Pope prays for peace after Nigeria bomb blast

Pope Benedict XVI prayed for the victims of famine, floods and conflict around the world in his traditional Christmas message on Sunday, following a deadly explosion near a church in Nigeria.

"Let us turn our gaze anew to the grotto of Bethlehem. The Child whom we contemplate is our salvation. He has brought to the world a universal message of reconciliation and peace," he told thousands of pilgrims in the Vatican.

The pope urged the international community to aid those suffering from hunger in the Horn of Africa, called for an end to the bloodshed in Syria and said he hoped this year's Arab revolts would aid the "common good."

He also prayed for the victims of recent flooding in Thailand and the Philippines which he said were enduring "grave hardships" and said he hoped for increased dialogue in Myanmar "in the pursuit of shared solutions."

The pope's strongest words were against wars and in favour of reconciliation, particularly between Israelis and Palestinians in the Holy Land but also in the Great Lakes Region of Africa and the new nation of South Sudan.

"May the Lord come to the aid of our world torn by so many conflicts which even today stain the earth with blood . . . May he bring an end to the violence in Syria, where so much blood has already been shed,"he said.

"May he grant renewed vigour to all elements of society in the countries of North Africa and the Middle East as they strive to advance the common good," he added, following the revolts in Egypt, Libya and Tunisia.

Concluding his message, the pope voiced Christmas greetings in 65 languages including Aramaic, Icelandic and Samoan to cheers from the crowd.

"God is the Saviour: we are those who are in peril. He is the physician: we are the infirm," he told them.

"To realize this is the first step towards salvation, towards emerging from the maze in which we have been locked by our pride."

At Christmas Eve mass in Saint Peter's Basilica, the pope had lamented the consumerism surrounding a holiday "whose bright lights hide the mystery of God's humility, which in turns calls us to humility and simplicity."

"Let us ask the Lord to help us see through the superficial glitter of this season, and to discover behind it the child in the stable in Bethlehem, so as to find true joy and true light," the 84-year-old pope said.

He also rebuked "oppressors" and warmongers around the world.

"In this time of ours, in this world of ours, cause the oppressors' rods, the cloaks rolled in blood and the footgear of battle to be burned, so that your peace may triumph in this world of ours," he said.

Peace was also a central theme in Patriarch of Jerusalem Fuad Twal's Christmas Eve homily delivered in Bethlehem, where hotels and guesthouses were packed to capacity with pilgrims.

"We ask for peace, stability and security for the entire Middle East," said Twal, the most senior Roman Catholic in the region.

In a midnight mass, he urged "the return of calm and reconciliation in Syria, in Egypt, in Iraq and in North Africa".

"O Child of Bethlehem, in this New Year, we place in your hands this troubled Middle East and, above all, our youth full of legitimate aspirations, who are frustrated by the economic and political situation, and in search of a better future," Twal said.

Bethlehem, the biblical birthplace of Jesus saw some of its largest crowds of tourists in years for the Christmas festival, bringing cheer to the troubled West Bank, while celebrations also passed without incident in Iraq.

However a bomb went off near a Catholic church outside the Nigerian capital Abuja, killing at least 15 people, in the latest attack to rock the religiously divided country, also hit by deadly Christmas attacks in 2010.

Another explosion was heard later in the day in the central city of Jos near a church, but details were not immediately available, residents said.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility, although Nigeria has been rocked by bomb blasts and shootings attributed to Islamist group Boko Haram.

The group claimed responsibility for the August suicide bombing of UN headquarters in Abuja that killed at least 24 people. The string of bomb blasts in Jos on Christmas Eve 2010 were also claimed by Boko Haram.

In recent days in three cities in the northeast, where most of the violence attributed to Boko Haram has occurred, attacks blamed on the sect followed by a heavy military crackdown have killed up to 100 people.

Nobel ceremony honours 3 women with peace prize

Three women who fought injustice, dictatorship and sexual violence in Liberia and Yemen received the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize at a ceremony in the Norwegian capital on Saturday.

Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, her compatriot Leymah Gbowee and Tawakkul Karman of Yemen collected their Nobel diplomas and medals to applause at Oslo's City Hall.

Prize committee chairman Thorbjoern Jagland said the three women represent the struggle for "human rights in general and of women for equality and peace in particular."

No woman or sub-Saharan African had won the prize since 2004, when the committee honoured Wangari Maathai of Kenya, who mobilized poor women to fight deforestation by planting trees.

By selecting Karman the prize committee also recognized the Arab Spring movement championed by often anonymous activists from Tunisia to Syria.

Sirleaf was elected president of Liberia in 2005 and won re-election in October. She is widely credited with helping her country emerge from an especially brutal civil war.

The 39-year-old Gbowee long campaigned for the rights of women and against rape, challenging Liberia's warlords. In 2003, she led hundreds of female protesters through Monrovia to demand swift disarmament of fighters, who continued to prey on women, despite a peace deal that should have ended the 14-year civil war.

Karman, a journalist and member of the Islamic party Islah, is the first Arab woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize, and at 32, the youngest peace laureate ever. She also heads the human rights group Women Journalists without Chains.

Last year's peace prize went to imprisoned Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo, who was represented by an empty chair at the awards ceremony as an infuriated China would not allow him to travel to Norway.

The other Nobel Prizes — in medicine, chemistry, physics and literature, and the Nobel Memorial Prize in economic sciences — were to be handed out at a separate ceremony Saturday in Stockholm.

Worth 10 million kronor (about $1.8 million Cdn) each, the Nobel Prizes are always handed out on the anniversary of award founder Alfred Nobel's death in 1896.

Pakistan, Taliban peace talks 'progressing well'

The deputy chief of the Pakistani Taliban announced Saturday that the militant group was in peace talks with the government and an agreement to end its brutal four-year insurgency was within striking distance.

The statement by Malvi Faqir Mohammad, which appeared timed to exploit tensions between the Pakistan army and the U.S., will likely stoke further concerns in Washington over Pakistan's reliability as a long-term partner in the fight against extremists.

It represented the first time a named Taliban commander has confirmed that the group is negotiating with the Pakistani government. Still, it was unclear whether Mohammad speaks for the entirety of the increasingly factionalized network, especially its leader, Hakimullah Mehsud.

Asked about the alleged negotiations, Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said that his government has followed a policy of "dialogue, deterrence and development" to tackle militants who are based in the lawless, Afghan border region.

"That is a continuing process," he told a local television station.

Pakistani officials have earlier stated that they do not talk to militants unless they surrender.

Despite pushing for peace talks to end the related insurgency in Afghanistan, Washington is unlikely to support similar efforts to strike a deal in Pakistan. Ties between the two countries have been on a downward trend all year, and were dealt a massive blow by an airstrike by U.S-led forces in Afghanistan two weeks ago that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers. The attack triggered fresh anti-Americanism in the country, including within the army ranks.

American forces and their NATO and Afghan allies regularly come under attack from Afghan militants and al-Qaeda operatives, who live alongside Pakistani Taliban militants in the border region. Previous peace deals in the northwest didn't last long, and gave militants time to rest and regroup, as well as space for foreign extremists to prosper.

Mohammad said his men had held "peace talks with relevant government officials."

"They are progressing well, and we may soon sign a formal peace agreement with the government," he said in a telephone conversation.

He didn't specify the terms being discussed, but past deals have essentially been nonaggression pacts: the militants get to live unmolested by the army in the border regions, which the state has long been content to leave as an ungoverned space for strategic reasons, so long as they do not attack inside Pakistan. The army is accused of tolerating or supporting militants there who strike into Afghanistan.

After heavy U.S. pressure and billions in aid, the army pummelled militants in the northwest over the past four years, helped greatly by American-fired drone strikes, killing many hundreds but falling well short of victory. Nevertheless, the pressure may have helped put the insurgents into talks, or led factions to suggest a truce.

Mohammad's main area of strength is the Bajur tribal region, where the army claims to have decimated the militants.

Mohammad said any deal in Bajur could be a "role model" for the rest of the border region. The Pakistani Taliban, closely allied with al-Qaeda, have been behind much of the violence tearing apart Pakistan over the last four and a half years. At least 35,000 people have been killed in suicide bombings, other insurgent attacks and army offensives.

Despite the Taliban's record of indiscriminate violence, much of it directed at civilians, there is political and public support for talks. In September, the weak civilian government announced it was prepared to "give peace a chance" with militants, pandering to right-wing Islamist parties and their supporters.

Many Pakistanis share the hard-line religious and anti-American views of the Taliban.

They believe the militants could be brought into the fold if only Islamabad severed its alliance with Washington, which they blame for sparking the insurgency by invading Afghanistan following the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks in the United States.