Pope wishes for "better world"

Pope Francis presented a message of peace and humility during the Christmas Eve midnight mass in Vatican City. NBC’s Martin Fletcher reports.

By Alexander Smith, NBC News contributor

Pope Francis called on the world to end the “hatred and vengance” in Syria and to “heal the wounds of the beloved country of Iraq” in his first Christmas Day speech to an estimated crowd of 150,000 at the Vatican on Wednesday.

In an address dominated by calls to end international conflicts, the pope urged “a favorable outcome in peace talks between Israel and Palestine.”

He also highlighted the conflicts in South Sudan and the Central African Republic, which he said had been “torn apart by a spiral of violence and poverty.”

Filippo Monteforte / AFP – Getty Images

Pope Francis delivers his traditional Christmas “Urbi et Orbi” blessing from the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica on Wednesday.

The message of the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem was directed at “every man or woman who keeps watch through the night, who hopes for a better world, who cares for others while humbly seeking to do his or her duty,” he said. 

His words were met with chants of support from the large crowd in St. Peter’s Square, where flags from all over the world were waved.

“Prince of Peace, in every place turn hearts aside from violence and inspire them to lay down arms and undertake the path of dialogue,” he told the crowd, in Italian.

The pope spoke of violence in Nigeria — “rent by constant attacks which do not spare the innocent and defenseless” — and of refugees in the Horn of Africa and the Democratic Republic of Congo. “May tragedies like those we have witnessed this year, with so many deaths at Lampedusa, never occur again.”

He added: “Child of Bethlehem…look upon the many children who are kidnapped, wounded and killed in armed conflicts, and all those who are robbed of their childhood and forced to become soldiers.”

He asked for protection for victims of natural disasters, including those affected by Typhoon Haiyan, which smashed into the Philippines in November, killing more than 6,000 people and displacing millions.

Related: Then and now photos show differences in Benedict’s, Francis’ styles

On Tuesday, Pope Francis celebrated Christmas Eve Mass at St. Peter’s Basilica, where he quoted from Isaiah: “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light.”

Queen Elizabeth II’s annual Christmas message says it’s important to strike a balance between action and reflection.

Elsewhere on Christmas Day, Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II and other members of the Royal Family arrived at St Mary Magdalene church, in Sandringham, where they attended an annual Christmas service, the BBC reported.

Later on Wednesday, the Queen’s traditional Christmas message focused on the need to to pause for reflection.

“We all need to get the balance right between action and reflection,” she said in the message, which was prerecorded earlier in December at Buckingham Palace.

“With so many distractions, it is easy to forget to pause and take stock.”

U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron tweeted: “I wish everyone in Britain and around the world a very happy and peaceful Christmas,” and posted a link to him reading the poem “A Visit from St. Nicholas.”

President Barack Obama used his Christmas message to call on Americans to embrace the season in service and “to love our neighbors as we would ourselves; to feed the hungry and look after the sick; to be our brother’s keeper and our sister’s keeper.”

In this week’s address, President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama wished everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays.

In the Mideast, pilgrims celebrated Christmas in the ancient Bethlehem church where tradition holds Jesus was born, as candles illuminated the sacred site and the joyous sound of prayer filled its overflowing halls. 

This year’s turnout was the largest in years in Bethlehem, and the celebrations have been marked by careful optimism amid ongoing Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. Leaders expressed hope the coming year would finally bring the Palestinians an independent state of their own. 

The top Roman Catholic cleric in the Holy Land, Latin Patriarch Fouad Twal, led a prayer for some 1,000 worshippers. “The whole world now is looking at Bethlehem, the birthplace of Jesus,” Twal said in his annual address. 

“The message of Christmas is a message of peace, love and brotherhood. We have to be brothers with each other,” he said.

Among the crowds was New Yorker Will Green, who traveled to the town with his wife Debbie and 2-year-old daughter Daphne.

“All the stories that we grew up with, it’s here,” he told The AP. “It’s part of our life. We heard them in the family, school and church. This is the birthplace.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

David Ramos / Getty Images

A competitor in Christmas fancy dress jumps into the sea during the 104rd Barcelona Traditional Christmas Swimming Cup at the Old Harbour of Barcelona on December 25, 2013 in Barcelona, Spain.

Related:

• Pope Francis delivers first Christmas Eve homily: ‘Do not be afraid!’


• ‘Who am I to judge?’: The pope’s most powerful phrase in 2013


• Pope Francis draws crowds 4 times larger than Benedict

This story was originally published on Wed Dec 25, 2013 6:38 AM EST

Pope wishes for "better world"

Kerry wishes "prosperity" for this Islamic regime

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Secretary of State John F. Kerry exchanged pleasantries with Iran, wishing “health and prosperity” even though it was revealed at virtually the same time that the rogue Islamic regime has a secret plant where scientists are working on nuclear weapons that could be aimed at the U.S.

The United States, Kerry said in a statement issued this week, is “strongly committed to resolving” differences with Iran.

“Despite the difficult history of the last decades between the United States and Iran, there is an opportunity to work diplomatically to reduce tensions and address the mistrust between our two countries, to the mutual benefit of both of our people,” Kerry said in a statement reported by the Washington Times.

The statement was released Wednesday, the same day WND reported Iranian scientists are working on nuclear warheads at an underground site previously unknown to the West.

The source is a high-ranking intelligence officer of the Islamic regime, according to the report by Reza Kahlili, an Iranian insider turned CIA spy who has written “A Time to Betray.”

Read the electrifying, award-winning story of Iranian insider turned CIA spy, Reza Kahlili’s “A Time to Betray” – $ 4.95 today only!

Kerry’s comments, on the occasion of the Iranian-Persian new year, were a continuation of a traditional statement to the Iranian people.

“Many Americans will join you in celebrating” this year, it said. “I’m proud of the Iranian-Americans in my own family, and grateful for how they have enriched my life.”

He only alluded to the tensions that have built over Iran’s apparent efforts to build a nuclear bomb.

“We sincerely hope Iran’s leaders choose to fulfill their obligations to not only the international community but also to their people so that Iran can begin to take its proper place in the community of nations, and the Iranian people can have access to the same opportunities and freedoms enjoyed by others around the world,” he said.

“As President Obama has said, we are strongly committed to resolving the differences between Iran and the United States, and continuing to work toward a new day in our relationship.”

According to Kahlili’s source, that new day for Iran will include nuclear weapons.

His source, who has been assigned to the Ministry of Defense, not only revealed the existence of the weapons plant but provided details.

The site of about 100 square miles has two facilities built deep into a mountain along with a missile facility that is surrounded by barbed wire, 45 security towers and several security posts.

The source said Gen. Ahmad Vahid Dastjerdi, who works in the supreme leader’s office to protect the regime’s information and counterintelligence, manages the site. His deputy, Hojatolislam Ramezani, was appointed to the protection of intelligence at the Defense Ministry after several leaks about the country’s nuclear operations.

It is built about 375 feet under the mountain and accessible by two large entrances reinforced with concrete, has 12 emergency exit tunnels and spreads around the mountain.

According to the WND report, the Iranian source said the site has a capacity of 8,000 centrifuges and currently has three operational chambers with 19 cascades of 170 to 174 centrifuges enriching uranium. As of three months ago, the source said, there were 76 kilograms of 20 percent enriched uranium stock at the site and 48 kilograms of over 40 percent enriched uranium.

Though the regime has long succeeded in enriching uranium to 20 percent, which is 80 percent of the way to weapons grade, enriching to over 20 percent would be a clear sign of an intention of building a nuclear bomb.

The most significant information provided by the source is that the regime has succeeded in not only enriching to weapons grade but has converted the highly enriched uranium into metal.

GoogleEarth 12-2012 Image, Quds secret nuclear facility

Moreover, the source said, successfully making a neutron reflector indicates the final stages for a nuclear weapons design that would be a two-stage, more sophisticated and much more powerful nuclear bomb.

Regime scientists are also working on a plutonium bomb as a second path to becoming nuclear-armed, the source said, and they have at this site 24 kilograms of plutonium, which is sufficient for several atomic bombs.

The scientists are at the last stage of putting together a bomb warhead, he said, and the scientists in their design for a plutonium bomb are using polonium and beryllium, which would serve as the trigger for the bomb.

GoogleEarth 12-2012 Image, Close up of the two entrances into the Quds nuclear facility

The regime is building its Shahab 3 ballistic missiles there using compressed composite carbon material, which originated at an American company, he said. The company manufactures advanced composite materials and structural parts. Iran purchased the carbon material through an intermediary in Turkey, the source said. The material makes it possible to have a longer missile range with larger warheads.

Overhead images clearly show this site has over 380 missile depots and launching pads, facilities that can house large ballistic missiles, most likely Shahab 3 and possibly North Korean Taepodong II (ICBMs). The source added that this missile site is the center of the regime’s defensive and offensive strategies and supports other missile sites: the Imam Ali near the city of Khoram Abad in the Lorestan province and the one in Tabriz in the province of East Azarbaijan – to be used in any attack on Israeli and U.S. military bases in the Middle East.

Experts said the evidence was cause for alarm.

Peter Vincent Pry, executive director of the Task Force on National and Homeland Security, an expert on nuclear strategy and weapons who served on several strategic congressional commissions and in the CIA, reviewed the imagery and human intelligence (HUMINT) and called for a congressional hearing.

“The newly discovered underground complex looks like the kind of enormous complexes built by the USSR during the Cold War and by Russia today,” Pry said. “Heavily hardened and fortified and supplied with huge amounts of electric power, by what appear to be 765-kilovolt electric power lines, the imagery suggests a top-priority military site. Nuclear-weapons programs consume vast amounts of electricity.”

GoogleEarth 12-2012 image, missile silos, the size suggests large ballistic missiles such as Shahab 3 or the North Korean Taepodong II (ICBMs)

Fritz Ermarth, who served in the CIA and as chairman of the National Intelligence Council, reviewed the imagery.

“There is much work to be done by imagery analysts on the photos Reza (Kahlili) has produced,” he said. “For example, is spoil from the tunneling visible? Does it tell us how extensive the tunneling is? But taken as a package, this imagery strongly suggests that Iran is working on what we used to call an ‘objective force.’ That is the objective of a deployed force of nuclear weapons on mobile missiles, normally based in deep underground sites for survivability against even nuclear attack, capable of rapid deployment. … They do suggest that Iran is working the problem of becoming a nuclear weapons power in a serious way, not just playing around for a few nukes on the shelf.”

Ambassador Henry Cooper, the former director of the Strategic Defense Initiative and chief negotiator on nuclear and space treaties with the Soviet Union, said Iran’s “apparent interest and investments in underground systems are clearly coupled with its programs to develop and potentially employ weapons of mass destruction in the face of armaments that may be deployed against them, whether by Israel (‘the little Satan’) or the United States (‘the Great Satan’).”

“Most notable is the fact that Iran has already demonstrated its ability to launch satellites into low earth orbit,” Cooper said. “When they also gain confidence in their nuclear weapons, they can then use those launchers to place nuclear weapons in earth orbit and detonate them over wherever they wish, creating an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) that could level its strategic playing field with all of Western civilization. This is perhaps their ultimate asymmetric weapon. Far-fetched? I wouldn’t bet (against) it.”

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WND

Kerry wishes "prosperity" for this Islamic regime