Christmas all over the world - Three Tales to Warm the Cockles!
rknorr
NEW SMYRNA BEACH, Fla. (Reuters) - Detectives investigating the theft of
toys collected for the poor found two dozen missing ones wrapped and
under the Christmas tree of a coordinator of the charity drive, police
said Wednesday.
Donald Arthur Dwyer, 61, who for several years has coordinated
"Toys for Tots" in this coastal town northeast of Orlando, was
arrested Tuesday and charged with grand theft, Gary Davidson,
spokesman for the Volusia County Sheriff's Department, said.
Investigators said thousands of dollars' worth of toys were
missing.
Dwyer allegedly picked up residents' donated toys and kept the
ones he wanted for his family. Dwyer's son and the son's girlfriend
were also arrested, Davidson said. They were accused of taking
toys from the collection center and selling them to their friends and
neighbors.
Residents who knew Dwyer as a community volunteer and a
volunteer firefighter expressed shock and anger.
"Everybody's kind of shocked. I certainly hope that Mr. Dwyer is
not guilty," said Frank Erwin of Halifax Urban Ministries, which
screens applicants for the toys. "But it is a bad thing, because if
you're going to steal, you'd better not steal kids' toys."
About as low as you can get..
LOCKERBIE, Scotland (Reuters) - Burglars took advantage of
the 10th anniversary of one of the world's worst plane crashes to
rob a number of houses around the Scottish town of Lockerbie,
police said Tuesday.
"Police in Lockerbie are investigating a number of housebreakings
which took place Sunday, December 20," Dumfries and Galloway
police said in a statement.
Pan Am flight 103 was blown out of the sky by a terrorist bomb
on December 21, 1988, killing all 259 people on board and 11
on the ground in the sleepy border town of Lockerbie.
Police said articles of jewelry were among the items taken and
asked the public to report any offers of jewelry.
Some 50 foreign visitors, mostly Americans, went to Lockerbie to
spend the anniversary of the 1988 disaster with the local people
who have become their staunch friends. Of the 270 dead, 189
were from the United States.
and finally......
Beware Santa Claus, Paper Tells Readers
HAVANA (Reuters) - Cuba's communist government may have
restored Christmas as a public holiday, but that does not mean
Santa Claus is welcome on the Caribbean island.
An official Cuban newspaper warned readers Monday to beware
the white-bearded Santa figure, beloved by children, as a
potentially threatening symbol of U.S. "consumerism," "cultural
hegemony" and "mental colonization."
In an article in the labor union weekly, Trabajadores, headlined in
English, "Merry Christmas," columnist Eduardo Jimenez Garcia
chided some state-run shops in Havana for decorating with the
symbols of the traditional Northern Christmas.
Jimenez said the Santa Claus figure, the English greeting "Merry
Christmas," Christmas trees and artificial snow were inappropriate
in tropical, socialist Cuba.
Describing Santa Claus as "the leading symbol of the hagiography
of U.S. mercantilism," he said that shops using him for decoration
were extending "a humble help to the expansion of this hegemonic
culture, with its accompanying ethics and ideology."
He added that the Cuban way of celebrating the end of the year,
each from the point of view of his own beliefs," was through
family gatherings that could incorporate "parties, music, jokes, the
cherished pork meat, rum and beer."
ObT: The farts this meal will bring!