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Lewis Pugh, a British explorer and endurance swimmer, is about to attempt a swim in the ice-cold water surrounding the North Pole. Why? To draw attention to the issues surrounding climate change.

Pugh, a 37-year-old originally from Cape Town, plans to swim for one kilometer in nothing but a swim cap, trunks and goggles. He expects the journey will take around 21 minutes and plans to do the swim on July 15. He hopes the swim and surrounding attention will add to mounting pressure on leaders at the forthcoming G8 summit, encouraging a dramatic reduction in carbon emissions.

“Most people have no idea that you can find patches of open sea at the North Pole in summer,” said Pugh in a press statement. “I can’t think of a better way to show that climate change is a reality than by swimming in a place that should be totally frozen over.”

Just 10 years ago, swimming in the area would’ve been impossible, according to Pugh. Last year, he set a new world record for swimming in ice water - covering 1.2 kilometers in a Norwegian fjord during a swim 10 seconds shy of 24 minutes.

According to experts, an average person would’ve hyperventilated and probably drown from extreme shock within minutes of diving into water so cold. Pugh, however, has an astonishing ability to resist the effects of the freezing cold water - it’s this resistance to cold that’s gained him the nickname Polar Bear.

As part of Pugh’s preparation for his July dip in the sea, he’s increased his body weight by nearly 20 kilograms and trained in a specially-designed ice pool. The next month of his training will be done in a glacial lake in Norway with Jorgen Amundsen.

Amundsen, a relative of the first man to reach the South Pole, will ski to the North Pole with Pugh before his swim. “This expedition represents the end of an era of Arctic exploration as we know it,” he said. “It is becoming increasingly difficult to walk to the North Pole and many expeditions fail each year when they encounter big stretches of open sea.”

A wildlife guide in Israel found an unwelcome visitor in his bed at night - a leopard that’d been trying to catch the family’s pet cat.

Arthur du Mosch grabbed the big cat’s neck, pinned it down and held it there until help from Israel’s Nature and Parks department arrived nearly 20 minutes later.

“This kind of thing doesn’t happen every day,” he told the BBC. “I wasn’t thinking, I just acted.”

49-year-old du Mosch was able to shake the experience off, “But the kids were excited,” he said.

A group of leopards was spotted near the du Mosch home in the Negev desert, according to department spokesperson Raviv Shapira. “But we have never heard of a leopard coming into a private home,” he said.

The intruding leopard was taken to Beit Dagan veterinary hospital near Tel Aviv for evaluation and is expected to be released back into the wild after being electronically tagged.

If nine kids, 22 grandchildren and 25 great-grandchildren weren’t enough to seal the deal, Ted Towle didn’t know what was. He’d been proposing to long-time love Hilda Clark since 1958 with no success.

It seems that when one of their grandchildren was seriously ill last November, everything changed for Hilda. “I had always been skeptical of marriage after getting wed when I was very young - one divorce is enough for anyone.”

The couple, from Nottinham in England, were married over the weekend - much to the delight of their family. “Ours must be one of the longest courtships ever,” said Hilda. “But now I’m so happy I wonder why I waited so long to marry. I’m so proud to call Ted my husband after all this time.”

“When Hilda said, ‘I do’, I said ‘about time!’,” Ted added. “Hilda won’t be rushed into anything, but I’m thrilled that she’s finally made an honest man of me.”

Ted, who is 83, gave up on proposing last November and was stunned when Hilda, 73, popped the question herself about six months ago.

Police responding to a complaint about animal noises coming from inside a neighbor’s house found three 200lb pigs trapped inside. And the outside wasn’t such a pretty picture either.

Detective Jim Strovnik of the Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office told reporters that Shane Lovett of Eagle Creek had been upset about losing his home in foreclosure. Lovett apparently joked with his neighbors that he’d locked the pigs inside without any food or water in hopes they’d trash the place.

To be sure the property wasn’t an easy resale for his bank, it appears Lovett also damaged the house’s exterior. Large pieces of the house dotted the landscape, along with household garbage and abandoned cars. There was significant damage to the foundation and walls, windows were smashed and a mound of dirt was dumped on the roof. Lovett is a heavy equipment operator by trade, and went so far as to sign his “work” by carving his name into the siding in three-foot-high letters.

The pigs, who had done a fair job of destroying everything inside the house, were hungry and dehydrated but otherwise no worse for their ordeal.

Lovett will most likely face charges of animal cruelty for abandoning the pigs. The police investigation continues, and as yet, no one has been able to reach Lovett for comment or questioning.

After over a month of living without gas, heating or hot water, residents in two Cleveland apartment buildings will be pleased to know their landlord can really feel their pain.

Richard Naumann, who owes his local gas company over $100,000, has been ordered to serve an indefinite period of house arrest in one of his substandard apartments by Lakewood Municipal Judge Patrick Carroll.

According to the Cleveland Plain Dealer, Naumann will have to live in one of the apartments, alongside his disgruntled tenants, until the buildings are brought back up to code.

Naumann’s sentence includes wearing an electronic tagging device so his whereabouts can be tracked 24/7 - he’s only allowed to leave the apartment to go to work between 8am and 6pm.

Gas service to the properties was cut off over a month ago due to Naumann’s outstanding account balance.

Just when you thought the bottomless chum bucket of reality TV couldn’t get any fuller, the creators of Big Brother have started filming The Big Donor Show for BNN.

That’s right, it’s a game show. The contest centers around three critically ill patients waiting for a kidney and a terminally ill woman known as Lisa who’ll be donating the organ to the winner.

As with most reality TV shows, viewers are encouraged to participate, sending Lisa text messages related to which of the critically ill youths should win her kidney.

Scores of transplant patient organizations and politicians have voiced objections to the show. “This is a scandal, it is no better than selling organs,” said Reiner Hofmann, a spokesperson for the Dutch Transplant Foundation. “They are taking advantage of people in a desperate situation for entertainment.”

The network has hit back, stating that the show is working to highlight the serious shortage of donor organs available in the Netherlands.

The show’s three contestants are undergoing daily dialysis treatment until such time as a kidney becomes available - whether that’s by winning the show or not.

Bosses at a theme park in York, England have been criticized for offering free admission for people issued with an Anti-social Behavior Order (ASBO) by the court.

The York Dungeon offered free admission over the holiday weekend for ASBO offenders to mark the opening of a special exhibition on old-school justice. Dungeon manager Helen Douglas explained that the offer was intended to illustrate how anti-social behavior was dealt with in the past.

“What we’re handing out ASBOs for today are exactly the same sort of crimes that people would have been transported or even hanged for during the bloody code of the 18th century,” she said. “While I’m by no means advocating a return to the punishments of old, I thought that it might shock the ASBOs a little to see what would’ve happened to them a couple of hundred years ago.”

But the locals are not amused. Last year scores of residents in York fell victim to a tire slashing campaign by local youths - most of whom were eventually issued ASBOs.

One resident was dismayed, “This move by York Dungeon is absolutely disgusting. If I wanted to go into the dungeons this weekend, I’d have to pay. But if someone like the person woh slashed my tires went along, they could get in for free. It’s just not right.”

Hugh Bayley, the local MP, couldn’t agree more. “This is a publicity-seeking gimmick which goes too far,” He said. “The public needs protection from anti-social behaviour and York Dungeon shouldn’t be rewarding people who have been sentenced to an ASBO by the courts.”