Thousands turn out for community lunches

THOUSANDS of Sydney-siders who would otherwise be alone for Christmas will spend the festive season celebrating with their communities.

More than 600 people - including a few famous faces - turned out for the Wayside Chapel Christmas lunch in King's Cross.

Blaxland resident Stephen South has attended the lunch and church service for four years.

"I don't have any family and this is my family," Mr South told AAP.

"On a day like today, if you don't have family it's really hard."

The Wayside Chapel's 200 volunteers provided 80 turkeys, 40 hams, 700 mince pies and 140 bags of potatoes for the day.

Actress Claudia Karvan made her third visit to the street party this year, and actor David Wenham attended.

"I can't stay away - it just puts a smile on my face that stays there for the whole day," Karvan said.

"It totally encapsulates the spirit of Christmas, I think.

"The open-heartedness, the generosity of the day, the inclusiveness - everyone from all different walks of the community, whether you're sleeping rough or wealthy and isolated, it doesn't matter, you can come down here."

Between Christmas singing, Wayside chief executive Pastor Graham Long said the day was about people not being alone.

"Don't be alone and miserable," he said.

"Come and be miserable with us."

In Ashfield, more than 3000 people were expected at the Exodus Foundation's free Christmas lunch on Liverpool Road.

Volunteers prepared 65 hams, 50 turkeys, 400 kilograms of potatoes, 200 kilograms of green veggies, 400 kilograms of pumpkins, 1300 litres of gravy, 2500 mini puddings and 330 litres of custard.

"You can imagine, we've been preparing for this for months," Reverend Bill Crews said.

Santa Claus will give presents to needy children and adults.

"All these presents have been donated, which is another example of how generous Sydney-siders are," Rev Crews said.

At Redfern's Australian Technology Park, the Salvation Army hoped to feed 1200 of Sydney's less fortunate and disadvantaged.

"Every year we're humbled by the generosity of the over 150 volunteers who give up part of their Christmas Day to bring joy, hope and happiness to those who would otherwise go without," Salvation Army spokeswoman Robyn Evans said.

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Locals help out after Grinch steals gifts

Generous people have been dropping off gifts for two Victorian families whose gifts were stolen. Source: AAP

GENEROUS people have been playing Santa and dropping off gifts for two Victorian families whose gifts were stolen from under their Christmas trees.

Police at Wodonga near the Victoria-NSW border are calling the thefts "an unthinkable act of heartlessness".

But they say they have been overwhelmed by the number of donated presents that have been arriving at the police station throughout Christmas Day.

The Salvation Army also gave presents to the children at one of the homes.

"The occupants of the houses were asleep and realised all their gifts were missing when they went to open them this morning," a police spokeswoman said.

The two homes are on different streets, Wilca Way and Hartwig Road, on the southern end of the town.

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'Santa Claus' shot in US with pellet gun

A US man is recovering after being shot in the back with a pellet gun while wearing a Santa suit. Source: AAP

POLICE say a man dressed as Santa Claus delivering toys in southeast Washington, DC was popped in the back with a pellet gun as he walked down the street.

Video posted on the WJLA-TV website shows the man waving and walking down the street and exclaiming, "This is awesome."

He starts to say "Merry Christmas" when suddenly he turns around, shouts in pain and says he's been shot in the back with a pellet gun.

The man is recovering in hospital.

In the video he says he is glad no one else was hurt.

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Abduction alert cancelled for QLD boys

POLICE have cancelled an abduction alert issued after two young boys were taken from a home near Brisbane.

Police said the boys, aged 3 and 4, were taken by a 30-year-old man on Christmas Eve.

However, on Wednesday night police cancelled the child abduction alert after receiving information from the public.

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Man stabbed, woman left unconscious

A man has been found stabbed and a woman found unconscious, in Sydney suburb of Guildford. Source: AAP

A MAN has been found with stab wounds to his neck and a woman has been found unconscious in Sydney's west.

Police were called to a house on Woodville Road, Guildford, just after midday on Tuesday after reports of a man and woman fighting in the yard of the premises.

The man was found with stab wounds to his neck while a woman, aged in her mid-20s, was found unconscious.

The man's age is not known.

Both were treated at the scene by NSW Ambulance Paramedics and taken to Westmead Hospital.

Their condition is not yet known, police say.

Police are investigating the circumstances surrounding the incident, while a crime scene has been established on Woodville Road with two southbound lanes closed.

They will be examined by specialist forensic officers.

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A very merry Christmas for Aussie shops

THE Christmas clock is ticking, and the tills have been ringing.

Last-minute shoppers have helped push Australian retailers towards what's tipped to be their biggest Christmas since the global financial crisis hit.

Australian National Retailers Association (ANRA) CEO Margy Osmond says the overall spend in the four-week run-up to Christmas this year is expected to hit $29.6 billion.

"We think Australian retailers will probably have the best Christmas they've had for four or five years," she told AAP on Tuesday.

She said the last-minute rush had favoured the big retailers.

"A lot of the specialty stores have done much better this Christmas but there's no doubt in the last couple of weeks it's the department stores that are the big winners because it's the place you can go and tick every box all in the one spot," Ms Osmond said.

Residents in smaller states - the Northern Territory, the ACT, Tasmania - had generally gotten their Christmas shopping out of the way early, while their counterparts in NSW and Victoria were more likely to have left it till the last minute.

Kevin Finch was looking harried in Sydney's CBD on Tuesday evening, ticking off the people he was still buying for.

"My mother, my father, some family friends, and my grandma," he told AAP.

"Stupidly, I thought today would be a bit quieter."

He said he wouldn't be venturing out for the Boxing Day sales on Thursday, but keen bargain-hunters can get in earlier than that.

In a break with tradition, department store David Jones has already launched its post-Christmas sale online, while the Myer online sale will kick off at 9am (AEDT) on Wednesday.

ANRA's Margy Osmond is expecting a 5.6 per cent boost on post-Christmas sales figures from a year ago, with an expected $1.9 billion spend on Boxing Day alone.

Retailers predict stores around the country will take in more than $15 billion over the next three weeks, with the bulk of that likely to be spent on Boxing Day.

Australian Retailers Association executive director Russell Zimmerman told AAP he expects "a huge number of people" to head for malls around the country when the bricks-and-mortar sales start on Thursday.

But Mr Zimmerman didn't think the lure of early sales online would take away from the familiar frenzy seen in department stores on the day.

"There's a real atmosphere around Boxing Day sales, it's full of people, it's full of excitement and noise and generally speaking there's entertainment around," he said.

"You may well find that people will be encouraged to come out, they'll think it might not be quite so busy as it's been in the past because of the online sales, but I suspect it will be just as busy."

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Indon official in trouble over plane rage

AN Indonesian official has allegedly ordered his staff to prevent a plane landing because an airline refused to free up a seat for him.

Marianus Sae, the head of Ngada district in East Nusa Tenggara province, is being sought for questioning in relation to the incident, police said Tuesday.

When Sae was told there were no seats left on the Saturday morning flight from the provincial capital Kupang to his district's Turelelo Soa airport, he phoned his security officials there and ordered them to put their cars on the runway, the Kompas.com news website reported.

Unable to land, the flight operated by state-run domestic operator Merpati Nusantara was forced to return to Kupang, local news reports said.

"We have questioned several people involved and are awaiting the permission of the governor to question the district chief," provincial police chief Ketut Yoga Ana said.

The alleged action "clearly violated the law" and was punishable by up to three years in prison, he said.

Home Affairs Minister Gamawan Fauzi said Sae had endangered the lives of the people on board.

Sae said he "begged them for a seat because I had an important meeting with district council but the flight was fully booked. I explained to them I was the district chief but they ignored me," he was quoted as saying by Kompas.com.

The airline said it had rebuked its employees for refusing to issue a ticket for the district chief.

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Police officer punched, spat on

Three men have been arrested after a police officer was punched and spat on in Sydney. Source: AAP

A POLICE officer has been punched and spat on and three men arrested following a fight in Sydney's southeast.

A scuffle started outside a bar on Botany road in Botany on Monday night when police tried to remove a patron from the bar.

Police allege a 22-year-old man punched an acting sergeant in the head and spat on him before running from the pub.

He was caught a short time later.

Police arrested another two men, aged 36 and 40.

They were all taken to Redfern Police Station where the 22-year-old was charged with two counts of assault occasioning actual bodily harm to police.

He was refused bail and will appear in Central Local Court today.

The two other men were both charged with assaulting police and were granted bail to appear in the Downing Centre Local Court on January 13.

The acting sergeant suffered a cut to his head and was taken to Prince of Wales Hospital for treatment.

Two other officers involved were not hurt.

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Rock bottom price: Stolen ring auction

The ring up for auction at graysonline. Picture: graysonline.com Source: Supplied

AN auction for a $27,000 ring recovered from an accused jewel thief is just hours from ending but has so far failed to reach even half of its value.

Crown Family Jewellers spokeswoman Francesca Antonaglia-Monteverde said proceeds from the auction for the 1.53-carat yellow diamond would go to the Leukaemia Foundation.

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The ring up for auction at graysonline. Picture: greysonline.com

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The latest bid has now hitched the price of the 1.53-carat yellow diamond ring to $13,250 - only $250 more than the previous offer.

The bid, made from Victoria, is only the 11th offer made on the ring.

The majority of earlier bids were from Queensland residents, however there have also been bids from New South Wales and Victoria.

"This is a unique ring," Ms Antonaglia-Monteverde told The Courier-Mail.

"From the mine to the jeweller to the cutters to the designers, down someone's throat."

The ring was returned to the store by police after David Watts underwent a colonoscopy earlier this month.

Police allege he stole two rings from Crown Family Jewellers at Indooroopilly in November. One of the rings was accidentally thrown out while Watts was in custody.

The auction at graysonline.com ends tonight at 8pm.

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Wellbeing higher for widows than couples

When it comes to marital status, widowed people have the highest levels of wellbeing, a survey says. Source: AAP

WIDOWED people are reporting higher levels of wellbeing than married couples, while women aged 18 to 29 are the unhappiest age group, a survey shows.

National wellbeing deteriorated to 63.5 points in the last three months of the year, down from 64.4 points in the previous quarter, according to the National Australia Bank Wellbeing Index.

When it comes to marital status, widows and widowers had the highest levels of wellbeing while singles had the lowest, the survey of 2,100 Australians showed.

"In particular, mental wellbeing, feeling part of the community and physical health are significantly stronger contributors to the wellbeing of widows when compared to married couples," NAB economists said.

Those with no children reported higher levels of wellbeing than those with children, while the highest earners - those on $100,000-plus - were happier than those on lower incomes.

Overall, wellbeing was highest in South Australia and the Northern Territory and lowest in Tasmania, due to a sharp increase in anxiety over the quarter.

Those in regional cities reported the highest levels of wellbeing, compared with people in capital cities and rural areas.

When it comes to age, women aged 18 to 29 reported the lowest levels of wellbeing while women aged 50-plus reported the highest levels.

"The most important influences on positive wellbeing include personal relationships, your home and personal safety," NAB economists said.

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