| Pope, on Christmas Eve, urges world to be open to God Posted: 24 Dec 2014 02:38 PM PST  By Philip Pullella VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Francis ushered the world's 1.2 billion Roman Catholics into Christmas on Wednesday, urging them to allow God to enter their lives to help combat darkness and corruption. The 78-year-old Argentine pope led a solemn Christmas Eve Mass for thousands of people in St. Peter's Basilica. It is the second Christmas season for the pope, who was elected last year as the first non-European pontiff in 1,300 years. ...
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| Pope urges 'tenderness' as millions fete Christmas Posted: 24 Dec 2014 02:33 PM PST  The pope led Christmas Eve mass in the Vatican on Wednesday calling for "tenderness" and "warmth" after a violence-plagued year as millions of Christians began marking the holiday. The Argentine pontiff's brief homily was replete with Gospel references in his Christmas Eve mass, broadcast live in 3D for the first time. "Do we have the courage to welcome with tenderness the difficulties and problems of those who are near to us?" Pope Francis asked in Saint Peter's Basilica, filled with some 5,000 worshippers.
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| IS captures Jordanian pilot after plane crashes over Syria Posted: 24 Dec 2014 02:09 PM PST  The Islamic State group captured a Jordanian pilot Wednesday after his warplane from the US-led coalition crashed while on a mission against the jihadists over Syria. A senior Jordanian military official said the pilot was taken hostage by the "IS terrorist organisation" in its northern stronghold region of Raqa. Both the jihadists and activists reporting to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the plane was hit by an anti-aircraft missile. US Central Command, the body overseeing the coalition air war over Iraq and Syria, gave no reason for the "crash", and confirmed IS militants had taken the lost jet's Jordanian pilot captive.
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| Pope celebrates Christmas Eve Mass and calls Iraqi refugees Posted: 24 Dec 2014 01:25 PM PST  VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis celebrated Christmas Eve with a late-night Mass Wednesday in St. Peter's Basilica and a phone call to some Iraqi refugees forced to flee their homes by Muslim militants.
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| Islamic State captures Jordanian pilot after warplane crashes in Syria Posted: 24 Dec 2014 01:24 PM PST  By Suleiman Al-Khalidi AMMAN (Reuters) - Islamic State fighters took a Jordanian pilot prisoner after his warplane came down in northeast Syria on Wednesday, the first captive taken from the U.S.-led coalition battling the jihadi group. Jordan's armed forces said one of its pilots had been captured after a coalition air raid over the province of Raqqa. There were contradictory accounts as to whether his aircraft had been shot down or not. "Jordan holds the group (IS) and its supporters responsible for the safety of the pilot and his life," said a statement read out on state television. ...
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| Pope offers Christmas phone greetings to Iraqi refugees Posted: 24 Dec 2014 01:23 PM PST  Pope Francis spoke by telephone to Iraqis living in a displaced people's camp near the main Kurdish city Arbil on Wednesday, assuring them they were in his Christmas thoughts. The refugees were among those driven from their homes around Mosul last summer in an offensive by the jihadist Islamic State group (IS), and the pontiff used a satellite phone connection provided by Catholic channel TV 2000 to offer them his support. "The children and the elderly are in my heart," Francis also told the Iraqi refugees in the Ankawa camp, just hours before celebrating midnight mass in Saint Peter's basilica. This Christmas has been particularly difficult for the estimated 150,000 Christians displaced in Iraq, the Chaldean Patriarch Louis Sako told AFP in Baghdad.
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| Baghdad's Christians gather defiantly for Christmas Eve mass Posted: 24 Dec 2014 01:13 PM PST  By Saif Hameed BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Baghdad's embattled Christian community worshipped defiantly Wednesday night at Christmas Eve mass. The pews filled at Baghdad's Sacred Heart church, as people remembered the darkest year in memory. Blast walls shielded the church and seven policeman flanked the outside of the house of worship, in an indication of the government's fear of an attack on the religious groups by jihadists who consider them non-believers. The congregation sang in unison: "Praise Jesus, our Lord. Oh praise him" as incense burnt in the darkened church. ...
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| Islamic State extremists capture Jordanian pilot Posted: 24 Dec 2014 12:59 PM PST  AMMAN, Jordan (AP) — Islamic State militants captured a Jordanian pilot after his warplane crashed in Syria while carrying out airstrikes Wednesday, making him the first foreign military member to fall into the extremists' hands since an international coalition launched its bombing campaign against the group months ago.
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| Jordan jet was not shot down by IS group: US military Posted: 24 Dec 2014 12:40 PM PST  The United States dismissed Wednesday a claim by the Islamic State jihadist group that it had shot down a Jordanian F-16 fighter flying with US-led coalition forces, which crashed in eastern Syria. "Evidence clearly indicates that ISIL did not down the aircraft as the terrorist organization is claiming," said US Central Command, the body overseeing the coalition air war over Iraq and Syria.
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| Christmas pilgrims gather in Bethlehem after hard year Posted: 24 Dec 2014 12:10 PM PST  Millions of Christians around the world began Christmas celebrations Wednesday, with worshippers in the Middle East marking the occasion after a violence-plagued year that brought suffering to many. The not-so-little West Bank town of Bethlehem was bustling with activity ahead of the biggest night of the year which will culminate in midnight mass at the Church of the Nativity built over the spot where Christians believe the Virgin Mary gave birth to Jesus. Outside the church at Manger Square, a man dressed as Father Christmas handed out sweets next to a giant green Christmas tree decorated with red, black and silver baubles -- the colours of the Palestinian flag. "For many of you, the music of your Christmas hymns will also be accompanied by tears and sighs," Pope Francis wrote in a long letter addressed to Christians in the Middle East.
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| Army data shows rarity of desertion prosecutions Posted: 24 Dec 2014 11:36 AM PST  WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. Army has prosecuted about 1,900 cases of desertion since 2001, despite tens of thousands of soldiers fleeing the service in the face of deadly combat, long and multiple deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan and strains on military families.
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| Did Navy SEAL Robert O'Neill reveal classified details about bin Laden raid? Posted: 24 Dec 2014 10:31 AM PST Navy SEALs, the US military's premier Special Forces commandos, operate in the shadows of global conflict. Part of their mystique is they don't brag about, or even discuss, their exploits outside official channels. A critical tenet of the organization's ethos is: "I do not advertise the nature of my work, nor seek recognition for my actions." |
| U.N. urges humane treatment of Jordanian pilot captured in Syria Posted: 24 Dec 2014 09:41 AM PST UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Wednesday urged the Islamic State captors of a Jordanian pilot whose warplane was shot down in northeast Syria to treat him humanely, his spokesman said. "He (Ban) calls on his captors to treat the pilot in accordance with international humanitarian law," U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said. The pilot is the first captive taken from the U.S.-led coalition carrying out air strikes against the jihadi group that has seized parts of Syria and Iraq. ... |
| ISIS Captures Jordanian Pilot Flying for U.S.-Led Coalition Posted: 24 Dec 2014 08:37 AM PST  Militants from the ISIS extremist groups have taken a Jordanian fighter pilot captive after his plane crashed in northern Syria on Wednesday, marking the first time the jihadi group has captured someone from the U.S.-led coalition.
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| Interrogation program mismanaged, Senate, CIA agree Posted: 24 Dec 2014 07:58 AM PST  WASHINGTON (AP) — While the Senate report on the CIA's interrogation program and the spy agency's official response clash on almost every aspect of the long-secret operation, both reports largely agree the agency mismanaged the now-shuttered program.
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| Coroner: Suspect in 6 killings committed suicide Posted: 24 Dec 2014 07:45 AM PST NORRISTOWN, Pa. (AP) — A man believed to have killed his ex-wife and five of her relatives earlier this month in the Philadelphia suburbs killed himself with a combination of drugs after the slayings, authorities said. |
| Suicide bomber kills 26 in attack on anti-IS fighters in Iraq Posted: 24 Dec 2014 07:40 AM PST  A suicide bomber attacked Sunni anti-jihadist fighters south of Baghdad on Wednesday, killing at least 26 people, while a senior counter-terrorism officer was shot dead in north Iraq, officials said. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, but suicide bombings are a tactic almost exclusively employed by Sunni extremists in Iraq, including the Islamic State (IS) group, which Sahwa militia forces have fought against. In the northern city of Kirkuk, a gunman killed Colonel Dhargham Khairallah, the head of Kirkuk province's anti-terrorism forces, a police colonel and a doctor said. IS spearheaded a sweeping militant offensive that has overrun much of Iraq's Sunni Arab heartland since June -- areas that Shiite-led government forces have sought local Sunni help to retake.
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| U.S.-led forces launch 17 air strikes in Syria, Iraq Posted: 24 Dec 2014 06:52 AM PST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S.-led campaign against Islamic State in Syria and Iraq included 10 air strikes in Syria on Wednesday and seven in Iraq, the U.S. military said. Eight of the strikes in Syria were centered around the contested border town of Kobani near the Turkish border, the Combined Joint Task force said. It said two other strikes hit a crude oil collection point near Dayr az Zawr and an Islamic State weapons stockpile near Raqqa, in the province where a Jordanian pilot was taken captive in northeast Syria. ... |
| Final goodbye: Roll call of some who died in 2014 Posted: 24 Dec 2014 06:38 AM PST  They each turned a moment of violence into a call to action. For James Brady, that moment was when he was shot and wounded by a would-be presidential assassin. For Chung Eun-yong, it was the killings of his two children during a Korean War massacre.
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| Bradley Cooper sets high targets in new film 'American Sniper' Posted: 24 Dec 2014 06:09 AM PST  By Patricia Reaney NEW YORK (Reuters) - Actor Bradley Cooper is quick to say that "American Sniper," his film about Navy Seal sharpshooter Chris Kyle, is not about the Iraq conflict but an intimate character study of the harrowing impact of war on a soldier and his family. The dual Academy Award nominee, who is also a producer of the film, directed by Clint Eastwood, had planned to collaborate with Kyle to bring his story to the big screen. ...
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| Iraq: Suicide attack kills 24 people near Baghdad Posted: 24 Dec 2014 05:00 AM PST BAGHDAD (AP) — A suicide bomber detonated his payload among a group of pro-government Sunni militiamen near the Iraqi capital Baghdad on Wednesday, killing at least 24 people. |
| IS downs warplane over Syria, claims capture of Jordan pilot Posted: 24 Dec 2014 02:59 AM PST  The Islamic State group on Wednesday shot down a warplane from the US-led coalition over northern Syria, a monitoring group said, with the jihadists claiming to have captured a Jordanian pilot. "We have confirmed reports that IS members took a (non-Syrian) Arab pilot prisoner after shooting his plane down with an anti-aircraft missile near Raqa city," the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. The IS branch in Raqa published photographs on jihadist websites purporting to show its fighters holding the captured pilot, with a caption identifying him as Jordanian. Several photographs were released showing the pilot, wearing only a white shirt, being carried from a body of water by four men, and also on land, surrounded by about a dozen armed men.
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| Kurdish rebels threaten renewed violence in Turkey Posted: 24 Dec 2014 02:58 AM PST ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — A Kurdish rebel commander has warned that fighting in Turkey's southeast could resume by June if efforts to end a 30-year insurgency make no progress by then, news reports said Wednesday. |
| Grisly finds in Iraqi Yazidi village wrested from militants Posted: 23 Dec 2014 11:55 PM PST  HARDAN, Iraq (AP) — After he fled from this tiny northern Iraqi hamlet four months ago, Hayder Khalef got panicked phone calls from his relatives who had remained behind. They were at that moment being led by Islamic State group gunmen toward a checkpoint on the edge of town.
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| Former US president George H. W. Bush, 90, in hospital Posted: 23 Dec 2014 10:49 PM PST  Former US president George H. W. Bush, 90, has been admitted to a Texas hospital suffering shortness of breath, a family spokesman said. "President Bush was taken by ambulance to the Houston Methodist Hospital as a precaution after experiencing a shortness of breath earlier this evening," his spokesman Jim McGrath said. The 41st US president and the oldest of the four living former US presidents, Bush has seemed frail in recent public appearances, and is often seen in a wheelchair. Bush was previously treated at Houston Methodist in November 2012 for bronchitis, and ended up spending nearly two months as a patient there.
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| As U.S. troops return to Iraq, more private contractors follow Posted: 23 Dec 2014 10:17 PM PST  By Warren Strobel and Phil Stewart WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. government is preparing to boost the number of private contractors in Iraq as part of President Barack Obama's growing effort to beat back Islamic State militants threatening the Baghdad government, a senior U.S. official said. How many contractors will deploy to Iraq - beyond the roughly 1,800 now working there for the U.S. State Department - will depend in part, the official said, on how widely dispersed U.S. troops advising Iraqi security forces are, and how far they are from U.S. diplomatic facilities. ...
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| Today in History Posted: 23 Dec 2014 09:00 PM PST Today is Wednesday, Dec. 24, the 358th day of 2014. There are seven days left in the year. This is Christmas Eve. |
| Jordan using new antiterror law to stifle dissent, democracy activists say Posted: 23 Dec 2014 05:00 PM PST Three years ago, Rani Zawahreh was at the forefront of Jordan's Arab Spring-inspired pro-democracy movement, leading weekly protests demanding an end to corruption and far-reaching political reforms curbing King Abdullah's powers. |
