media to business giant Rupert Murdoch, and the privatisation of the health sector.

A Venezuelan government spokesperson told the press, "On the advice of a special US commission, the government will be expanding media diversity by selling all of its community media to Rupert Murdoch".

"The media package includes Latin America's Telesur, which will no longer report from the ground and talk to real people, but rather read US government press releases from an autocue," the government spokesperson said.

Further, the government announced it will be bringing Monsanto into the country to advise on food reform.

"We realised that organised communities shouldn't participate in politics, they don't know their own needs, only transnationals like Monsanto and Macdonalds really understand these issues," the spokesperson said.

Death to Punxsutawney Phil!

That's what Butler County Prosecutor Mike Gmoser has suggested.

Gmoser on Thursday issued a fake single-count direct indictment of the groundhog charging him with "misrepresentation of spring" for making people believe the season would arrive early.

Thanks to an Arctic air mass hanging over the area, there is a 60 percent chance we could see 1-3 inches of snow on Sunday.

Jerusalem - While touring Israel's "Iron Dome" all-weather missile defense system Wednesday, President Barack Obama sarcastically asked Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu where he got all the money to build such technologically advanced equipment. "Boy, you've gotta have some pretty deep pockets to afford something like this - how much did you say this ran you guys?" asked Obama, who later added that the cutting-edge system designed to intercept both short and long-range missiles must have "cost Israel an arm and a leg."

"I mean, wow. I didn't know you guys had this much in the old war chest, but apparently you do. Really, really impressive stuff. No wonder you're so independent."

Washington - Federal, state, and local law enforcement officials are reportedly on high alert today after a group of dangerous sociopaths entered the chambers of Congress, posing what sources are calling "an extreme risk" to the U.S. federal government and the nation at large.

According to authorities, the hundreds of individuals, all of whom have a prior history of sociopathic and harmful behavior, were seen entering the U.S. Capitol Building at approximately 10 a.m. this morning, at which point officers promptly arrived on the scene and secured the area.

Citizens in the D.C. area, and across America, are being urged to stay vigilant as officials attempt to ascertain the precise nature of the threat these individuals pose.

One day ahead of the papal conclave in Rome, The Independent has revealed that the scandal hit Holy See has purchased a $31 million share of the Rome apartment block that houses Europe's biggest gay sauna.

It's a move that has left a sea of red faces to match the red capes of the horrified cardinals. But Cardinal Ivan Dias, the head of the Congregation for Evangelization of Peoples, who is due to participate in today's election at the Sistine Chapel, may be blushing more than most.

According to the Independent, the 76-year-old 'prince of the church' enjoys a 12-room apartment on the first-floor of his magnificent palazzo, located at 2 Via Carducci, just yards from the ground floor entrance to the gay bath house and sauna.

There are 18 other Vatican apartments in the block, many of which house priests, the Independent reports.