HONOLULU (AP) — After spending a quiet Christmas morning with his family, President Barack Obama attended church services Sunday at a Marine base near his rented Hawaiian vacation home. The Obamas made the short drive from their multimillion-dollar Kailua Beach house to the chapel at Marine Corps Base Hawaii. The president dressed casually in dark khaki pants and a short-sleeve blue shirt, and his wife and daughters donned sundresses for Christmas services on a bright and breezy day on the... Read more

HONOLULU (AP) — President Barack Obama exchanged gifts with his family, sang carols and attended church services as he celebrated Christmas in Hawaii. The president and his family woke up early Sunday to exchange gifts, the White House said, then the Obamas had breakfast and sang Christmas carols at the multimillion-dollar house they rent in Kailua Beach, near Honolulu. Later in the morning, the Obamas made the short trip to the chapel at Marine Corps Base Hawaii for Christmas church... Read more

CAMP SCORPION, Afghanistan (AP) — “Attention! Attention! You are surrounded by Afghan forces. Come out with your hands up.” The order barked by an Afghan soldier launched a training exercise last week that pitted members of the nation’s growing elite force against actors posing as Taliban fighters. Afghanistan and the U.S.-led coalition have stepped up training of the Afghan special forces unit to fill the vacuum that will be left by foreign troops slated to end their combat mission in... Read more

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli police say a TV crew has been attacked by a group of ultra-Orthodox Jewish men in a city that has become a symbol of violent religious extremism. Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld says ultra-Orthodox men surrounded a Channel 2 news truck and hurled stones at it, lightly wounding one member of the TV crew. He says the rioters also stole TV equipment. The attack took place in Beit Shemesh, a city of 85,000 just outside Jerusalem. On... Read more

LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) — Newspaper: Muslim sect claims Nigeria church attacks on Christmas that killed 25 people. Read more

VATICAN CITY (AP) — The Vatican has denounced the deadly Christmas Day attacks on Nigerian churches as a sign of “cruelty and absurd, blind hatred” that shows no respect for human life. Early Sunday, an explosion ripped through a Catholic church during Christmas Mass near Nigeria’s capital of Abuja, killing a reported 25 people. A second explosion struck near a church in Nigeria’s central city of Jos, while two other explosions hit the northeast state of Yobe. There was no... Read more

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Benedict XVI called for an end to the bloodshed in Syria and the resumption of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks in his Christmas message Sunday, an appeal for peace that was challenged by deadly attacks on Nigerian churches. Benedict delivered his “Urbi et Orbi” speech (Latin for “to the city and to the world”) from the central loggia of St. Peter’s Basilica overlooking a sun-drenched piazza below, before thousands of jubilant tourists and pilgrims, and hundreds of... Read more

LONDON (AP) — Queen Elizabeth II emphasized the importance of family in her Christmas message this year and her grandchildren brought some Christmas cheer to her husband, Prince Philip, as he recovered in a hospital after a heart procedure. The 90-year-old prince was forced to miss the royal family’s traditional Christmas festivities — opening presents together, going to a morning church service and viewing the Queen’s Christmas broadcast — after doctors put a coronary stent in. Philip had gone to... Read more

LONDON (AP) — Members of Britain’s royal family gathered Sunday to celebrate Christmas with one notable absence — Queen Elizabeth II’s husband, who remains hospitalized following a heart procedure. Prince Philip is recovering from having a coronary stent put in after doctors determined that the heart pains that saw the 90-year-old hospitalized on Friday were caused by a blocked artery. Buckingham Palace said “he’s in good spirits” and family members will visit Philip, also known as the Duke of Edinburgh,... Read more

ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — Emergency official: At least 10 killed in explosion at Catholic church near Nigeria capital. Read more