Subscribe | UPI Odd Newsletter Subscribe Minneapolis top literate city, survey says NEW BRITAIN, Conn., Dec. 24 (UPI) -- Residents of Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minn., are well-read, judging by the Twin Cities' top-five showings in the America's Most Literate Cities survey. Advertisement Minneapolis led the list of most literate cities in the 2008 version of the survey conducted by Central Connecticut State University in New Britain. Sandwiched between Minneapolis and Minnesota's capital city were Seattle and Washington, the university said on its Web site. Rounding out the top 10 literate cites were San Francisco, Atlanta, Denver, Boston, St. Louis, Cincinnati and Portland, Ore. The study ranks cities of at least 250,000 based on six indicators of literacy -- newspaper circulation, number of bookstores, library resources, periodical publishing resources, educational attainment and Internet resources, the university said. John W. Miller, Central Connecticut State University president, is the author of the study. Advertisement Thief gives away stolen Christmas trees WEST ST. PAUL, Minn., Dec. 24 (UPI) -- A holiday version of Robin Hood allegedly stole Christmas trees from an outdoor lot in West St. Paul, Minn., and plunked them down in area yards, police said. John Christian Bradley, 36, was arrested on suspicion of theft after eight trees were reported stolen from the lot and showed up in the front yards of area homes, the St. Paul Pioneer Press reported Wednesday. "He was in the holiday giving mood but didn't want to pay for them," West St. Paul police Lt. Brian Sturgeon said. Police said they didn't think twice when they first saw Bradley hauling a tree down the street last week. But when a tree lot attendant reported the theft, officers caught Bradley -- who admitted filching the fir -- tree-handed in the front yard of a nearby home, the Pioneer Press said. Officers said they suspect Bradley stole trees in seven other yards as well. A breath test administered when Bradley was arrested indicated he had been drinking, police said. "He said he was going to give everybody a Christmas tree and that no one can sell Christmas," Sturgeon said. Advertisement Fake heart attack stops home invasion EXETER, England, Dec. 24 (UPI) -- A 54-year-old British woman stopped a violent home invasion by three armed men by faking a heart attack, her husband says. Graham Eaton of Ashington, England, said his wife, Lesley, reacted to the presence of three men in their remote home by faking a heart attack and collapsing to the floor, The Daily Telegraph reported. Eaton said the unidentified invaders immediately fled the scene, but not before beating him with a baseball bat and smashing his wife's eye with a pistol. "I can look after myself but I will never forgive them for what they did to my wife," said Eaton, who was tied up during last Friday's 30-minute robbery. "I just want to get revenge for that and want to meet them man to man and see what they are really made of." Eaton credited his wife's impromptu heart attack with saving both their lives from the criminals, who fled with some cash and Christmas presents. "Lesley started to make out that she wasn't breathing properly so I caught on and said she had a heart condition," he told the Telegraph. Canada declares Santa Claus a citizen Advertisement OTTAWA, Dec. 24 (UPI) -- Santa Claus has been declared a Canadian citizen with fully authorized re-entry rights, the country's citizenship minister announced in Ottawa. In a formal statement, Jason Kenney, the minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism, declared the legendary Christmas gift-giver "Canuck" status, the Canwest News Service reported. "The Government of Canada wishes Santa the very best in his Christmas Eve duties and wants to let him know that, as a Canadian citizen, he has the automatic right to re-enter Canada once his trip around the world is complete," Kenney's statement said. The report noted Santa's traditional red and white attire matches Canada's flag colors, and said the North American Aerospace Defense Command Santa tracker always shows his trip beginning in the Canadian Arctic. The joint Canadian-U.S. NORAD has issued real-time tracking of Santa's worldwide Christmas trek for more than 50 years and posts his progress at www.noradsanta.org.
