AP News in Brief

AP News in Brief

Pope on Christmas Day urged Catholics in China, Iraq to have courage when facing persecution

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Iraqi Christians celebrated a somber Christmas in a Baghdad cathedral stained with dried blood, while Pope Benedict XVI exhorted Chinese Catholics to stay loyal despite restrictions on them in a holiday address laced with worry for the world’s Christian minorities.

Saturday’s grim news seemed to highlight the pope’s concern for his flock’s welfare.

In northern Nigeria, attacks on two churches by Muslim sect members claimed six lives, while bombings in central Nigeria, a region plagued by Christian-Muslim violence, killed 32 people, officials said.

Eleven people including a priest were injured by a bombing during Christmas Mass in a police chapel in the Philippines, which has the largest Catholic population in Asia. The attack took place on Jolo island, a stronghold of al-Qaida linked militants.

But joy seemed to prevail in Bethlehem, the West Bank town where Jesus was born, which bustled with its biggest crowd of Christian pilgrims in years.

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Top US-NATO commander in Afghanistan visits troops in Christmas tour of battle fronts

MARJAH, Afghanistan (AP) — The top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan crisscrossed the country on Saturday, making a Christmas visit to coalition troops at some of the main battle fronts in a show of appreciation and support in the tenth year of the war against the Taliban.

Gen. David Petraeus started his visit by traveling in a C-130 cargo plane from the capital, Kabul, to the northern province of Kunduz, telling troops with the U.S. Army’s 1-87, 10th Mountain Division that on this day, there was “no place that (he) would rather be than here” where the

Dutch nab Somalis on terrorist charges

AMSTERDAM

Dutch police have arrested 12 Somali men in the key port city of Rotterdam on suspicion of preparing a terrorist attack, the public prosecutor said Saturday.

The men, aged 19 to 48, were detained Friday on a tip from the intelligence services that they were planning an attack shortly in the Netherlands. There was no immediate information on the alleged target, but Rotterdam is Europe’s biggest port and a hub of maritime commerce, with huge oil and gas storage facilities and dozens of massive docks.

European officials stepped up security around the holidays this year after a Nigerian man in 2009 left Amsterdam airport on Christmas Day and allegedly tried to blow up a plane over Detroit with explosives taped to his underwear.

There also have been growing holiday security concerns in Europe following a suicide bombing in Sweden and attacks on two embassies last week in Rome.

Deputy saves five in family from fire

SAN DIEGO

A sheriff’s deputy saved a family of five in the early morning hours after following the smell of smoke to their burning garage in the La Presa neighborhood in east San Diego County.

The San Diego Union-Tribune reports that Deputy Mike Cruz discovered the burning garage just after 4:30 a.m., and banged on the door to rouse the family of five sleeping in side.

The family got out safety, but their small dog and several pet birds could not be saved.

Oil exports in Iraq expected to resume

CAIRO

Iraq’s newly appointed oil minister said on Saturday that oil exports from the country’s northern self-ruled Kurdish region would soon resume as part of the country’s national oil export policy.

The Kurds have sought greater control over oil in their crude-rich region while Baghdad has argued that the oil is a national resource, under the central government’s control.

Iraqi Kurds have unilaterally signed more than two dozens oil deals with Western companies that are deemed illegal by Baghdad. Exports were halted a few months after they started in June 2009 amid a disagreement over payments.

Obama spends Christmas quietly

HONOLULU

President Barack Obama spent a quiet Christmas morning with his family Saturday, a rare bit of privacy for one of the world’s most scrutinized men.

The Obamas are renting a luxurious oceanfront home in Kailua for the third straight Christmas. The president’s Christmas wish this year may simply be to have a quieter holiday than last year, when a 23-year-old Nigerian man allegedly attempted to blow up a plane bound for Detroit. The incident raised questions about the nation’s terror readiness and consumed the rest of Obama’s vacation.

Former president of Venezuela dies

MIAMI

Former Venezuelan President Carlos Andres Perez, whose popularity soared with his country’s oil-based economy but who later faced riots, a severe economic downturn and impeachment in his homeland, has died in Miami, his family said Saturday.

The 88-year-old Perez’s daughter, Maria Francia Perez, said her father had died in a Miami area hospital.

“He was happy and well when he awoke this morning. Suddenly he had difficulty breathing,” she told The Associated Press by telephone.

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