Economist Gareth Morgan is championing a campaign to eradicate cats from New Zealand.

The "Cats to Go" initiative is encouraging owners not to replace their cat when it dies, in an effort to protect native bird species.

"Almost half of Kiwi households have a cat (or two) making New Zealanders the world's biggest cat owners. Cats are incredibly effective hunters and are wiping out our native birds," the campaign website says.

It cites research which claims the average cat brings home 13 pieces of prey each year, but this represents only a fifth of the animals it kills.

It also offers evidence against claims that cats only kill rodents or do no hunt if they are well fed.

"In one study, six cats were presented with a live small rat while eating their preferred food. All six cats stopped eating the food, killed the rat, and then resumed eating the food," the website says.

A video on the site goes further and labels cats as "serial killers" who "torture their victims slowly and without mercy".

The site says cat owners can support the cause by not getting any new cats, fitting their pets with a bell and keeping them indoors at all times. SPCA chief executive Bob Kerridge says the campaign is a bit radical and over the top, and questioned the validity of Morgan's research.

He said their surveys show fewer than half of New Zealand's domestic cats kill other animals.

A television viewer in the UK thought he noticed something odd flash across the screen last evening, and lucky for us, his DVR was running and he was able to post the strange capture to a forum. After a bit of back and forth rewinding, he managed to pause it at just the right second, presenting us with what he believes is a "very weird subliminal message".

The flash, which was broadcast on Comedy Central during a commercial break for the Mr. Bean episode "Goodnight, Mr. Bean", contains a huge block of text impossible to read unless paused, with several of the words highlighted as though important. Even weirder, is that it seems to be an ode to financially troubled record store HMV. The caps locked text reads about the "shared experience" of visiting the record store with your "tribe", and ends with the question of whether or not one can "fight progress".

The highlighted words are VOICE, MEMORIES, COLLECTION, JOY, EXPERIENCE, and PROGRESS.

You can view the capture below, or read our transcription further down the page:

A 42-year-old North Carolina teacher escaped charges of statutory rape by marrying the teenager she was accused of having sex with.

WGN-TV reported on Monday that Leah Gayle Shipman married the 17-year-old boy, identified as Johnny Ray Ison, just six days after being granted a divorce from her previous husband.

A Texas girl's 16th birthday party ended in tragedy over the weekend after her father killed his estranged wife and then himself.

Grapevine police said 43-year-old Kelly Suckla argued with his 44-year-old wife, Kristi, before shooting her at about 10 p.m. during the party on Saturday, according to The Dallas Morning News. Kelly Suckla then turned the gun on himself.

Kristi Suckla suffered multiple gunshot wounds to the neck and body. She was pronounced dead about 40 minutes later at Baylor Medical Center. Kelly Suckla died of a single gunshot to the head, which was ruled a suicide by the Tarrant County medical examiner's office.

The Department of Veterans Affairs is spending almost three times as much it did in 2006 on erectile dysfunction drugs, reported Bloomberg News.

That's apparently due to soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan with mental health issues, according to a senior program manager at the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America.

A French solo sailor adrift for days in a life raft in the Southern Ocean after his yacht sank has been rescued by the crew of an Antarctic cruise ship.

Alain Delord was attempting to sail solo and without assistance around the world when his yacht, Tchouk Tchouk Nougat, was damaged in rough weather off southern Australia's Tasmania island on Friday.

The Frenchman was forced to abandon ship and has been adrift in a life raft on the Southern Ocean for more than three days.

An Antarctic cruise ship carrying 100 passengers was diverted about 1,118 miles to his assistance and had battled deteriorating weather conditions to reach him before sunset, with fears he would have to spend a third night at sea.

But the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) said the Orion ship managed to find Delord and pluck him to safety.

It's the world's most expensive combat aircraft, but don't expect it to fly in bad weather: The $237-million F-35B has been banned from traveling within 25 miles of a thunderstorm, amid fears that lightning could cause its fuel tank to explode.

The aircraft, which is ironically known as 'Lightning II,' is not permitted to fly in thunderstorms until an oxygen gauge in the fuel tank is redesigned.

The findings were disclosed in the Pentagon's 2012 Annual Operational Test and Evaluation report, which examined 327 defense programs slated for full production.

The announcement is a major setback for the combat plane, which is set for use in the US Marine Corps, Navy and Air Force. The planes are also scheduled to fly with Britain's Royal Navy and Royal Air Force by 2018.

Other fears besides a lightning-induced explosion have left engineers worried. A design fault in the fuel tank prevents the jet from rapidly descending to low altitudes. The Pentagon report described both flaws as "unacceptable for combat or combat training."

The F-35B's problems don't stop there: Attempts to increase the aircraft's fuel efficiency by reducing its weight have made it more vulnerable to enemy attack - even more so than the aircraft it's designed to replace, the Telegraph reported.

Examinations by the US Air Force and manufacturer Lockheed Martin also discovered possible widespread cracking on the right wing and right engine of the F-35A, and on an area of the F-35B. "All of these discoveries will require mitigation plans and may include redesigning parts and additional weight," the report said.

A 15-year-old boy has been charged with the murder of two adults and three children in the US state of New Mexico.

A man, a woman, two girls, and a boy were found dead at a house in Albuquerque Saturday night.

All of the victims suffered from several gunshot wounds, according to police.

Multiple weapons, including an assault type rifle, were found nearby, police said in a statement.

The juvenile was reportedly arrested and charged with two counts of murder and three counts of child abuse resulting in death.

Bernalillo County Sherriff's spokesman Aaron Williamson says the boy's motive and connection to the victims is not yet known, and that investigators are trying to determine whether the victims were related.

The identities of those involved have not yet been released.

A menacing statue mysteriously appeared in a Texas cemetery last week, and an occult expert believes it's linked to witchcraft intended to do deadly harm.

The 3 foot tall statue depicting Death perched atop a pile of skulls was discovered by two San Benito women on Thursday, who brought the statue to the attention of cemetery officials. The women believed the porcelain figure to be disrespectful to the family plots located nearby.

"I noticed the statue on Monday (January 14) when I came to visit my mom's grave," 61-year-old "Samantha" told the San Benito News. "First of all, a statue like this shouldn't be placed at a city cemetery.

Whoever it belongs to should have a little more respect for our loved ones and the other people who are buried here. I don't have anything against people who worship that statue, just not here at our city cemetery. It is disrespectful to our loved ones."

Samantha's friend wasn't as shaken by the find, claiming that she's "into a lot of prayer" and has already been in contact with the city officials about the statue's presence. The local police told her that it was out of their juridiction and wouldn't remove it.

Dr. Antonio N. Zavaleta, Vice President for External Affairs at the University of Texas at Brownsville is a world renowned occult expert who believes that the figure is part of a ritual intended to cause harm to one of the families who's relatives are buried in the nearby graves.

"Someone, a man or woman, is doing witchcraft for pay," Zavaleta said. "Somebody has paid the witch; they don't do it for free and it (witchcraft) could easily go for a couple thousand dollars. So it definitely needs to be removed. The city should remove it, and that should be the end of it."

Srinagar - A 13-year-old girl was allegedly raped by a self-styled faith healer (pir) in his mid fifties in Anantnag district, 60 km from Srinagar, last summer.

The crime was discovered after a routine medical check-up of the girl revealed she was eight months pregnant. "The parents of the girl were staunch followers of the pir, Mohammad Yousuf Bhat. He used to visit their house often," said Mattan SHO Farooq Ahmad.

The girl allegedly became the victim of the healer in summer last year when he visited her home and raped her when he found her alone.

A local newspaper reported on Friday that when the girl complained of pain in her abdomen, the family took her to the same pir for faith-healing.

"It was only after she complained about the abnormal size of her stomach that she was taken to a doctor who said she was pregnant," the report said.

The report quoted police sources as saying that the girl had complained to her mother about the rape but the latter dismissed her utterances as "childish".