Pope Cancels Vatican Christmas Concert

ROME — Pope Benedict XVI has abolished the Vatican’s Christmas concert because of his distaste for popular music, it was claimed Wednesday.The concert has been held in one of the Vatican’s music halls for the past 12 years to raise money to build new churches in Rome. In the past, Tom Jones, Bryan Adams, and Sarah Brightman have sung to crowds of up to 8,000. However, La Stampa newspaper reported that the current pope “prefers Mozart and Bach to pop music, and so the tradition has been canned.” Pope Benedict also has a distaste for the hullabaloo that the concert has thrown up in recent years. In 2003, the American hip-hop star, Lauryn Hill, dismayed the Vatican when she stood up on stage and asked the church to apologize publicly for the behavior of its pedophile American priests.

— The Daily Telegraph

Armed Man Seized at British Embassy in Tel Aviv

JERUSALEM — Police commandos stormed the British Embassy in Tel Aviv late yesterday and captured a Palestinian Arab man who had been holed up inside for eight hours, claiming to have a gun and demanding political asylum. No injuries occurred. Police said the forces seized the man after he momentarily laid down his “weapon,” which turned out to be plastic. Nadim Injaz, 28, a resident of the West Bank city of Ramallah and suspected informer for the Israeli security services, burst the embassy by jumping a fence. He said he was demanding asylum, fearing that militants would kill him, and threatened to commit suicide.

— Associated Press

Pro-Democracy Dissident Released From Vietnamese Jail

HANOI, Vietnam — Dissident Pham Hong Son was released from a Vietnamese jail on Wednesday after being convicted of espionage but still faces a number of restrictions, an American lawyer working on the case said.Mr. Son, 37, was freed as part of a nationwide goodwill amnesty. Mr. Son’s case attracted international attention following his arrest after translating and circulating over the Internet a document titled, “What is Democracy?” from the U.S. State Department’s Web site.Mr. Son was sentenced to 13 years’ jail for spying in 2003.The term was reduced to five years on appeal.

— Associated Press

Anti-Gay Muslim Group Wants Party Honoring Freddie Mercury Halted

ZANZIBAR, Tanzania — A huge beach party to honor late Queen frontman Freddie Mercury must be stopped because the Zanzibar-born rock star was gay, an Islamic leader said yesterday. Mercury, who died of AIDS in 1991, violated Islam with his flamboyant lifestyle, Azan Khalid of Zanzibar’s Association for Islamic Mobilization and Propagation said. Mercury restaurant will go ahead with the party, the manager, Simai Mohammed, said. Mercury, who acknowledged being gay, was born in Zanzibar when the country was still a British protectorate. Mercury gained fame as the singer for Queen, whose elaborate and occasionally bombastic songs made the group one of the favorites of the 1970s. The group’s hits included “Bohemian Rhapsody,” “We Are The Champions,” and “Crazy Little Thing Called Love.”

— Associated Press