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Irish Police Make 34 Arrests after Dublin Rioting

Workers clear debris from the road as the shells of burnt out buses wait to be removed from O'Connell Street in Dublin on November 24, 2023, following a night of protests. (Photo by PAUL FAITH / AFP)
Workers clear debris from the road as the shells of burnt out buses wait to be removed from O'Connell Street in Dublin on November 24, 2023, following a night of protests. (Photo by PAUL FAITH / AFP)
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Irish Police Make 34 Arrests after Dublin Rioting

Workers clear debris from the road as the shells of burnt out buses wait to be removed from O'Connell Street in Dublin on November 24, 2023, following a night of protests. (Photo by PAUL FAITH / AFP)
Workers clear debris from the road as the shells of burnt out buses wait to be removed from O'Connell Street in Dublin on November 24, 2023, following a night of protests. (Photo by PAUL FAITH / AFP)

Irish police on Friday said they had made 34 arrests for rioting in Dublin overnight and that more protests could follow after the stabbing of five people including three young children triggered violence rarely seen before in the capital.
Police guarded looted stores and firefighters cooled down smoldering vehicles in the heart of Dublin's city center early on Friday after hours of riots which Police Commissioner Drew Harris said he expected to lead to many more arrests.
"Those involved brought shame on Dublin, brought shame on Ireland and brought shame on their families and themselves," Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar told a news conference.
A five-year-old girl remained in a critical condition on Friday following emergency treatment on serious injuries sustained in the stabbing.
Police have not commented on the nationality of a man detained in connection with the stabbings but there was immediate speculation online that he was foreign.
Police blamed far-right agitators for starting the violence after a small group of anti-immigrant protesters arrived at the scene of the stabbing beside the main thoroughfare of O'Connell Street and clashed with police.
According to Reuters, Varadkar said his government would take immediate steps to tighten anti-hate legislation he said was unfit for the social media age.
"As a country we need to reclaim Ireland. We need to take it away from the cowerers who hide behind masks and try to terrify us with their violence," Varadkar said.
"We need to reclaim Ireland from the unscrupulous who prey on the fears of those easily led into darkness. And we need to reclaim Ireland from the criminals who seek any excuse to unleash horror on our streets," he said in an emotional statement.

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Pope Urges ‘All People of All Nations’ to Silence Arms and Overcome Divisions in Christmas Address

Pope Francis leads the traditional Urbi et Orbi Christmas Day blessing from the central balcony of Saint Peter's Square at the Vatican City, 25 December 2024. (EPA)
Pope Francis leads the traditional Urbi et Orbi Christmas Day blessing from the central balcony of Saint Peter's Square at the Vatican City, 25 December 2024. (EPA)
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Pope Urges ‘All People of All Nations’ to Silence Arms and Overcome Divisions in Christmas Address

Pope Francis leads the traditional Urbi et Orbi Christmas Day blessing from the central balcony of Saint Peter's Square at the Vatican City, 25 December 2024. (EPA)
Pope Francis leads the traditional Urbi et Orbi Christmas Day blessing from the central balcony of Saint Peter's Square at the Vatican City, 25 December 2024. (EPA)

Pope Francis in his traditional Christmas message on Wednesday urged "all people of all nations" to find courage during this Holy Year "to silence the sounds of arms and overcome divisions" plaguing the world, from the Middle East to Ukraine, Africa to Asia.

The pontiff's "Urbi et Orbi" — "To the City and the World" — address serves as a summary of the woes facing the world this year. As Christmas coincided with the start of the 2025 Holy Year celebration that he dedicated to hope, Francis called for broad reconciliation, "even (with) our enemies."

"I invite every individual, and all people of all nations ... to become pilgrims of hope, to silence the sounds of arms and overcome divisions," the pope said from the loggia of St. Peter's Basilica to throngs of people below.

He called for arms to be silenced in war-torn Ukraine and in the Middle East, singling out Christian communities in Israel and the Palestinian territories, "particularly in Gaza where the humanitarian situation is extremely grave," as well as Lebanon and Syria "at this most delicate time."

Francis repeated his calls for the release of hostages taken from Israel by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023.

He cited a deadly outbreak of measles in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and the suffering of the people of Myanmar, forced to flee their homes by "the ongoing clash of arms." The pope likewise remembered children suffering from war and hunger, the elderly living in solitude, those fleeing their homelands, who have lost their jobs, and are persecuted for their faith.

Iraqi Christians persist in their faith

Christians in Nineveh Plains attended Christmas Mass on Tuesday at the Mar Georgis church in the center of Telaskaf, Iraq, with security concerns about the future. "We feel that they will pull the rug out from under our feet at any time. Our fate is unknown here," said Bayda Nadhim, a resident of Telaskaf.

Iraq’s Christians, whose presence there goes back nearly to the time of Christ, belong to a number of rites and denominations. They once constituted a sizeable minority in Iraq, estimated at around 1.4 million.

But the community has steadily dwindled since the 2003 US-led invasion and further in 2014 when the ISIS extremist group swept through the area. The exact number of Christians left in Iraq is unclear, but they are thought to number several hundred thousand.

German celebrations muted by market attack

German celebrations were darkened by a car attack on a Christmas market in Magdeburg on Friday that left five people dead, including a 9-year-old boy, and 200 people injured.

President Frank-Walter Steinmeier rewrote his recorded Christmas Day speech to address the attack, saying that "there is grief, pain, horror and incomprehension over what took place in Magdeburg."

He urged Germans to "stand together" and that "hate and violence must not have the last word."

A 50-year-old Saudi doctor who had practiced medicine in Germany since 2006 was arrested on suspicion of murder, attempted murder and bodily harm. The suspect’s X account describes him as a former Muslim and criticized authorities for failing to combat "the Islamification of Germany" and voiced support for the anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.