this is v.w. 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 idlib 5 of them children the assad regime is the 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 read evasion work to repair damage from this year's devastating fire. i mean east 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.

forward that 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 word of god to the faith. of. course all of that 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 it is this. for the pontiff and followers of the catholic faith it has been a trying him scandal has reached the very top of the church in many places. so in his sermon the pope appealed for believers to maintain the faith. that they may we not wait for our neighbors to be good before we do good to venom let us not

wait for the church to be perfect before we love her let us begin with us so and receive the gift of grace. 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 still listen this was led by the archbishop of jerusalem in the presence of palestinian president mahmoud abbas in his homily the archbishop appealed for believe is to overcome hatred. to get to rule charter to be something to get to overcome dead misunderstandings of those or to not share their desire for encounter in peace. it is an appeal for unity and for teddy the archbishop said he hoped would resign well. beyond the christian faith.

in a region where faiths mix and we believe too often causes conflict. our earlier journalist semicircle in jerusalem gave us a snapshot of the christmas celebrations in 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 wood 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. ness and the belief here is that it will draw more tourists to visit 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 commission for 700 palestinian christians to leave the gaza strip and visit 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 sammy suckle 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 so 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 outlet 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 it live the last major stronghold of islamist 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. but it till now men in it 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. and they did not 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 jetted to have saw eilat as syrian army cares about civilians lives but that. the military calls upon them to leave the areas

where the terrorists. should go to the areas under the control of the syrian army come to save them from terrorists and terrorism and i'd be much 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 spread through a major shopping district activist blocks streets and smashed shop windows the anti-government protests in hong kong are now in their 7th month. is on location and sent us this up to. a festive lie has descended into question in hong kong a tear gas return to the streets lots of protestors turned out for demonstrations at 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 assemblies

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 at police vehicles some even found allies h.s.b.c. branch in order to express the ngo to us police crackdown on one of the fundraisers in recent days so how can people definitely have no silence night on christmas eve many of the shops are closed at its peak system and the may be more precious as more protests are planned on upcoming holidays. so paris is iconic noted on 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 quite ok 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 dumb 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 the top 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 profit in fact. i'm missing that already. in years past thousands of worshippers and tourists gathered inside notre done 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 d.w. reporter a droll dull 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 centers for one beach but i guess you can't get mad at sandra hits you in the back of the head with his a surfboard can you knows right some people seem like they're cheating they're only wearing bathing suits but we all can also say we also had some images of santa water skiing but we thought that center surfing with a bit cooler. they 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 the night of the radish the well famous radish festival that takes place every year in the mexican city of one haka now this is where the hottest christmas 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 could eat one of those it was 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 their work you know 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 is run from an air force base in colorado 1500 volunteer. here's taped 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 955 and now of course

they've got a a 3 d. app as well as now one of no ads generals took this joke a little bit too far he said he made a statement he said that they are monitoring santa with 247000 satellites and quote if we can track santa that closely imagine what else we can track has been on the news doesn't it as very sinister there better watch out specially since it has an i phone or at least a cell phone so they're probably just tracking through that right. way to do you know 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 desk that's the latest for this hour but before we go a christmas carol. the german bundesliga club union berlin got over 28000 fans to join in with the festive sing along at the stadium i'm mommy and use of for me in the news team thanks for watching. who.

is a master of the art of confrontation this is wrote a letter in the form of combat doesn't mean you're going to see the slightly undisputed champion of tough political talk softly trying to frighten you you know it's a fact everybody understands that you enter the conflict zone.