QUOTE OF THE DAY

“The message of Christmas is a message of peace, love and brotherhood. We have to be brothers with each other.”

Latin Patriarch Fouad Twal, the top Roman Catholic cleric in the Holy Land Article, 1A

Egypt ex-premier heading to prison

CAIRO - Egypt’s former prime minister - who served under the nation’s toppled Islamist president - was arrested to serve a one-year prison sentence, state television reported Tuesday.

The case against Hesham Kandil goes back to 2011 when a court ruled in favor of reversing deals struck by ousted autocrat Hosni Mubarak when his government sold a textile company to a Saudi investor.

A court sentenced Kandil to one year in prison for failing to implement the court order.

Also Tuesday, a powerful blast tore through a police headquarters in an Egyptian Nile Delta city, killing 15 people and wounding more than 100.

Officials sought to pin the ultimate blame for the bombing on the government’s top political nemesis, the Muslim Brotherhood. The Brotherhood in turn accused the government of trying to scapegoat it.

Deal redraws face of Yemen politics

SANA, Yemen - The United Nations envoy to Yemen said Tuesday that the country’s political representatives have signed an agreement that draws a new political map for Yemen, giving regions - including its restive south - self-rule.

Envoy Jamal Benomar said the new agreement “paves the way for establishing a unified state, on the basis of federalism and democracy,” while also dealing with power- and wealth-sharing in the country. He said that a new constitution - which is yet to be drafted - will decide on the mandate and powers of the new regions.

Benomar’s statement comes amid deep divisions as leading parties disagreed on a proposal to divide the country into six regions instead of two.

Representatives from southern Yemen are seeking to turn the country into a two-member federal union that would give them greater powers. Southern Yemen was an independent state until unification in 1990.

Parade, flag talks fruitless in Belfast

LONDON - Overnight talks in Belfast failed to produce an agreement to resolve deep-seated divisions over parades and flags that triggered widespread rioting in Northern Ireland, though the U.S. mediator leading the discussions said Tuesday the process is not dead.

Richard Haass, director of the New York-based Council on Foreign Relations and a former U.S. envoy to Northern Ireland from 2001-03, led the multiparty talks.

The disputes hinge on Catholic opposition to Protestant marches, the most fundamental trigger point for Northern Ireland violence; the contested rights of both sides to fly their preferred British and Irish flags, an argument that sparked Protestant street blockades and clashes with police; and the question of how to honor and get justice for the 3,700 dead from a nearly 45-year-old conflict.

Seven hours of talks ended around 4 a.m. Tuesday without agreement, and Haass said “significant differences and divisions” remain.

“The work done on flags is quite disappointing by any measure,” he said. “But the other two areas have been, I believe, quite impressive, and I believe it would be a real shame not to be able to turn that work into a reality.”

Front Section, Pages 6 on 12/25/2013