| Santa Claus is coming to Tehran Posted: 24 Dec 2016 02:59 PM PST  Tehran might not seem like the most obvious pitstop for Santa Claus, but Iranians love the chintzy side of Christmas and it is also one of the safest places in the Middle East for Christians. "It's really interesting and attractive for us," said Niloufar, a Muslim women in her thirties who was out shopping with her husband on Christmas Eve.
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| A&E scraps KKK series after learning of cash payments Posted: 24 Dec 2016 01:53 PM PST  A&E is scrapping plans for an eight-part documentary series about the Ku Klux Klan after finding out that some participants of the hate group were paid for their work on it. The network said Saturday it ...
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| Pilgrims in Bethlehem, fears in Europe on Christmas Eve Posted: 24 Dec 2016 12:39 PM PST  Pilgrims on Saturday thronged Bethlehem for Christmas Eve as Europeans worked up some holiday spirit despite tight security in the shadow of the Berlin market attack. Crowds of Palestinians and tourists flocked to Bethlehem's Manger Square near the Church of the Nativity, ahead of midnight mass at the site where Christians believe Jesus was born. Some snapped selfies near a giant Christmas tree and watched the annual Scouts parade in the city, a short drive from Jerusalem in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
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| Tunisians protest against return of jihadists Posted: 24 Dec 2016 11:54 AM PST  Hundreds of people gathered outside Tunisia's parliament on Saturday to protest against letting jihadists who fought overseas to return to the country. "No to freedom for terrorist groups!" protestors chanted. It was held on the same day authorities said they had arrested three alleged jihadists connected to the suspected Berlin Christmas market attacker, Tunisian Anis Amri.
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| Tunisians protest against the return of jihadis like Amri Posted: 24 Dec 2016 11:44 AM PST  TUNIS, Tunisia (AP) — About 200 people have protested in the Tunisian capital against the return of Tunisian jihadis who have fought abroad.
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| Displaced Iraqi Christians head home for 'wartime' Christmas Posted: 24 Dec 2016 10:34 AM PST  BARTELLA, Iraq (AP) — For the 300 Christians who braved rain and wind to attend Christmas's Eve Mass in their hometown, the ceremony evoked both holiday cheer and grim reminders of the war raging around their northern Iraqi town, and the distant prospect of moving back home.
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| Iraqis mark Christmas Eve in town recaptured from IS Posted: 24 Dec 2016 08:52 AM PST  Iraqi Christians filled the pews of the fire-scarred Mar Shimoni church in a town east of Mosul on Christmas Eve for the first service since its recapture from jihadists. The Islamic State group destroyed crosses at the church in the town of Bartalla and set it alight, but volunteers worked for days to ready it for the service, the first held here in two and a half years. For some of the displaced Christians of Bartalla, it was a deeply emotional experience.
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| Iraq patriarch urges protection for displaced Christians Posted: 24 Dec 2016 08:45 AM PST  The patriarch of Iraq's Chaldean Catholic Church has appealed for international protection to help Iraqi Christians displaced by war return to their homes. Tens of thousands of Christians fled northern Iraqi towns in 2014 as the Islamic State group seized second city Mosul and swathes of the surrounding Nineveh province. "There was great joy among Christians at the start of the liberation of Nineveh," Patriarch Louis Raphael Sako told AFP on Saturday.
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| Iraqis celebrate first Christmas near Mosul after Islamic State pushed out Posted: 24 Dec 2016 06:28 AM PST  By Maher Chmaytelli BARTELLA, Iraq (Reuters) - Several hundred Iraqi Christians flocked on Saturday to a northern town recently retaken from Islamic State, celebrating Christmas for the first time since 2013, their joy tainted with sadness over the desecration of their church. Once home to thousands of Assyrian Christians, Bartella emptied in August 2014 when it fell to Islamic State's blitz across large parts of Iraq and neighboring Syria. The church was badly damaged during Islamic State's time in control of the town, with crosses taken down, statues of saints defaced and the chancel burnt.
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| For Iraq's Christians, Christmas cheer tinged with despair Posted: 24 Dec 2016 03:44 AM PST  IRBIL, Iraq (AP) — The Nativity scene and Christmas tree are in place on the corner of the street. Some of the children proudly wear red Santa Claus hats or show off new toys, mostly plastic guns for small boys. Windows and balconies are festooned with colorful balloons.
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| U.S. forces embedding more to help Iraqis retake Mosul: commander Posted: 24 Dec 2016 03:08 AM PST  By Stephen Kalin MAKHMOUR, Iraq (Reuters) - U.S. forces assisting Iraqi troops to retake Mosul from Islamic State are embedding more extensively, a senior commander said on Friday, a move that could accelerate a two month-old campaign which has slackened after quick initial advances. More than 5,000 American service members are currently deployed in Iraq as part of an international coalition that is advising local forces in a bid to recapture the third of the country the jihadists seized in 2014 when Iraq's army and police dropped their weapons and fled. Now, as Iraqi forces controlling around a quarter of Mosul - Islamic State's last major stronghold in Iraq - proceed deeper into the northern city and encounter fierce counter-attacks that render progress slow and punishing, U.S. troops are stepping up their involvement.
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| What was the Berlin attack suspect doing in Milan? Posted: 24 Dec 2016 03:05 AM PST  Nobody comes to Sesto San Giovanni by chance, say the residents of this dreary working-class Milan suburb where police caught up with Berlin market attack suspect Anis Amri. Sesto San Giovanni, with its 80,000 inhabitants, is where Amri caught the officers' attention in the small hours. It's a hub for transport, the last stop on a metro line, and has a busy bus terminal where buses leave for Spain, Morocco, Albania and southern Italy.
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| Fears over Germany's growing jihadist scene Posted: 24 Dec 2016 01:54 AM PST  Berlin's Christmas market truck rampage was the deadly jihadist attack Germany had long feared, as security services have warned of the growth of a shadowy Islamist scene. Germany's domestic security chief, Hans-Georg Maassen, has likened the rise in IS followers to a dangerous "youth subculture". It is a profile that fits 24-year-old Tunisian Anis Amri, the Berlin attack suspect shot dead Friday by an Italian police officer in Milan.
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