On Monday, a Maine court sentenced a former Greek Orthodox priest convicted of sexually abusing a child to serve six-and-a-half years of a 12-year prison sentence. It also sentenced Adam Metropoulos of Bangor ME to three years of probation and ordered him to register as a sexual offender. A court convicted Metropoulos last month on four counts of sexual abuse of a child. He also pleaded guilty to child pornography charges. A former acolyte at St George Greek Orthodox Church said that the 53-year-old Metropoulos had sexually assaulted him, when he was a teenager. The man, now 23, testified that he often pretended to be asleep during the assaults. The victim said in an impact statement read by a friend that Metropoulos “stole my life”. Metropoulos apologised in court and expressed fear of prison.
This past weekend , a traditional pre-Christmas Santa run took place in Tokyo (Tokyo Prefecture. Greater Tokyo Area. Kantō Region) JAPAN. Some 500 Tokyo residents dressed as Santa Claus participated in a 2.5-kilometre charity run at a local park.
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Vitor Martins from São Paulo (São Paulo State. Southeast Region) BRAZIL has more than 90 percent of his body covered in tattoos, some of them in reference to Christmas. However, that doesn’t prevent him from working as Santa Claus.
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One of Berlin’s entertainment agencies hosted an event with a Santa Claus “flying” 98 metres (322 feet) above a hotel in the German capital.
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Metropolitan Cathedral of the Nativity of Saint Mary in Milano (Milano Province. Lombardia Region) ITALY is the fourth-largest in Europe, after St Peter Basilica in the Vatican, St Paul Cathedral in London, and Seville Cathedral. It’s the largest Gothic cathedral and the third-largest church in the world.
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Last weekend, model and television personality Holly Madison dressed as Santa Claus; she appeared at a street performance in Las Vegas (Clark County. Las Vegas-Henderson-Paradise MSA) NV USA
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A traditional Christmas parade for four-legged Santas was held in Loughborough (Leicestershire. East Midlands Region) ENGLAND UK.
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In São Paulo (São Paulo State. Southeast Region) BRAZIL, a man wearing a Santa Claus costume rode the metro to celebrate the Christmas season.
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Skiers and snowboarders dressed as Santa Claus participated in a charity race down a slope at the River Ski Resort in Newry (Oxford County) ME USA.
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According to the event organisers, 250 skiing Santas raised some 3,000 USD (165,000 Roubles. 18,670 Renminbi. 190,000 INR. 3,490 CAD. 3,690 AUD. 2,450 Euros. 1,925 UK Pounds) for charity at the event.
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In South Korea, divers dressed in Santa Claus costumes have a tradition of swimming in an aquarium in Seoul before Christmas.
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Santa Claus, also known as St Nicholas or Father Christmas, is a cultural figure with legendary, folkloric, and historic origins. In many Western cultures, Santa Claus is believed to bring presents to the homes of good children the night before Christmas.
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Some 800 participants dressed as Santa Claus took part in the fourth annual Santa Claus running competition in Michendorf (Kreis Potsdam-Mittelmark. Bundesland Brandenburg) GERMANY.
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Generally, depictions of Santa Claus show him as a portly, joyous, white-bearded man wearing a red coat with white collars and cuffs, white-cuffed red trousers, and a black leather belt and boots. He carries a bag full of gifts for children.
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Local artist Ed Terrel from Reading (Berks County. Philadelphia-Reading-Camden CSA) PA USA created a giant Santa Claus costume. Days before Christmas, the artist put on the costume as he walked through the city streets in the evening.
On Monday, police arrested 52-year-old Fr Adam Metropoulos, a priest at St George Greek Orthodox Church, on charges of violation of privacy and possession of sexually explicit material. Bangor police said that they started investigating on Saturday when a woman complained that she thought that someone photographed or video recorded her without her permission or knowledge. District Attorney Chris Almy confirmed that Metropoulos faces charges of possessing child pornography. Metropoulos is in custody at the Penobscot County Jail on 10,000 USD (385,000 Roubles. 61,400 Renminbi. 609,000 INR. 11,000 CAD. 11,200 AUD. 7,800 Euros. 6,140 UK Pounds) bail and we couldn’t reach him for comment, nor could we determine if he has a lawyer. He’s been a priest since 2001 and used to teach high school chemistry.
A judge ordered a Greek Orthodox priest held on 100,000 USD (3.85 million Roubles. 614,000 Renminbi. 6.09 million INR. 110,000 CAD. 112,000 AUD. 78,000 Euros. 61,400 UK Pounds) bail on a charge of possessing child pornography. On Wednesday, Deputy District Attorney Mike Roberts said that police originally began investigating 52-year-old Fr Adam Metropoulos when a woman complained that he’d photographed or videotaped her without her knowledge whilst she was showering in the priest’s parish-owned home in Bangor ME. Roberts told WZON-AM that Metropoulos acknowledged having child pornography on his computer, as well as having had inappropriate contact with a teenager in the past. Metropoulos, arrested on Monday, was suspended from his duties at St George Greek Orthodox Church. He wasn’t required to enter a plea Wednesday and we couldn’t reach him at the Penobscot County Jail.
This guy had a conviction for a sex offence in Michigan in 1983 and his bishop said that he was unaware of the conviction. The good word has it that won’t lessen the pay-out for a settlement if the gal sues…
BMD
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A potentially record-breaking snow storm brought the northeastern USA to a grinding halt and left nine dead. Thousands lost power amidst flight cancellations and a nuclear plant shutdown, as authorities declared states of emergency in five states. A blizzard dumped record snow of 97 centimetres (38 inches) in parts of Connecticut as it continued blowing through Boston and the rest of New England on Saturday. Life was returning to normal in New York City, where up to 31 centimetres (12 inches) of snow fell. New York airports reopened earlier Saturday, after being closed for nearly a day. New York MayorMichael Bloomberg said, “We were very lucky. We avoided the worst of it”.
In neighbouring Massachusetts, snow tapered off in the afternoon after reaching around 60 centimetres (24 inches), and authorities lifted a state-wide ban on all driving after 24 hours. Instruments recorded wind gusts of 120 kilometres an hour (75 miles per hour) through the night at Boston’s Logan International Airport, which wasn’t expected to reopen before late Saturday. On Cape Cod, the hook-shaped Massachusetts peninsula jutting into the Atlantic, waves up to 6 metres (20 feet) high crashed onto beaches. Jane Miller, a resident of Nantucket Island off the coast of Massachusetts, told reporters, “This has been like a hurricane with snow”. She said that the island was spared heavy snowfall, but surging tides prompted the local government and Red Cross to open a shelter at a high school for people living near the coast who wanted to evacuate. Coastal flooding was particularly bad along Massachusetts’ southern mainland coastline, a stretch that was also hit in the October hurricane-turned-superstorm Sandy. The US Postal Service suspended service in seven states.
In New York State, media reports said that a car that skidded out of control struck a female pedestrian, and a man died in a tractor rollover while clearing his driveway. A Massachusetts 12-year-old died of carbon-monoxide poisoning when he sat in the family car to warm up after helping his father shovel snow. Named Blizzard Nemo by the Weather Channel, the storm’s heavy snow and terrifically-high winds toppled trees, causing caused power outages for more than 600,000 people across Massachusetts, New York, Maine, Connecticut, and Rhode Island. Some 400,000 blacked out electric customers were in Massachusetts alone, where the Boston Globe published a photo of total storm whiteout with the headline: “Blown Away”. Late Friday, power outages caused a shutdown of the Pilgrim nuclear power plant in Plymouth MA, according to a local radio station.
According to the National Weather Service, parts of Connecticut appeared to have received the heaviest snowfall, ranging up to 97 centimetres (38 inches) in Milford and 91 centimetres (36 inches) in other areas. The coastal town of Portland ME received a record 74 centimetres (29 inches) of snow. A news crew for CNN reported that the doors of their satellite truck had frozen shut overnight on Cape Cod, and it took them an hour to reopen them. Wind whipped snow drifts more than a metre (40 inches) high in Boston. A city worker told the DPA that it was the worst storm since 1978, when a 36-hour blizzard killed 100 people in Massachusetts and neighbouring Rhode Island. In the 1978 blizzard, hundreds of cars were stranded in the snow, and some drivers froze to death along interstate highways. More than 5,000 flights were cancelled since Friday, and, at its height, the storm shut down all rail traffic from Philadelphia to Boston. The governors of Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, and Maine declared states of emergency.
Prime News reported that Russian airlinesAeroflot and Transaero plan to maintain scheduled flights to New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport on Saturday despite anticipating huge snow falls from snow-storm Nemo. Nemo, which hit the northeastern USA on Friday evening, is expected to be one of the most powerful in the history of New York. Over 4,700 flights were cancelled across the USA due to the storm. Aeroflot said, “There’ve been no changes to our timetable”, whilst rival Transaero reported, “departure is expected as normal”, for its morning flight to New York. Meanwhile, the weather was also making life hard in Moscow, where pedestrians and drivers woke on Saturday to find the city covered in a slippery coat of glass-like ice after freezing rain fell overnight, causing accidents on several main highways into the capital.
New England braced on Thursday for a possibly record-setting winter storm, with forecasts of up to 2 feet (61 centimetres) of snow already causing airlines to cancel thousands of flights and utilities to prepare for power outages. The storm was blowing in from the Midwest where it began dropping snow on the Chicago area on Thursday afternoon. It was due to bring light snow to the Northeastern USA on Friday morning before ramping up to blizzard conditions by afternoon. Alan Dunham, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service, said, “This one doesn’t come along every day. This is going to be a dangerous winter storm. Wherever you need to get to, get there by Friday afternoon, and don’t plan on leaving”.
In Boston, which was expected to see some of the heaviest snowfall, on Friday, Mayor Thomas Menino ordered the city’s schools to close and urged businesses to consider allowing staff to stay home, to reduce the risk of commuters getting stranded. Menino told reporters, “We’re hardy New Englanders, let me tell you, and used to these types of storms. But I also want to remind everyone to use common sense and stay off the streets of our city. Basically, stay home. Stay put after noontime tomorrow”.
City officials up and down the northeastern USA were bracing for the storm, readying fleets of ploughs and salt trucks to keep streets clear, whilst airport officials advised travellers to try to reschedule flights ahead of the storm. The National Weather Service said Boston could get 18 to 24 inches of snow (46 to 61 centimetres) on Friday and Saturday, its first heavy snowfall in two years. Light snow is expected to begin falling around 07.00 EST (04.00 PST 12.00 UTC 16.00 MSK 23.00 AEST) on Friday, with heavier snow and winds gusting as high as 60 to 75 miles per hour (97 to 121 kilometres per hour) as the day progresses. Kim Buttrick, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Taunton MA said, “It’s the afternoon rush-hour time frame into the evening and overnight when the height of the storm will be”. Cities from Hartford CT to Portland ME expected to see at least a foot (31 centimetres) of snow.
There was little disruption here in Albany NY, even though it’s at the geographical centre of the Northeast and it’s the transportation hub of the region (all major roads and trunk rail lines in the Northeastern USA converge on Albany). There was a snow emergency declared by Mayor Jerry Jennings, but he cancelled it before it took effect, as so little snow has fallen. We took a lovely motor through the lower Adirondacks this afternoon after services, and there was little snowfall as far north as Lake George (75 kilometres (46 miles) from Albany). The Lake George Winter Carnival was in full swing, with no problems due to the weather (the Carnival runs during the weekends of February… so, if you’re in the region, check it out). It was a fairly-comfy -5 (23 degrees Fahrenheit), with no biting winds (trust me… it can get MUCH more nastier than that in this neck of the woods; it was a balmy winter day by my lights). My Nicky bought a bumper sticker with three bears on it… so, it was a good adventure. No, we didn’t “suffer” in the least. We had no power outages, no heavy snows, and no disruption to normal life. We lucked out.
BMD
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