MISSOULA, Mont., Dec. 29 (UPI) -- A Montana firefighter who rescued a calico cat trapped in a cage on chunk of ice in the Clark Fork River has adopted the cat and named her Lucky.

Missoula firefighters received a call from pedestrians on a bridge who heard crying from below. The cat was in a cage that had been weighted down with a 16-pound rock, and was trapped in a puddle of slush.

Firefighters put on dry suits and lowered their rescue boat -- called a cataraft -- onto the ice to retrieve the abandoned and emaciated animal.

They took the cat back to the station, where they dried it off and fed it leftover Christmas turkey and a dish of milk, The Missoulian reported Thursday.

By the time his shift was over, Josh Macrow decided to adopt the affectionate cat, but first took it to a veterinary clinic. He was told all it needed was food and affection, and took it home.

"It's the sweetest cat," Macrow said. "It sits on your shoulder when you drive down the road and it curled up with my black Labs this morning."

Abusive airline passenger dumped on island

TENERIFE, Spain, Dec. 29 (UPI) -- A drunken, abusive passenger on a flight to Tenerife spent 36 hours cast away on a tiny Atlantic island after the airline dumped him.

Monarch Airlines said it had abandoned the passenger on the tiny Portuguese island of Porto Santo, 300 miles from his destination after he became a threat to others aboard and refused to calm down. There were 200 other passengers aboard the Airbus A321.

An officer at the airport's police station told The Times of London that the man had remained on the island until Thursday, when he managed to book a seat on a German charter flight to the Canary Islands.

A good idea takes on speed

BATTLE CREEK, Mich., Dec. 29 (UPI) -- A Paw Paw, Mich., man's idea to free his car mired in mud went slightly awry when the driverless vehicle careened across a field at 100 mph.

Calhoun County Sheriff's Lt. James McDonagh told WWMT-TV, Kalamazoo, the 29-year-old man tried to push his car out of the mud Wednesday but found it impossible without someone in the vehicle to pus the gas pedal.

So, he grabbed a toolbox from his trunk and put it on the gas pedal of his rear-wheel drive car. A couple of pushes later, the car popped out and sped off across a muddy field at speeds reaching 100 mph, McDonagh said.

The car even became airborne a couple times until it hit a tree.

The embarrassed driver was not ticketed.

Austria in flap over EU sex posters

VIENNA, Dec. 29 (UPI) -- A series of posters marking the Austrian republic's 60th anniversary showing naked models masked as world leaders has created a political embarrassment.

A total of 150 posters were produced as part of the celebrations by 75 young European artists, but ones of naked models masked as Jacques Chirac, Queen Elizabeth and George Bush in sexual positions has drawn political anger in Vienna, the EU Observer reported.

Another showing the lower body of a woman with her legs spread and wearing EU-flagged underwear also upset Austrian Chancellor Wolfgang Schussel.

He told the Krone Zeitung newspaper he had not been informed in advance of the content of the $11.8 million campaign, of which 10 percent was paid for by taxpayers.

The posters are on display throughout Vienna on 400 billboards until Jan. 24, when they will be moved to Salzburg.

On Jan. 1, Austria assumes the rotating presidency of the European Union from Britain.