| Obama: Honor Christmas by helping those in need Posted: 25 Dec 2013 04:40 PM PST  HONOLULU (AP) — President Barack Obama encouraged Americans to embrace the spirit of Christmas by helping those in need, and offered a special note of gratitude to U.S. troops serving at the expense of a holiday with family and friends.
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| AP Exclusive: Al-Qaida leader targeting UN workers Posted: 25 Dec 2013 02:22 PM PST  BAGHDAD (AP) — The shadowy leader of a powerful al-Qaida group fighting in Syria sought to kidnap United Nations workers and scrawled out plans for his aides to take over in the event of his death, according to excerpts of letters obtained Wednesday by The Associated Press.
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| Obama lauds returning troops in holiday broadcast Posted: 25 Dec 2013 11:49 AM PST  President Barack Obama lauded the "service and sacrifice" of U.S. troops and military families in a holiday radio and Internet address on Wednesday, and he highlighted the service men and women who have returned home over the past year. "For many of our troops and newest veterans, this might be the first time in years that they've been with their families on Christmas," Obama said. "With the Iraq war over and the transition in Afghanistan, fewer of our men and women in uniform are deployed in harm's way than at any time in the last decade." Obama used the Christmas Day broadcast as a chance to call Americans to service in their communities.
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| Christmas Day bombings in Iraq's capital kill 37 Posted: 25 Dec 2013 10:05 AM PST BAGHDAD (AP) — Militants in Iraq targeted Christians in three separate Christmas Day bombings in Baghdad, killing at least 37 people, officials said Wednesday. |
| Christmas and a Tale of Two Popes Posted: 25 Dec 2013 09:57 AM PST  Like Pope Benedict's "Urbi et Orbi" Christmas sermon last year, Pope Francis called for peace at St. Peter's Basilica this morning. Before a crowd of 70,000 worshippers, Pope Francis completed his first Christmas as the leader of the Roman Catholic church by asking for "social harmony in South Sudan" and praying for peace in Syria, Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Iraq. In a more direct manifestation of his social action advocacy, Pope Francis mentioned child soldiers and the plight of migrants, asking that others grant them "acceptance and assistance." He also spoke out against greed and human trafficking, calling the latter a "crime against humanity." Perhaps most significantly, Pope Francis asked atheists and believers to unite. "I invite even non-believers to desire peace.
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| Analysis: As Egypt hardliners gain, scope for conflict grows Posted: 25 Dec 2013 09:12 AM PST  By Tom Perry CAIRO (Reuters) - If there was any hope left that the generals who overthrew Egypt's elected president six months ago might ease the state's crackdown on dissent, a suicide bomb that ripped through a police station on Tuesday may have destroyed it. The army-backed government says it will shepherd Egypt back to democracy and points out that the state defeated Islamist militants when they last launched waves of attacks in the 1990s. The tactic of using suicide bombers to hit security forces is more familiar to Iraq or Syria than to Egypt, which for all its history of militancy is one of the few big Arab states that has never experienced a modern civil war. The blast was claimed by a Sinai Peninsula-based Islamist militant group, Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis, which has stepped up attacks on government targets in recent months and narrowly failed to assassinate the interior minister in September.
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| Christmas bombings kill 34 in Iraq Posted: 25 Dec 2013 08:46 AM PST  By Kareem Raheem BAGHDAD (Reuters) - At least 34 people were killed in three bombings in Christian areas of Baghdad on Wednesday, including a car bomb that exploded as worshippers were leaving a Christmas service, Iraqi police and medics said. Elsewhere in Iraq, at least 10 people were killed in three attacks that targeted police and Shi'ite pilgrims, police said. Iraq is enduring its deadliest violence in years, reviving memories of the sectarian bloodshed between Sunni and Shi'ite Muslims that killed tens of thousands in 2006-07. The day's deadliest incident occurred in the Doura district of southern Baghdad when the car bomb went off as Christians were emerging from a Christmas mass, killing at least 24 people.
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| Market bombing, spate of attacks kill 44 in Iraq Posted: 25 Dec 2013 08:17 AM PST  Attacks, including bombs that exploded in a market near a church in Baghdad, killed at least 44 people across Iraq on Wednesday, officials said. The bloodletting comes as Iraq suffers its worst violence since 2008, when it was just emerging from a brutal period of sectarian killings. "Two roadside bombs exploded in a popular market in Dura, killing 35 people and wounding 56," interior ministry spokesman Saad Maan told AFP, referring to a religiously mixed south Baghdad area. Security officials had initially said that a car bomb targeted the St. John church in Baghdad in addition to the market blasts, but Maan, along with a priest from the area and the Chaldean patriarch, all later denied this.
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| Pope's Christmas wish: hope for a better world Posted: 25 Dec 2013 07:51 AM PST VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis offered Christmas wishes Wednesday for a better world, praying for protection for Christians under attack, battered women and trafficked children, peace in the Middle East and Africa, and dignity for refugees fleeing misery and conflict around the globe. |
| Another dark Christmas for Iraq's Christians Posted: 25 Dec 2013 05:26 AM PST  By Alexander Dziadosz BAGHDAD (Reuters) - It's Christmas in Baghdad, and once again Iraq's Christians are celebrating behind blast walls and barbed wire. At least 34 people died in bomb attacks in Christian areas on Wednesday, some by a car bomb near a church after a Christmas service. On Christmas Eve, the Mar Yousif Syriac Catholic church in western Baghdad looked like a walled fortress. Inside, the red confetti-strewn Christmas tree, bright blue-and-white tile mosaic, and strings of Santa Claus-themed bunting contrasted with drab streets strewn with concrete blocks and barbed wire outside.
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| Atheists, work with us for peace, Pope says on Christmas Posted: 25 Dec 2013 04:45 AM PST  By Philip Pullella VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Francis, celebrating his first Christmas as Roman Catholic leader, on Wednesday called on atheists to unite with believers of all religions and work for "a homemade peace" that can spread across the world. Speaking to about 70,000 people from the central balcony of St. Peter's Basilica, the same spot where he emerged to the world as pope when he was elected on March 13, Francis also made another appeal for the environment to be saved from "human greed and rapacity". Francis's reaching out to atheists and people of other religions is a marked contrast to the attitude of former Pope Benedict, who sometimes left non-Catholics feeling that he saw them as second-class believers. The pontiff also called for dialogue to end the conflicts in Syria, Nigeria, Democratic Republic of Congo and Iraq, and prayed for a "favorable outcome" to the peace process between Israelis and Palestinians.
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| Text of pope's Christmas message Posted: 25 Dec 2013 04:27 AM PST VATICAN CITY (AP) — The Vatican's official English-language translation of Pope Francis' Christmas message, delivered on Wednesday in Italian from the central balcony of St. Peter's Basilica. |
| Middle East Christians being 'massacred': Anglican leader Posted: 25 Dec 2013 03:44 AM PST  Christians in the Middle East are being "attacked and massacred" and driven into exile, the leader of the world's Anglicans said Wednesday in his first Christmas sermon. Justin Welby used his first Christmas Day address as Archbishop of Canterbury to remember those suffering for their faith in the cradle of Christianity. "Today, singing of Bethlehem, we see injustices in Palestine and Israel, where land is taken or rockets are fired, and the innocent suffer," he told the congregation at Canterbury Cathedral in southeast England. "We see injustice in the ever more seriously threatened Christian communities of the Middle East.
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| Bomb attacks on Christians in Baghdad kill 37 Posted: 25 Dec 2013 03:40 AM PST  BAGHDAD (AP) — Militants in Iraq targeted Christians in two separate bomb attacks in Baghdad on Wednesday, killing at least 37 people, officials said.
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| Bomb attacks on Christians in Baghdad kill 22 Posted: 25 Dec 2013 02:50 AM PST BAGHDAD (AP) — Militants in Iraq targeted Christians in two separate bomb attacks in Baghdad on Wednesday, killing at least 22 people, officials said. |
| Officials: Car bomb kills 15 near Baghdad church Posted: 25 Dec 2013 01:59 AM PST BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraqi officials say a car bomb went off near a Baghdad church during Christmas Mass, killing at least 15 people. |
| Christians increasingly under threat Posted: 25 Dec 2013 12:56 AM PST  Thousands of Christians are killed every year because of their faith and the persecution is becoming more widespread, Catholic observers said as Christmas celebrations are increasingly marred by attacks in at-risk countries. Pope Francis addressed the killings in a recent interview saying there was "an ecumenism of blood", meaning that Christians of all denominations including Catholic, Protestant and Orthodox are targeted. "The narrative about Christianity in the Western mind is that a Christian is rich, powerful and has massive political influence," said John Allen, a Vatican expert and author of the new book "The Global War on Christians". Out of around 2.3 billion Christians in the world, between 9,000 and 100,000 people are said to be killed because of their religion every year.
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