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.
In months, Lo Yuet-ping would bid farewell to a centuries-old village he has called home in Hong Kong for more than seven decades. The Cha Kwo Ling village in east Kowloon is filled with small houses built from metal sheets and stones, as well as old granite buildings, contrasting sharply with the high-rise structures that dominate much of the Asian financial hub. Lo, 72, has spent his entire life here and is among an estimated 860 households required to move under a government redevelopment plan. He said he would miss the rich history, unique culture and warm interpersonal kindness that defined life in
AERIAL INCURSIONS: The incidents are a reminder that Russia’s aggressive actions go beyond Ukraine’s borders, Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrii Sybiha said Two NATO members on Sunday said that Russian drones violated their airspace, as one reportedly flew into Romania during nighttime attacks on neighboring Ukraine, while another crashed in eastern Latvia the previous day. A drone entered Romanian territory early on Sunday as Moscow struck “civilian targets and port infrastructure” across the Danube in Ukraine, the Romanian Ministry of National Defense said. It added that Bucharest had deployed F-16 warplanes to monitor its airspace and issued text alerts to residents of two eastern regions. It also said investigations were underway of a potential “impact zone” in an uninhabited area along the Romanian-Ukrainian border. There
The governor of Ohio is to send law enforcement and millions of dollars in healthcare resources to the city of Springfield as it faces a surge in temporary Haitian migrants. Ohio Governor Mike DeWine on Tuesday said that he does not oppose the Temporary Protected Status program under which about 15,000 Haitians have arrived in the city of about 59,000 people since 2020, but said the federal government must do more to help affected communities. On Monday, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost directed his office to research legal avenues — including filing a lawsuit — to stop the federal government from sending
A Zurich city councilor has apologized and reportedly sought police protection against threats after she fired a sport pistol at an auction poster of a 14th-century Madonna and child painting, and posted images of their bullet-ridden faces on social media. Green-Liberal party official Sanija Ameti, 32, put the images on Instagram over the weekend before quickly pulling them down. She later wrote on social media that she had been practicing shots from about 10m and only found the poster as “big enough” for a suitable target. “I apologize to the people who were hurt by my post. I deleted it immediately when I
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