■ UNITED STATES
Car hits `Santa' train
A car crashed into a train that was carrying mostly children to a visit with Santa Claus, killing two people in the car. No one was injured among the 67 passengers on the "Santa Express" train, authorities said. The crash happened on Saturday afternoon at a railroad crossing. Authorities said the crossing has a stop sign and a railroad crossing sign to warn drivers, but no warning lights. The Isabella County sheriff's department said the woman driving the car and one of her passengers were killed.
■ UNITED STATES
Storm cuts power
An ice storm slickened roads and sidewalks, grounded hundreds of flights and cut power to tens of thousands in a swath across the central US as even colder weather threatened. The wintry weather was expected to continue through midweek, and ice storm warnings stretched from Texas to Pennsylvania. Six traffic deaths were blamed on icy roads in Oklahoma. More than 130,000 customers lost power in Missouri, Oklahoma, Illinois and Kansas, utilities reported. Chicago's O'Hare International Airport canceled more than 400 flights. The airports in Kansas City, Missouri, and St. Louis also canceled several flights.
■ UNITED STATES
Cursing nun shocks school
The principal of St. Clare of Montefalco Catholic School had students stay after a Mass last month and informed the fifth through eighth-graders that she has a zero-tolerance policy for cursing. Just in case anyone was not sure what she was talking about, Sister Kathy Avery read off a list of the very words and phrases that she was banning. "It got a little quiet in church" during her talk, she told the Detroit Free Press. Some parents were shocked, but others applauded, the paper said.
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