Ryan Loskarn, 35, the fired chief of staff for Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., will live with his parents in Maryland and be electronically monitored while he awaits prosecution on charges of possession and attempted distribution of child pornography.
Kermit Gosnell, 72, a Philadelphia doctor already serving life in prison for killing three babies born alive during illegal abortions, was sentenced to a concurrent 30 years for illegally distributing painkillers, including many later sold on the street by addicts and drug dealers.
The Rev. Frank Schaefer, a United Methodist pastor, vowed in Philadelphia to defy a religious order to surrender his credentials for performing a same-sex wedding, saying church officials will have to defrock him if they want him out of the ministry.
Saad Muhammad Husayn Qahtani, 35, and 48-year-old Hamood Abdulla Hamood were transferred from the Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba to Saudi Arabia as part of a renewed effort to close the offshore U.S. prison.
Scott Brown, 54, the Republican former Massachusetts senator, has sold his Wrentham home and plans to move to New Hampshire, the latest sign that he’s considering a U.S. Senate bid from that state.
Michelle Obama, the first lady, made her annual Christmas visit with patients at Children’s National Health System in Washington and revealed that she now prefers Christmas without snow, after living most of her life in Chicago.
Rep. Henry “Trey” Radel, a freshman Republican from Florida who pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor cocaine-possession charge last month, faces a formal investigation by the House Ethics Committee.
Angela Merkel, the German chancellor who is to be sworn in for a third term today, was involved in a traffic accident on a highway near Berlin but there were no injuries and only slight damage, officials said.
Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt of Sweden said in his Christmas speech that he wants to increase the sentences in Sweden’s pioneering law on prostitution that criminalizes the buyer and protects the prostitute.
Raymond Kelly, New York’s police commissioner, is going into public speaking after he leaves the department at the end of the year and is joining the Greater Talent Network’s speakers bureau.
Front Section, Pages 1 on 12/17/2013