CALIFORNIA
Korea War soldier’s remains come home
Sixty-three years after Army Sgt. 1st Class Joseph E. Gantt went missing in action during the Korean War, his remains were returned to his 94-year-old widow in a solemn ceremony at Los Angeles International Airport before dawn Friday. Clara Gantt wept as she stood in the cold before the flag-draped casket that was carried from a jetliner by military honor guard. “He told me if anything happened to him he wanted me to remarry. I told him no, no. Here I am, still his wife,” she said. Joseph Gantt was reported missing in action on Nov. 30, 1950. After a 1953 exchange of prisoners of war, returning U.S. soldiers reported that Gantt had been injured in battle, captured by Chinese forces and died in a POW camp in early 1951 of malnutrition and lack of medical care. His remains were only recently identified.
NEW YORK
SUV assault charges to be reduced
Top charges are likely to be reduced against an off-duty undercover NYPD officer and nine other bikers charged in the highway beating of a SUV driver. A prosecutor told a state Supreme Court judge Friday in Manhattan he’d move to lessen the first-degree assault and gang assault charges because the victim’s injuries were healing. Those charges require permanent disfigurement. Assistant District Attorney Joshua Steinglass says the bikers will instead likely face attempted assault and attempted gang assault charges. That means the men could face up to 15 years in prison instead of 25.
INDIANA
Santa-dressed soldier surprises mom
A soldier surprised his mother Friday with an early return home, masquerading as Santa Claus while she sat on his lap at a school staff Christmas breakfast while she gave a wish list of gifts. When Prairie Heights High School math teacher Kim Harris told Santa her son had returned from a tour in Afghanistan and was at Fort Campbell, Ky., he asked her if she was sure of his whereabouts. Army Spc. Ethan Harris then pulled down his fake beard and revealed his identity, eliciting a hug and tears from his mother. “This tops the list and couldn’t be a better Christmas,” Kim Harris said.
CALIFORNIA
Feds killing invasive barred owls
An experiment to see if killing invasive barred owls will help the threatened northern spotted owl reverse its decline toward extinction is underway in the forests of Northern California. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said Friday that specially trained biologists have shot 26 barred owls in a study area on the Hoopa Valley Indian Reservation northeast of Arcata, Calif. Contractors go to an area that barred owls are known to be in, play a digital caller to attract them, and shoot the birds with a shotgun.
MEXICO
Gunships used in resort battle
Two government helicopter gunships opened fire on 10 vehicles fleeing a luxury beach condo complex during this week’s gun battle at the Gulf of California resort of Puerto Penasco, Mexican authorities said. New details emerged about the raging gun battle that ensued after federal forces tried to capture a reputed top lieutenant of the Sinaloa drug cartel who was staying at a beachfront villa. Mexico’s federal police said late Thursday that two government Blackhawk helicopters fired on at least 10 vehicles as they tried to flee the complex with drug cartel operator Gonzalo Inzunza. Federal police said late Thursday that an analysis of blood stains found in the vehicles show that Inzunza was among those killed or wounded.
NIGERIA
Mass wedding used to push Islamic ideals
Islamic religious authorities married 1,111 couples at a mass wedding aimed at combating rising rates of divorce, births out of wedlock, and the number of impoverished widows and divorcees forced to make a living on the streets in Muslim northern Nigeria. Thursday’s wedding in Kano city comes as the Hisbah Board responsible for Shariah law has been clamping down. Thousands have been arrested in recent months for improper dress, selling alcohol, prostitution and indecent mixing of the sexes. At one recent ceremony, a bulldozer crushed 240,000 bottles of beer.
UGANDA
Tough anti-homosexual bill passed
Lawmakers on Friday passed an anti-gay bill that calls for life imprisonment for certain homosexual acts, drawing criticism from rights campaigners who called it “the worst in the world.” The legislations sets life imprisonment as the penalty for gay sex involving an HIV-infected person, acts with minors and the disabled, as well as repeated sex offenses among consenting adults, according to the office of a spokeswoman for Uganda’s parliament. The bill also prescribes a seven-year jail term for a person who “conducts a marriage ceremony” for same-sex couples. President Yoweri Museveni must sign the bill within 30 days for it to become law.
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