The New Nation - Internet Edition

Pope calls for Middle East peace, end to child abuse

Reuters, Vatican City

Pope Benedict led the world's 1.1 billion Roman Catholics into Christmas at a midnight mass Thursday in which he appealed for an end to child abuse in all its forms.

He also called for peace in the Middle East, ahead of a possible trip to the region next year.

Benedict, celebrating the fourth Christmas of his pontificate, spoke out against the abuse of minors-ranging from parents who abandon their children to armed groups that recruit child soldiers.

"Let us think of those street children who do not have the blessing of a family home," he said during the solemn mass at St. Peter's Basilica.

"Let us think of those children who are victims of the industry of pornography and every other appalling form of abuse, and thus are traumatized to the depths of their soul."

Benedict said Catholics had to "do everything in our power to put an end to the suffering of these children."

In the past year the Pope has repeatedly addressed the issue of sexual abuse of minors by Catholic clergy, but did not raise it in his Christmas homily.

Benedict apologized for sexual abuse of minors by clergy and met victims during a July trip to Australia. He also met victims in the United States in April.

Humanity needed a "conversion of hearts" to rid the world of evil, said the Pope.

"Only if people change will the world change and in order to change, people need the light that comes from God," he said.

Benedict called for an end to "hatred and violence" in the Middle East, which he is expected to visit in 2009.

No official announcement has been made yet but the trip is widely expected to include stops in Israel, the Palestinian territories and Jordan. It would be the pontiff's first visit to the region since his election in 2005.

"Let us think also of the place named Bethlehem, of the land in which Jesus lived and which he loved so deeply. And let us pray that peace will be established there, that hatred and violence will cease," said the Pope.

"Let us pray for mutual understanding, that hearts will be opened so borders will be opened."

The Vatican supports Israel's right to exist within secure borders alongside an independent Palestinian state and hopes a papal trip can help international efforts to bring about a comprehensive Middle East peace deal.

Later Thursday, the Pope will deliver his traditional Christmas "Urbi et Orbi" ("to the city and the world") blessing. He is also due to deliver Christmas greetings in more than 60 languages.

Battle for Lankan rebel HQ rages

AFP, Colombo

Sri Lanka's military beat back a Tamil Tiger counter-offensive in the island's north, killing at least 18 guerrillas, the defence ministry said on Thursday.

The rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) mounted the offensive outside their besieged political capital of Kilinochchi on Wednesday, the ministry said.

"Well prepared troops engaged the advancing terrorists with armour, tanks, artillery and infantry causing heavy damage," the ministry said in a statement.

It said 18 rebels were killed and another 34 wounded, but did not give details of casualties on the government side.

The pro-rebel Tamilnet.com website said there was heavy fighting in the area, but give no further details.

The Tigers on Monday said that they killed more than 100 soldiers and had taken back territory lost to advancing government forces. Both sides are known to make exaggerated claims about casualties they have inflicted on each other, and independent verification is virtually impossible as journalists and aid workers are barred from the conflict area.

Earlier report adds: heavy fighting erupted on Monday as soldiers seized defences around the separatist Tamil Tigers' self-proclaimed capital, killing at least 66 combatants, the military said.

And as battles around the town of Kilinochchi intensified for a second week, President Mahinda Rajapaksa urged the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) to free civilians trapped in the war zone by year's end or else face listing as a terrorist group.

The military has been moving on Kilinochchi since September, but the past two weeks' assault on the rebels' heavy earthen defences or bunds encircling the town's outskirts has seen both sides claiming increasingly higher death tolls.

"The army's 57th Division and Task Force 1 today captured 2 Km (1 mile) in the bund and fighting in the area killed 56 LTTE terrorists and wounded 86," a spokesman at the Media Centre for National Security said on customary condition of anonymity. Ten soldiers were killed and 40 were injured, he said.

The LTTE had no immediate comment.

It is nearly impossible to verify battlefield claims since both sides block independent media access to the war zone, and have repeatedly distorted figures to their advantage in the past.

On Monday, Rajapaksa threatened to formally ban the LTTE as a terrorist group, a week after Human Rights Watch said the Tigers were using thousands of Tamil civilians as human shields and forcing them into combat duty or battlefield labour.

"Release all innocent Tamils held in bondage and hostage by you as human shields by the dawn of 2009. If you fail to do so, you will face proscription and all other consequences," the president's office quoted Rajapaksa as saying.

Aid groups estimate there are about 230,000 people trapped in war zone where the military and rebels are locked in one of the most decisive phases so far in one of Asia's oldest civil wars.

Analysts said the threat was hollow, since the LTTE is in effect already a banned organisation in Sri Lanka and is on U.S., E.U. and Indian lists of banned terrorist groups.

"There is a major military battle being fought and foreign governments being canvassed to ban it," said Jehan Perera, an analyst with the non-partisan National Peace Council. "What greater hardship can government impose? It's a symbolic move."

Car bomb kills four in Iraq on Christmas Day

AFP, Fallujah

A woman and three children were killed on Wednesday when a bomb exploded near the city of Fallujah, west of Baghdad, the US military and a medical official said.

"An improvised explosive device killed one civilian female and three civilian children approximately 10 kilometers (six miles) southeast of Fallujah," a US military spokesman told AFP.

Another child was injured in the blast, he added.

The deputy head of the hospital in Fallujah, Hamed Abdallah al-Hamadi, confirmed the number of people killed in the blast but said two children had been injured. A US military statement said that all the victims were inside their home when the bomb went off outside the building.

"A second bomb had been discovered," it added.

Fallujah, in Anbar province, was the epicentre of a Sunni-led rebellion against US forces in the months following the March 2003 invasion.

The city was virtually razed in 2004 in one of the biggest assaults launched by US forces, but on September 1 this year Iraqi forces took over control of Anbar after dramatic improvements in security.

Eleven killed, at least 24 missing in Ukraine blast

Reuters, Simferopol

An explosion has destroyed a five-storey apartment building in southern Ukraine, killing at least 11 people, including a child, and at least 24 were missing, officials said on Thursday.

Twenty-one residents have been pulled out alive from the shattered block in the Black Sea resort of Yevpatoria in the Crimea peninsula, said Emergencies Ministry spokesman Ihor Krol, adding that at least 24 people were missing.

Emergencies Minister Volodymyr Shandra earlier told Ukraine's Channel 5 television that between 40 and 80 people could be under the rubble.

The cause of the blast on Wednesday night had not been established yet but it was "quite possible that there had been containers with oxygen or acetylene stored in the building," Krol said.

Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko flew to Yevpatoria, a government photographer accompanying her told Reuters. President Viktor Yushchenko was due to travel to the disaster-stricken town shortly, his press service said.

Officials said the blast sent concrete cascading down on two entrances to the building.

"As I was walking by, I heard a bang, and then I saw this building crumble," an eye-witness told Ukraine's Channel 5 television.

Some 700 Emergencies Ministry workers were excavating the rubble, looking for survivors. From time to time, they paused in silence, and incoming mobile phone calls were heard from under huge piles of the debris, Channel 5 said.

Junior army officer declares himself new Guinea 'president’

AFP, Conakry

A military junta tightened its grip on Guinea after a junior army officer declared himself the new president and ordered members of the government to give themselves up within 24 hours.

Captain Moussa Dadis Camara had paraded through with hundreds of soldiers on Wednesday before announcing that he was in charge following the death of longtime dictator Lansana Conte.

A crowd of thousands of coup supporters thronged the streets on Conakry, surrounding the presidential palace and the government ministries, before dispersing peacefully.

Conte had ruled with an iron fist since 1984 and within hours of his passing late Monday, a group of soldiers took control of the airwaves and claimed to have seized power in the impoverished but mineral-rich west African state.

"I am convinced, reassured that I am the president of the republic, the head of the National Council for Democracy and Development (CNDD)," Camara said at his first press conference late Wednesday.

Later, in a statement read on radio and state television the CNDD junta said: "All army officers and all the former members of the government are asked to go to camp Alpha Yaya Diallo in the next 24 hours."

When the ultimatum had passed for all to go to the main military base near the international airport, "a sweep of the entire national territory will be organised," the new military leadership warned.

Troop-caused civilian deaths angering Afghans

AFP, Kabul

Anti-insurgent air strikes, which caused a quarter of more than 1,800 civilians deaths in Afghanistan this year, were a focus of public anger against troops in 2008, a rights groups said Wednesday.

There were 1,798 civilians killed in insurgency-linked action in the first 10 months of this year, Afghanistan's Independent Human Rights Commission said in a report citing UN figures. This was up 41 percent on 2007, it said.

Most were caused by insurgents but NATO, US and Afghan security forces-jointly known as the Pro-Government Forces (PGF) -- were responsible for nearly 700 deaths, it said.

"Airstrikes were responsible for 25 percent of all civilian casualties in 2008 and 63 percent of PGF-caused civilian casualties," said the report entitled "From Hope to Fear". Such casualties were a key reason for people turning against Afghan and international forces, said the commission, Afghanistan's top rights watchdog.

"Large airstrikes resulting in tens of civilian casualties were a national focal point of anger toward PGF," it said in the report, based on interviews with people across the country.

It said "aggressively" conducted night searches of civilian houses by security forces also angered Afghans.

"While night-time house searches resulted in fewer deaths, night raids frequently involved abusive behavior and violent breaking and entry at night, which stoke almost as much anger toward PGF as the more lethal airstrikes," it said.

7 killed in Pakistan building collapse

AFP, Karachi

At least seven people were killed and 17 others injured when a five-storey residential building collapsed early Thursday in southern Pakistan, police said.

The building in the city of Sukkur, some 370 kilometres (230 miles) northeast of Karachi, was reduced to rubble when it came down at about 3:00 am (2200 GMT Wednesday).

"Seven people have been killed and 17 others are injured," senior police official Hameed Khosa said, adding that substandard construction materials may have been used went the building went up six months ago.

Sukkur mayor Nasir Hussain said officials were not yet sure how many people, if any, were trapped in the rubble.

"We have declared an emergency at all hospitals in the district as still there could be many people trapped in the collapsed building," Hussain said, adding that rescue work was continuing.

British soldier killed in Afghanistan

AFP, Kabul

A British Royal Marine was shot dead on Christmas Eve while trying to drive "enemy forces" from a volatile district in southern Afghanistan, the British military said Thursday.

The soldier, whose identity was not released, was the second to be killed on Wednesday, after the US military said one of its troopers was killed in the east of the country in an insurgent attack.

The marine was killed in the Nad Ali district of southern Helmand province, the British defence ministry said in a statement.

"He was taking part in an operation to remove enemy forces from the north of the district," it said.

"The death of this Royal Marine is a tragic loss and coming so close to Christmas is particularly poignant," said the British military's spokeswoman in Helmand, Commander Paula Rowe.

The soldier was shot while helping clear a compound, another spokesman said.

His death was earlier announced by the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force, under which the British troops are serving alongside those of nearly 40 other nations. ISAF gave no details about the incident.

About 70,000 international soldiers are deployed in Afghanistan to help the government fight an insurgency led by the extremist Taliban, who ruled between 1996 and 2001.

Russian military gets new nuclear missiles

AP, Moscow

Russian news reports say the military has commissioned another batch of new intercontinental ballistic missiles.

Russian news agencies quote a statement from the Strategic Missile Forces as saying the Topol-M missiles were put on duty Wednesday in Teikovo. The news agencies say the missiles are mounted on heavy off-road vehicles, but do not say how many were deployed.

Teikovo is a small town in the Ivanovo region some 250 kilometers (about 150 miles) northeast of Moscow.

The military commissioned its first Topol-Ms in 1998. The ITAR-Tass news agency said Wednesday the Strategic Missile Forces will have 65 such missiles by the year's end.

Russian officials hail the Topol-M's ability to penetrate any prospective missile defense.

Bethlehem sermon calls for peace in the Middle East

AFP, Bethlehem

The Catholic leader in the Holy Land Thursday prayed for Mideast peace, telling the faithful at the traditional birthplace of Jesus the silent night of Christmas overpowers the voice of guns.

"Peace to Bethlehem and all the inhabitants of the Holy Land," Latin Patriarch Fuad Twal said in his sermon at midnight mass in Bethlehem, just a few meters from the grotto that marks the spot where Christians believe their Prince of Peace was born in a stable. "On this night, the silence of the grotto will be even louder than the voice of the cannons and submachine guns," he told pilgrims from around the world who celebrated Christmas in this Palestinian city in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. His words rang out as violence escalated in the Gaza Strip where fighters of the Hamas movement that rules the besieged Palestinian enclave fired a barrage of rockets at Israel which responded with a deadly air raid. "The silence of the grotto gives life to those whose voice has been suffocated by tears and who have sought refuge in silence and impotence," he told the crowd that packed the church, which included Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas.

"The cry of the widows and the children is mixed with the noise of cannons and submachine guns," said Twal who delivered his sermon in his native Arabic and then again in French.

Peace, Twal said, is "the solution for all conflicts and differences. War does not produce peace, prisons do not guarantee stability."

World woes due to rejection of God: Ahmadinejad

Reuters, London

The world's troubles are rooted in a rejection of God and if Jesus Christ lived today he would stand up against bullying powers, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will tell Britons on Christmas Day.

The message will be broadcast on Channel 4 Thursday evening as an alternative to the traditional Christmas television and radio address from Queen Elizabeth.

"The crises in society, the family, morality, politics, security and the economy t have come about because the prophets have been forgotten, the Almighty has been forgotten and some leaders are estranged from God," Ahmadinejad said, according to a translation of his message. "If Christ were on earth today, undoubtedly he would stand with the people in opposition to bullying, ill-tempered and expansionist powers."

Tehran has accused both Britain and the United States of trying to destabilize the Islamic Republic. Tensions have grown in recent years because of the U.S.-led invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan and Western worries over Iran's nuclear ambitions.

U.S. President-elect Barack Obama has said he plans a new approach to Iran, including direct talks if needed, over what Washington says are the world's fourth biggest oil producer's plans to build atomic weapons-a charge Iran denies.

"Today, the general will of nations is calling for fundamental change," Ahmadinejad said.

"The prerequisite to this change is a change in goals, intentions and directions. If tyrannical goals are repackaged in an attractive and deceptive package and imposed on nations again, the people, awakened, will stand up against them."

Peace prize winner Tutu urges action in Zimbabwe

AP, Harare

Desmond Tutu threw the moral weight of his Nobel Peace Prize and war on apartheid into the Zimbabwe struggle Wednesday, suggesting it was time to threaten President Robert Mugabe's ouster by force. The retired South African archbishop also criticized his own government's handling of the crisis. The comments came as the government of President Robert Mugabe brought a missing Zimbabwean human rights activist to court Wednesday, accusing her and at least six others of plotting to overthrow the 84-year-old leader. The activist, Jestina Mukoko, disappeared on Dec. 3 following nationwide protests against the country's deepening economic and health crises. Charging Mukoko, the respected head of a group known as the Zimbabwe Peace Project, in a plot already widely dismissed as a fabrication is seen as a sign Mugabe is not prepared to back down.

In an interview with the British Broadcasting Corp. aired Wednesday, Tutu called on Mugabe to relinquish power and said he was ashamed of his own country, South Africa, for its handling of the issue.

"We have betrayed our legacy, how much more suffering is going to make us say, 'No, we have given Mr. Mugabe enough time,'" said Tutu, retired archbishop of Cape Town who won the 1984 Nobel Peace Prize.

UN condemns human rights violations in Myanmar

AP, United Nations

The U.N. General Assembly on Wednesday strongly condemned widespread human rights violations in Myanmar and called on the government to free political prisoners, including Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi. The sharply worded resolution, sponsored by the United States, Israel and many other countries, was approved by a vote of 80-25 with 45 abstentions.

Myanmar accused the assembly of "blatant interference" in its internal political process and said it will not be bound by the resolution. Unlike the more powerful Security Council, General Assembly resolutions are not legally binding but carry weight because they reflect the views of the 192-member world body.

Myanmar's representative, who was not identified, told the assembly the country had made significant political strides and was now on track for a smooth transition to democracy, with a seven-step political process including multiparty elections in 2010.

But the resolution expressed "grave concern" at the failure to include members of pro-democracy leader Suu Kyi's party and other political parties and some ethnic groups "in a genuine process of transition to democracy."

It said Myanmar's political processes "are not transparent, inclusive, free and fair, and that the procedures established for the drafting of the (country's new) constitution resulted in the de facto exclusion of the opposition from the process."

The General Assembly also expressed grave concern at the government's decision to go ahead with a referendum on the constitution "in an atmosphere of intimidation and without regard to international standards of free and fair elections."

Livni travels to Cairo for talks on Gaza violence

Reuters, Jerusalem

Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni traveled to Cairo on Thursday to discuss growing violence along the Israel-Gaza border and the prospects of renewing an Egyptian-brokered truce that ended last week.

Livni's talks with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak come a day after Palestinian militants in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip fired more than 80 rockets and mortars at southern Israel and an Israeli air strike killed a Hamas gunman.

Israeli cabinet minister Meir Sheetrit said on Israel Radio that Livni will "tell Mubarak and the Egyptians that Israel will not tolerate the situation of Hamas firing at towns in the south."

Livni said on Wednesday that Israel will "change the reality" of the situation in the Gaza Strip.

Under a six-month ceasefire that ended in violence last week, Hamas agreed to halt rocket fire in return for Israel easing a blockade that was tightened after the Islamist group seized control of the Gaza Strip in June 2007.