Oxford Street stabbing: Teenager dies near sports store

An 18-year-old has been stabbed to death in London, on one of the UK's busiest shopping streets.

The man died outside the Foot Locker sports shop on Oxford Street, near the junction with Stratford Place.
Police said they were called to the scene at about 13:45 GMT. Nine people were arrested and part of the street, near Bond Street Tube, was closed.
Det Ch Insp Mark Dunne said there appeared to have been two groups of young people "opposing each other".
The incident happened as tens of thousands of people hunted for bargains in the area's shops, during what was a busy day for Boxing Day sales across the UK.
Police said there had been a second stabbing on Oxford Street in the evening, in which a 21-year-old man was injured in the thigh, but they said it was too early to confirm whether or not the two incidents were connected.
Weapons recovered However, Insp Bruce Middlemiss, the duty officer for police in Westminster, said: "They are a similar sort of circumstances, youths, possibly from the same south London area."
Det Ch Insp Dunne, of the Metropolitan Police's homicide command, told journalists there was no suggestion the earlier, fatal incident was gang related, but he was "not going to discount it".
He said it appeared a weapon had been involved, which "may well have been a knife", but he could not yet confirm this.

  Det Ch Insp Mark Dunne has urged witnesses to come forward

"A number of weapons have been recovered from that scene, whether I have got the murder weapon I don't know.
"There's an assortment of items but no guns," he said.
He said it was still not clear whether the incident had happened inside or just outside the Foot Locker store.
Police were still trying to work out exactly what had happened, he said.
"This is probably the busiest place in the UK right now, on the busiest shopping day, so it's been difficult for us to piece together what has happened."
He urged witnesses to come forward.
Several shops in the area were forced to shut early because they were inside the police cordon.
An employee at the nearby Disney Store said the company's outlet had been "quite badly affected" and was "unlikely to open again today".
Police said the second stabbing on Monday took place close to the junction of Oxford Street and Regent Street at about 18:20 GMT.
Police presence They said the victim was taken to hospital and his condition was not thought to be life-threatening.
Three males have been arrested and are in custody.
Mr Middlemiss said that despite the day's two attacks, the public should not feel unsafe shopping in the West End.
"There is a high police presence here, we have a number of operations in place already for the shopping times because we were aware of the amount of people who would be here.
"We are going to go back and review the intelligence for both incidents and see if we need to increase the police presence here, but at the moment we are not concerned for ordinary members of the public who are shopping."

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Syria: 50 Arab monitors arrive as bloodshed continues

A group of 50 Arab League observers has flown into Syria on a mission to monitor an end to violence the UN says has left more than 5,000 people dead.

Ahead of their arrival, gunfire and shelling in the volatile city of Homs claimed 23 lives, the opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
Opposition activists have urged the monitors to visit Homs.
Protests against President Bashar al-Assad began in March. The government says it is fighting armed gangs.
Casualty figures are hard to verify as most foreign media are banned from reporting in Syria.
The latest bloodshed is reported to have taken place largely in the Baba Amr district of Homs, which is reportedly besieged by government forces. The Observatory says that area alone saw 15 deaths on Monday.
A number of people have been killed in the city by mortar shelling and machine gun fire over the last few days, activists say.
Freedom of movement News agencies reported that 50 monitors and 10 officials from the Arab League secretariat flew in from Cairo - several days after a nine-member advance team arrived in Damascus.

The Syrian authorities have pledged to allow the monitors full freedom of movement without interference, as they assess whether Damascus is complying with the agreement it signed.

But the observers will have to depend on the regime to provide security.
Asked whether they could go to Homs, Foreign Ministry spokesman Jihad Makdissi said:
"They are here to monitor the violence from any side. So if the violence in Homs is generated by armed elements, yes they can. In general they can go anywhere but in co-ordination with the Syrian side. "
The BBC's Jim Muir in Beirut says that Homs may well prove to be a test case for the observer mission in terms of(...)More.

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Syrian opposition calls for UN role to end crisis

With violence continuing, the leader of Syria's main opposition group is urging the Arab League to push for U.N. involvement in seeking an end to the bloodshed.

Burhan Ghalioun, the Paris-based leader of the Syrian National Council, made the plea in a televised speech marking Christmas.

The Arab League has begun sending observers into Syria to monitor its compliance with a plan demanding an end to the regime's crackdown on political opponents. The 22-member bloc has warned that it could turn to the U.N. Security Council to help stop the violence that began in March.

The Arab League plan demands the government remove its security forces and heavy weapons from city streets, start talks with opposition leaders and allow human rights workers and journalists into the country.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — Thousands of mourners carrying Syrian flags and pictures of the dead took part in a mass funeral Saturday for 44 people killed in twin suicide bombings that targeted intelligence agency compounds in Damascus.

The government of President Bashar Assad said a preliminary investigation pointed to al-Qaida and that the bloodshed and destruction in the capital bolstered its argument that terrorists, rather than true reform-seekers, were behind the anti-government revolt.

The opposition, meanwhile, grew fearful that the regime was taking advantage of the distraction caused by the bombings to move in military reinforcements and prepare for a massive assault on key activist areas in central Syria. Shelling in the city of Homs on Saturday killed at least three people in the Baba Amr district and set several homes and shops ablaze, activists said.

"We believe this is in preparation for a large-scale attack," said Bassam Ishak, secretary-general of the Syrian National Council opposition group.

In Damascus, mourners carried coffins draped in the red, white and black Syrian flags into the eighth-century Omayyad Mosque, where they were placed on the ground for prayers.
"Martyr after martyr, we want nobody but Assad," they shouted in support of the embattled Syrian president.
The government linked Friday's bombings to the uprising against Assad's autocratic rule. They were the first suicide bombings since the unrest began in mid-March, adding new and ominous dimensions to a conflict that has already brought the country to the brink of civil war.

Striking just moments apart, the attackers used powerful car bombs to target the heavily guarded compounds. The explosions shook the capital, which has been relatively untouched by the uprising, and left mutilated and torn bodies amid rubble, twisted debris and burned cars.

Besides the dead, 166 people were wounded.

The opposition has questioned the government's account and hinted the regime itself could have been behind the attacks, noting they came a day after the arrival of an advance team of Arab League observers investigating Assad's bloody crackdown of the popular revolt.

Ishak said he feared the bombings "were orchestrated to distract attention from a massive assault today in Homs."

He said his group reported the information they got from Homs to the Arab League and urged the monitors to head to Homs. "The regime is keeping them in their hotels and delaying their departure for Homs," he told The Associated Press on the phone from Amman, Jordan.

An Arab League statement from its Cairo headquarters on Saturday said Secretary-General Nabil Elaraby condemned the attacks in Damascus but also expressed particular concern for Homs.

"The secretary-general expresses concern over reports that violent acts are on the rise in Homs city and calls for an immediate cessation of such acts," the statement said, warning that the violence will affect the success of the fuller observer mission set to arrive in Damascus Monday.
The government has long contended that the turmoil in Syria this year is not an uprising by reform-seekers but the work of terrorists and foreign-backed armed gangs.
Sheik Said al-Bouti, a prominent pro-Assad clergyman in Damascus, blamed the opposition squarely for the attacks.

"This gift has been sent to us by Burhan Ghalioun and his friends," he said in his funeral sermon Saturday, referring to the head of the Paris-based Syrian National Council.

Women dressed in black wailed Saturday during the funeral procession, which was aired by state-run Syrian TV. Some blamed the emir of Qatar, seen by supporters of Assad as leading the campaign against the regime.
"Those terrorists are funded by the emir of Qatar to kill innocent people, but they won't succeed," cried Fawakeh Shaqiri, 56, who was dressed in black and carrying a Syrian flag.
All the coffins Saturday held the names of the bombing victims, except for six coffins carrying the remains of people who had not been identified.

Syrian officials said a suicide attacker detonated his explosives-laden car as he waited behind a vehicle driven by a retired general who was trying to enter a military intelligence building in Damascus' upscale Kfar Sousa district Friday morning. About a minute later, a second attacker blew up his SUV at the gate of the General Intelligence Agency, the officials said.

Government officials took the Arab League observers to the scene of the explosions and said it supported their accounts of who was behind the violence.

"I wonder, have the covers been removed from the eyes of the Arab League representatives so that they can see who is the real killer and who is the victim?" al-Bouti asked.

The United Nations says more than 5,000 people have been killed since March, when the uprising began and the regime responded by deploying tanks and troops to crush protests across Syria.

In addition to the deaths in Baba Amr Saturday, the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the bodies of four people were found dumped on the streets in Houla, also in Homs province. They showed signs of torture on their bodies, it said.

A fifth person was still alive but in critical condition, according to the group.

They had been detained a day earlier by security forces and pro-government thugs.

"The Observatory calls on the Arab League observers to go immediately to the city of Houla to document this flagrant violation of human rights," the group said in a statement.

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NKorea pointing to heir's uncle playing key role

North Korea is showing the uncle and key patron of anointed heir Kim Jong Un wearing a military uniform with a general's insignia — a strong sign he'll play a crucial role in helping the young man take over power and uphold the "military-first" policy initiated by his late father, Kim Jong Il.

As North Korea prepares for Kim Jong Il's funeral Wednesday, it is also warning South Korea against barring visits to Pyongyang by civilian groups hoping to pay respects, saying the obstruction will lead to "catastrophic consequences" for relations between the rivals.

While millions continue to mourn Kim Jong Il, North Korea is offering hints about Kim Jong Un's rise and the future composition of his inner circle. North Korea began hailing Kim Jong Un as "supreme leader" of the 1.2-million strong military over the weekend as it ramps up its campaign to install him as ruler.

Kim Jong Un, who is in his late 20s and was unveiled in September 2010 as his father's choice as successor, will be the third-generation Kim to rule the nation of 24 million.

Koreans should become "eternal revolutionary comrades" with Kim Jong Un, "the sun of the 21st century," the North's main Rodong Sinmun newspaper said Sunday in a commentary carried by the official Korean Central News Agency.

State television showed footage Sunday of a uniformed Jang Song Thaek and his nephew Kim Jong Un paying their respects before Kim Jong Il's body, which is lying in state at Kumsusan Memorial Palace. Seoul's Unification Ministry said it was the first time Jang, usually seen in business suits, had been shown wearing a military uniform on state TV.

Jang, a vice chairman of the powerful National Defense Commission, is the husband of Kim Kyong Hui, younger sister of Kim Jong Il and a key Workers' Party official. South Korean lawmakers say intelligence officials have predicted that Jang and his wife will play larger roles supporting Kim Jong Un.

The new titles, a public show of support from top military leadership and the symbolic appearance of Jang in uniform send strong signals that North Korea will maintain Kim Jong Il's "military first" policy for the time being.

North Korea is in official mourning until Kim Jong Il's funeral Wednesday and a memorial Thursday.

South Korea has permitted only two groups with ties to North Korea to visit and pay condolences ahead of the funeral and has rejected demands by several others.

The South Korean groups, led by the widow of former President Kim Dae-jung, who held a landmark summit with Kim Jong Il in 2000, and a business leader whose late husband had ties to the North, plan to cross the heavily fortified border Monday for a two-day trip, according to Seoul's Unification Ministry.

On Saturday, Kim Jong Un again visited the palace where his father's body is lying in state — this time as "supreme leader of the revolutionary armed forces" and accompanied by North Korea's top military brass, according to KCNA.

Earlier, the Rodong Sinmun newspaper urged Kim Jong Un to accept the top military post: "Comrade Kim Jong Un, please assume the supreme commandership, as wished by the people."

Kim Jong Un's father and grandfather led the country under different titles, and it remains unclear which other titles will be bestowed on him.

Kim Jong Un was promoted last year to four-star general and appointed a vice chairman of the Central Military Commission of the Workers' Party. He had been expected to assume a number of other key posts while being groomed to succeed his father.

His father's death comes at a sensitive time for North Korea, which was in the middle of discussions with the U.S. on food aid and restarting talks to dismantle the North's nuclear weapons program. Chronically short of food and suffering from a shortfall in basic staples after several harsh seasons, officials had been asking for help feeding its people even as North Koreans prepared for 2012 celebrations marking the 100th birthday of Kim Il Sung, North Korea's founder and the late father of Kim Jong Il.

Also, animosity with South Korea still lingers after two incidents blamed on North Korea killed 50 South Koreans last year.

Calls to rally behind Kim Jong Un, dubbed the "Great Successor" in the wake of his father's death on Dec. 17 from a heart attack, come amid displays of grief across North Korea.

On Sunday, the North's state TV repeatedly showed footage of(...)More.

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Hundreds pack Bethlehem church for Christmas Mass

Hundreds of Christian faithful, defying lashing rains and wind, celebrated Christmas Mass at Jesus' traditional birthplace on Sunday, spirits high despite the gloomy weather.

Worshippers dressed in their holiday best rushed under cover of umbrellas into St. Catherine's Church on Manger Square, leaving the plaza, with its 50-foot-tall (15-meter-tall) Christmas tree, deserted. The church was packed, and the overflow crowd waited eagerly in an arched corridor for a chance to enter.

Inside, supplicants, some dressed in the traditional attire of foreign lands, raised their voices in prayer, kissed a plaster statue of a baby Jesus and took communion. St. Catherine's is attached to the smaller Church of the Nativity, which is built over a grotto where devout Christians believe Jesus was born.

"Lots of pilgrims from around the world are coming to be here on Christmas," said Don Moore, 41, a psychology professor from Berkeley, Calif., who came to Bethlehem with his family. "We wanted to be part of the action. This is the place, this is where it all started. It doesn't get any more special than that."

With turnout at its highest in more than a decade, proud Palestinian officials said they were praying the celebrations would bring them closer to their dream of independence.

Bethlehem, like the rest of the West Bank, had fallen onto hard times after the Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation broke out in late 2000.

Although civil affairs in the biblical town on Jerusalem's southeastern outskirts are run by Palestinian authorities, security control remains in the hands of Israel, which built a barrier around three sides of the town to keep Palestinian attackers out.

Palestinians say the barrier has badly hurt its economy, which depends heavily on tourism, by severely restricting movement in and out of the town.

But as the violence has subsided, tourists have returned in large numbers. An estimated 100,000 visitors streamed into Manger Square on Christmas Eve, up from 70,000 the previous year, according to the Israeli military's count.

With the barrier looming large over the celebrations in Bethlehem, Palestinians have tried to draw attention to their quest for an independent state with this year's Christmas slogan, "Palestine celebrating hope."

Late Saturday, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas told a meeting of Christian leaders that he is committed to reaching peace with Israel.

"I hope they will come back to their senses and understand that we are seekers of peace, not seekers of war or terrorism," said Abbas, a Muslim like most Palestinians. "The mosque, church and synagogue stand side by side in this Holy Land."

Israel had allowed about 500 members of Gaza's tiny Christian minority to travel through its territory to the West Bank to celebrate Christmas in Bethlehem. Most of Gaza's 3,000 Christians belong to the Greek Orthodox denomination, which celebrates Christmas next month.

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