Putin believes in Santa ‘like all decent people do’

Russian President Vladimir Putin holds his annual press conference in Moscow on December 17, 2015. AFP PHOTO / NATALIA KOLESNIKOVA / AFP / NATALIA KOLESNIKOVA(Photo credit should read NATALIA

Russian leader Vladimir Putin

(Image credit: AFP/Getty Images)

Vladimir Putin has told a child he believes in Father Christmas as “all normal, decent people” do. During a “highly choreographed visit” to a youth conference, the Russian president was asked by the teen whether he believed in Father Frost, the Russian equivalent of Father Christmas, reported The Telegraph. “Of course I do,” said Putin. “All normal, decent people believe in Father Frost.”

Sheriff deputy breaks up fight between hawk and snake

A sheriff’s deputy in Florida was forced to break up a fight between an injured hawk and a long black snake, reported UPI. The Alachua County Sheriff’s Office said that when the deputy responded to a report of an injured hawk on a sidewalk near Gainesville, he arrived to find the hawk had a black snake wrapped around its body. Nick Aldous said both the hawk and the snake were okay once they were disentangled from one another.

Mannequin causes obscenity panic

When cops in Kentucky were called to the scene of a man allegedly exposing himself outside a home they discovered it was just an “elaborate tribute to a beloved Christmas movie”, said Fox News. The item was just a mannequin belonging to a National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation movie super-fan. The mannequin was dressed as the Cousin Eddie character and was brandishing nothing more sinister than a hose.