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.