Christmas Day dawns amid violence, alerts
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An Iraqi girl makes her way through a hole made by a rocket in a building close to the German Embassy in Baghdad on Thursday.
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Gen. Mike Scaparotti visits troops serves up a holiday dinner in Iraq.
CNN's Ralitsa Vassileva on the assassination attempt against the Pakistani president.
CNN's Rym Brahimi on rocket attacks in Baghdad on Thursday.
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(CNN) -- Christmas 2003 arrived with a plea for peace from Pope John Paul II amid continuing terror alerts and new rocket attacks in Iraq's capital, Baghdad.
A weak but determined Pope John Paul II asked God in his Christmas message to the world Thursday to save humanity from the "scourge of terrorism" and wars he said were laying waste to many parts of the planet. (Full story)
In Baghdad, explosions and gunfire shattered the Christmas morning calm. Eight rocket attacks were reported in one hour, with two rocket-propelled grenades hitting the Sheraton Ishtar Hotel.
Capt. Jason Beck with the U.S. Army's 1st Armored Division called the attacks "weak and ineffective." (Full story)
In Afghanistan, a bomb exploded just outside the U.N. guest house in Kabul and destroyed a wall, but there were no casualties. (Full story)
Elsewhere, Air France officials said Thursday that regularly scheduled flights between Paris, France, and Los Angeles, California, will resume Friday, after several flight cancellations due to security concerns. (Full story)
That action came amid fears of a terrorist attack in the United States. A senior U.S. official linked the decision to information that prompted this week's heightened U.S. terror alert.
The Bush administration raised the terror alert to the second-highest level, saying it was necessary to guard against "al Qaeda's continued desire to carry out attacks against our homeland."
A Pentagon official told CNN on Wednesday the possibility of an attack using an airliner -- either one coming to the United States from Mexico or an Air France plane -- remains a major concern.
With trepidation on the U.S. homefront over terrorism threats and the federal government's raising of the national alert level, Americans sought comfort in family and tradition. (Full story)
Terrorism shook the Holy Land on Thursday, as a suicide bomber struck at a major Tel Aviv-area intersection, killing four people and the attacker. Earlier in the day Israeli soldiers launched a targeted air strike against an Islamic Jihad leader in Gaza, killing six people. (Full story)
Meanwhile, an alert of another type was continuing in the United States -- tracking the history of an animal presumed to have mad cow disease. The discovery of the suspected case, the first in the United States, prompted some nations to ban imported U.S. beef. (Full story)
Bleak Christmas in Bethlehem
In Bethlehem, at the Church of the Nativity -- the traditional birthplace of Jesus -- the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Michel Sabbah, urged an end to bloodshed and destruction.
"God has brought together Jews, Christians and Muslims to this holy land," Sabbah said in his sermon. "No human power can change it -- their destiny is to live together."
Outside, in Manger Square, tourists numbered in the hundreds, not thousands, this year.
Christmas Eve used to be the peak of business for many Bethlehem shopkeepers. But on Wednesday, half the shops in an arcade lining one side of the square were closed.
"We don't have pilgrims, no tourists, nobody," said Bethlehem resident Elias Abu Akleh, standing in the middle of the sparsely populated square. "For whom are they going to open?" (Full story)
Early Thursday, Israeli troops killed a Palestinian armed with an explosive device as he tried to enter the settlement of Ganei Tal in Gaza, Israeli military sources said.
According to the sources, soldiers opened fire on the man about 80 meters (87 yards) from the fence to the settlement. In a search of the body, they found a bomb.
And for the second time in 12 days, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf on Thursday narrowly escaped an assassination attempt as his motorcade was hit in a suicide attack in Rawalpindi, according to police and local authorities. (Full story)
