LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) — A radical Muslim sect has claimed responsibility for attacks on churches in Nigeria that have left at least 25 people dead on Christmas Day. A Boko Haram spokesman using the nom de guerre Abul-Qaqa claimed responsibility for the attacks in an interview Sunday with The Daily Trust, the newspaper of record across Nigeria’s Muslim north. An emergency official says at least 25 people died in an explosion that struck St. Theresa Catholic Church in Madalla, near... Read more

JOS, Nigeria (AP) — A government official says a second explosion has struck near a church in Nigeria, this time targeting a church in the restive central Nigerian city of Jos. Government spokesman Pam Ayuba told The Associated Press the blast struck Sunday near the Mountain of Fire Church. Ayuba said gunshots followed the blast and at least one police officer was wounded. Ayuba said he didn’t have any other details about the blast and did not know the cause... Read more

ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — An explosion ripped through a Catholic church during Christmas Mass near Nigeria’s capital Sunday, causing unknown injuries amid a wave of sectarian attacks targeting Africa’s most populous nation. Local police spokesman Richard Oguche said the blast struck St. Theresa Church in Madalla, a town in Niger state close to the capital, Abuja. Oguche said he had no other details and was driving to the scene of the explosion. It was not immediately known what had caused... Read more

ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — An emergency official says at least 10 people are dead in an explosion that ripped through a Catholic church during Christmas Mass near Nigeria’s capital. Yushau Shuaib of Nigeria’s National Emergency Management Agency says it’s likely more people died in the blast Sunday at St. Theresa Catholic Church in Madalla, a town in Niger state close to the capital, Abuja. Authorities have yet to say what caused the blast. However, it comes amid a wave of... Read more

ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — Emergency authorities in Nigeria say an explosion has struck near a Catholic church close to Nigeria’s capital, Abuja. National Emergency Management Agency spokesman Yushau Shuaib and a local police spokesman, Richard Oguche, said the blast happened Sunday morning as the church held services marking Christmas. Authorities could not immediately say how many people were injured. Nigeria has faced a string of recent bombings and attacks by a radical Muslim sect known as Boko Haram. The sect... Read more

ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — Authorities say explosion strikes near Catholic church close to Nigeria’s capital, Abuja Read more

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — A deputy says Gaza’s prime minister is leaving on his first official trip outside the territory since the militant Hamas movement overran the coastal strip in June 2007. Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh’s deputy, Mohammed Awwad, said on Sunday the Gaza leader will visit Egypt, Sudan, Qatar, Bahrain, Tunisia and Turkey — all countries that have been affected by the upheavals sweeping the Arab world. Awwad says Haniyeh’s objective is to discuss development projects. He... Read more

BETHLEHEM, West Bank (AP) — Hundreds of Christian faithful have filled the ancient church that marks Jesus’ traditional birthplace for Christmas Mass, undeterred by pouring rain and harsh winds. Worshippers on Sunday rushed into the Church of the Nativity under the cover of umbrellas, leaving Manger Square, with its 50-foot-tall (15-meter-tall) Christmas tree, deserted. Inside the bustling church, supplicants — many of them foreign — raised their voices in prayer, kissed a plaster statue of Baby Jesus and took communion.... Read more

The Vatican’s official English-language translation of Pope Benedict XVI’s homily, to be delivered in Italian, during Christmas Eve Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica. ___ Dear Brothers and Sisters! The reading from Saint Paul’s Letter to Titus that we have just heard begins solemnly with the word “apparuit,” which then comes back again in the reading at the Dawn Mass: apparuit “there has appeared”. This is a programmatic word, by which the Church seeks to express synthetically the essence of Christmas.... Read more

PERRYSBURG, Ohio (AP) — Told that his unborn son had only half a heart and little chance to survive, the lead singer of the Christian rock band Sanctus Real began pouring his fears and doubts into music. The songs were meant to comfort his family while they searched for answers and sought to understand God’s role during the months before and after the baby’s birth that were filled with surgeries and life-threatening complications. It didn’t take long for him to... Read more