A US police officer who was called out to arrest a family suspected of shoplifting instead bought them some food so they could have a decent Christmas dinner.

Matt Lima was called to a food store in Somerset, Massachusetts, last month, a police statement said .

Two women were reported not to be scanning all of their groceries.

When questioned, the family said they had fallen upon hard times and could not afford to pay for all the food.

They had still wanted to give the children a Christmas dinner.

Mr Lima served them with a “no trespass” order, but did not press charges as all the items on the shopping receipt were for food, police said.

He then bought them gift cards worth $250 (£180) with his own money so the women and their two children would be able to buy food for their Christmas dinner at another shop of the same chain.

“The two children with the women reminded me of my kids, so I had to help them out,” Officer Lima said.

“Obviously, this family was in need and I can’t imagine having to make the decision to go to Stop and Shop [the food store] and just only pay for what I can afford – or do I go there and try to take things for Christmas dinner for the kids?” he told local TV .

Veteran broadcaster Larry King has tested positive for coronavirus and is being treated at a hospital in Los Angeles, according to US media.

Sources close to his family told ABC News and his former employer CNN that he has been at Cedars-Sinai Medical Centre for over a week.

In a career spanning over 60 years, King has multiple accolades, including two Peabody Awards and an Emmy.

He has faced several health problems in recent years, including heart attacks.

Representatives for King, 87, have not publicly commented on his hospitalisation, and details of his current condition are unclear.

“Larry has fought so many health issues in the last few years and he is fighting this one hard too, he’s a champ,” a source told CNN.

News of his hospital treatment was first reported on 1 January by entertainment outlet Showbiz 411, which noted that he was being treated in isolation and was unable to receive family visits.

King rose to fame in the 1970s with his radio programme The Larry King Show, on the commercial network Mutual Broadcasting System.

He was then the host of Larry King Live on CNN, between 1985 and 2010, holding interviews with a host of guests, including politicians, athletes, entertainment figures, and conspiracy theorists.

He also wrote a column for the USA Today newspaper for over 20 years.

Most recently, King hosted another programme, Larry King Now, on Hulu and RT, Russia’s state broadcaster.

During his career, the interviewer has faced multiple problems with his health, including diabetes, angina, heart attacks and lung cancer.

Two of his five children also died last year within weeks of each other – one from a heart attack, another from lung cancer.

In 1988 he founded the Larry King Cardiac Foundation, a charity which helps to fund heart treatment for those with limited financial means or no medical insurance

Two men convicted over the assassination of the Democratic Republic of Congo’s President Laurent Kabila 20 years ago have been pardoned.

Although Mr Kabila was shot by his bodyguard, two of his senior officials, Col Eddy Kapend and Georges Leta, were implicated in the killing.

President Félix Tshisekedi commuted their death sentences last June.

The pardon comes amid a rift between Mr Tshisekedi and his predecessor, Laurent Kabila’s son Joseph.

Joseph Kabila took power after his father’s death in 2001 and ruled DR Congo for 18 years before Mr Tshisekedi won the election in December 2018.

Although it was the first peaceful transfer of power in the country in nearly 60 years, many disputed the election result. There were strong suspicions that the new president had done a backroom deal with Joseph Kabila, who still retains considerable clout in the country.

President Tshisekedi’s office said a presidential pardon applied to everyone sentenced to 20 years in prison who had served their sentences by 31 December.

Giscard Kusema, of the presidential press team, told AFP news agency that Col Kapend and some of his co-accused “benefit from the presidential pardon…. which is a measure of a general scope and of an impersonal character”.

Col Kapend was Laurent Kabila’s right-hand man. He was found guilty of having been the mastermind of the assassination, along with several other members of the late president’s security team, including the then intelligence chief Georges Leta. Both men denied any part in the plot.

The pardons come just a few weeks after President Tshisekedi ended his coalition with Mr Kabila’s party – which holds a majority in parliament – following years of increasing tension.

The president is currently seeking new coalition partners that would give him a majority in parliament

A third body has been found in the search for the missing following a massive landslide that destroyed homes in Norway, police have announced.

Local media report that it was found on Saturday within hours of the second body.

Seven people remain missing following the hillside collapse that sent mud into the village of Ask on Wednesday.

The first body was found on Friday amid a major ground and air search of the area in Gjerdrum municipality.

Police Chief Ida Melbo Øystese told a news conference that while neither the “forces of nature” or time were on their side there was still a possibility they might find survivors.

She said there may be air pockets inside some of the buildings buried in the mud that may allow people to survive for a number of days.

“And as long as we have specific work tasks that must be done to be able to provide greater certainty about the decision on how long we will last, we will continue,” she said.

I am sure you remember the great fashion designer that died some days ago, Pierre Cardin. The renowned French fashion designer Pierre Cardin has been buried at a private ceremony in Paris.

Cardin – who died on Tuesday at the age of 98 – was laid to rest at the city’s Montmartre Ceremony.

The black coffin was adorned with a sword of his own design, the blade resembling a pair of scissors intertwined with the eye of a needle, a thimble and a spool of thread.

He was interred with his former partner Andre Oliver, who died in 1993.

Born Pietro Costante Cardin in 1922, the Italian moved to France as a child and became a naturalised citizen.

During his more than 70-year career he revolutionised fashion, helping to usher in a “golden age” of couture after World War Two with his modern style.

Israel has given vaccinations against coronavirus to more than one million people, the highest rate in the world, as global immunisation efforts step up.

Israel has a rate of 11.55 vaccination doses per 100 people, followed by Bahrain at 3.49 and the UK at 1.47, according to a global tracking website affiliated with Oxford University.

In comparison, France had vaccinated 138 people in total by 30 December.

More than 1.8m people have now died of the virus around the world.

The comparative figures on vaccination are put together by Our World in Data, which is a collaboration between Oxford and a UK-based educational charity.

They measure the number of people who have received a first dose of the coronavirus vaccine. Most of the vaccines approved for use so far rely on two doses, given more than a week apart.

The US fell far short of its target of vaccinating 20 million people by the end of 2020, with just 2.78 million having received a jab by 30 December.

Meanwhile, India is staging drills of its vaccine roll-out, ahead of an expected approval by the national regulator next week

An illegal warehouse rave that began on New Year’s Eve in France in defiance of coronavirus precautions has been shut down by police after arrests and clashes.

Some of the 2,500 ravers in Lieuron near Rennes in Brittany had planned to party until Tuesday.

Police issued fines to revellers found leaving and the organisers were being identified as the party ended.

A number of party-goers were from the UK and Spain, police said.

Attendees clashed with police, setting fire to a car and throwing objects at officers attempting to shut the event down. At least three officers were injured.

A driver was apprehended with turntables, speakers and a generator in the boot of the vehicle, according to French TV station BFM TV.

Police trying to stop the event faced “fierce hostility from many partygoers”, a statement from local authorities said.

But at 05:30 local time on Saturday the ravers began to accept the party was over and started to leave the two disused warehouse hangars, the local prefecture said.

Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin said on Twitter that trucks, sound equipment and generators were seized at the scene and an investigation has been opened.

More than 1,200 fines were issued for non-compliance with the curfew, not wearing a mask and attending an illegal gathering, Mr Darmanin said.

A body has been found shortly after rescuers and dog handlers began a risky ground search for 10 people missing in a hillside collapse in Norway.

Initially it was thought too dangerous to send rescuers on to the site, after flowing mud sent homes toppling into a giant chasm in the village of Ask.

Helicopters and drones spent two days searching the scene.

But on Friday police commander Roy Alkvist said one or two houses appeared safe to enter.

Rescuers, who included a Swedish specialist team, began moving into the danger zone on Styrofoam boards. The bright orange boards were laid down on the mud in a domino-effect as rescuers tried to reach one of the wrecked homes, which are 25km (15 miles) north-east of the capital Oslo.

A missing Dalmatian dog was rescued on Thursday and police believe there is still a chance survivors could be found.

However, on Friday afternoon an air ambulance helicopter landed near the site and police said a body had been found at 14:30 (13:30GMT) without giving further details.

Prime Minister Erna Solberg said her thoughts went out to the victim’s family, and to those waiting for news of the other nine people who were missing

Chinese authorities have given conditional approval for general public use of a coronavirus vaccine developed by state-owned drugmaker Sinopharm.

The move came a day after the firm said interim data showed its leading vaccine had a 79% efficacy rate in phase three trials, without providing more details.

Several Chinese-made vaccines at a late trial stage are already in use in China after being granted emergency licences.

The pandemic emerged in the central Chinese city of Wuhan in December 2019.

It has since spread around the world, but China has managed to bring infection rates down to very low levels through strict anti-virus measures.

The search for the source of the coronavirus has led to tensions with the West. The US – among a number of other countries – raised questions about whether China was fully transparent when the virus first emerged there.

Thursday’s announcement concerning the vaccine made by the China National Pharmaceutical Group, or Sinopharm, is China’s first general approval of a homemade jab – and it is being seen as potentially a major step towards inoculating the world’s largest population.

Italy has condemned Egypt’s decision to rule out charging five state security officers over the torture and murder of an Italian student near Cairo.

Earlier this year Italian prosecutors named four suspects believed to be behind the death of Giulio Regeni.

But this week Egypt’s public prosecutors said there was insufficient evidence against the group.

Egyptian authorities have previously denied that any of their officials were involved in Regeni’s kidnap and murder.

They have suggested other explanations – including that he was the victim of a robbery by a criminal gang, or a gay crime of passion. Italian officials have dismissed these theories.

Mr Regeni, a Cambridge University student, had been researching independent trade unions, a sensitive issue in Egypt.

His murder has caused a diplomatic row, with Italian prosecutors accusing Egyptian officials of trying to mislead the investigation.

Earlier this year, Egypt’s public prosecutor said it was “temporarily closing” its investigation, with Mr Regeni’s killer “still unknown”.

On 1 December, Italian prosecutors formally accused four suspects over Mr Regeni’s death – Gen Tareq Sabir, Col Ather Kamal, Maj Magdi Sharif and Col Hisham Helmy.

But on Wednesday Egyptian public prosecutor Hamada al-Sawy said he had “ruled out” out charging the group, along with a fifth officer.

Mr al-Sawy also said there was no intention of pursuing a criminal case “because the perpetrator is unknown.”

In a statement, Italy’s foreign ministry called the decision “unacceptable,” and said it would “continue to act in all forums, including the European Union, so that the truth about the barbaric murder of Giulio Regeni can finally emerge.”

The PhD student disappeared on a research trip on 25 January 2016 – the fifth anniversary of the start of the uprising against former President Hosni Mubarak, meaning there was a heavy police presence in Cairo.

His body was discovered on 3 February in a ditch by the side of a road. His mother told the Italian parliament in 2018 that her son’s body was so disfigured that she was only able to identify him by the tip of his nose.

An Italian post-mortem examination found that Regeni had been tortured “in stages” between 25 January and the day of his death

About 900 migrants from South Asia and other regions are struggling in bitter cold temperatures at a burned-out camp in Bosnia-Herzegovina after being denied proper shelter.

They remain at Lipa, a camp gutted by fire last week in the country’s north-west, amid a dispute over moving them to a military barracks.

They had been hoping to reach Croatia.

A migrant from Pakistan called Zahur told Reuters TV they had spent “36 hours [in the] bus, waiting… Does Bosnia government [have] no solution?”

The EU and aid agencies have warned of a humanitarian crisis as the migrants lack basic necessities, amid arguments between Bosnia’s central and local authorities.

A joint statement from the UN’s International Organization for Migration (IOM), Save the Children and other aid groups said “the buses never left the site, following a deadlock in decision-making processes at different levels of authorities, and local population protests”.

The Lipa emergency camp, near the town of Bihac, “lacked the most basic conditions for hosting people in winter”, the statement said.

After its closure last week “hundreds of people spent the following week in the open at the Lipa location, in freezing temperatures, without access to basic facilities”.

Residents forced to leave Lipa, which was set up to provide temporary shelter during the Covid-19 pandemic, looted equipment and set fire to tents, police said last week.

The IOM said the blaze started minutes after the camp’s closure and almost 3,000 migrants were now in dire need of humanitarian aid near Bosnia’s border with EU member Croatia.

In recent years thousands of people, including refugees from the conflicts in Afghanistan and Syria, have entered Bosnia hoping to get asylum in the EU by crossing into Croatia. However, many have been forced to remain in Bosnia.

The EU has given the Bosnian authorities €60m (£54m; $74m) to manage the crisis and pledged €25m more, but bureaucratic hurdles remain, Reuters reports.

Samuel Little, a man described by the FBI as the most prolific serial killer in US history, has died aged 80.

Little died in a California hospital on Wednesday, the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation said.

He was serving a life sentence for the murder of three women. But by the time of his death, he had confessed to killing 93 women between 1970 and 2005.

Little targeted vulnerable individuals, many of whom were sex workers or drug users, officials say.

A former competitive boxer, Little would knock his victims out with punches before strangling them – meaning that there were not always obvious signs, like stab or bullet wounds, the person had been murdered.

Instead many deaths were incorrectly determined to be overdoses or accidental and were never investigated. Some bodies have never been found, the agency said.

Last year, the FBI said its analysts believed all of his confessions were “credible”.

They also released images of the victims he drew while in prison in an attempt to trace those he killed.

Little was arrested in 2012 on a drugs charge in Kentucky and extradited to California, where officers carried out DNA testing on him.

He already had an extensive criminal record, with offences from armed robbery to rape across the US.

The DNA results linked him to three unsolved murders from 1987 and 1989 in Los Angeles County. He pleaded not guilty at trial, but was eventually convicted and sentenced to three consecutive life sentences, with no chance of parole.