site.news_by_theme Christmas

Tajikistan has tightened restrictions on celebrations of the traditional festive season in schools in the Central Asian country, banning Christmas trees and gift-giving.

Kazakhstan’s President Nursultan Nazarbayev has congratulated the people of Kazakhstan on Orthodox Christmas.

President Barack Obama in a Christmas Day speech to US troops stationed in Hawaii hailed their "extraordinary dedication and sacrifices."

Pope Francis roundly condemned jihadist violence and the "brutal persecution" of religious minorities in a Christmas message.

A Chinese city has banned schools from holding Christmas events, highlighting official suspicions about the increasingly popular festival because of its foreign origins.

Pope Francis urged people to have greater empathy towards family and friends with problems in his Christmas Eve mass.

Germany's president appealed in a Christmas message for compassion and openness towards refugees coming to the country.

Christmas has exploded in the atheist nation in recent years, with marketeers using everything from saxophones and Smurfs to steam trains to get shoppers to open their wallets.

Sierra Leone said it was banning any public Christmas celebrations as the spiralling caseload of Ebola infections continues to spread alarm.

The twin bombs that went off at the Boston Marathon last year were made using improvised fuses from Christmas lights and detonators constructed from model car parts, US prosecutors said.

Sales of Burberry's luxury handbags and clothing soared over the crucial festive trading period, boosted by impressive growth in Asia, the British fashion group revealed on Wednesday.

US stocks edged towards the finale of a banner 2013 in buoyant fashion this week, repeatedly reaching new records on a string of solid economic data.

Most stores were closed but Americans still managed to shop on Christmas Day -- increasingly on their smartphones.

Amazon Thursday said it would give $20 gift cards and pay shipping costs for customers affected by problems at UPS and FedEx that delayed some Christmas package deliveries.

The Red Cross said Thursday it had recovered some 40 bodies on the streets of Bangui as the United States expressed alarm at the latest eruption of fighting in the Central African Republic.

Queen Elizabeth II urged people to take the time for quiet reflection in 2014, in her annual Christmas Day message to the Commonwealth.

Thousands of Christians are killed every year because of their faith and the persecution is becoming more widespread.

Survivors of the Philippines' deadliest typhoon spent a gloomy Christmas Day surrounded by mud Wednesday as heavy rain drove many inside their flimsy shelters, dampening efforts to retain some holiday cheer in the deeply devout nation.

A British Greenpeace protester Tuesday said he was "jubilant" after Russia closed the criminal case against him for staging a protest on an oil rig, and vowed to keep fighting for environmental issues.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un has urged the country's military to bolster its combat readiness, saying a war could break out "without any prior notice", state media reported Wednesday.
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