WELCOME to the Basingstoke Gazette's rundown of some of the week's weirdest news stories.

Every Friday, The Gazette will pull together what the newsroom reckons are some of the weirdest stories that week from the UK and around the globe.

The week started with an announcement that former TV celebrity Amy Childs, of The Only Way Is Essex fame will be leading the charge for a new world record attempt.

On February 25, Amy will join 300 bikini-clad ladies to attempt the Guinness World Record for the most “simultaneous spray tans in one single location”.

It's being held at the Excel centre in London if it tickles your fancy.

While Amy may soon join the coveted Guinness World Record community, it was rocked by the news that one of its more eye-catching members, Stewie, the world's longest cat, died of cancer this week.

The massive moggie measured a whopping 48.5inches - more than four feet - from nose to tail. The eight-year-old Maine Coon cat from Reno, America, was awarded the Guinness World Record in 2010, trumping the previous holder by half-an-inch.

While many a cat lover was saddened by the death of the four-foot-feline, it is not all bad news for cats this week.

Hasbro, the maker of the popular board game Monopoly has decided to replace their iconic iron board piece with a cat.

Following a Facebook poll, 31 per cent of people voted for the feline token. The iron was ditched on Wednesday with only eight per cent of the vote.

The cat will join the racing car, Scottie dog, thimble, top hat, and battleship - a win for cat lovers everywhere.

And it was a win for Parisienne women this week after a 213-year-old ban on women wearing trousers was revoked.

The law passed in 1800 meant that women needed to seek police approval “to dress like a man”.

It was later amended so they could wear trousers if they were “holding a bicycle handlebar or the reins of a horse” and on Tuesday was scrapped entirely.

Now Parisienne ladies can freely walk the streets in 2013 wearing their trousers without fear of jail.