Dog wins third term as mayor in a landslide

Our pick of the strange stories from around the world.

Dogged devotion to his office

In a landslide victory, a nine-year-old great Pyrenees has been elected mayor of Cormorant, in the US state of Minnesota, for the third year winning. "Everybody voted for Duke, except for one vote for his girlfriend, Lassie," owner David Rick said. Duke has been mayor since 2014, when he beat local businessman Richard Sherbrook as a "write-in" candidate.

Cows get 'glow-in-the-dark' safety horns

Officials in central India are sticking glow-in-the-dark strips on the horns of cows to make them easier to see at night after a spate of accidents involving stray animals and unwary motorists. More than 300 cows and bulls have had reflective bands placed on them by traffic police in Madhya Pradesh in the past week. Officials are planning to buy permanent radium paint, as the stick-on bands are effective for only three weeks.

Nigerian charged for naming his dog Buhari

A Nigerian man has been charged with provocation and breaching the peace after naming his dog after President Muhammadu Buhari. "The man bought a dog, named it Buhari, wrote Buhari on both sides of the dog and paraded it" in front of people from the north, said a police spokesman in the southern Ogun state, where the man lives. Tensions are running high between residents of northern Nigeria, who are mostly Muslim, and people from the predominantly Christian south.