Tension mars some Christmases

Bloodshed marred some of the world's Christmas celebrations and social tensions shadowed others. A grenade killed a girl and two other worshippers at a church in Pakistan, bombs exploded at a church in India, protesters blocked church doors in Yugoslavia.

Most tourists and religious pilgrims stayed away from Bethlehem on Wednesday, but a small number of Palestinian Christians braved dreary weather to attend Mass in the town of Jesus' birth.

Latin Patriarch Michel Sabbah, the highest-ranking Roman Catholic clergyman in the Holy Land, told worshippers at the Church of the Nativity not to lose hope, despite the bloodshed and hardships.

The service was one of the highlights in an otherwise gloomy Christmas for Bethlehem, which lacked the traditional decorations, trees and lights in protest against Israel's reoccupation of the West Bank town. It was the first time since 1994 that Christians there celebrated under Israeli military control.

In Pakistan, two assailants shrouded in women's robes threw at least one hand grenade at a small Christian church in populous Punjab province, killing three worshippers -- including at least one young girl -- and wounding more than 10, authorities said.

The church was holding a Christmas service when the attack took place Wednesday evening in the village of Chianwala, about 40 miles northwest of Lahore. All three of the dead and most of the wounded were women or girls; all were Pakistani, officials said.

Earlier, Pakistani police found explosives and ammunition in a shopping bag hidden in bushes near a heavily guarded church in the capital, Islamabad. Church officials feared they had been the intended target of an attack, but went ahead with services.

Security had been increased at churches around the predominantly Islamic nation, which has seen a string of attacks by extremist Muslims aimed at Christians.

Security also was heightened in the Southeast Asian nation of Indonesia.

Worship despite threats

Thousands of police were deployed in the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, as Christians flocked to churches to celebrate Christmas despite warnings that Islamic extremists might target places of worship this holiday season.

Worshippers had to pass through metal detectors and police searched their bags before they could attend services at Jakarta Cathedral, which sits opposite the city's huge Istiqlal Mosque.

Indonesian police seized 550 pounds of a fertilizer usable in explosives that they said was to be delivered to a fugitive bomber.

They said the cache of ammonium nitrate seized in Palu, about 930 miles northeast of Jakarta, was much bigger than the amount detonated in devastating blasts in Bali's nightlife district on Oct. 12. Those explosions killed 192 people, most of them Western tourists.

In eastern India, a gang armed with crude bombs attacked a Protestant church on Christmas Eve, wounding six people and robbing hundreds of worshippers.

The 20 assailants set off several bombs, then grabbed valuables from the congregation and raided a church safe before fleeing when officers arrived.

In Belgrade, Yugoslavia, about 30 hard-line Serb nationalists prevented dozens of worshippers from attending an Anglican Christmas Eve church service that was to be held in a Serbian Orthodox chapel.

Following a spate of recent bombings in Bangladesh, police guarded churches as the South Asian nation's small Christian community celebrated Christmas with prayers, carols and feasts.

The Christmas message from the Vatican focused on a plea to avoid war.

"From the cave of Bethlehem there rises today an urgent appeal to the world not to yield to mistrust, suspicion and discouragement, even though the tragic reality of terrorism feeds uncertainties and fears," Pope John Paul II said as he stepped up the Vatican's campaign opposing any U.S.-led preventive attack on Iraq.

Taking a break from the standoff with Iraq, American soldiers celebrated Christmas in the Kuwaiti desert with football and a meal of turkey and trimmings.

A military celebration

Late night TV star David Letterman spent Christmas Day with U.S. troops at a rugged desert base in southern Afghanistan where coalition forces have been hunting suspected terrorists for a year.

At Bagram Air Base, the U.S. military headquarters in Afghanistan, troops celebrated the holiday with a buffet of sliced turkey, apple pie and tall glasses of "sparkling" grape juice in champagne-like bottles. U.S. forces there are not allowed to drink alcohol on duty.

A Santa Claus wearing a military police armband raced around the base in a black, four-wheel-drive vehicle handing out candy and chocolates to soldiers.

Cubans observed Christmas as an official holiday for a sixth year since President Fidel Castro eased restrictions on religion. Worshippers attended church services, but otherwise observances were limited to quiet family gatherings at home.

In Europe, Sweden's King Carl XVI Gustaf wished for an end to "pointless and disgusting terror attacks."

Speaking in a nationwide radio address, the monarch envisaged "peace on earth, an end to pointless and disgusting terror attacks, research findings that lead to cures for the epidemics of our time and a more just distribution of the earth's resources."

He also called on parents to provide security and support for their children.

In Britain, Queen Elizabeth II spoke of her grief following the deaths of her mother and sister and of the success of national celebrations marking her 50 years on the throne.

Earlier in the day, as the royal family walked past a crowd to attend church, an American woman ducked under a barrier rope, dashed up to Prince William and hugged him. The woman, Marlene Ponce, 42, of Ruby, S.C., was escorted back behind the rope by police.