IRAQ
Church reopens after attack
There were gasps, followed by tears at a small church in northern Iraq as a group of Christians returned to their parish Sunday to find that everything had been destroyed, including the statue of the Virgin Mary, which Islamic State militants had decapitated before they left. A confessional had been turned into a closet, a tomb had been desecrated, red prayer benches were burned. As the Rev. Thabet Habib recited prayers at the St. Addai church, the sound of broken glass crunched beneath worshippers’ feet. Keramlis, a Christian town on the Nineveh plains in northern Iraq, fell to IS in August 2014. The town was retaken by Iraq forces three weeks ago.
SYRIA
11 kids among 23 killed
At least 11 children were among 23 people killed Sunday in northern Syria as pro-government forces kept up their campaign against opposition areas in the country’s north, while rebels shelled a government-held district in Aleppo city. At least eight more people were killed in a suspected airstrike on a crossing point connecting Kurdish-held areas with rebel areas in northern Aleppo province, the Kurdish security force said. The violence Sunday comes a day after government troops repelled a rebel offensive on western parts of Aleppo city launched in late October. State news agency SANA said the shelling of a western Aleppo district killed four people, including two women and a child.
AUSTRALIA
Trump not told about deal
The Australian prime minister on Monday confirmed that he did not tell President-elect Donald Trump that the United States had agreed to resettle an unspecified number of refugees languishing at Australia’s expense in Pacific island camps. In announcing the deal on Sunday, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull would not say whether he had discussed it with Trump during their telephone conversation Thursday. Most of the 1,670 asylum seekers are Muslims from the Middle East, Africa and Asia. Turnbull said negotiations on the deal began with a conversation he had with President Barack Obama in January.
MEXICO
Priest found alive, tortured
A priest who was abducted in Mexico has been found alive after three days, but “with notable signs of torture,” the Roman Catholic Church said Sunday. The Rev. Jose Luis Sanchez Ruiz was the third priest abducted in the Gulf coast state of Veracruz since September. The other two were found shot to death a few days after they were kidnapped. His disappearance sparked two days of unrest in the town of Catemaco.
Compiled from wire reports.