In a bit of satire published Monday, faux news website The Onion cleared up all the confusion about what was supposed to be the end of the world round about December 12, 2012.

Turns out, the Mayans never predicted the end of the world. They actually predicted the rise of "pale obese gun monsters."

Sheep in a field near Exeter have been branded with the same smiley face that has been seen on animals across the country. Hundreds of sheep from Devon to Scotland in areas including Leicestershire and Perthsire have been painted with the same pattern.

The hashtag #creepysheep is being used on twitter with many users baffled by the 'tag'. Jane Williams, who sent in the photo of the sheep in a field near Drewsteignton yesterday said:

'I spotted about 20 of them yesterday and thought it was quite funny.

I've never seen anything like it before and wondered what was going on. Have we been visited by aliens or is it some joker looking to start a new trend like crop circles?'

A 42-year-old Russian man literally ran for his life for seven kilometers in the freezing cold after he accidentally fell off a train in the country's Far East - wearing only a T-shirt, sweatpants and slippers.

­The man said that he had gone to the train's vestibule for a smoke. As he was coming back to his carriage, he missed his door and opened another one to a non-functioning vestibule. He stepped into the dark - and then found himself in taiga forest, on the railroad, all alone.

The passenger ran after the train for seven kilometers, but couldn't catch up with it. At the next station - 'Richard Sorge,' only 150 kilometers away from the train's final destination - the man was given help.

"The 42-year-old man survived by sheer luck," the Interior Ministry's local transport department reported on Friday.

An investigation into the matter has been launched, and police are trying to ascertain whether what happened was an accident, or whether a train attendant forgot to close the door out of neglect.

I'm pretty good with directions. My spidey senses start to tingle when I get off track or am going in the wrong direction. So it's hard to understand how a person could drive 900 miles when she had intended to go only 93.

But apparently, 67-year-old Sabine Moreau, of Belgium left her home in Hainault Erquelinnes to pick up a friend at a train station in Brussels and ended up driving to Croatia. Along the way, she had plenty of clues that she was headed in the wrong direction. For instance, she started seeing road signs first in French and then in German. She also had to stop twice for gas and to pull over for a nap along the side of the road. She even had a minor fender bender.

She told El Mundo, "I was distracted, so I kept driving. I saw all kinds of traffic signs, first in French, then German and finally in Croatian, but I kept driving because I was distracted. Suddenly I appeared in Zagreb and I realized I wasn't in Belgium anymore."

Talk about distracted driving. It's unclear if the GPS was wrong, or if the human programmed the GPS wrong. You be the judge.

It's a real life version of "The Incredible Journey": A lost cat traveled nearly 200 miles to be reunited with her owners.

Back in November, Jacob and Bonnie Richter brought Holly, their 4-year-old tortoiseshell cat, on their vacation to Daytona, Fla. The couple, who live in West Palm Beach, told ABC local affiliate WPBF TV that the cat became afraid of some fireworks going off near their motor home and ran out the door. The Richters spent days handing out flyers and working with local authorities to find Holly but eventually had to leave without her.

Holly had been gone for more than 60 days when Barb Mazolla, who lives near the Richters in Palm Beach, saw an emaciated cat wander into her yard. Mazolla told WPBF that Holly was so weak that she couldn't even get a meow out. Mazolla took Holly to the vet, where she was scanned for a microchip and reunited with her owners.

Anglers are scratching their heads after a pike was found dead with a zander - a fish of similar size - jammed in its mouth in the Netherlands.

Rene Spaargaren, from Almere near Amsterdam, noticed the dead fish locked together in water near his home and dragged them out with a boat hook.

"It was clear that the pike had bitten off more than it could chew - or swallow, rather," he told BBC News.

British angling expert Charles Jardine said the event was "really unusual".

"What on Earth possessed the pike to take on prey that size?" he asked. "Gluttony just killed that fish."

Mr Spaargaren reported his find to the Dutch nature conservation news website Natuurbericht, which published the story and one of his incredible photographs.

A lost cat has reportedly walked 190 miles in order to return to its owners. The trek took the missing kitty nearly two months to complete.

Jacob and Bonnie Richter said the last time they saw the cat she was running out of their motor home following a fireworks display at Daytona Speedway Park last November. According to KSLA, the couple searched desperately for the cat before packing up and heading home to West Palm Beach. They never thought they'd see their furry friend again.

Although someone had reportedly spotted the missing cat at an area restaurant known for feeding strays, the feline was long gone by the time the Richters arrived at the scene. Saddened that their missing kitty hadn't been found, the couple returned home empty-handed once again.

However, the missing cat turned up in the garden of West Palm Beach resident Barb Mazzola. She said the wandering feline was so weak that she could barely utter a single meow. The woman took the tired animal to a local vet, who scanned the kitty's microchip. Now she's back home where she belongs.

Most Americans probably think that companies like Vibram and Dow Chemical are responsible for the technology behind long-lasting shoes, but self-proclaimed prophet Cindy Jacobs is asserting that durable kicks are really a "supernatural" miracle from God.

During the Tuesday episode of God Know, Jacobs advised viewers to gather provisions for "the tumultuous season ahead," but not to worry because God would provide through miracles.

"We believe we're moving into a supernatural season, where if needed, God will multiply food," she explained. "I have seen God multiply food more than one time when I was cooking... And I remember spooning out spaghetti or whatever, just praying in the spirit over that, and God just made more and more and more. You know, I've seen oil multiply as I was praying for the sick. I've seen bottles of oil just fill up about a cup a time of oil. But the point is we were promised supernatural provisions."

Tuesday night on TBS's "Conan," host Conan O'Brien showed a snippet of the now-notorious Piers Morgan interview with gun-lover and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones of InfoWars.com. Somehow, the fact that Jones was brandishing and firing a loaded pistol for emphasis didn't make it into most newscasts.

Morgan, for his part, stayed remarkably cool "under fire."

Although it was actually a uniquely groomed dog roaming loose, three callers to 911 on Tuesday reported a baby lion, the city of Norfolk said today.

Two calls came after 10 a.m. on Granby Street near the zoo and on Llewellyn Avenue.

About 1:20 p.m., another 911 caller reported seeing a baby lion on Colley Avenue at 50th Street.

"I'd like to report a lion sighting," one caller said.

"Say that again?" a dispatcher replied.

In the call near the zoo, a woman said, "There was a lion that ran across the street - a baby lion. It was about the size of a Labrador retriever." Another caller said, "I don't know if it got away from the zoo or what."

The dog, a Labrador-poodle mix named Charles the Monarch, is owned by Daniel Painter, who owns a garden shop on Colley Avenue where the dog is regularly seen. Painter said he has the dog groomed to look like the Old Dominion University mascot.

Watch the video on YouTube.