Merry Christmas! Let’s dispense for today with the usual mayhem and destruction. It’ll hold and there will plenty for another day. The NORAD Santa Tracker says Santa Claus delivered 7,282,439,471 gifts. The Weather Outside: It’s a strangely warm Christmas, so warm …

Breaking: A Jordanian policeman opened fire today on foreign trainers, killing two Americans and a South African before he was shot dead himself. Two other Americans and four Jordanians were wounded. The motive for the shooting in a camp outside …

Christmas: In his traditional Christmas address Pope Francis denounced the “brutal persecution” of religious and ethnic minorities. “May Christmas bring them hope, as indeed also to the many displaced persons, exiles and refugees, children, adults and elderly, from this region …

The Greenhouse: Diplomats from all over the world are gathering in Lima, Peru to make yet another attempt to hammer out a global agreement to curtail greenhouse gas emissions and slow climate change. But scientists warn that even drastic reductions …

World: Egypt’s military-backed government yesterday declared the Muslim Brotherhood to be a terrorist organization. It’s been banned twice before in its history. The police claim that a car bombing that killed 15 people Tuesday was carried out by the Brotherhood. …

One of the stories in the news this Christmas is that there might be a shortage of toys. Hand-wringing business reporters say that because the stores were worried about a soft season, they ordered 2% fewer toys this year, which …

   One of the darkest moments in American history came when the day after Thanksgiving was named “Black Friday”.   What used to be a day with little to do but eat leftovers and hang out with family has become …