Baby Jesus thefts abound

Baby Jesus thefts abound

PHILADELPHIA — “Bring Back Baby Jesus and no one will get hurt — God.”

So reads a sign on the ground next to a Nativity scene at Alameda Christian Reformed Church in Alameda, Calif., according to the Alameda Sun. It’s tough to keep the Christ in Christmas when thieves keep stealing him

News reports from all over the country tell of many a missing baby Jesus — even from the town famous for the proposed “Bridge to Nowhere.”

Five were stolen since last weekend in Cape May County, N.J., including one from a funeral home’s display, according to the Cape May County Herald.

In one Cape May Courthouse heist, the entire Nativity scene was taken, except for a broken cradle.

Pennsylvania has had at least five thefts.

Feed him to the lions?

MEXICO CITY — A gardener detained along with more than a dozen members of an alleged drug trafficking ring testified that police threatened him to feed him to lions and tigers during a raid at a Mexico City mansion, a newspaper reported Friday.

The Oct. 16 raid — in which police seized exotic animals from a private zoo at a sprawling estate — has been marred by allegations of abuse and corruption against the police who conducted the operation.

Beauty queen arrested

MEXICO CITY — A Mexican beauty queen arrested in a truck filled with weapons was ordered jailed pending an investigation into possible drug trafficking and gun charges, authorities said Friday.

A judge ordered Miss Sinaloa Laura Zuniga and seven men arrested with her held for 40 days while police decide whether to charge them, the federal Attorney General’s Office said in a statement.

Investigators say Zuniga was dating one of the men, Angel Orlando Garcia, alleged to be one of the leaders of the powerful Juarez drug cartel.

The couple was traveling with six alleged bodyguards in Zapopan, outside Guadalajara, when soldiers stopped their two trucks at a military checkpoint Monday. Inside, authorities found a large stash of weapons, ammunitions and $53,300 in U.S. currency.

13 killed in Iraq jail break

BAGHDAD — Four suspected al-Qaida in Iraq insurgents broke out of jail during a riot Friday that killed six police officers and seven prisoners in the western city of Ramadi, police said.

Maj. Gen. Tariq Yousif, the police chief of Anbar province, of which Ramadi is the capital, said four prisoners escaped from the city’s al-Forsan police station. The U.S. military said it had the same numbers for killed and wounded but said only three escaped.

According to Yousif, the incident started when a prisoner held in a cell with 11 others asked a guard to allow him to go to the bathroom. When the guard opened the cell door, the prisoners pulled him in, grabbed his assault rifle and killed him, then attacked other police.

Rocket kills girls in Gaza

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — A crude rocket fired by Palestinian militants fell short of its target in Israel on Friday, striking a house in the northern Gaza Strip and killing two schoolgirls.

The attack came as Israel sent mixed signals over its plans to respond to continuing Palestinian rocket fire. Israeli defense officials say politicians have approved a large-scale incursion into the territory once rainy conditions clear. But at the same time, Israel appeared receptive to international pressure against an invasion, opening the Gaza border Friday to allow in deliveries of humanitarian aid.

China takes on pirates

GUANGZHOU, China — Chinese warships headed toward Somali waters Friday to combat piracy, the first time the communist country has sent ships on a mission that could involve fighting so far beyond its territorial waters.

The deployment to the Gulf of Aden, which has been plagued by increasingly bold pirate attacks in recent months, marks a major step in the navy’s evolution from mostly guarding China’s coasts to patrolling waters far from home.

The move was welcomed by the U.S. military, which has been escorting cargo ships in the region along with India, Russia and the European Union.

Vindicator wire services