CHRISTMAS DAY SEALED WITH THREAT OF ATTACKS

BETHLEHEM, West Bank - Fresh attacks against Christians marred Christmas Day on Saturday as church leaders condemned religious persecution and called for peace and reconciliation.
As Christian leaders highlighted the plight of believers facing the threat of attacks around the world, a bomb in a church during Christmas mass in the southern Philippines wounded six people, including the priest.

• Military officials would not immediately name any suspects in the blast on Jolo island, but the island is a known bastion of the Al Qaida linked Abu Sayyaf group. "The explosion occurred at around 7:15 in the morning while the mass was going on. Six people were slightly wounded in the explosion," military spokesman Lieutenant Randolph Cabangbang said.
• In the northern Nigerian city of Kano on Friday, gunmen attacked a church during Christmas Eve services but were fought off by soldiers, a military spokesman said. No one was hurt in the incident, but in the central Nigerian city of Jos the same day, an explosion killed at least eight people and wounded another eight, police said.
• Gregory Yenlong, the information commissioner of Plateau State, of which Jos is the capital, said there had been rumours of attacks aimed at disrupting Christmas celebrations in recent days. There was no immediate indication however that the two incidents were linked and police in Jos cautioned that the cause of the explosion had not yet been established.
• The latest violence came as a self-proclaimed jihadist said in an audiotaped threat that countries celebrating Christmas would be targeted for attacks, the Site monitoring group said on Friday.
• The recording, directed to "the unbeliever and Christian countries celebrating Christmas," bore the voice of a member of the Shumukh Al Islam forum, said the US-based monitor.
• The latest incidents came as pilgrims flocked to a sun-kissed Bethlehem on Christmas to celebrate in the birthplace of Jesus Christ. The West Bank town was bedecked with Christmas lights and inflatable Santas at every corner.
• In his midnight mass at Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity, Latin Patriarch Fuad Twal, the Middle East's senior Catholic bishop, offered a message of solidarity to Iraqi Christians.
• "We recall the tragedy that struck the Christian community in Iraq. Such fanatic actions are universally condemned by Christians and Muslims," he said.
• Iraqi Christians have been the target of repeated bloody attacks, including a raid on a Baghdad church that killed 44 worshippers and two priests on October 31.

In Rome, Pope Benedict XVI prayed for God to punish the world's "oppressors" and bring about "true brotherhood" between peoples in his traditional Christmas message in Saint Peter's basilica.
"Lord make your promise come finally true. Break the rods of the oppressors. Burn the tramping boots. Let the time of the garments rolled in blood come to an end," Benedict said at the Christmas Eve mass in the basilica.
This year the pope was kept further away from attendees at the mass during his procession to the altar and more security guards were drafted in.

Source: Reuters