Defiant Christians Gather in Baghdad for Christmas Mass

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Iraqi Christmas EveBy Saif Hameed. 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. Read more from this story HERE.

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In Iraq, displaced but defiant Christians gather for a somber Christmas

By Molly Hennessey Fiske. The children awoke the day before Christmas behind blast walls and armed guards, in a dingy Syrian Catholic schoolhouse strung with clotheslines. Their families have been cooking on hot plates and sleeping on pallets there in recent months, forced from their homes in northern Iraq by Islamic State militants.

They took turns showering in the communal bathroom, dressed in donated clothes and prepared to meet Santa.

This year, there would be no big holiday parties at Our Lady of Salvation, a local landmark topped by a towering cross that’s visible for miles. Christians are leaving Iraq, the population down from more than 1 million a decade ago to about 350,000, many of them displaced.

In the north, Islamic State fighters have forced thousands to flee. In Baghdad, where the security situation is still so tenuous that priests worried that celebrations could provoke an attack. Last Christmas, three bombings targeted Christians, including a Roman Catholic church, and killed 38 people.

Shortly before the 6 p.m. Christmas Eve service, the children and their families filed out of the school past concrete barriers topped with barbed wire and into the packed church for several hours of singing and prayer, the highlight of their day, hoping the strangers they met meant them no harm. Read more from this story HERE.
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Traditions of Christmas Found Only in Memory

By Tim Arango. For months now, since militants of the Islamic State stormed her hometown, Qaraqosh, in northern Iraq, near Mosul, and began killing and driving out Christians, home for Miriam and dozens of her old neighbors has been the run-down Al Makasid Primary School in Baghdad. To get by, they have relied on the kindnesses of the nearby church, and of local Muslims, too.

In the school’s dingy courtyard there is a tree, trimmed in balls and bells, and a Nativity scene. A few gifts have been donated — toys, clothes, dolls and candies. It is not much, and nothing like being at home, but Christmas has not been the same in Iraq for a long time now.

Two numbers tell that story. In 2003, when the Americans invaded, there were an estimated 1.5 million Christians living in Iraq. Today, experts say, there are fewer than 400,000, many of them on the run from the Islamic State. Read more from this story HERE.

The Extraordinary Christmas Truce of World War I

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nwjt3g9xl3mjjfpupo0fBy Christmas 1914, nearly one million men had died in less than five months of fighting along the Western Front. Men who had expected the war to be over by Christmas had settled into fortified trenches, and the war into a deadly stalemate.

But in the week leading up to Christmas something amazing happened. In scattered areas along the front, British and German soldiers began to cross the area between the trenches—known as “no man’s land”—and exchange small gifts and Christmas greetings.

Graham Williams of the Fifth London Rifle Brigade wrote that “First the Germans would sing one of their carols and then we would sing one of ours, until when we started up ‘O Come, All Ye Faithful’ the Germans immediately joined in singing the same hymn to the Latin words ‘Adeste Fideles.’ And I thought, well, this is really a most extraordinary thing—two nations both singing the same carol in the middle of a war.”

His German counterpart, Josef Sewald of the 17th Bavarian Regiment, recalled, “I shouted to our enemies that we didn’t wish to shoot and that we make a Christmas truce. I said I would come from my side and we could speak with each other. First there was silence, then I shouted once more, invited them, and the British shouted ‘No shooting!’”

This outbreak of human decency in the midst of what was arguably the most senseless carnage in human history culminated on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, 1914. Along the front, some, but not all, British and German officers negotiated a 48-hour truce [and] men on both sides sang together, exchanged gifts, and even played soccer. Read more from this story HERE.
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Eyewitness Report of World’s Saddest Christmas Day

By Ishaan Tharoor. It was Christmas morning, 1914. In the muddy, bloody fields of Belgium, British and German soldiers peered across the way at each other from their miserable trenches. World War I was in full swing.

And then something miraculous and moving happened.

“About 10 o’clock this morning I was peeping over the parapet when I saw a German,” wrote Capt. A.D. Chater, in a letter to his mother, “waving his arms, and presently two of them got out of their trench and came towards ours.”

Chater, whose letter was released by the Royal Mail, goes on: “We were just going to fire on them when we saw they had no rifles, so one of our men went to meet them and in about two minutes the ground between the two lines of trenches was swarming with men and officers of both sides, shaking hands and wishing each other a happy Christmas.”

Across the front lines, soldiers marked a somber Christmas together. Five months of war could not dampen holiday bonhomie. Soldiers exchanged pleasantries and cigarettes. They buried the dead that had been left strewn in no-man’s land. Read more from this story HERE.

25 Surprising Facts About Classic Christmas Songs

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Jingle Bells1. While we associate “Jingle Bells” with Christmas, the song was written by James Lord Pierpont to celebrate Thanksgiving.

2. “Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer,” “Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree,” and “Holly Jolly Christmas” were written by Jewish songwriter Johnny Marks.

3. The first Christmas song to mention Santa Claus was Benjamin Hanby’s “Up On The Housetop.” Written in 1864, Hanby was inspired Clement Moore’s 1823 poem “A Visit from Saint Nicholas.”

4. “O Come, O Come Emmanuel” is one of the oldest Christmas hymns to still get airplay. Originally composed in Latin during the twelfth century, it was translated into English by John Mason Neale in 1851.

5. Thurl Ravenscroft, the singer responsible for How the Grinch Stole Christmas’ classic song “You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch,” also famously voiced Tony the Tiger, the mascot for Kellogg’s Frosted Flakes.

Read more from this story HERE.

Sony Reverses Course, "The Interview" to Now Play on Christmas Day

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MovieDespite threats from hackers, Sony (SNE) Pictures is making the controversial Seth Rogen comedy available at a limited number of theaters starting on Christmas.

The movie studio’s CEO, Michael Lynton, said Tuesday afternoon that “while we hope this is only the first step of the film’s release, we are proud to make it available to the public and to have stood up to those who attempted to suppress free speech.”

By Tuesday evening, slightly more than 200 independently-owned theaters had agreed to show the film.

More might still get on board: one Sony source said the studio is “still counting” the total number, and that it could end up “around 300.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Russia, 4-ex-Soviet Nations Finalize New Alliance

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

MOSCOW — Russia and four other ex-Soviet nations on Tuesday completed the creation of a new economic alliance intended to bolster their integration, but the ambitious grouping immediately showed signs of fracture as the leader of Belarus sharply criticized Moscow.

The Eurasian Economic Union, which includes Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Armenia and Kyrgyzstan, comes to existence on Jan. 1. In addition to free trade, it’s to coordinate the members’ financial systems and regulate their industrial and agricultural policies along with labor markets and transportation networks.

Russia had tried to encourage Ukraine to join, but its former pro-Moscow president was ousted in February following months of protests. Russia then annexed Ukraine’s Black Sea Crimean Peninsula, and a pro-Russia mutiny has engulfed eastern Ukraine.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said that the new union will have a combined economic output of $4.5 trillion and bring together 170 million people.

Read more from this story HERE.

ISIS: We Will Soon Conquer Europe, Hundreds of Millions Will Die

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Photo Credit: ISIS propaganda video

Photo Credit: ISIS propaganda video

By Stoyan Zaimov. A spokesman for ISIS has claimed in an interview that it’s only a matter of time before the jihadists expand and conquer Europe. He also defended the terror group’s practices of mass enslavement and beheadings, and said that it plans to carry out “the largest religious cleansing campaign” in history, which will include the killing of hundreds of millions of people.

“No, we will conquer Europe one day. It is not a question of if we will conquer Europe, just a matter of when that will happen. But it is certain. … For us, there is no such thing as borders. There are only front lines,” the spokesman, identified only as a German ISIS fighter, told journalist Juergen Todenhoefer in an article for CNN.

“Our expansion will be perpetual. … And the Europeans need to know that when we come, it will not be in a nice way. It will be with our weapons. And those who do not convert to Islam or pay the Islamic tax will be killed” . . .

The terror group’s mission is to establish an Islamic caliphate across the Middle East region, and eventually the world.

“I think the Islamic State is a lot more dangerous than Western leaders realize,” the jihadist said. “They believe in what they are fighting for and are preparing the largest religious cleansing campaign the world has ever seen.” Read more from this story HERE.
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Record Turnout at Anti-Islam Rallies in Germany

Islam RallyBy BBC.com. A record 17,500 people have turned out for the latest “anti-Islamisation” rally in the German city of Dresden, according to police estimates.

Demonstrators sang Christmas carols and listened to speeches about immigrants and asylum seekers.

Weekly rallies by a group called Patriotic Europeans against the Islamisation of the West, or Pegida, began in October. Read more from this story HERE.

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ISIS Killed 100 of its Own Foreign Fighters

By Samuel Smith. Islamic State militants recently executed at least 100 of their own foreign fighters in the group’s Syrian stronghold of Raqqa after the fighters were caught trying to abandon the group’s Syrian base, a source close to the conflict said.

The Financial Times reports that an unnamed anti-ISIS activist, who also opposes the regime of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, has confirmed that ISIS executed the foreign fighters because they attempted to desert from the jihad after ISIS released a new set of rules designed to prevent fighters from deserting.

Although many fighters from all over the world are persuaded to join the Islamic State’s jihad because ISIS recruiters tell them that they will help implement the correct brand of Islam, many foreign fighters, once they actually get involved in the conflict, become disillusioned by the horrible atrocities that are actually being committed by the group and want to flee from the conflict.

However, fighters are forced to stay and fight once they join the caliphate because they receive threats from other ISIS members who say they will kill the fighters if they try to leave. Read more from this story HERE.

22 Senior British Politicians Allegedly Child Molesters

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Photo Credit: Reuters

Photo Credit: Reuters

Detectives have been handed a dossier naming six serving parliamentarians accused of involvement in a Westminster paedophile ring, it has been reported.

The three MPs and three members of the House of Lords were included in a file compiled by the Labour MP John Mann, which was handed to Scotland Yard earlier this month.

It included the names of 22 politicians in total, the Sunday Times reported.

Fourteen of the individuals identified by Mr Mann were Conservative politicians, five were Labour and three were from other parties.

The MP, who has played an instrumental role in securing an inquiry into the alleged establishment paedophile ring, distilled the list of names from hundreds of pieces of information handed to him by members of the public.

Read more from this story HERE.

Scenes from Putin’s Economic Meltdown

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photo credit: Mitya Aleshkovsky

photo credit: Mitya Aleshkovsky

Get the hot deals while they last! Whatever’s on your holiday shopping list—buy now, it may never be this cheap again! In a single day this past week, the ruble exchange rate dropped from 59 to 80 to the dollar, further eroding confidence in the Russian economy and ensuring a deep recession next year—but also briefly turning Moscow into the shopping capital of the world.

Although this past week’s currency crisis marked the worst fall for the ruble since Russia defaulted on its debt in 1998, no one was waiting in bread lines or starting a run on the bank. Instead, anyone with any cash at all went on a buying spree. Long lines snaked through Ikea branches around Moscow into the early hours of Wednesday morning as people picked up furniture, bedding and other household goods at what had suddenly become bargain-basement prices. Crowds of eager buyers emptied shelves of computer monitors and snapped up flat-screen televisions at consumer electronics chains.

People were purchasing refrigerators, washing machines, cameras—anything that was less likely to lose its value as fast as the plummeting ruble. Cars in some dealerships were being sold at 30 percent to 50 percent above the recommended retail price, yet “people run and bring their last money,” one social network user wrote.

“Yesterday the line for the cash register was to the other end of the hall,” Ravil Daizrakhmanov, an employee of the consumer electronics store M.video, said Wednesday. “They were buying very expensive tech products.”

The ruble has lost over half its value this year as falling oil prices and Western sanctions over the Ukraine crisis hit Russia’s energy-dependent economy. But a drop of 10 percent on Monday and another 10 percent on what has come to be known as “Black Tuesday” further shook consumers, undermined investor confidence and revealed divisions among the country’s elite on how to react. Nonetheless, Russians’ approval for President Vladimir Putin has remained sky-high.

Read more from this story HERE.

ISIS Reportedly Selling Christian Artifacts, Turning Churches Into Torture Chambers

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Photo Credit: REUTERS / Omar Sanadiki

Photo Credit: REUTERS / Omar Sanadiki

The Islamic State is turning Christian churches in Iraq and Syria into dungeons and torture chambers after stripping them of priceless artifacts to sell on the black market, according to reports.

Ancient relics and even entire murals are being torn from the houses of worship and smuggled out through the same routes previously established for moving oil and weapons in and out of the so-called caliphate, a vast region the jihadist army has claimed as sovereign under Sharia law.

“ISIS has a stated goal to wipe out Christianity,” Jay Sekulow, of the American Center for Law and Justice and the author of “Rise of ISIS: A Threat We Can’t Ignore,” told FoxNews.com. “This why they are crucifying Christians — including children — destroying churches and selling artifacts. The fact is, this group will stop at nothing to raise funds for its terrorist mission.”

It’s not clear what items have been stolen, but the terrorist group has sought to destroy religious groups that don’t embrace its twisted and violent interpretation of Islam, and has already blown up several revered Christian sites and monuments.

“In short, ISIS is composed of religiously motivated psychopaths.” – Jay Sekulow, American Center for Law and Justice

Read more from this story HERE.

German Researchers Discover Flaw Allows Anyone to Listen to Cell Calls

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Credit - REUTERS/Kacper Pempel

Credit – REUTERS/Kacper Pempel

German researchers have discovered security flaws that could let hackers, spies and criminals listen to private phone calls and intercept text messages on a potentially massive scale – even when cellular networks are using the most advanced encryption now available.

The flaws, to be reported at a hacker conference in Hamburg this month, are the latest evidence of widespread insecurity on SS7, the global network that allows the world’s cellular carriers to route calls, texts and other services to each other. Experts say it’s increasingly clear that SS7, first designed in the 1980s, is riddled with serious vulnerabilities that undermine the privacy of the world’s billions of cellular customers.

The flaws discovered by the German researchers are actually functions built into SS7 for other purposes – such as keeping calls connected as users speed down highways, switching from cell tower to cell tower – that hackers can repurpose for surveillance because of the lax security on the network.

Those skilled at the myriad functions built into SS7 can locate callers anywhere in the world, listen to calls as they happen or record hundreds of encrypted calls and texts at a time for later decryption. There also is potential to defraud users and cellular carriers by using SS7 functions, the researchers say.

These vulnerabilities continue to exist even as cellular carriers invest billions of dollars to upgrade to advanced 3G technology aimed, in part, at securing communications against unauthorized eavesdropping. But even as individual carriers harden their systems, they still must communicate with each other over SS7, leaving them open to any of thousands of companies worldwide with access to the network. That means that a single carrier in Congo or Kazakhstan, for example, could be used to hack into cellular networks in the United States, Europe or anywhere else.

Read more from this story HERE.