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Christmas Lights

US, Illinois: Christmas Brings Thefts Of Baby Jesus Statues, Lawn Decorations


CBS News, Chicago
Fri, 23 Dec 2011 01:46 UTC
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© Scott Barbour/Getty ImagesFile Photo Of Outdoor Christmas Decorations.
Though the Christmas holiday is getting nearer, vandals and pranksters haven't displayed a holiday spirit. Communities around Chicago have reported acts of theft and vandalism to Christmas displays recently.

Among the suburbs reporting such incidents recently were Elmwood Park, Lombard and Naperville.

In Elmwood Park, thefts were reported Dec. 15 from the 2200 block of 75th Court and the 2300 block of 75th Avenue, according to police. In the former, someone took Christmas decorations that made up a nativity scene from the front yard of a home, and in the latter someone took two Christmas penguins from the front yard of a home.

On Dec. 17, a theft was reported on 7700 block of Sunset Drive, police said. Sometime on Dec. 15 someone removed a 3-foot-tall illuminated Santa Claus from a fence.
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Holly

Best of the Web: US: Just Say No to Christmas?

Judy Keen
USA Today
Fri, 23 Dec 2011 00:00 UTC
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© Denny Simmons/USA TodayGriffin Holland, with mom Sarah Stewart Holland, plays in his family's Paducah, Ky., home on Dec. 14. The family has scaled back on Christmas spending, and Griffin will get gifts stashed after his birthday celebration.
Susan Lee, a divorced mother of three in New York City, is taking a drastic step this year. "No Christmas for me," she says. "No gifts, no turkey, no tree, no kidding."

Lee, 41, a marketing consultant, says she needs a break from the stress and spending that are integral parts of the holiday. Her kids will celebrate a traditional Christmas with their dad, but she's ignoring all the rituals.

"I start dreading Christmas from the time the decorations go up in the stores," she says. "It stopped being fun for me, so I'll find out this year if I can do without it altogether. I think it will be a relief. It already is."

The holiday is in no danger of extinction. Retail sales broke records over the Thanksgiving weekend, and online sales are up 15% from 2010, according to ComScore, a research company. A Gallup Poll found that Americans expect to spend an average of $764 on Christmas gifts, $50 more than a year ago. And forecasters expect spending on Christmas to rise 3.1% to $3.4 billion this holiday season.
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Dollar

US, California: Los Angeles Might Sue Occupy L.A. Protesters for Financial Damages

David Zahniser
Los Angeles Times
Sat, 24 Dec 2011 11:28 UTC
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© unknown
Los Angeles City Atty. Carmen Trutanich is considering a lawsuit against Occupy L.A. protesters to reimburse the city for damage caused during the occupation of the City Hall lawn.

"The city is contemplating any and all of its options," said William Carter, Trutanich's chief deputy.

The two-month encampment cost the city at least $2.35 million, not counting repairs to the lawn and fountain outside City Hall, according to a report issued Friday.

Much of that cost -- more than $1.7 million -- will be added to the growing pool of red ink in this year's city budget. The Occupy bills will increase an anticipated $72-million shortfall over the next six months, City Administrative Officer Miguel Santana said.

"In isolation, the cost is manageable. But in the context of a $72-million problem, it only made our challenge bigger," said Santana, the city's top budget analyst.
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Boat

Anti-Whaling Activists' Drone Tracks Japan Fleet


Agence France-Presse
Sun, 25 Dec 2011 03:30 UTC
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© Agence France-PresseAnti-whaling activists from the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society chase a Japanese whaling ship in Antarctic waters in 2010.
Anti-whaling activists intercepted Japan's harpoon fleet far north of Antarctic waters on Sunday, they said, with the help of a military-style drone.

Sea Shepherd Conservation Society spokesman Paul Watson said the unmanned long-range drone, launched from the anti-whaling ship the Steve Irwin, had located the Japanese fleet and relayed the coordinates back to the activists.

Watson said Sea Shepherd, a militant activist group which regularly shadows and harasses the Japanese whalers, had caught up with the fleet at 37 degrees south, 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometres) above Antarctic waters.

No whales had been killed so far, he added.

"This is going to be a long hard pursuit from here to the coast of Antarctica," said Watson.

"But thanks to these drones, we now have an advantage we have never had before -- eyes in the sky."
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Info

Cuba to Pardon Some 3,000 Prisoners

Jean-Herve Deiller
Agence France-Presse
Sat, 24 Dec 2011 00:00 UTC
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© Agence France-Presse/Marcelino Vazquez Cuban President Raul Castro (R) and his grandson and bodyguard Raul Dominguez Castro attend the second annual session of the National Assembly, on December 23, at the Conventions Palace in Havana. Castro has unveiled plans to pardon some 3,000 prisoners for "humanitarian reasons" and "gradually" reform onerous laws restricting foreign travel.
Cuban President Raul Castro has unveiled plans to release some 3,000 prisoners in the largest mass pardon in the regime's history, but an American held for two years is not among them.

The pardons include 86 foreigners from 25 countries, and will take place "in the coming days," Castro said in an address to the National Assembly Friday in which he vowed to "gradually" reform laws limiting foreign travel.

The United States said Saturday that it was "deeply disappointed" that State Department contractor Alan Gross, 62 -- held since December 2009 and convicted on espionage charges -- was not included in the release.

Castro said factors that played into the pardon decision included requests from the Catholic Church and various Protestant churches, and the visit of Pope Benedict XVI in 2012.

The pardon is the largest ever under the communist regime, much larger that the 299 prisoners released ahead of the visit of then-pope John Paul II in January 1998.
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Telephone

US: Copper Thieves Leave Hundreds Without Phone Service In Florida


CBS News, Tampa
Sat, 24 Dec 2011 11:03 UTC
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© Spencer Platt/Getty ImagesFile photo of metal scavenger taking copper.
Authorities say about 300 residents in southwest Florida are without phone service after thieves pulled copper from telephone utility boxes.

The Charlotte County Sheriff's Office says customers within a square mile area of the theft from utility boxes in a Port Charlotte lot were affected. Repairs were continuing Saturday.

Sheriff's Office spokesman Bob Carpenter says it's the fifth copper theft from phone equipment boxes in the last several days.

Anyone with information about these copper thefts is urged to call the sheriff's office at 941-639-2101 or Crime Stoppers at 800-780-TIPS

Source: The Associated Press
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Airplane

US: 2 Dead, 1 Hurt After Small Plane Crash in Ohio


The Associated Press
Sun, 25 Dec 2011 00:00 UTC
Authorities say two people were killed and a third was flown to a hospital after a single-engine plane crashed near a small airport in rural southeastern Ohio.

Elizabeth Isham Cory of the Federal Aviation Administration said the crash occurred around 1:50 p.m. Saturday near the Vinton County Airport, about 50 miles southeast of Columbus.

The Ohio State Highway Patrol early Sunday identified the two people killed as 78-year-old Eudora Byers of Mansfield, Ohio, and 50-year-old Siobhan Reynolds of New Mexico. Authorities say the pilot, 54-year-old Kevin Byers of Baltimore, Ohio, remains in critical condition.

Vinton County coroner's investigator Steve Huston said the plane apparently was approaching the runway but ended up along a road parallel to the airport. The FAA was gathering details on the plane's route.
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Pistol

US, California: Soldier Shot at Welcome Home Party May be Paralyzed

Raja Abdulrahim
Los Angeles Times
Sat, 24 Dec 2011 11:28 UTC
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© Gabriel Luis Acosta / San Bernardino SunSuzanne Sullivan holds a photo of her son Christopher Sullivan, a soldier, outside her home in San Bernardino.
Christopher Sullivan, 22, was at a friend's home in San Bernardino when he intervened in an argument between his brother and another man, who shot him in the neck.

A soldier who served in Afghanistan was shot and seriously injured in San Bernardino during a welcome home party in his honor, police said.

Christopher Sullivan, 22, was on leave from the Army for the holidays and attending a party Friday night when his brother and another man began arguing over football a little before midnight, said San Bernardino police Lt. Gwendolyn Waters.

The gunman, in his 20s, punched Sullivan's brother, Waters said. Sullivan stepped in and the man pulled a gun from his waistband and fired at least three shots, Waters said. Two shots hit Sullivan, one in the neck and the other in the buttocks.

About 30 to 40 people attended the party, which was held at the home of one of Sullivan's friends, Waters said. The shooting occurred in the side yard.
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Bomb

Bomb in Nigerian Church Causes Deaths at Christmas

Tim Cocks
Reuters
Sun, 25 Dec 2011 02:56 UTC
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© Agence France-Presse
A bomb exploded in a Catholic church on the outskirts of the Nigerian capital Abuja during Christmas prayers Sunday and emergency services said they did not have enough ambulances available to evacuate all the dead and the wounded.

The precise number of dead and wounded in the blast was not immediately available.

"Yes, I can confirm to you that there has been a bomb blast in a church in Madala (suburb)," National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) spokesman Yushau Shuaibu said by telephone.

"We are presently there, evacuating the dead and the injured, but unfortunately we don't have enough ambulances. Most of our ambulances have gone to operate on the major highways of the country," he added.

The blast in St Theresa's Church in Madala, an Abuja suburb blew out windows of at least one house nearby, a witness said.
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Attention

Canada: U.S. Nuclear Sub Nearly Hit Freighter Near British Columbia


CBC News
Fri, 23 Dec 2011 00:00 UTC
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© Eli J. Medellin/U.S. navyA U.S. coast guard cutter escorts the strategic nuclear missile submarine USS Kentucky through Juan de Fuca Strait in 2003.
A freighter captain's keen eye helped avert a run-in with a nuclear-powered American submarine in Juan de Fuca Strait, a body of water that splits Washington state and B.C. coasts, according to a U.S. periodical.

The incident, which saw the freighter and submarine come within 800 metres of each other, took place in early October but is only coming to light this week, says the Navy Times, which calls itself "an independent source for news and information for the navy community."

The Navy Times says that at around 8 a.m. PT on Oct. 12, the USS Kentucky ballistic-missile submarine had its periscope above water, but was otherwise hidden below the surface when it turned onto a new course that was blocked by a cargo ship.

The submarine's commanding officer, concerned about a trawler, ordered a change of course, but neither he nor the officer of the deck looked through the periscope to check if the course was clear.
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