Ohio general getting his brilliance restored

Worn down by pigeons and bad weather, the statue of Civil War Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman on New York City’s 5th Avenue is getting a new coat of gold. “He’s not quite as victorious as he could be,” said an official of the Central Park Conservancy, which oversees the statue. The mounted figure of the Lancaster native, 15 feet 6 inches high, was sculpted in bronze and erected in 1903. It’s the last masterpiece by Augustus Saint-Gaudens.

Norway’s military draft will extend to women

Norway’s parliament has voted overwhelmingly to conscript women into the nation’s armed forces, becoming the first European and first NATO country to make military service compulsory for both genders. “Rights and duties should be the same for all,” said Labor lawmaker Laila Gustavsen, a supporter of the bill. A hundred years ago this month, Norwegian women won the right to vote.

God gone from pledge by U.K.’s Girl Guides

Britain’s Girl Guides have dropped the reference to God from their pledge. Gone is the reference to loving God, replaced by a call to “be true to myself and develop my beliefs.” The new pledge does retain a reference to serving the queen. In 1993, the U.S. Girl Scouts allowed girls to substitute another word for God (such as Allah) in the Girl Scout promise: “On my honor, I will try to serve God and my country."

— From wire reports