Yahoo! News: World News

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• Egypt approves constitution drafted by Mursi allies
• Syria envoy seeks peace as clashes rage
• Central African Republic rebels seize central town, defying foreign troops
• U.S. moves to sell advanced spy drones to South Korea
• Gulf Arabs decry Iran "interference" in region
• Gunmen kill six in northeast Nigeria church attack
• Pope gives advice as Italians prepare for bitter campaign
• Eight killed in Yemen clashes; attacks in capital target officers
• Kazakh military plane crashes, all 27 on board killed
• Afghans seek policewoman's motive for killing U.S. contractor
• Syrian rebels make more gains in north
• Egypt constitution passes, economic crunch looms
• Pope's Christmas message focuses on Mideast, China
• Kazakhstan military plane crashes, killing 27
• SAfrica: Children attend Mandela's Christmas party
• Queen delivers 1st Christmas message in 3D
• VP says Chavez up, walking; doubts persist
• Israel revisits ban on female prayer at holy site
• In Egypt Islamists' bastion, discontent creeps up
• Mexico bishop inspires, infuriates with activism
• Doing the Lindy for fun and exercise in Moscow

Egypt approves constitution drafted by Mursi allies Posted: 25 Dec 2012 03:14 PM PST CAIRO (Reuters) - Egyptian voters overwhelmingly approved a constitution drafted by President Mohamed Mursi's allies, results announced on Tuesday showed, proving that liberals, leftists and Christians have been powerless to halt the march of Islamists in power. Final elections commission figures showed the constitution adopted with 63.8 percent of the vote in the referendum held over two days this month, giving Mursi's Islamists their third straight electoral victory since veteran autocrat Hosni Mubarak was toppled in a 2011 revolution. ...

Syria envoy seeks peace as clashes rage Posted: 25 Dec 2012 07:19 AM PST BEIRUT (Reuters) - International envoy Lakhdar Brahimi pursued mediation efforts in Damascus on Tuesday, but there was no pause in the bloodletting as Syrian Christians marked a bleak Christmas Day with prayers for peace. "We are here in a cave that symbolizes Syria right now," said a priest standing beside a nativity scene in a grotto. "It is cold here but the door is open to all refugees," he told Syrian state TV. "Amid the hunger, cold and deprivation, we still have hope for peace and love for our country. ...

Central African Republic rebels seize central town, defying foreign troops Posted: 25 Dec 2012 02:29 PM PST BANGUI (Reuters) - Rebels in Central African Republic seized the central town of Kaga Bandoro on Tuesday despite the presence of foreign troops meant to support the government, a government official said. The fall of the town, 333 km (207 miles) north of the capital Bangui, came hours after the Seleka rebel alliance said they would suspend their push and means they now have a firm grip on the north and east of the fragile nation. ...

U.S. moves to sell advanced spy drones to South Korea Posted: 25 Dec 2012 11:54 AM PST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Obama administration formally proposed a controversial sale of advanced spy drones to help South Korea bear more of its defense from any attack by the heavily armed North. Seoul has requested a possible $1.2 billion sale of four Northrop Grumman Corp RQ-4 "Global Hawk" remotely piloted aircraft with enhanced surveillance capabilities, the Pentagon's Defense Security Cooperation Agency said in a statement dated on Monday and distributed on Tuesday. South Korea needs such systems to assume top responsibility for intelligence-gathering from the U.S. ...

Gulf Arabs decry Iran "interference" in region Posted: 25 Dec 2012 07:39 AM PST MANAMA (Reuters) - Six U.S.-allied Gulf Arab states demanded on Tuesday that Iran end what they called interference in the region, reiterating a long-held mistrust of their main rival. The Islamic Republic denies trying to subvert Saudi Arabia and its wealthy Gulf neighbors. A communique issued at the end of a two-day summit of the Saudi-led Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) also urged action to halt mass killings and violations of international law in Syria. ...

Gunmen kill six in northeast Nigeria church attack Posted: 25 Dec 2012 09:51 AM PST KADUNA, Nigeria (Reuters) - Gunmen killed six people at a church in northeast Nigeria early on Tuesday, the third year running that Christmas services have come under deadly attack in the country, the military said. The strike took place after a Christmas Eve midnight service outside the town of Potiskum in northeastern Yobe state, where Islamist sect Boko Haram has carried out several attacks this year. "Unknown gunmen attempted to attack Potiskum but were repelled by the troops. ...

Pope gives advice as Italians prepare for bitter campaign Posted: 25 Dec 2012 08:04 AM PST ROME (Reuters) - Pope Benedict sent a political Christmas greeting to Italians on Tuesday as they head into an election campaign expected to be brutal and bitter: think, cooperate for the common good and don't discard values when making big choices. The pope, in his Christmas greetings in 65 languages, said in his special message to Italians that he hoped the spirit of the day would "make people reflect, favor the spirit of cooperation for the common good and lead to a reflection on the hierarchy of values when making the most important of choices". ...

Eight killed in Yemen clashes; attacks in capital target officers Posted: 25 Dec 2012 08:47 AM PST SANAA (Reuters) - At least six militants and two soldiers were killed in Yemen on Tuesday in fighting near a damaged oil pipeline east of the capital Sanaa, a defense ministry official and residents said. Separately, gunmen and bombers targeted three senior military officers and the transport minister in a series of attacks in the capital Sanaa. In one incident, two gunmen riding a motorbike shot dead Brigadier Fadel Mohammed Ali, an adviser to the minister of defense, outside the ministry's offices in Sanaa, a police source said. Further details were not immediately available. ...

Kazakh military plane crashes, all 27 on board killed Posted: 25 Dec 2012 04:37 PM PST ALMATY (Reuters) - A military transport plane crashed in southern Kazakhstan on Tuesday, killing all 27 people on board, including the commander of the Central Asian nation's border guards, local media and the KNB security service said. The twin-engine Antonov An-72 jet disappeared from radar screens at about 1900 local time (1300 GMT) as it was making a descent near the city of Shymkent, the capital of the South Kazakhstan Region. Kazakhstan's Channel 7 television showed early footage of charred and mangled fragments of the airplane scattered around a cordoned off area in a raging blizzard. ...

Afghans seek policewoman's motive for killing U.S. contractor Posted: 25 Dec 2012 06:32 AM PST KABUL (Reuters) - An Iranian-Afghan policewoman who killed a U.S. contractor at the police headquarters in Kabul may have been motivated by a personal grudge, said security officials, who were also probing possible Taliban or al Qaeda involvement. The officials said the woman named as Narges seemed wracked with remorse over the shooting. They said she held an Iranian passport but offered no evidence that Iran may have orchestrated the attack. She arrived at police headquarters on Monday morning and headed to a bathroom where she loaded a pistol and hid it under her long scarf, they said. ...

Syrian rebels make more gains in north Posted: 25 Dec 2012 12:01 PM PST BEIRUT (AP) — Syrian rebels fully captured a northern town near the Turkish border on Tuesday after weeks of heavy fighting and attacked a regime air base in a neighboring province, activists said.

Egypt constitution passes, economic crunch looms Posted: 25 Dec 2012 02:27 PM PST CAIRO (AP) — The official approval of Egypt's disputed, Islamist-backed constitution Tuesday held out little hope of stabilizing the country after two years of turmoil and Islamist President Mohammed Morsi may now face a more immediate crisis with the economy falling deeper into distress.

Pope's Christmas message focuses on Mideast, China Posted: 25 Dec 2012 11:53 AM PST VATICAN CITY (AP) — In his Christmas message to the world Tuesday, Pope Benedict XVI called for an end to the slaughter in Syria and for more meaningful negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians, while encouraging more religious freedom under China's new leaders.

Kazakhstan military plane crashes, killing 27 Posted: 25 Dec 2012 08:32 AM PST MOSCOW (AP) — Kazakhstan's acting border service chief was among 27 people killed in a military plane crash Tuesday near a southern city, another blow to the agency after he was appointed in June to deal with the aftermath of a mass killing involving a conscript.

SAfrica: Children attend Mandela's Christmas party Posted: 25 Dec 2012 08:13 AM PST MVEZO, South Africa (AP) — A couple of decades ago, Nelson Mandela grew withdrawn while feasting with his family on Christmas Day in the part of rural South Africa where the anti-apartheid leader lived as a child. Alarmed by the patriarch's silence, some relatives looked at him and asked if anything was wrong.

Queen delivers 1st Christmas message in 3D Posted: 25 Dec 2012 07:46 AM PST LONDON (AP) — Queen Elizabeth II has hailed the holidays in a new dimension, delivering her Christmas message for the first time in 3D.

VP says Chavez up, walking; doubts persist Posted: 25 Dec 2012 01:48 PM PST CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Vice President Nicolas Maduro surprised Venezuelans with a Christmas Eve announcement that President Hugo Chavez is up and walking two weeks after cancer surgery in Cuba, but the news did little to ease uncertainty surrounding the leader's condition.

Israel revisits ban on female prayer at holy site Posted: 25 Dec 2012 11:48 AM PST JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel's prime minister has instructed a quasi-governmental Jewish organization to find a solution for non-Orthodox Jewish female groups wishing to pray at one of Judaism's holiest sites.

In Egypt Islamists' bastion, discontent creeps up Posted: 25 Dec 2012 10:32 AM PST FAYOUM, Egypt (AP) — When election-time rolls around, this impoverished province of farmlands south of Cairo has proven one of the most die-hard bastions of support for Islamists in Egypt, producing lopsided victories for the Muslim Brotherhood and its ultraconservative allies.

Mexico bishop inspires, infuriates with activism Posted: 25 Dec 2012 10:25 AM PST MONCLOVA, Mexico (AP) — The white-haired bishop stepped before some 7,000 faithful gathered in a baseball stadium in this violence-plagued northern border state. He led the gathering through the rituals of his Mass, reciting prayers echoed back by the massive crowd. And then his voice rose.

Doing the Lindy for fun and exercise in Moscow Posted: 25 Dec 2012 05:00 AM PST As teenagers during the Soviet era, Sergey and Lyudmila Gubarev used to copy American-inspired songs onto cassette tapes that then made the rounds among their friends. The music on the tapes, spanning from the 1940s onward, offered them a peek through the Iron Curtain that closed off Western cultural imports.

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