Shezanne Cassim, a 29-year-old U.S. citizen, was one of eight people sentenced to prison in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, after being convicted of defamation for making a satirical video about would-be “gangsta” youth in the Persian Gulf Arab city-state.

Robert McCoy, a 40-year-old man from Hamilton, Mont., pleaded guilty to drug charges after a May 2012 incident in which his daughter handed out marijuana-laced candy on a school bus and that led authorities to discover more of the drug at his home.

Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, referred to Jesus as a “Palestinian messenger” of hope in a Christmas email address, a term officials later clarified was used in a historic context, applying to all those in the Holy Land at the time, regardless of religion.

James Lovell, a retired U.S. astronaut, joined high school students and stood by part of the Apollo 8 spacecraft at Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry to read the words that were delivered from space in a 1968 Christmastime broadcast as he and two others became the first humans to orbit the moon.

Marianus Sae, a district chief in Indonesia, was warned by the national government after he used security officers to block an airport’s runway, because he failed to get a ticket on a fully booked flight.

Ingrid Lederhaas-Okun, a former Tiffany & Co. executive, was sentenced to one year and one day in prison for stealing more than $1.2 million in jewelry from the chain’s Fifth Avenue location in New York by using her position to check out, sell and keep 164 pieces.

Enrico Letta, the Italian premier, pledged to overhaul conditions in Italy’s refugee holding centers after video surfaced of migrants being hosed down naked in the cold to disinfect them of scabies on the southern island of Lampedusa.

Chris Lawrence, the town manager of Vinton, Va., said officials are looking for a better way to scare off nearly 100 vultures than this year’s method of firing booming guns into the air, such as getting a permit to kill one of the birds and then hanging its remains around the others.

Ross Ulbricht, a San Francisco man who was arrested and accused of being behind an online marketplace for illegal drugs, has asked for the return of more than $30 million in bitcoin seized from his computers, saying the electronic currency isn’t subject to civil forfeiture rules.

Front Section, Pages 1 on 12/24/2013