A campaign to eradicate New Zealand's cats as a way of protecting native wildlife has raised the hackles of pet lovers, with critics leaping to the defense of their feline friends.

Gareth Morgan, a businessman turned philanthropist, has called for New Zealanders to give puss the boot, citing research showing the average cat kills at least 13 native birds or animals each year.

Hundreds of Chinese factory workers angry about strictly timed bathroom breaks and fines for starting work late held their Japanese and Chinese managers hostage for a day and a half before police broke up the strike.

About 1,000 workers at Shanghai Shinmei Electric Company held the 10 Japanese nationals and eight Chinese managers inside the factory in Shanghai starting Friday morning until 11.50 p.m. Saturday, said a statement from the parent company, Shinmei Electric Co., released Monday. It said the managers were released uninjured after 300 police officers were called to the factory.

An Australian library has found itself in the spotlight after it put up a sign declaring all books by disgraced cyclist Lance Armstrong would soon be moved to the fiction section.

The notice posted by a part-time staffer at Manly Library read: "All non-fiction Lance Armstrong books, including 'Lance Armstrong: Images of a Champion', 'The Lance Armstrong Performance Program' and 'Lance Armstrong: The World's Greatest Champion' will soon be moved to the fiction section".

If it all goes wrong for President Barack Obama in his second term we will know who to blame: civil rights icon Myrlie Evers-Williams, who blessed his successor, the 45th president, by mistake.

"America, we are here, our nation's capital, on this day, January the 21st, 2013, the inauguration of our 45th president, Barack Obama," Evers-Williams said as she gave the official blessing at the ceremony.

Two circus camels, Simbas and Judas, disappeared in the middle of the night in central France and are still missing two days later, the director of the circus said Monday.

The two dromedaries -- five-year-old, 800-kilogram (1,765-pound) Simbas and three-year-old, one-tonne Judas -- were part of a caravan of performers and animals that went to the French countryside to wait for new gigs after the Paris circus abruptly stopped touring following a road accident last summer.

The Batmobile, the futuristic car used in the "Batman" television show, has been sold at auction for $4.62 million, U.S. media reported Monday.

The crime-fighting vehicle was built by George Barris, who bought a 1955 Lincoln Futura at a junk yard for just $1 and transformed it into one of the most recognizable vehicles in entertainment history, the ABC television network said.

Talk about whisky on ice: Three bottles of rare, 19th century Scotch found beneath the floor boards of Antarctic explorer Ernest Shackelton's abandoned expedition base were returned to the polar continent Saturday after a distiller flew them to Scotland to recreate the long-lost recipe.

But not even New Zealand Prime Minister John Key, who personally returned the stash, got a taste of the contents of the bottles of Mackinlay's whisky, which were rediscovered 102 years after the explorer was forced to leave them behind.

A 53-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of biting his adult son to death to get rid of a "snake haunting him", Japanese media have reported.

TV Asahi said Katsumi Nagaya seriously injured his son, Takuya, on Friday at the younger man's apartment in Anjo, central Japan, by head-butting and biting him after the 23-year-old began writhing around and claiming to be a serpent.

To everyone else, he is the president of the United States, but to his young daughters Barack Obama is just Dad, who sometimes messes stuff up.

The president's 11-year-old daughter Sasha on Sunday gave a rare glimpse into the 44th U.S. president's personal life, after watching her father take the oath of office to begin his second term.

A British professor who specializes in cities and urban life has been convicted of damaging luxury cars with graffiti that was surprisingly polite.

Stephen Graham was found guilty Friday of using a screwdriver to scrawl inoffensive words such as "very silly," ''really wrong" and "arbitrary" into the paintwork of vehicles including a Mercedes, an Audi, and a Volvo.