In the news

■ Keith Fye, executive director of the Christmas in Ice sculpture park in North Pole, Alaska, said the Yulethemed event has been canceled for the first time in its 14-year history because there isn’t enough pond ice for the carvers to harvest.

■ Hammed Akande, 39, was indicted on federal mail and wire fraud counts in what prosecutors called a “romance scam” that cost a Missouri woman he met on an online dating site more than $20,000 when he repeatedly asked for financial assistance, including a business opportunity in Ukraine.

■ Tilli Buchanan, 27, a Utah woman charged with misdemeanor lewdness after her three stepchildren saw her topless in her own home as she and her husband hung drywall, is fighting the law, saying it is unfair because it treats men and women differently for baring their chests.

■ Jean-Christophe Gerard, a veterinarian for the Saint-Martin-la-Plaine Zoo in southeastern France, warned that a red panda that escaped by climbing branches broken by snowfall and swinging from tree to tree, “has good claws and good teeth” and shouldn’t be hugged.

■ Amanda Ramirez, 27, of Camden, N.J., convicted of fatally stabbing her identical twin, Anna, during a drunken street fight, was sentenced to six years in prison for manslaughter.

■ Justin Shorey, 37, of Schertz, Texas, faces up to five years in federal prison after pleading guilty to shining a laser at a San Antonio Police Department helicopter, blinding the pilot, who landed safely, but leaving him unable to fly for a week, prosecutors said.

■ Justin Mangrum, reportedly spotted on a camera security system by a Nashville, Tenn., homeowner who was at work and alerted police, tried to hide in the attic but was caught and arrested when he hurt himself falling through the ceiling and onto the kitchen floor.

■ Meredith Lowell, 35, was arrested on assault charges, accused of stabbing a woman who she thought was wearing fur boots to a church choir practice in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, sending the victim to a hospital, police said.

■ Vincent Champion, 55, said he was confused and angry when he was temporarily barred from entering the Universal Studios theme park in Orlando, Fla., because the front of his long-sleeved T-shirt read “retired police officer” and park officials worried he’d be confused for a working officer.