ITALY
Bishop sorry for Santa denial
A Roman Catholic diocese in Sicily publicly apologized to outraged parents after its bishop told a group of children that Santa Claus does not exist. In a Facebook post and subsequent comments on Friday, the diocese of Noto said that Bishop Antonio Stagliano did not mean to dash the dreams of the youngsters two weeks before Christmas. The diocesan communications director, the Reverend Alessandro Paolino, said that Stagliano was trying to underline the true meaning of Christmas and the story of Saint Nicholas, a bishop who gave gifts to the poor and was persecuted by a Roman emperor. Italian news reports quoted Stagliano as telling a religious festival that Santa Claus does not exist and that his red costume was created by Coca-Cola. “First of all, on behalf of the bishop, I express my sorrow for this declaration, which has created disappointment in the little ones, and want to specify that Monsignor Stagliano’s intentions were quite different,” Paolino wrote on Facebook. “We certainly must not demolish the imagination of children, but draw good examples from it that are positive for life. So Santa Claus is an effective image to convey the importance of giving, generosity, sharing.”
BRAZIL
Four jailed over deadly fire
A court convicted four people for their role in a nightclub fire that left 242 people dead nearly a decade ago, handing down sentences of up to 22 years. The 2013 fire in the southern town of Santa Maria started when members of a musical band lit flares that set fire to the ceiling. Two owners of the Kiss night club and two members of the Gurizada Fandangueira band were found guilty of murder and attempted murder. “The defendants’ culpability is high... this much life was not taken away by chance,” Judge Orlando Faccini said in his verdict.
UNITED STATES
Two killed in storms
A reported tornado on Friday night ripped through an Arkansas nursing home, killing one person and injuring several. At least one fatality was also reported in Missouri as severe storms, some believed to be tornadoes, swept across the midwest and parts of the south. Craighead County Judge Marvin Day told reporters that a tornado struck the Monette Manor nursing home in Arkansas at about 8:15pm, killing one person and trapping 20 people inside as the building collapsed. “It happened quick, but apparently there was a little bit of time with tornado sirens going off,” he said, adding that some residents were found in the basement “and were prepared for this.”
UNITED STATES
The Monkees member dies
Mike Nesmith, one of four members of 1960s television and pop phenomenon The Monkees, has died, fellow band member Micky Dolenz and his family said on Friday. He was 78. The group were a made-for-TV outfit put together to rival The Beatles. Dubbed “The Pre-Fab Four” — a pun on The Beatles’ nickname — The Monkees were a commercial smash, whose catchy pop hits remain instantly recognizable more than 50 years on. “I’m heartbroken. I’ve lost a dear friend and partner,” Dolenz, the last surviving member of the group, wrote on Twitter. “I’m so grateful that we could spend the last couple of months together doing what we loved best — singing, laughing, and doing shtick... Rest in peace, Nez.” US media quoted a family statement saying Nesmith had died at home of natural causes.
‘GREAT OPPRTUNITY’: The Paraguayan president made the remarks following Donald Trump’s tapping of several figures with deep Latin America expertise for his Cabinet Paraguay President Santiago Pena called US president-elect Donald Trump’s incoming foreign policy team a “dream come true” as his nation stands to become more relevant in the next US administration. “It’s a great opportunity for us to advance very, very fast in the bilateral agenda on trade, security, rule of law and make Paraguay a much closer ally” to the US, Pena said in an interview in Washington ahead of Trump’s inauguration today. “One of the biggest challenges for Paraguay was that image of an island surrounded by land, a country that was isolated and not many people know about it,”
‘FIGHT TO THE END’: Attacking a court is ‘unprecedented’ in South Korea and those involved would likely face jail time, a South Korean political pundit said Supporters of impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol yesterday stormed a Seoul court after a judge extended the impeached leader’s detention over his ill-fated attempt to impose martial law. Tens of thousands of people had gathered outside the Seoul Western District Court on Saturday in a show of support for Yoon, who became South Korea’s first sitting head of state to be arrested in a dawn raid last week. After the court extended his detention on Saturday, the president’s supporters smashed windows and doors as they rushed inside the building. Hundreds of police officers charged into the court, arresting dozens and denouncing an
‘DISCRIMINATION’: The US Office of Personnel Management ordered that public DEI-focused Web pages be taken down, while training and contracts were canceled US President Donald Trump’s administration on Tuesday moved to end affirmative action in federal contracting and directed that all federal diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) staff be put on paid leave and eventually be laid off. The moves follow an executive order Trump signed on his first day ordering a sweeping dismantling of the federal government’s diversity and inclusion programs. Trump has called the programs “discrimination” and called to restore “merit-based” hiring. The executive order on affirmative action revokes an order issued by former US president Lyndon Johnson, and curtails DEI programs by federal contractors and grant recipients. It is using one of the
One of Japan’s biggest pop stars and best-known TV hosts, Masahiro Nakai, yesterday announced his retirement over sexual misconduct allegations, reports said, in the latest scandal to rock Japan’s entertainment industry. Nakai’s announcement came after now-defunct boy band empire Johnny & Associates admitted in 2023 that its late founder, Johnny Kitagawa, for decades sexually assaulted teenage boys and young men. Nakai was a member of the now-disbanded SMAP — part of Johnny & Associates’s lucrative stable — that swept the charts in Japan and across Asia during the band’s nearly 30 years of fame. Reports emerged last month that Nakai, 52, who since
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