Royalty is coming down under – Kids imitate a violent cartoon, the producer is held responsible – The crimes against humanity case against Kenya’s president falls apart – And a dog comes a long way from marked to death to celebrity guest of honor.

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge will visit New Zealand and Australia next April, and it’s likely their baby son, Prince George, will also accompany them.  Prince William has visited before, but Kate has only caught a connecting flight through Brisbane in September 2012, when the pair went to South East Asia and the South Pacific as part of the Queen's Diamond Jubilee celebrations. 

North Korea is threatening to strike the South “without notice” because of anti-Pyongyang rallies this week – the South says it will “sternly react” to any provocation.  Tough guy rhetoric is nothing new to the Korean Peninsula.  But this comes a week after the North announced it had executed Kim Jong-un's politically powerful uncle, who was branded a traitor and stripped of all his powers – leading many to wonder about the stability of the Kim regime.

A Chinese court says the producer of a popular cartoon is partly to blame for a horrific incident in which a kid tied two friends to a tree and set them on fire, imitating a scene from the show.  One boy suffered burns over 80 percent of his body and his brother 40 percent.  The “Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf” show apparently features scenes of graphic violence including characters getting boiled or electrocuted.

The suspension of “Duck Dynasty” star Phil Robertson has become a battleground in America’s “Culture War”.  Some Conservative politicians are rallying around Robertson, who landed in hot water for graphic homophobic and racist comments made during an interview with GQ magazine.  Louisiana Governor Piyush “Bobby” Jindall (who once performed an exorcism.. smh) and Sarah Palin (who was once blessed by a witch doctor.. smdh) endorsed Robertson’s “right” to espouse his bizarre take on religion.  A&E Network is sticking by its right now to be represented by Phil.

The prosecutor at the International Criminal Court (ICC) is asking for an adjournment in the trial of Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta.  One key prosecution witness is no longer willing to testify, another admits to lying under oath.  Prosecutors now say their case “does not satisfy the high evidentiary standards required.”  The trial was due to begin in February.  Kenyatta denied charges of organizing ethnic violence after the 2007 election in which some 1,200 people died.

German prosecutors are seeking a life sentence for 92-year old former nazi Siert Bruins, who is accused of murdering a Dutch resistance fighter Aldert Klaas Dijkema in 1944.  The trial might be the last of its kind in Germany, as Bruins is one of the last Nazis to be detained.  In an earlier case in 1980, Bruins was sentenced to seven years in prison for the murders of two Jewish brothers.

A court in Argentina reversed the acquittals of ten defendants in a human trafficking case that upset the nation.  Marita Veron has been missing since 2002, believed to have been kidnapped from the city of San Miguel de Tucuman and exploited by traffickers in the sex trade.  Her mother Susana Trimarco launched her own investigation, and gave police information to bust the gangs and free dozens of women – but her daughter was never found.  Trimarco also spearheaded the appeal of the acquittals. 

New Mexico is the 17th state in the USA to legalize marriage equality.  The New Mexico state supreme court ruled that the “protections and responsibilities that result from the marital relationship shall apply equally” to same-sex and to opposite-sex couples.  The ruling is specific to the state constitution and cannot be appealed to the US Supreme Court.  Gay rights groups celebrated, opponents had to call the waaaaahmbulance.

A Beagle who became famous for surviving an animal shelter gas chamber will march in the world-famous Rose Parade in California on New Year’s Day.  Daniel, named after the biblical figure who survived the lion’s den, will represent Lucy Pet Foundation which opposes cruel methods of euthanasia such as gas chambers, and helps pet owners spay and neuter the animals to cut down on strays.