■UNITED STATES
Man charged for sex cards
A man in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, was sentenced to two years of probation for sending sexually explicit Christmas cards of his ex-girlfriend to her relatives. The Daily News Journal reports 57-year-old David Simmons was accused of surreptitiously taking pictures of his ex-girlfriend while she performed sexual acts on him. After a bad break up, Simmons sent one of the pictures to the woman’s relatives as Christmas cards. He pleaded guilty on Wednesday to charges of unlawful photography and criminal impersonation. In exchange for the plea he was given a suspended sentence.
■CANADA
Gang slayings on the rise
Gangland slayings pushed up the otherwise declining murder rate by 2 percent last year, Statistics Canada said on Wednesday. The government agency said police reported 611 homicides last year, 17 more than the previous year. The rise was “due almost entirely” to murders in western British Columbia and Alberta provinces, “much of which was gang-related,” said the government agency. After peaking in the mid-1970s, the murder rate generally declined until 1999. Since then it has been relatively stable.
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