In the news

Dylan Gowens, 5, whose family lost their Galena, Kan., home in a fire last month, and is living in a Joplin, Mo., hotel, was the victim of a Grinch who stole Christmas presents for the boy from a mini-storage unit his mother was renting.

Emperor Akihito

of Japan in an address on his 79th birthday sympathized with the elderly in the country’s northern region and encouraged them to keep exercising after rehabilitation from heart surgery in February has helped him get in shape.

Bob Clark

and Norma Clark, who took their vows in August 1964, finally obtained a marriage license with their maid of honor and an usher as witnesses after they learned while getting their end-of-life documents in order that the Hall of Records in San Mateo County, Calif., had no record of their48-year-old nuptials.

George H.W. Bush, 88, the 41st president, who was hospitalized Nov. 23 for treatment of a bronchitis-related cough, remains in stable condition at a Houston hospital because he needs to “build up his energy,” according to a hospital spokesman, but could be released in time for Christmas.

Myron H. Thompson, a federal judge for the Middle District of Alabama, ruled in favor of a group of HIV-positive inmates who argued in a class-action lawsuit that they had been stigmatized and denied equal access to educational programs by Alabama’s policy of housing HIV-positive inmates in separate prisons, away from other inmates, to reduce medical costs and stop the spread of the virus.

Jacob Zuma, the president of South Africa, visited the ailing Nelson Mandela, 94, who previously held the post, in a Pretoria hospital and later encouraged citizens to pray for the antiapartheid leader as he heals from a Dec. 8 gallstone surgery and a lung infection.

Andrew Mitchell, the ex-chief whip of the U.K.’s Conservative party, wrote in The Sunday Times that a police report alleging he called police officers “morons” and “plebs” - a term of abuse for working-class people - that led to his resignation was based on lies.

Front Section, Pages 1 on 12/24/2012

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