In the news
Toby Passmore of Chandler, Ariz., called for help when his Scottish schnauzer cornered a cat in a tunnel dug by a giant tortoise but got stuck, prompting firefighters to arrive with shovels and a backhoe so the dog, dirty but unharmed, could be pulled to safety.
Stephanie Bohlen,a U.S. diplomat who works at a consulate in Brazil, was shot in the foot during an attempted robbery as she and a companion drove on a coastal road near a vacation town east of Rio de Janeiro, authorities said.
Jaroslaw Kaczynski, 68, leader of Poland’s ruling party, was accused of trying to distract voters from a contentious overhaul of the country’s judicial system by being seen reading a book about wild and domestic cats during a session of Parliament.
George Nellans, 43, was arrested on drug charges at the airport in Nashville, Tenn., when he arrived to pick up a bag that police said contained 44 pounds of marijuana that had gone unclaimed a day earlier from a flight from Seattle.
Toni Johnson, elections commissioner in Hinds County, Miss., said that low voter turnout wastes taxpayer money, since the county has to order enough paper ballots for 60 percent of registered voters but then has only 25 percent of them turn out for an election.
Zachary Merriam, 21, of Pittsford, Vt., pleaded innocent to a domestic-assault charge after police said that he clubbed his mother with a rifle during an argument over whether she was stealing meat from a deer he had shot.
Brett Reynolds, 36, of Whitehall, N.Y., who let an 8-year-old sit in his lap and steer while he worked the pedals, was arrested after he left the child crying outside a house with a broken arm and rib, a punctured lung and head injuries after the car hit an embankment and then a tree, police said.
Markus Hellstrom, bakery division chief for a Finnish food company, said his countrymen “are known to be willing to try new things” in describing a new “insect bread” for which each loaf contains about 70 farmraised house crickets that are ground up and added to the flour.
Christopher Murphy and Michael Colotti, two Stoneham, Mass., police officers, are being praised for their “calm and professional response” in helping a woman in labor deliver a healthy boy on Thanksgiving Day after realizing she wasn’t going to make it to the hospital.