A sordid Christmas tradition leaves a straw goat engulfed in flames for the 22nd time. Police spokeswoman Margareta Olander says that officers received reporting that the goat was ablaze.

In a page straight out of the stupid criminals book, a shoplifter in Indiana gave police an unusual trail with which to track him - a meat trail. According to police, Johnny McCray stole 19 packages of meat from Lance's New Market. After an officer spotted the man and tried to stop him, McCray took off tossing meat out of the window as he drove down the street.

Health authorities in northern Brazil are dealing with a wave of vampire bat attacks that are infecting humans with the deadly rabies virus. In the last two months, 23 people have contracted rabies from bat bites and have subsequently died. Brazilian authorities say this latest outbreak is unusually serious, blaming deforestation in the Amazon region for the attacks.

Pennsylvania Game Commission officials believe a drier spring helped improve poult production, but the large mast crop may keep birds disbursed, making the hunt more challenging when the fall wild turkey season opens Oct. 29. Hunters should expect to find increased age diversity among wild turkeys for the fall season, unlike 2004, when several consecutive years of reduced poulty production led to reductions in local populations statewide.

Inmates at Canada's Headingley Correctional Center are no longer allowed to have tea after jail officials discovered they were using the bags to make cigarettes. Smoking was banned at the facility two years ago.