Portland - Portland police had to be called in to subdue a 22-pound house cat that trapped its owners inside their bedroom after attacking their baby. The baby was not injured in the Sunday incident.

Sgt. Pete Simpson, a Portland Police Bureau spokesman, said officers responded to a 911 call that evening from a couple who had locked themselves in their bedroom with the baby and their dog after the cat attacked the child.

Simpson said the 911 operator could hear the cat screeching in the background as the couple awaited help. Officers used a dog snare to capture the cat and placed it in a crate.

Simpson said the owners told the dispatcher the cat has a history of violence. He said the cat remained with its owners.

Source: Associated Press

The Dubbo community have been asked to help solve a mystery that has resulted in the deaths of hundreds of native birds, including galahs, correllas and cockatoos.

While there were indications the birds died from ingesting a pesticide, a spokeswoman from the NSW Environment Protection Authority said they were still waiting on final test results to confirm the cause of the deaths.

"The early indication is that pesticide was involved...(and) hopefully we will have the test results soon," she said.

In the meantime, the spokeswoman asked for any members of the community with information to call the EPA's EnviroLine on 131 555 to help investigators.

The NSW Wildlife Information, Rescue and Education Service (WIRES) also called for people with information to step forward, as the number of dead birds continued to rise.

A 10-metre whale died on Sunday after becoming tangled in a Tunisian fisherman's nets off the coast of Sidi Bou Said town north of the capital Tunis.

"At first, I thought it was a car bumper. Then I saw the whale's tail," the 24-year-old Bilel Jerbi told AFP.

He said the whale, whose species has yet to be identified, was already dying when he found it in his nets, although it was unclear what had killed it.

Jerbi then towed the carcass to port in Sidi Bou Said.

The marine mammal was around 10 metres in length and weighed "seven or eight tons", according to an official from the Tunisian coastguard.

"We have seen three- or four-metre-long whales before. But it's the first time for one of this size or weight," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Five firefighters were also hurt as they rushed to the aid of the 71-year-old in Palm Desert, California, where she is now recovering in hospital


A woman was stung more than 1,000 times after being attacked by a swarm of 75,000 killer bees.

Reports say the 71-year-old woman was sat in her car when she was completely covered by Africanized honey bees.

Five firefighters were also hurt as they cleared the swarm in a gated community in Palm Desert, California.

The 75,000 hybrid bees - who are known to attack when they feel threatened - are believed to have been living in a buried cable box.

Local TV station KCBS-TV reported the woman was taken to a local hospital where she was recovering from serious injuries.

Three firefighters were also taken to hospital to be treated for more minor injuries.

Drone footage has captured some breathtaking footage of stampeding dolphins and a baby humpback whale.

Captain Dave Anderson of Capt Dave's Dolphin and Whale Safari in Dana Point, California, recently filmed a five-minute video with a drone of a huge mega-pod of thousands of common dolphins stampeding off Dana Point, three gray whales migrating together down the coast off San Clemente, California, and heartwarming close-ups hovering over a newborn humpback whale calf snuggling with its mum as an escort whale stands guard nearby, in Maui.

According to the information uploaded by Dolphin Safari with the video on YouTube, Southern California has the greatest density of dolphins in the world. It has pods up to 10,000 strong "stretched out for miles like the wildebeests of Africa". There are over 400,000 common dolphin alone, and it's also home to the largest concentration of blue whales on earth.

This video compiles footages of strange phenomena of all kinds, including awesome natural events or beautiful phenomena from around the world in the last few weeks. Just a small sample of what we've seen already this year!

In the past month or so we have seen: Unusual solar activity including an X class flare - Aurora Borealis much further south than usual, including southern UK - Huge waves off coast of California, Brazil, UK - England battered by record storms, floods and sinkholes - Severe drought in California, followed by extreme storms and floods - US cities in the East frozen still - Strange skies over Europe - Ecuador Tungurahua volcano erupts - Strange 'hailstone' falls over Nevada - Weird pulsating orange Earth phenomena melts ice and boils water - Amazing sinkhole in the Corvette Museum - New York sinkhole swallows car - Popocatelpetl Volcano, Mexico eruptions - Sakurajima, Japan spectacular volcanic eruption - Large fireball over Maine, USA - Huge eruption from Volcano Pacaya in Guatemala

A rare sea creature which is only usually seen at the depths of the ocean was found washed up on a Dorset beach.

Biomedical scientist Paul Harris was walking along West Bexington Beach when he stumbled upon a Sea Mouse, which can usually be found buried up to 6,600ft beneath the waves.

The rare creature, which feasts on dead animals and is covered in colourful hair, is a type of marine worm.

Dorset's coast has been battered by severe storms in recent weeks and tonnes of rubbish, dead seabirds and unusual finds have been washed up on the county's shores.

The cold weather is responsible for more problems than just potholes, it's causing massive losses for beekeepers. 13abc's Lissa Guyton spent the day in Hancock County at the Keller Bison and Bee Farm to learn more about the serious problem that could affect us all.

The farm normally has about 1,800 hives at dozens of different sites around the Arcadia area but the owner thinks that more than half of them have been lost this winter. Lyle Keller has been a beekeeper for more than three decades. He says this is setting up to be one of his toughest years, "When you start losing 50-60% of your total number it is not easy to recover from that quickly." Bees provide more than honey, they also pollinate fruit and vegetable crops.

We were with Keller on Tuesday as he checked on some of his hives, "The bees need to get out and fly every 4-6 weeks to cleanse themselves and they haven't been able to do the cleansing flights this winter. It's rough on them. They are under heavy snow and in the extreme cold."

In addition to the extreme cold, Keller says pesticides and the lack of quality food sources are two main reasons for the population decrease, "About 25 years ago losing 10% of your hives during the winter was a big deal, this year I'll be happy if I only lose 50%."Keller plans to rebuild hundreds of his hives this spring," I will always have bees. I truly enjoy them. I may just have to scale down a bit because it takes a lot of work and I am not getting any younger."

Honey prices have gone up dramatically in the last few years. Keller expects the increase to continue this year. His bees produce some honey but their main job is the pollination of local fruit and vegetable crops. He takes them to farms around the region to do their work. Each hive costs more than $100 to maintain throughout the year.

A dwarf sperm whale was washed ashore at Nainarkuppam near Uthandi on Monday.

Volunteers of the TREE Foundation who noticed the dead carcass established the identity of the species with the help of Zoological Survey of India authorities.

Supraja Dharini of the Foundation said the whale's carcass was highly decomposed and the lower body of the whale had been severely damaged. It was badly injured with the rib cage and stomach exposed.

It also had an injury on its head near the blowhole region which could be one of reasons for the whale's death, she said.

The whale was 6.69 feet long and weighed nearly 300 kgs. The flipper was 27 cm with a width of 18cm.

Dwarf Sperm Whale is one of the smallest marine mammals to be called a whale. There are totally three species of sperm whales - Sperm Whale, Dwarf Sperm Whale and Pygmy Sperm Whale. As they are small in size, slow and lead a solitary life, it becomes difficult for researchers to observe them in the wild. Because of this, not much information was available, say the Zoological Survey of India authorities.

The carcass was buried by the Foundation members, she added.

A 10-meter sperm whale was found dead and floating nearby Pamilacan island off this town, Wednesday morning.

Mayor Alvin Uy confirmed this incident to The Freeman, saying he had decided to have the dead whale buried after its decomposing body caused stench wafting around the area.

Uy, in an interview over station DyRD, said the body of the 5-ton whale will be excavated someday and have its bones restored to its original form. "The whale's bones can be mounted as a special tourist attraction," Uy said.

Jun Gultia of the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources said the agency was no longer interested to conduct an autopsy because it was established that the whale died of accidental bumping into a ship's rudder, as evidenced by a long and deep wound on the animal's belly.

Another source said a fisherman, identified as Alan Tapon, was the one who found the dead whale floating.

BFAR said that, aside from sperm whale, among the commonly-sighted marine animals found between the seas off Pamilacan Island and mainland Bohol are bottlenose dolphin, Bryde's whale, Risso's dolphin, melon-headed whale, pygmy killer whale, short-finned pilot whale, spotted whale, Fraser's dolphin, and manta ray.

This town, where the oldest stone church is located but destroyed by the Oct. 15 earthquake, hosts the whale-watching in industry tourism during this season and summer months off the island.

Fishermen on the island used to catch whale shark using harpoon years back but they are now into whale watching since ban on catching marine mammals took effect in the late 1990s