***EXCLUSIVE*** A beloved cat who went missing nearly seven years ago has been reunited with its owners on Christmas Eve. Tabs, who is now 19 years old, disappeared in February 2013 just as his distraught owners were preparing to move house. But an animal lover spotted a cat in a „pitiful” state on a side street as she walked home. Mum-of-three Lisa Jones called an Animal Rescue volunteer who found a chip in the „emaciated” cat revealing its name and owner’s telephone number.

A group of Muslim women wearing niqab veils spent Christmas Eve sewing Santa Claus dolls at a factory in the Gaza Strip. The women, many of whom are forbidden from leaving their village, are employed at a factory in the village of Umm al-Nasser in northern Gaza. The factory is run by the Zeina Cooperative, which says it gives the women three years of vocational training in which they learn to make gifts for holidays - including Christmas as well as the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.  This festive season they produced a range of goods, including Santa models and wooden Christmas trees, organisers say.

***EXCLUSIVE*** Ewan MacLean, 27, Jamie, 26, and Lachlan, 21, are making a 3,000 mile trip from La Gomera in the Canary Islands to Antigua in the Caribbean. On Christmas Eve they were nearing Cape Verde, and are hoping to break records as the youngest and the fastest team of brothers to conquer the Atlantic in a rowing boat, as part of the Talisker Whisky Challenge. The brothers, who were all born in Edinburgh, will see in the New Year with a bottle of whisky given to them for Christmas by their dad, whisky expert Charles MacLean.

***EXCLUSIVE*** Isabella-Jean Woodhouse was born 25 weeks into mum Shannon Jones's pregnancy weighing just 1lb 10oz and was small enough to fit in her mum's hand. She was so premature that Shannon, 23, and partner Jordan Woodhouse, a behavioural support worker, 27, could see her tiny heart beating through her transparent skin. Doctors told the couple she had "fifty percent chance" of making it through the first two days of her life.

***EXCLUSIVE*** Sanctuary owner Mel James clucked into action when she answered the Facebook appeal of a local farmer who was re-homing 1,000 hens at the end of their egg-laying careers. However, Mel discovered the farmer had a further 3,000 chickens that were destined for the food chain as part of a contract with a haulage firm. The dedicated animal lover, who had decided to take on as many chickens as she could through her sanctuary, became determined to take in all 4,000.

***EXCLUSIVE*** A pampered pussycat has become a local legend - after making himself at home in almost every store on a city centre high street. Ginger cat Boris has a loving home with 30-year-old Jessica Coppell and her three daughters, aged ten, eight and four - but that doesn't stop him milking as much attention as he can get. And in just a few short months, three-year-old Boris has become famous in his home city - after almost daily visits to a popular shopping street in the city centre. Almost all the shop-owners on Queen Street in Wells, Somerset - England's smallest city - have welcomed Boris into their stores almost every day since July.