In the news

Joe Biden, the vice president, told a gathering of Pennsylvania political leaders in New York that Congress has a moral and economic imperative to offer a pathway to citizenship for illegal aliens, adding that many of them “are already Americans,” regardless of whether they’re in the country legally.

Kyle Robert Richard

of Yukon, Okla., has been arrested and is awaiting a hearing in federal court after the FBI said the 27-year-old robbed the Yukon National Bank while wearing “an old woman’s mask with what appeared to be a nun’s habit.”

Ralph Mercado

of New York City was hospitalized and police say he is in stable condition after he fell onto the tracks in front of a subway train at Union Station in Manhattan and survived by diving into the deep roadbed between the rails as the trainpassed over him.

Ronald McMorris, 65, who has non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and leukemia and was too weak to travel to Hammond, La., to watch his son graduate from Southeastern Louisiana University, saw Brad McMorris receive his diploma after university President John Crain made the 30-minute drive to Colyell for a ceremony at the family’s home.

Ursula von der Leyen, 55, who has served under German Chancellor Angela Merkel as a minister for families and labor, will become the country’s first female defense minister when the new government takes office Tuesday.

Monika McCoy, the 42-year-old daughter of Houston McCoy, the police officer who in 1966 fatally shot University of Texas Tower sniper Charles Whitman to end a mass shooting that left 16 people dead and 32 others wounded, said she’s pursuing a childhood dream by joining the Austin Police Department.

Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the top State Department representative for Africa, said during a visit to Somalia that the U.S. wants to see the Somali government do more to protect its most vulnerable people, particularly women.

William Koch, the billionaire from Florida, testified in Manhattan federal court that he bought 219 bottles of wine worth $2.1 million from Rudy Kurniawan, who is charged with counterfeiting the bottles of highpriced wines and selling the fakes to wealthy collectors.

Michelle Bachelet, who served as Chile’s president from 2006-10, has been elected to another term after defeating former Finance Minister Evelyn Matthei in a runoff.

Front Section, Pages 1 on 12/16/2013

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