this is news live from berlin pope francis leads christmas eve mass as christians around the world celebrate the birth of jesus after a year that has seen the catholic church rocked by scandals francis uses his address at the vatican to urge christians not to lose faith. airstrikes killed at least 8 in the syrian province of it live 5 of them children regimes latest offensive against the country's last major rebel stronghold has forced tens of thousands to flee the u.n. warns children are bearing the brunt of the intensifying violence. and no

midnight mass at notre dame and paris for the 1st time in over 2 centuries christmas services will not be held at the landmark cathedral due to renovation work to repair damage from this year's devastating fire. i'm amused of welcome to the program christians around the world are celebrating christmas marking the birth of jesus more than 2000 years ago at the vatican pope francis led the midnight mass at st peter's basilica his blessing emphasized forgiveness forgiveness not just for sinners but for the church itself after a difficult year in which sexual abuse scandals continue to rock the catholic church francis urged christians to keep the faith.

i ordered my he does a ritual that dates back to the 1st centuries of the catholic church the midnight mass at some pages is a spiritual gathering there the pope is said to confide the would of god to the faith. of. course. and he may god who by the incarnation brought together the earth and the heavenly realm fill you with the gift of his peace and favor and may you share it with the church in heaven this. for the pontiff and followers of the catholic faith it has been a trying. scandal has reached the very top of the church in many places. so in his sermon the pope appealed for believe is to maintain the faith. that maybe not wait for our neighbors to be good before we do good to them let us not

wait for the church to be perfect before we love her let us begin with ourselves and receive the gift of grace and. have celebrating the belief of the fight for was also one of the themes of the midnight mass in bethlehem there pilgrims of worship is gathered at the church of the nativity. it's a site where jesus is believed to have been born but it still listen this was led by the archbishop of jerusalem in the presence of palestinian president mahmoud abbas a nice homily the archbishop appeal for believe is to overcome hatred. the true charter to be something together to come to misunderstandings of those who do not share their desire for an encounter in peace. is an appeal for unity and for ted to be the guy said he hoped the breeze and well beyond the christian faith. in

a region where fights mix and we believe too often causes conflict. our earlier journalist semicircle in a drizzle and gave us a snapshot of the christmas celebrations and bethlehem we've seen a record number of tourists and pilgrims visiting 'd both bethlehem and jerusalem this year and what has added to the festive atmosphere is the fact that the pope francis has given a relic this size a fragment of war that has been in rome for nearly 1400 years and this is believed to have been part of the major part of the creed where jesus christ lay so it was received you with a great system ness and the belief here is that it will draw more tourists to exist at the city on the other hand israeli authorities have prevented yet again gazans

some leaving and zipping the west bank visiting beslan and visiting jerusalem and even though last year they get a permission for 700 palestinian christians to leave the gaza strip and this is this year the number was only 300 so the disappointment in gaza was very high amidst very strong condemnations from the various churches. it was journalist semicircle speaking to us from jerusalem let's take a look now at some of the other stories making news around the world. and she lay a wildfire has destroyed dozens of homes in the port city of. thousands of people were evacuated as the forest fire spread from the surrounding hills to residential areas the blaze was fed by high summer temperatures and strong winds. a landslide in brazil has killed 7 people in the northeastern city of receive local

firefighters said they pulled the victims from the wreckage of 2 houses according to brazilian media out the g one a young couple and their baby as well as a 9 year old girl and her grandmother were among the dead. now to syria where there is no end in sight to the misery inflicted on civilians in the besieged province of idlib the last major stronghold of islam as rebels russian airstrikes supporting the assad regime have claimed the lives of at least 8 people 5 of them children who were sheltering in a school house united nations is warning that children are bearing the brunt of syria's increasingly violent conflict. to nauman in egypt has become a ghost town people living here have fled the government offensive against rebels. shabab people are fed up fled to live on the leaf trees this is a vegetable market there's no one here i haven't seen anyone other than journalists

taking pictures of me and. most of those fleeing are heading north towards the turkish border. we ran away from the rockets out of the barrel and explosive shells. we were asking for allows mercy and for the united nations to see what happened to us because of bashar al assad and the russian army. they are killing us. with heavy shelling. and is strikes. syrian troops have been pushing into it live. and identified syrian pennell said the offensive is to clear the province of terrorism it was yet good to have saw i left the syrian army cares about civilians lives what that. the military calls upon them to leave the areas where the terrorists are

not. that should go to the areas under the control of the syrian army it was come to save them from terrorists and terrorism and i didn't want more than $40000.00 people have been displaced by the findings in recent weeks. and then strangers in hong kong have clashed with police in christmas eve protests riot police fired tear gas as protests went through a major shopping district activist blocks streets and smashed shop windows n.t. government protests and hong kong are now in their 7th month. is on location and sent us this update. a festive lie has descended into question in hong kong a tear gas return to the streets lots of protesters turned out for demonstrations out shopping malls across the city tonight but the riot police tom into the shopping centers a quickly to disperse crowds because they accuse them of attending illegal or

simply the rounds of the rounds of tear gas rubber bullets and other kinds of protest house of worship throughout the night and some protesters even they flew past show bombs and other objects the police because some even found allies branch in order to express the ngo to us police crackdown on one of the fundraisers in recent days so ho ho people are definitely have no silence night on christmas eve many of the shops were closed at his peak c.s.m. and the may be more precious as more protests are planned on upcoming holidays. so paris is iconic notre dame cathedral will not be holding a christmas mass this year for the 1st time since the french revolution french government pledged to rebuild it after a fire earlier this year devastated the cathedral that work will take years to complete and the building is too unstable to hold religious services. to the landmark cathedral of paris still the skeleton of its former self. the work

underway now focuses on stabilizing notre dame and preventing its collapse. the fire that ravaged the church's roof and spire broke out on april 15th. tons of poisonous lead melted during the blaze that spells health hazards and good reason to delay holding christmas festivities inside i think it's incredibly sad that they will be able to celebrate mass especially because it's such a revered monument for catholics probably many many families have that tradition of going every year for christmas services it is quite a break in tradition but quite honestly as long as the renovation work is carried out quickly and well it is not the right moment to open at one time i think people are aware of that and can go to other churches. notre dame has held a christmas mass every year since $803.00 even during the horror of world war 2. the last interruptions to the mass came amid the anti catholic fervor of the french

revolution. this year worshippers are being sent to nearby sites for services including the church of sun so peace. to think that i was ill last christmas and i missed christmas and talked to them thinking that they would go again this year with no problems. i'm missing that already. in years past thousands of worshippers and tourists gathered inside notre dame daily it's still unclear when they'll be able to congregate inside again. now if you work in news you'll know that christmas is often called the silly season now here to tell you why it is doubling reporter drawled the roy he's been monitoring the news wires. and it looks like this is been a particularly ridiculous holiday season yes i've worked many christmas as a journalist in this one they're always silly this one is particularly silly it's a little merry christmas. and i've got

a few gifts for you visually as well 1st up we have hundreds of surfing santas who are taking to the waves in cocoa beach in florida now this is a charity event that's held each christmas eve and it raises some $40000.00 for nonprofits there were apparently $600.00 surfing santa is taking pot now $600.00 seems like a lot of santas for one beach but i guess you can't get mad at santa or if you hits you in the back of the head with his surfboard can you nose right some people seem like they're cheating or only wearing bathing suits but we can also say we also had some images of santa waterskiing but we thought that center surfing with a bit cooler. than probably are pretty warm the. so you've told me about the night of the radish you can have to explain a little bit more for the night of the radish the well famous radish festival that takes place every year in the mexican city of while haka now this is where the hottest christian christmas figurines into radishes the fiery red and white

vegetable so if you look closely at some of these images you'll see that some of these artists are a little bit more skilled than others this started 122 years ago and it was a way for farmers to try and attract more people to buy their vegetables so what do you think you're going to put some radishes on the christmas dinner plate i mean i think i get you one of those of a pretty tasty as well as artistic there. turning the page a little bit here the u.s. and canadian militaries are also getting a little bit silly this holiday season here tell us about this project they're working on they've got operation norad up and running this is the north american aerospace defense command sounds very serious and what they do each christmas is tracks and his progress in real time as he travels around the globe it's run from an air force base in colorado 1500 volunteer. here is take phone calls and online messages presumably from children around the world who want to know exactly where santa is at any given time now this is been going on since 1955 and now of course

they've got a a 3 d. out as well as now one of nord's generals took this joke a little bit too far he said he made a statement he said that they are monitoring santa with 247 radars and satellites and quote if we can track santa that closely imagine what else we can track down the bit on the news doesn't it as very sinister there better watch out ok specially since it has an i phone or at least a cell phone so they're probably just tracking through that it is the easier way to do it you know you don't use satellites and the radars anymore thanks for doing that research joe i'm going to go see if i can find you some real story of. joel dora the t.v. news does that's the latest for this hour but before we go a christmas carol. the german bundesliga club got over 28000 fans to join in with the festive sing along at the stadium i'm on the ne so for me in the news team

thanks for watching. the roof. was. was. was. was was. earth. home. of species. worth saving. here those are big changes and most start with small steps they can. do is tell stories of creedence people and the think is project.