'For Christ's sake, it's Christmas' stops taxi thief

Tuesday, December 26, 2006, 10:31 [IST]

BERLIN, Dec 25 (Reuters) A German taxi driver who shouted ''Oh, for Christ's sake, it's Christmas Eve!'' when a robber put a gun to his head scared the thief away.

The teenager opened the parked taxi's door in the western town of Bielefeld and demanded money yesterday evening, police spokesman Michael Mehler said.

The driver refused and jumped out, shouting for help. The two scuffled briefly before the thief fled.

''The taxi driver's resistance and reference to Christmas evidently unsettled the bandit,'' Mehler said today. An 18-year-old and his 16-year-old accomplice were later arrested.

REUTERS MS PM1722

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Pope says wants to visit Holy Land

Tuesday, December 26, 2006,10:31 [IST]

VATICAN CITY, Dec 25 (Reuters) Pope Benedict said in a special Christmas message to the Christians of West Asia today that he hoped to visit the Holy Land as soon as the situation there permits it. ''Dear brothers and sisters, I truly hope that Providence sees to it that circumstances permit me to make a pilgrimage to the land that was made holy by the events in the history of salvation,'' he said. ''I hope to.....

Waking up to a frozen Christmas silence

Tuesday, December 26, 2006,10:31 [IST]

JUKKASJARVI, Sweden, Dec 25 (Reuters) We woke on Christmas morning in the frozen silence of a hotel made of ice and snow, a unique shrine to an Arctic under threat from climate change. Reluctantly leaving the warmth of our Icehotel sleeping bags, we went out into the twilight darkness of polar night. After the heavy silence of the room, the outside world was alive with sound -- the pealing of Christmas bells at the ice church,.....

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US, European officials visit Fatah base in Jordan

Tuesday, December 26, 2006,10:31 [IST]

JERUSALEM, Dec 25 (Reuters) US and European officials have visited a base in Jordan where Fatah is training troops to reinforce Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in any showdown with Hamas, sources familiar with the visits said today. Up to 1,000 members of the Jordan-based Badr Brigade would initially be deployed in the Gaza Strip and the occupied West Bank as part of US-backed efforts to strengthen the moderate Palestinian leader's hold on power. The Bush.....

Russian forces kill 2 gunmen in south

Tuesday, December 26, 2006,10:31 [IST]

MOSCOW, Dec 25 (Reuters) Security forces killed two gunmen believed to be Islamist militants and seized another in a volatile part of Russia's south today, media reported. Some reports linked the militants, under siege in an apartment block in the city of Cherkessk, to the murders of police and other security service officers. Russian television showed servicemen taking up position in a central district of the city to the west of Chechnya, where Russian forces battling.....

Pope issues Christmas call to protect children

Tuesday, December 26, 2006,10:31 [IST]

VATICAN CITY, Dec 25 (Reuters) Pope Benedict ushered in Christmas at midnight mass today, saying the image of the baby Jesus in a manger should remind everyone of the plight of poor, abused and neglected children the world over. The 79-year-old Benedict, marking the second Christmas season of his pontificate, celebrated the mass for more than 10,000 people in St Peter's Basilica in Rome. Thousands of others watched on large screens outside on a clear,.....