News around the world

And the deepest diving mammal is...

Scientists tracked three Cuvier's beaked whales down to 2,992 metres (1.9 miles) below the ocean surface, making it the deep diving champion of marine mammals! The discovery came when scientists tracked three Cuvier's beaked whales off the coast of California using satellite-linked tags.

The tags, which were attached to their dorsal fins, tracked the start and end time of a dive as well as the maximum depth of the dive and the time between dives. They not only saw them dive to an incredible depth, but also tracked them spending two hours and 17 minutes at that depth before resurfacing for air. That's an impressive feat for any air-breathing creature. To compare, the longest a human as ever held their breath underwater is 22 minutes according to the Guinness Book of World Records. Until now, the record setter for the deepest diving mammal was the elephant seal.

They have been tracked diving to 2,388 metres (1.5 miles) below the surface and staying underwater for two hours. However, their recovery time once they resurface from those depths is much longer than that of the Cuvier's beaked whales'.

Firefighters sing to calm trapped girl

Two fire fighters from Reading, Massachusetts came to the rescue of four-year-old Kaelyn Kerr, her mother, Kristen Kerr, and her baby brother when they got stuck in an elevator-with a bit of extra help from Disney's movie "Frozen." The Kerrs got stuck inside an elevator when the door jammed and wouldn't open. The only way for them to get out was to climb up a ladder to the top of the elevator and over a wall. The thought of that scared Kaelyn a lot and when the firefighters put the ladder down the elevator that's when she, "started freaking out," according to her mother. So John Keough and Scott Myette, two firefighters and fathers to young children, decided to try and calm Kaelyn by singing her favourite song, "Let It Go." "You say, okay how would my kids be comforted in this situation, so anything we can do to make them more comfortable makes our job easier," Myette said.

Myette found the song on his phone and he and Keough started singing along in the hope that they could calm Kaelyn. "It worked," Keough said.

"We got her to a point where she was comfortable with us and up the ladder we went, right up and over, no problem.

The world's shortest cat

Cye is the shortest living cat in the world! Cye is a three-year-old Munchkin cat who lives in Kitchener, Canada with his owner, Sarah Langille who breeds Munchkin cats as a hobby. Cye stands 13.6 centimetres (5.35 inches) from floor to shoulder, beating the previous record holder, Fizzgirl of San Diego, by 2.5 centimetres (1 inch). Munchkin cats have naturally stubby legs because of a genetic mutation. Langille never set out to breed the world's shortest cat, it just worked out that way! Langille decided to send Cye's measurements to Guinness World Records after her friend commented that he was the shortest cat he'd ever seen.

His body is proportioned very much like that of a daschund, also known as a wiener dog. He has "a very big personality" and likes to stand on his hind legs like a dog as well! "My vet said the odds of another cat being shorter are slim to none," said Langille's mother, Gail McKay. "He doesn't really have legs. He just has paws.

Policemen punished for peacock's death

Three Pakistani policemen have been temporarily suspended for negligence after they failed to protect Pakistan's Premier Nawaz Sharif's farmhouse, which resulted in one of his peacocks being killed by a cat! The dead peacock was discovered by a gardener and it was reported to Superintendent of Police Arshad who called 21 constables to headquarters to question them. Eighteen of the policemen who were working on Sharif's property were cleared, but the three that were responsible for the farmhouse area were formally suspended. The constables simply said they didn't think a cat would cause such harm to the peacock at night.