UNITED STATES
Cow escapes Nativity scene
A cow in Philadelphia apparently wanted to be away from the manger, as it on Thursday escaped twice from a church’s live Nativity scene. Stormy, a seven-year-old brown and white Hereford, was back munching hay at Old First Reformed Church of Christ by 7:15am after two sets of adventures on snowy downtown streets. Police first got reports of a cow near an Interstate 95 on-ramp at about 2am on Thursday. Officers put a rope on the cow and walked her to a nearby parking lot, before police vehicles helping shepherd Stormy back to church. Some lanes of the highway had to be shut as the cow was wrangled, but for Stormy, all was not calm and bright. She fled again at about 6am. The church has since decided to use her understudy, a cow about half her size named Ginger.
UNITED STATES
No jail for fertility doctor
Some former patients of a retired Indianapolis fertility doctor on Thursday expressed anger that he avoided jail time for lying about using his own sperm to impregnate as many as dozens of women after telling them the donors were anonymous. Donald Cline was given a one-year suspended sentence after pleading guilty to two counts of obstruction of justice. No other charges were filed against the 79-year-old because Indiana law does not specifically prohibit fertility doctors from using their own sperm. Cline was charged after lying to investigators and he faced up to three years in prison on each count. The charges stemmed from two confirmed cases of paternity, but children of women treated by Cline said DNA tests show he is likely the biological father of as many as 20 children. Matt White and his mother, Liz White, said Cline deserved far greater punishment. He said DNA tests showed that Cline was his biological father, even though Cline told his mother decades ago that he used anonymous sperm donations.
UNITED STATES
Hoffman in exposure claim
Another woman is accusing Dustin Hoffman of exposing himself to her when she was 16. Playwright Cori Thomas told Variety that Hoffman exposed himself to her in 1980 in a New York hotel room. In an e-mail to The Associated Press, she confirmed the story that was first reported by Variety. Thomas said she has told the story about her encounter with Hoffman to friends and associates for years, but chose to speak publicly about it to support the handful of others who have accused Hoffman of sexual misconduct. Thomas was a classmate of Hoffman’s daughter and said the incident happened after the three of them had dinner, as she waited for her mother to pick her up.
UNITED STATES
Firefighter killed in blaze
A firefighter on Thursday was killed in one of the largest blazes in California’s history, officials said, as emergency services spent another day struggling to contain infernos across the tinder-dry state. San Diego-based Cory Iverson died fighting the Thomas Fire in Ventura County, according to California Fire Chief Ken Pimlott, who gave no further details on the incident. “I am very saddened to report that a firefighter fatality has occurred on the Thomas incident. Please join me in keeping our fallen firefighter and his loved ones in your prayers,” Pimlott tweeted. The Thomas Fire has blackened almost 100,000 hectares since it broke out 10 days ago, making it the fourth-largest blaze in the state’s history.
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
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