Come Christmas and one can find the Virgin Mary, the three kings and a few wayward sheep as the traditional Christmas nativity scene. But the nativity scenes in Spain have a smartly dressed peasant squatting behind a rock with his rear-end exposed. The statuettes of "El Caganer," known as the great defecator in the Catalan language, can be seen on the mantelpieces of collectors, throughout Spain's northeastern Catalonia region.

A private school in Scotland is trying to save the dying art of penmanship by requiring that all its students write with fountain pens. The school's headmaster fears writing longhand will soon be a mere memory due to computers and text messaging, and he's doing what he can to keep it alive.

Firefighters in Ohio were startled when thick smoke and fire at a Dillards department store in Mentor did not stop holiday shoppers from continuing with their shopping. The holiday shopping rush was so intense that firefighters had to block the doors to keep customers from coming in. However, no one was injured in the blaze that occurred on Wednesday, but fire burned circuits of a high-voltage electrical panel near women's dressing. It took fire officials eight minutes to put it out.

A four-year-old boy changed into his Power Ranger costume to defend his family from armed robbers who broke into their home in Durham, North Carolina, it was reported. The News and Observer reported on Friday that two armed robbers entered the home of Stevie Long, 4, by approaching his mother's boyfriend outside of their apartment. The robbers then pushed the boy into the apartment together with his mother Jennifer Long, her five-year-old daughter Mary, a cousin and two others, then pushed them to the floor at gunpoint.

Citizens are calling for a teacher in Florida to be fired after she stuffed the ballot box in a High School election to elect her niece homecoming queen. According to an editorial in the St. Petersburg Times, "Sharion Thurman, a 20-year Gibbs High School teacher, entered an office conference room on Sept. 28 carrying a box filled with ballots marked for her niece. . . A new election had to be held, revealing that Thurman had deposited more than 500 falsified ballots. "