In the news

Pope Francis prayed for persecuted Christians a day after 35 people were killed in bombings outside a church in Iraq, telling a crowd at St Peter’s Square that some discrimination and restrictions on Christians’ religious freedom today are greater than in the time of the first Christians.

Yuli Edelstein, Israel’s parliament speaker, said he refused the request of a Christian-Arab lawmaker to display a Christmas tree in the building this week because of the painful memories it would evoke among Jews after centuries of persecution by Christians.

Di Va Ly, 43, a Springfield, Mo., man previously accused of bilking money from an elderly woman, was charged with theft after being accused of leading several foreigners to believe he could arrange permanent U.S. residency for them in exchange for money.

Gov. Nikki Haley of South Carolina, a Republican, posted on social-media sites a picture of a Beretta PX4 Storm pistol she got for Christmas, saying she must have been good to have received such a nice present from Santa Claus.

Steve Whitcomb, a New Hampshire volunteer firefighter, arrived at the scene of a fatal car crash only to realize the victim was his 30-year-old daughter, Katie Hamilton.

Colin Farquhar, the Turks and Caicos Islands police commissioner, said authorities ended the search for victims from the capsizing of a Haitian migrant vessel, in which at least 17 people died, after no additional bodies were found.

Brian Jackson, a U.S. district judge, ruled that death-row conditions during summer months at the Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola are unsafe and violate constitutional protections against cruel and unusual punishment, telling the state to give him a plan by Feb. 17 to cool the cells so the heat index never goes above 88 degrees.

Wang Yi, China’s foreign minister, said a visit by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to a contentious shrine to World War II dead, which includes 14 convicted war criminals, “has created major new political obstacles for already strained Sino-Japanese relations, and China won’t ever tolerate it.”

Ronald Marc Klotzer, a Montana attorney, pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor for making threats against District Judge Karen Townsend in a ploy to get her to recuse herself from his civil case.

Front Section, Pages 1 on 12/27/2013

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