Christmas miracle: Mom who thought son dead finds him 12 years later in France

A Scottish woman is celebrating a Christmas miracle after learning her son, whom she believed was dead for over a decade, is still alive and may soon return home. 

"I can’t believe it," Joyce Curtis, who lives in Glasgow, told The Herald newspaper. "I thought with COVID and everything that has gone on, I thought he was dead. I grieved for him."

"When I got the call to say he was alive I just went into shock," she continued, saying she cried all day after learning the news. "Then, of course, I phoned my mother and I phoned my brother and I phoned my daughter to tell them."

"Everyone is asking after him now. Nikky is a good boy. The feeling is that I still can’t believe it."

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Curtis filed a missing person report in 2009 after not hearing from her son, Nicholas, for some time: He had traveled to Europe to find work, and she had last heard that he was hitchhiking across Spain and France. 

The British Consulate in Paris contacted the Curtis family in 2010 to inform them that their son was in a hospital. The couple flew over to France to visit him – the last time they would see him until 2022. 

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Curtis believed it was clear that her son had spent time "living rough" on the streets of Paris.

After that, Nicholas just "disappeared again," even though the consulate said it would put him on a flight back to the U.K. 

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"I was expecting him home at Glasgow at a certain time," Curtis explained. "I worked at the Southern General Hospital at the time. I was waiting on him coming home and there was no sign."

Curtis said she called every airport to see if her son had gotten on a flight, but got no confirmation and heard nothing further for over 10 years – until the week of Christmas 2022. 

Curtis lost her husband back in June of this year and resigned herself to the idea that her son was gone, too, when she received a call from the British Consulate in Paris to learn that her son had been hospitalized again. 

"It's like that film 'Miracle on 34th Street.' It's like a miracle," she said. 

She has started to make arrangements for his return, but she does not want to build her hopes up until he is back in Scotland. She even hopes to visit Paris, so she might see him once again before his return.

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COVID in Beijing 'peaks' as hospitals, funeral homes fill up

Coronavirus cases in Beijing have allegedly peaked as the city comes back to life after China lifted its strict COVID-policies earlier this month, though hospitals and funeral homes are telling a different story reports said Wednesday. 

"Beijing is the first city to have gone through the infection peak, where life and work are coming back to normal as we speak," Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Webin told reporters Wednesday. "Relevant Chinese departments have made scientific assessments of the potential peaks in other provinces and cities."

China reported three new COVID-related deaths Tuesday, a slight increase from the one death reported Monday. However, reports have long suggested that the Chinese government has underreported its case and mortality count since cases first broke out three years ago. 

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In its latest daily update – last posted on Saturday – China’s National Health Commission said that a total of 5,237 people have died from the virus over the last three years – a figure believed to be grossly underreported. 

The U.S. in contrast has reported over 1 million deaths from the virus.

"Facts are that since COVID began three years ago, the Chinese government has always put the people and their lives above all else," the ministry’s spokesman claimed Wednesday. "Globally speaking, China has had the lowest rates of severe cases and mortality."

China has not only faced international condemnation for its severe COVID policies like forced quarantine in state facilities and massive community lockdowns – which also led to rare nationwide protests – but reports from hospitals, crematoriums and funeral homes suggest they are struggling under large COVID cases loads. 

A Reuters report Wednesday found that the recent reversal of strict COVID policies has meant the virus has spread unchecked, leaving its health system overwhelmed as millions are believed to have been infected. 

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"I’ve been doing this job for 30 years and this is the busiest I have ever known it," one ambulance driver told the publication. 

One worker out of Hauxi Hospital in the city of Chengdu reported being "extremely busy" as long lines queued up outside and inside the emergency room Tuesday night.

Another staff member from the emergency department told Reuters that "almost all" the incoming patients were COVID positive, and the hospital had run out of medications to help treat the virus and were instead forced to just help alleviate the symptoms. 

A funeral home in Chengdu said it was holding 30 to 50 processions a day as smoke constantly billowed from its crematorium. 

"There have been so many deaths from COVID lately," one worker told the publication. "Cremation slots are all fully booked. You can’t get one until the new year."

Wang on Wednesday dismissed reports that China’s COVID policies have failed and claimed, "Western media have deliberately hyped up and even misrepresented China’s COVID policy adjustment."

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Female Iranian chess player competes at tournament without wearing hijab

An Iranian chess player has become the latest sportswoman from the Islamic Republic to participate in an international competition without the country’s mandatory headscarf.

Iranian news outlets Khabarvarzeshi and Etemad, in reports on Monday, said Sara Khadem had competed at the FIDE World Rapid and Blitz Chess Championships in Almaty, Kazakhstan, without the hijab - a headscarf mandatory under Iran's strict dress codes.

Khadem, born in 1997 and also known as Sarasadat Khademalsharieh, is ranked 804 in the world, according to the International Chess Federation website. The website for the Dec. 25-30 event listed her as a participant in both the Rapid and Blitz competitions.

Photos posted by both outlets appeared to show her with no headscarf during the tournament. Khabarvarzeshi also posted a photo of her wearing a headscarf but without saying if it was taken at the same event.

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A second Iranian chess player, Atousa Pourkashiyan, also competed at the event without a headscarf, according to Sky News.

The public defiance comes after months of deadly protests in Iran after the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini who died in police custody in September after being arrested by the "morality police" for not wearing the country’s mandatory headscarf required of females. 

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Women have played a prominent role in the protests, removing, and in some cases, burning headscarves.

In October, an Iranian climber competed without her headscarf at an event in South Korea and was later placed on house arrest by authorities. In December, it was reported that her family home had been demolished.

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Several national sports teams have refrained from singing the national anthem, notably before Iran's opening match at the soccer World Cup. The team sang ahead of their second and third games.

Iranian authorities have cracked down hard on the protests, which they have declared riots fomented by foreign adversaries. The Iranian regime has carried out executions in response to the protests, and it is believed that at least 24 people are currently facing death over their involvement.

According to the activist HRANA news agency, 507 protesters had been killed as of Thursday, including 69 minors. Sixty-six members of the security forces have also been killed.

State officials have said up to 300 have been killed, including members of the security forces.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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Pope Emeritus Benedict is 'very sick,' Pope Francis reveals

Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI is suffering from ill health, Pope Francis announced Wednesday as he finished his weekly general audience.

"I would like to ask all of you for a special prayer for Pope Emeritus Benedict, who, in silence, is sustaining the Church," Pope Francis told attendees.

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He added, "Let us remember him. He is very sick, asking the Lord to console and sustain him in this witness of love for the Church, until the end."

The Holy See Press Office later confirmed the pontiff's announcement and said Benedict has taken a turn for the worse medically, according to a report in Catholic News Agency.

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"I can confirm that in the last few hours there has been a worsening due to advancing age," said Matt Bruni of the Holy See Press Office. "The situation at the moment remains under control, constantly followed by doctors." 

Benedict was elected to the papacy in 2005. He later claimed that he prayed he would not be chosen but was forced to accept what he believed God calling him to service.

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In February 2013, at 85 years old, Benedict became the first pope in centuries to resign from his post.

"I have come to the certainty that my strengths, due to an advanced age, are no longer suited to an adequate exercise," he said at that time.

Despite his optimism, the pope emeritus has expressed exhaustion at the longevity of his own life post-papacy.

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Last year, Prefect of the Papal Household Archbishop Georg Gänswein recounted conversations he has had with the aging former pontiff, noting that no other pope has lived to 94 years of age.

"He tells me, ‘I’m nearly 94 years old, what do you want from me?’ He didn’t expect to live to this age," Gänswein said. "He’s even told me he didn’t imagine it would take so long to travel the distance from the end of his pontificate to meet Saint Peter at the Gate."

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Francis and Benedict have remained close since the changing of the pontificate. The two often dine together and celebrate events such as birthdays in the Papal Apartments.

Reflecting on his own advanced age, Pope Francis has previously warned that the modern world has begun to forget the importance of the elderly, and that society is not sure how to handle citizens' longer lives and advanced ages

"We cannot speak about family without talking about the importance of the elderly among us," Pope Francis said in the announcement. 

He added, "We don’t quite know how to live this new stage of life — there are many plans for assistance for the old age, but few projects for existence."

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Queen's former chaplain warns 'multicultural, multifaith' King Charles III threatens British monarchy

The former chaplain to Queen Elizabeth II warned that the multifaith multiculturalism of King Charles III threatens to destroy his own house and put an end to the British monarchy.

"I think that if this slow movement into multiculturalism and multifaith goes on, we'll lose the monarchy, because in the end, I don't think it will be true to itself," Gavin Ashenden, who served as chaplain to the queen from 2008 to 2017, told British outlet GB News on Sunday.

Ashenden made his comments in response to the king's first Royal Christmas Message since assuming the throne upon the death of his mother in September.

"The problem is that it's a bit like watching a wonderful ship that's hulled beneath the waterline slowly sink, and at some point what you want to do is to stop it sinking and make sure that it floats," Ashenden said. "And I don't think the monarchy can float if it becomes a multicultural, multifaith monarchy."

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Acknowledging King Charles III did "exceptionally well" with his first Christmas address, Ashenden said that British subjects have nevertheless been witnessing "a very slow, gradual shift from being a Christian monarchy to a multifaith one."

"The problem is that you're either defender of the faith or you're not," he said, referencing the oath the British monarch takes to defend the Protestant religion.

The British monarch, among other duties, serves as the supreme governor of the Church of England.

"There's so much about Christianity that is just directly responsible for our way of life in our culture," said Ashenden, who went on to warn that Christians in the U.K. are increasingly marginalized.

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Ashenden, who quit his chaplaincy position in 2017 after condemning recitations of the Koran during an Epiphany service at St. Mary's Cathedral in Glasgow, noted how Christianity is increasingly being pushed out of the public square because of its exclusive claims amid a "serious competition for power."

"So, the problem that we're having at the moment is that Christianity is under assault," Ashenden said. "Now the question is, what does a Christian king do about that? Does a Christian king save Christianity? Does he become defender of the faith, which is what his title really is? Or, as Charles has done with a sleight-of-hand, say, 'No, I'm … defender of all faiths, which means I don't have to defend Christianity.'"

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"If you don't defend Christianity today, we'll lose it from this country," Ashenden added, noting the recent case of a Christian woman who was recently arrested for praying silently outside an abortion clinic in Birmingham.

"The problem we face is a serious conflict of values, and there can't be a solution by just saying, 'Do you know what? All the values are the same, let's pretend everything is nice,'" the former chaplain said. "I don't think nice will cut it."

Ashenden, who ultimately left the Church of England and became a Roman Catholic, also penned an op-ed in the Catholic Herald warning that Christianity in the U.K. "is buckling under the relentless daily assault that an increasingly hostile secularism is directing towards it."

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If King Charles III refuses to stand up for the historic faith of his nation, Ashenden predicted in his article that he will have "sown the seeds of destruction of the House of Windsor."

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FBI 'most wanted' murderer found in Mexico posing as yoga instructor for 12 years: reports

The FBI has reportedly captured one of its most-wanted fugitives in Mexico after discovering he had been working as a yoga instructor for 12 years under a number of false identities.

Students of yoga instructor Leon Ferrara in Guadalajara reported him missing the week before Christmas when he disappeared while walking his two dogs. His friends filed the missing person report only to discover that the man whom they had known simply did not exist according to a report in Spanish newspaper El Pais.

Ferrara was in fact an alias for Jorge Rueda Landeros, a man who had fled the U.S. after allegedly murdering Sue Marcum, an accounting professor at American University in Washington, D.C., in her Bethesda, Maryland home on Oct. 25, 2010. 

Law enforcement found the victim’s body in the basement of her home and initially suspected a break-in and robbery, but quickly focused on Landeros as a prime suspect in her murder. 

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The FBI determined that Landeros met Marcum during a Spanish class he taught, and the pair developed close financial ties, including a life insurance policy which agents identified as a possible motive, according to The Washington Post. 

Marcus Jones, chief of the Montgomery County Police Department, described Marcum’s murder as a "heinous crime" and accused Landeros of the "coldblooded" deed. 

Born in Mexico, Landeros apparently returned there to hide over the next 12 years. He faced charges of first degree murder and unlawful flight to avoid prosecution, landing him on the FBI’s "Most Wanted" list. 

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Landeros told El Pais that he was "innocent … not of everything, obviously, but of what I’m being accused of," adding that he never followed his case in the news at all over the past decade. 

"I didn’t follow anything. Once I disappeared from the radar, I completely forgot about [the investigation]," Landeros explained. "I still have difficulty responding to the name ‘Jorge’ – I hardly have any of him inside of me anymore."

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Landeros told the outlet that he "was not in that place at the time" and that he had instead been in Mexico, explaining that his DNA was in Marcum’s home because he had a "more or less intimate relationship" with her. 

"It was a long time ago, but the last time I saw her, I don’t know if it was weeks before what happened next," he added.

Jones speculated that Landeros may have grown complacent and "over time he thought he would never be caught." 

One of Landeros’s yoga students told El Pais that she was in shock and "grieving" after learning the truth. 

"I feel like I’m grieving. I know León, but I don’t know who Jorge is," she said. "If I ever have the opportunity to sit down with him, I’ll have to ask him a lot of questions."

The FBI did not respond to a Fox News Digital request for comment by time of publication. 

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Russia rejects Ukraine 'peace summit' proposal: 'Diplomacy 404'

Russia on Tuesday rejected Kyiv’s proposal for a United Nations sanctioned "peace summit" by likening it to a computer error and calling it "diplomacy 404."

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba told the Associated Press on Monday that Ukraine wants a peace summit within a two-month time frame and called on UN Secretary-General António Guterres to serve as mediator.

But Kuleba said that while Kyiv will try to win the war in 2023, it does not believe that Russia would take part in the summit.

"Every war ends in a diplomatic way," he said. "Every war ends as a result of the actions taken on the battlefield and at the negotiating table."

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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy proposed a 10-step "peace formula" when addressing the G7 in October which included a war tribunal to hold the Kremlin accountable for war crimes committed in Ukraine.

Increased defense aid from Western allies was also crucial in his plan to end the war, though negotiations with Russian President Vladimir Putin were out of the question.

Ukraine has deemed negotiating with Moscow impossible due to its "ultimatums" and illegal attempts to lay claim to Ukrainian territory, like the four regions Russia annexed earlier this year as well as Crimea, which Russia has occupied since 2014. 

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"What sort of ‘peace summit’ can occur without Russia," Russian First Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN Dmitry Polyansky said according to Russian state-owned news outlet Tass.

Polyansky called the proposal "diplomacy 404" and in turn said it was "very easy" to imagine a summit without Ukraine.

Kyiv argued on Monday that Russia should not even be a part of the UN Security Council and suggested it "illegally" held onto the position after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. 

"Russia has never gone through the legal procedure to be admitted to membership and therefore illegally occupies the seat of the USSR in the UN Security Council," the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said in a statement. "Russia is a usurper of the Soviet Union’s seat in the UN Security Council."

The UN chief has said he will only act as a mediator if both Russia and Ukraine want him to do so. 

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