Santa is speeding through his Christmas deliveries, but a sheriff in Ohio had to stop him on Saturday for “flying a little too fast” with Mrs Claus through Fulton County.
“No coal was issued – just a friendly reminder that even sleighs need to slow down,” the sheriff said.
Vitaly ShevchenkoBBC Monitoring Russia editor
Francisco Richart/SOPA Images/LightRocketFifty-two residents of a Ukrainian village have been taken to Russia by invading forces in a cross-border raid on the village of Hrabovske, authorities in Kyiv say. Thirteen Ukrainian soldiers were also captured in the border village in the northeastern Sumy region.
The attack occurred at night on Saturday, when about 100 Russian troops attacked the village, said Viktor Trehubov, a spokesman for Ukraine’s military Joint Forces Task Force.
The civilians were first rounded up in a church and then taken across the border to Russia, he told the BBC.
It was unusual for invading forces to take civilians to Russia before establishing a firm presence in occupied territory, he added.
Russia has so far not commented on the fate of civilians from Hrabovske, but reports from Ukraine indicate they may have been taken to Belgorod, a major regional centre about 50 miles (80 km) inside Russia.
“My friends’ mother has been taken there. There is no way of contacting her even though they tried,” said Volodymyr Bitsak, a member of the Sumy regional council. “As far as I know, they’ve been taken to the city of Belgorod and are being held at an unknown location.”
Lt-Col Trehubov told the BBC on Tuesday evening that fighting was still ongoing in the southern part of Hrabovske, but Deep State, a Ukrainian website monitoring the battlefield situation, said later that the village had been captured by Russian forces.
The defence ministry in Moscow said on Tuesday that Ukrainian forces had been “hit” at Hrabovske and several other villages in Sumy region.
Meanwhile, in the eastern region of Donetsk, the Ukrainian military said it had withdrawn troops from the embattled town of Siversk “to preserve the lives of our soldiers”.
Russia’s capture of the town brings its forces closer to the Donetsk “fortress belt cities” of Sloviansk and Kramatorsk, about 35km (21 miles) to the west.
Ukrainian authorities have been working to move civilians away from parts of the Sumy region bordering Russia. But Viktor Babych, a deputy head of the Sumy regional administration, says 56% of residents in border areas are refusing to be leave, and 32,000 civilians including 604 children remain there.
Most of the 52 civilians captured in the cross-border raid on Hrabovske were elderly people who had refused official evacuation orders.
“It was a smash and grab,” said Lt-Col Trehubov. “They quickly rounded everyone up and quickly removed them. This had never happened before. We had never had such raids before.”
However, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said children had been captured too.
“I’m surprised there were children. I’m simply surprised that parents treated their children like that,” Zelensky told reporters. “I think they simply did not expect to be taken [to Russia] by Russian military.”
The vast majority of civilians had already been evacuated from the village, whose pre-war population is reported to be about 700 people.
Ukraine’s ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets says the civilians “were held incommunicado and in improper conditions” by Russian troops invading Hrabovske before being taken out of Ukraine.
“Such actions are a serious violation of international humanitarian law. They violate the laws and customs of war by unlawfully detaining and forcefully deporting civilians,” he says.
Venezuela has accused the United States of the “greatest extortion” at an emergency session of the UN Security Council in New York.
Washington’s seizure of two Venezuelan oil tankers was “worse than piracy,” the Venezuelan ambassador to the UN said.
The emergency meeting of the Security Council was called to discuss the seizure of the tankers, which took place off the coast of Venezuela earlier this month.
The US has also said it was pursuing a third Venezuelan oil tanker.
President Trump has accused Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro of leading a drugs cartel and said gangs had operated with impunity for too long.
On 16 December, Trump ordered a naval blockade of all sanctioned oil tankers entering and leaving Venezuela. The US president has said the US will keep or sell the crude oil contained on tankers it has seized, as well as the vessels themselves.
The US has deployed 15,000 troops and a range of aircraft carriers, guided-missile destroyers, and amphibious assault ships to the Caribbean.
The stated aim of the deployment – the largest to the region since the US invaded Panama in 1989 – is to stop the flow of fentanyl and cocaine to the US.
The US has also targeted more than 20 vessels in the Pacific and the Caribbean in recent months, killing at least 100 people, as part of President Trump’s campaign against gangs he accuses of transporting drugs in the region.
Some experts say the strikes could violate laws governing armed conflict.
Venezuela’s envoy to the UN said the US was subjecting his country to the “greatest extortion” in its history.
Speaking at the UN Security Council meeting on Tuesday, Samuel Moncada said “we are in the presence of a power that acts outside of international law, demanding that Venezuelans vacate our country and hand it over.”
Regarding the US seizure of Venezuelan oil, he added: “We are talking about pillaging, looting and recolonisation of Venezuela.
“The government of the United States does not have jurisdiction in the Caribbean.”
Referring to the Venezuelan oil industry, he said: “What does that have to do with drugs?”
In response, the US Ambassador to the UN, Michael Waltz, told the Security Council the US does not recognise Mr Maduro as the legitimate leader of Venezuela.
“Maduro’s ability to sell Venezuela’s oil enables his fraudulent claims to power and his narco-terrorist activities,” Mr Waltz said.
On a visit to a trade fair in Caracas, President Maduro said “the Security Council is giving overwhelming support to Venezuela.”
Russia and China accused the US of bullying and aggression.
The US was “illegally destroying” civilian vessels in the Caribbean Sea, the Russian ambassador to the UN, Vassily Nebenzia, told the UN meeting.
He warned that other countries could be next.
The US actions against Venezuelan vessels, he said, were “a template for future acts of force against Latin American states.”
Meanwhile, China’s envoy to the UN, Sun Lei, called on the US to “immediately halt relevant actions and avoid further escalation of tensions.”
