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.
DITCH TACTICS: Kenyan officers were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch suspected to have been deliberately dug by Haitian gang members A Kenyan policeman deployed in Haiti has gone missing after violent gangs attacked a group of officers on a rescue mission, a UN-backed multinational security mission said in a statement yesterday. The Kenyan officers on Tuesday were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch “suspected to have been deliberately dug by gangs,” the statement said, adding that “specialized teams have been deployed” to search for the missing officer. Local media outlets in Haiti reported that the officer had been killed and videos of a lifeless man clothed in Kenyan uniform were shared on social media. Gang violence has left
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including
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