B10 RED DEER ADVOCATE Friday, Jan. 8, 2016
Orthodox Christian faithful mark Christmas BY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS MOSCOW — For much of the Orthodox Christian world, Thursday is celebrated as Christmas Day. Believers in Russia, Ukraine, and parts of Eastern Europe and the Middle East flocked to churches for the holiday. Some Orthodox churches follow the liturgical calendar observed by the Roman Catholic and Protestant churches and celebrate Christmas on Dec. 25. A look at Christmas events throughout the world Thursday: RUSSIA As Christmas approached across the sprawling country’s nine time zones, Russians flocked to churches for long and solemn Masses. At Moscow’s enormous Christ The Savior Cathedral, the service began at 11 p.m. on Wednesday and stretched two and a half hours, led by Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill, with the devout standing shoulder-to-shoulder. President Vladimir Putin attended a midnight service at a church in the village of Turginovo, about 150 kilometres (90 miles) northwest of Moscow, where his parents were baptized. Soldiers taking part in Russia’s airstrikes in Syria attended a nighttime service in a tent on the Russian air base. The tent’s walls were lined with icons and a few strings of purple lights were festooned at its entrance. In his Christmas greetings to the nation, Putin said: “It is very important in these days that the Russian Orthodox Church and other Christian confessions in Russia continue the traditions of responsible service, help people find belief and give them force in life. They participate actively in upbringing of the growing generations, in development of the institutes of family, maternity and childhood.” EGYPT Egypt’s Coptic Orthodox Christians celebrated Christmas Eve across the mainly Muslim country amid tightened security for fear of militant attacks, which have exponentially increased following the military overthrow of an Islamist president. Roadblocks were set up before churches nationwide and cars and motorcycles were temporarily banned from idling in front of them, police Maj. Gen. Gamal Halawa said. In Cairo alone, police searched over 300 churches for explosives. Egypt’s Orthodox Coptic Christians fervently supported the 2013 ouster of Islamist President Mohammed Morsi. Ever since, Christian homes, businesses and churches have been more targeted. “We have been late in restoring and
Photo by THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
People light sparklers as they celebrate the Orthodox Christmas in St.Petersburg, Russia, Thursday. Russian Orthodox believers celebrate Christmas by the Julian calendar on Jan. 7. fixing what has been burned…. Everything will be fixed… Please accept our apologies for what happened,” President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, who as military chief led Morsi’s overthrow, told the crowd on Wednesday at Cairo’s St. Mark Cathedral, the papal seat, in a rare public apology and acknowledgement of the attacks. Egyptian presidents never attended Christmas masses, making el-Sissi’s visit this year, the second of its kind, doubly appreciated. The heightened security measures were in part a preparation for the Jan. 25 anniversary of the 2011 uprising that toppled longtime autocrat Hosni Mubarak. Officials including el-Sissi have voiced concern about attempts to mark the anniversary of the revolt with protests in recent weeks. Egypt’s Orthodox Coptic Christians make up about 10 per cent of the country’s 90 million people. GEORGIA In Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia, the main avenue was crowded with colorfully dressed marchers in the traditional Christmas Day procession, collecting gifts and goods to donate to the needy. The tradition, called “Alilo” (Glory to God), dates back centuries, when people would go out to collect
alms for charity after Christmas Mass. It was banned during Soviet times, and restored only in 2000. The procession included people dressed in robes displaying Georgia’s national emblem of a red cross on white background and others in outfits symbolizing scenes of the Nativity. Some rode in carts pulled by donkeys or cattle, and other carried animal mock-ups including a camel and giraffe. “This procession is an attempt to share the happiness with all those people who could not celebrate Christmas because of illness or poverty. We will go to all of them and bring gifts,” said Father Kakhaber Gogotishvili, a priest who took part UKRAINE President Petro Poroshenko and his family attended Christmas services at a village church in the Ivano-Frankiivsk region in the foothills of the Carpathian Mountains. According to the presidential press service, Poroshenko and others prayed for peace and reconciliation “on all Ukrainian land.” Conflict between Ukrainian forces and Russian-backed rebels in eastern Ukraine persists, although the inten-
sity has diminished in recent months. Rebels said on Wednesday that they were prepared to release some of the conflict’s prisoners on Christmas, but Ukrainian authorities made no direct public response and there were reports Thursday of a release taking place. MACEDONIA In Macedonia, where about 65 per cent of the population identify themselves as Orthodox, people gathered in churches before eating traditional Christmas dinners at home. The country’s church leader, Archbishop Stefan, in a Christmas message urged the faithful to strive to “strengthen spiritual and national unity” — following months of political turmoil that ended with an agreement between the two largest political parties for early elections in the spring. “As Orthodox Christians we have an opportunity to examine our faith. The Holy Church, invites us, especially on this day, to show goodwill and strive to peace with all nations,” Stefan said. Observing tradition, children around the country went door to door singing carols Thursday, while large bonfires were lit in neighbourhoods overnight.
CALIFORNIA AND TEXAS
Two arrested on terrorism charges BY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Photo by THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
People walk around to banner reading “Je suis Charlie”, “I am Charlie” on the Place de la Republique during a gathering that marks one year after the attacks on Charlie Hebdo satirical newspaper, in Paris, France, Thursday,
Officers shoot man wearing a fake explosives vest outside a police station in northern Paris BY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS PARIS — A man wearing a fake explosives vest and wielding a butcher knife was shot to death by police outside a Paris police station Thursday, jolting an already anxious French capital with a new dose of fear as the nation grimly marked a year of terror that started with the newsroom massacre at the Charlie Hebdo satirical magazine. The assailant — who shouted “Allahu akbar!” or “God is great!”— as he waved the knife at officers, was carrying a document with an emblem of the Islamic State group and “an unequivocal claim of responsibility in Arabic,” the prosecutor’s office said. The extremist group claimed responsibility for the Jan. 7, 2015, attack at Charlie Hebdo and on a kosher grocery store three days later that killed 17 people. The Islamic State group also claimed the Nov. 13 attacks on Paris cafes, restaurants, a sports stadium and a music hall that killed 130 people. Thursday’s attempted attack shortly before noon in Paris’ multi-ethnic Goutte d’Or neighbourhood came almost one year to the minute after two Islamic extremists burst into the offices of Charlie Hebdo, killing 11 people. Just moments earlier, President
Francois Hollande had paid respects to fallen security forces — three of whom were killed last year in terrorist violence — saluting their valour in protecting “this way of life, the one that terrorists want to attack.” The fallen were killed “so that we can live free,” Hollande said, describing the November attacks as “acts of war.” But there was no reprieve for France. Scores of police descended Thursday on the northern neighbourhood that was the site of the attempted attack, blocking it off to pedestrians and ordering shops to close. Metro stations in the area, which is not far from the Montmartre district that is home to the Sacre Coeur Cathedral, were closed and buses halted, leaving scores of residents, including many elderly, to walk long distances only to find they could not get into their homes. “It’s like the Charlie Hebdo affair isn’t over,” said Nora Borrias, a 27-year-old waiting for her barricaded street to reopen. She said she no longer feels a sense of safety. Video shot from a window above the station and provided to The Associated Press showed the suspect’s body lying on the ground in a pool of blood
as a sniffer dog was called in to check the body, along with a bomb-detecting robot. More video aired later on iTele TV showed a police explosives specialist cutting open the dead man’s jacket to check for live explosives. Alexis Mukenge, who witnessed the shooting, told iTele that police shouted, “Stop! Move back!” before firing twice at the man, who immediately fell to the ground. Authorities did not publicly identify the suspect. However, a French security official said police were “working on the hypothesis” that the assailant is a 20-year-old Moroccan who was involved in a minor 2013 robbery in the southern Var region. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the case, said that while the fingerprints of the dead attacker matched those of the robbery suspect, who identified himself at the time as Ali Sallah of Casablanca, the assailant in Thursday’s attack appeared older than 20. He said Sallah, who had been in France illegally, was ordered to leave the country after the 2013 incident. Investigators were trying to determine if and when the man had returned to Paris.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Authorities said Thursday that two people with ties to the Islamic State have been arrested on terrorism-related charges in California and Texas, including a refugee from Syria who is charged with lying to federal investigators about his travels to the civil war in that country. The arrests feed a national debate over whether the United States is doing enough to screen refugees from Syria for terrorists from that nation. Court documents say the men wanted to aid terrorist organizations affiliated with the Islamic State group. However, one man is accused of assisting a group that allied with the Islamic State organization only after he had returned to the United States. He earlier said he wouldn’t join Islamic State group himself because it was killing fellow Muslims. A criminal complaint unsealed Thursday accuses that man, Aws Mohammed Younis Al-Jayab, 23, of Sacramento, of travelling to Syria to fight and lying to investigators about it. U.S. Attorney Benjamin Wagner said in a statement that while Al-Jayab was potentially dangerous, there is no indication that he planned any attacks in the United States. Meanwhile, the U.S. Attorney’s Office based in Houston, Texas, said late Thursday that Omar Faraj Saeed Al Hardan, 24, of Houston, was indicted Wednesday on three charges that he tried to provide material support to the extremists. There is no indication from prosecutors that Al Hardan was a threat in the United States, but his arrest sparked immediate criticism of the Obama administration’s refugee policies from Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick. “This is precisely why I called for a halt to refugees entering the U.S. from countries substantially controlled by terrorists,” Abbott said in a statement. “I once again urge the President to halt the resettlement of these refugees in the United States until there is an effective vetting process that will ensure refugees do not compromise the safety of Americans and Texans.” Both men are Palestinians born in Iraq, authorities said. The complaint in federal court in Sacramento said Al-Jayab came to the United States from Syria as a refugee in October 2012.