Giraffe poo seized after woman wanted to use it to make a necklace

(Image credit: Jenny Evans/Getty Images)

A box of giraffe faeces was seized by US customs agents after a passenger tried to bring the droppings into the country to make a necklace. The woman declared the "small box of poo" when she was selected to have her belongings inspected at the Minneapolis-Saint Paul Airport in Minnesota, said Sky News. She said she had previously made a necklace with moose faeces. A field director at US Customs and Border Protection, said: "There is a real danger with bringing faecal matter into the US."

Cannibalism was a 'commonplace funeral practice'

Cannibalism was a commonplace funeral practice in Europe about 15,000 years ago, reported CNN. A study, published in the journal Quaternary Science Reviews, found that people ate their dead not out of necessity but as part of their culture. The experts found human remains with chewing marks, skull bones with cut marks and bones purposefully broken in a pattern associated with the extraction of bone marrow for nutrients. "Mortuary cannibalism was a method Magdalenian people used to dispose of their deceased," they said.

Rat and otter cause plane panic

There was panic in mid-air when a giant albino rat and a foot-long otter escaped from a passenger's hand luggage during a flight to Taiwan. "Astonished travellers" spotted the rodent "en route to the bathroom", said The Telegraph, and the plane was "thrown into chaos", as cabin crew on board the three-hour VietJet flight from Bangkok to Taipei "battled to recapture the furry creatures". The crew eventually "wrestled the animals into black plastic bags".

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Chas Newkey-Burden has been part of The Week Digital team for more than a decade and a journalist for 25 years, starting out on the irreverent football weekly 90 Minutes, before moving to lifestyle magazines Loaded and Attitude. He was a columnist for The Big Issue and landed a world exclusive with David Beckham that became the weekly magazine’s bestselling issue. He now writes regularly for The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Independent, Metro, FourFourTwo and the i new site. He is also the author of a number of non-fiction books.