Assad regimes latest offensive against the countrys last rebel stronghold thats after an airstrike killed 5 children sheltering in a school. And no Midnight Mass at notre dame in paris for the 1st time in over 2 centuries a landmark cathedral is holding no Christmas Services due to renovation work to repair damage from this years devastating fire. A moment is that 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 peters basilica his blessings emphasize 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 French as francis urged christians to keep the faith. Forum i 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. God 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 was. 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 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 us so is 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. Its 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 a nice family the archbishop appeal for believe is to overcome hatred. Because to move to build something together to come to a misunderstanding some of those who do not share their desire for encounter in peace. Is an appeal for unity and for ted to be the oxford said he hoped the breeze and will be on the christian faithful in a region where faiths mix and we believe too often causes conflict. Earlier journalist semicircle and drew slim gave us a snapshot of the christmas celebrations in bethlehem weve seen a Record Number of tourists and pilgrims visiting both best 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 visit the city on the other how israeli authorities have prevented yet again gazans from leaving and visiting 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 visit this year the number was only 300 so the disappointment in gaza was very high amidst very strong condemnations from the various churches. Semicircles speaking to us from jerusalem lets take a look at some of the other stories making news around the world in the libyan capital tripoli 4 people are reported dead after a projectile exploded at a Vegetable Market forces loyal to libyas internationally recognized government have blamed rival groups answering to warlord. Of attacking a civilian area forces have been trying to take tripoli since april. A wildfire has destroyed dozens of homes in the port city of. Thousands of people were evacuated as the forest fires 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 theres no end in sight to the misery inflicted on civilians in the besieged province of idlib the last major rebel stronghold 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 the United Nations is warning that children are bearing the brunt of syrias increasingly violent conflict. Multitool now min in egypt has become a ghost town People Living here have fled the government offensive against rebels. Shaab people are fed up they fled to live on the only if trees this is a Vegetable Market theres no one here i havent seen anyone other than journalists taking pictures of me and. Most of those fleeing are heading north towards the turkish border. We run away from the rockets. And explosive shells. 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 colonel said the offensive is to clear the province of terrorism. 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 the word you are that they should go to the areas under the control of the syrian army come to save them from terrorists and terrorism and id be much more than 40000 people have been displaced by the finance in recent weeks. Demonstrators in hong kong clashed with police in Christmas Eve protests riot police fired tear gas as protests swept through a major shopping district activist block streets and smash up windows. The antigovernment protests in hong kong are now in their 7th month. Kong was at the scene and she sent us this update. First of my has descended into question in hong kong a tear gas return to the streets lots of protesters turned out for demonstrations at shopping malls across the city tonight but the riot police into the Shopping Centers a quickly to disperse crowds because they accused 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 raanjhanaa to express their anger to us police cracked down 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 his peak and the may be more precious a small protests are planned on upcoming holidays. Well paris is iconic Notre Dame Cathedral is not holding any Christmas Services this year for the 1st time since the french revolution the french government pledged to rebuild it after a fire earlier this year devastated the cathedral now that work will take years to complete and the building is too unstable to hold religious services. 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 churchs roof and spire broke out on april 15th. Tons of poisonous led mill to during the blaze that spells Health Hazards and good reason to delay Holding Christmas festivities inside i think its incredibly sad that they will be able to celebrate mass especially because its 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 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 at the church of. 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 thinking that it would go again this year with no problems. Im missing that already. In years past thousands of worshippers and tourists gathered inside notre dame daily its still unclear when theyll be able to congregate inside again. Well if you work in news you know that the Christmas Season is often called the silly season and here to tell you why is g. W. Reporter Joel Dahl Roy hes been Monitoring Monitoring the news wires for some of the more ridiculous stories what have been seeing others well 1st of all Merry Christmas im hearing i have some visual presence for you of the silly season videos were going to start off with some surfing sensors a Charity Event held out cocoa beach in florida attracted some 600. 00. Surfing santas to take pot they raised around 40000. 00 for some nonprofits now look at 600. 00 that seems like a lot of surface on one way vogue dot com its a comfortable for all the other swimmers but i guess you cant complain if if its santa you know surfing on your wave well its not going to be comfortable in a sense anyway is it but at least its for a good cause another thing you mentioned was the night of the radish you can have to explain that for us with a night of the radish you know the red and white fur right of what vegetable story is not a fruit of course is a root vegetable and. In mexico they have a festival every year where they cause these red stools with intricate patterns we can see a few of them here some of them are a little bit more artistic than others but this is a tradition that goes back over 100 years and it was meant to be a way for farmers to attract more people to buy their vegetables i dont know about you but im sold i think radishes to my christmas dinner this year i would feel a little bit bad eating something that beautiful but teaches own right. Now looks like the u. S. In Canadian Military is have a project going on for christmas what is out of this is a very serious one its called norad the north American AerospaceDefense Command and each year norad tracks santa his movements across the globe in real time now this is a project thats run from an air force base in colorado and it involves 1500. 00 volunteers taking calls and online messages presumably from children who want to know if santa is at any given moment now this is been going on since 955 these days they have a 3 d. App to show us santa is one of no ads generals took this job a little bit too far i think now he said that the military a Monitoring Center 247 with radars and satellites and quote if we can track santa that closely imagine what else we can track which sounds a bit ominous to me you know better watch out kids it is known as. Of course but if you have a cell phone your pocket which i assume santa does have an it can be tracked by apple and google as well to read it im quite sure that norad got sensors i found on tracking as well yes ok well thanks for doing the research there that was joel reporter didone news. That is the latest for this hour but before we go a Christmas CarolGerman Bundesliga club in berlin got over 28000. 00 fans to join in with the festive sing along at the stadium im on the end he said for me and the d. W. News team thanks for watching. I was the was theirs i was going through this the am i am i was there was i was and i am i was it was. Just time to take one step further and face the. Time to search the no fun for the. Time to hold or cut down trees and contact the world its time for dublin. Coming up ahead