Nation and world briefs

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RUSSIA

Charges against 29 Greenpeace crew dropped

Russian investigators have dropped charges against all but one of the 30 crew of a Greenpeace ship, who were accused of hooliganism after a protest outside a Russian oil rig in the Arctic, the group said Wednesday. Cristian d’Alessandro of Italy failed to get his criminal case closed due to the lack of an interpreter and will have to visit the St.Petersburg branch of Russia’s Investigative Committee again today, said Violetta Ryabko, a Greenpeace spokeswoman. The criminal charges against the crew were closed under an amnesty that was passed by the parliament earlier this month.

IRAQ

Worshipers targeted at services near Baghdad

Militants in Iraq targeted Christians in three separate Christmas Day bombings in Baghdad, killing at least 37 people, officials said Wednesday. In one attack, a car bomb went off near a church in the capital’s southern Dora neighborhood, killing at least 26 people and wounding 38, a police officer said. Earlier, two bombs ripped through a nearby outdoor market simultaneously in the Christian section of Athorien, killing 11 people and wounding 21, the officer said.

UNITED KINGDOM

Snowden Christmas message: Privacy matters

In a message broadcast Wednesday on British television, Edward J. Snowden, the former U.S. security contractor, urged an end to mass surveillance, arguing that the electronic monitoring he has exposed surpasses anything imagined by George Orwell in “1984,” a dystopian vision of an all-knowing state. “A child born today will grow up with no conception of privacy at all,” Snowden said in a Christmas Day message shown by Channel 4. “Privacy matters; privacy is what allows us to determine who we are and who we want to be,” he said.

AFGHANISTAN

Taliban rockets hit U.S. Embassy in Kabul

A pair of rockets fired by the Taliban struck the U.S. Embassy in Kabul shortly before dawn Wednesday, sending hundreds of U.S. diplomats and aid workers based at the mission scrambling into fortified bunkers to start their Christmas Day, the embassy said. There were no reports of casualties at the embassy. But Afghan officials said that another two rockets hit other parts of the city and that three police officers were wounded when one of the rockets, which had not exploded on impact, detonated as they were trying to defuse it. The other rocket, which did explode on impact, did not cause any casualties or significant damage.

NEVADA

Vegas cab driver finds $300K in back seat

Las Vegas cab driver Gerardo Gamboa thought someone left a bag of chocolates in the back seat of his vehicle, but the stash turned out to be $300,000 in cold hard cash. Now, Gamboa is winning honors for honesty after turning in the money he found Monday. The money was returned to an unidentified poker player. Yellow Checker Star Transportation named Gamboa its driver of the year and rewarded him with $1,000 and a dinner for two at a restaurant.

PENNSYLVANIA

Family: Girl who got caroling wish has died

A terminally ill girl who received support from thousands of Christmas carolers outside her home over the weekend died early Christmas morning, her family said. Delaney Brown, 8, of West Reading “passed away quietly with her loving family by her side,” family spokesman Christopher Winters said in a statement Wednesday. On Saturday night, thousands gathered outside her home in eastern Pennsylvania to fulfill her wish for a huge holiday singalong. Delaney, whose nickname is Laney, was diagnosed in May with a rare form of leukemia.

SYRIA

Activists: More than 400 killed in bombings

A Syrian human rights group says more than 400 people have been killed during a government bombardment of rebel-held areas of the northern city of Aleppo, and more than one-quarter of the victims are children. Rami Abdurrahman of the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Wednesday they counted 401 people killed in 11 continuous days of government bombing of Syria’s largest city and its province, including 117 children. Abdurrahman said the toll is one of the highest, and with the most civilian casualties, of any government assault in Syria’s three-year conflict.

CALIFORNIA

Family brings holiday to girl declared brain dead

The family of a 13-year-old Northern California girl declared brain dead after suffering complications following a tonsillectomy was trying to give the girl as normal of a Christmas as possible, with a tree and presents in her hospital room, her uncle said. The family of Jahi McMath will wait until today to discuss a possible appeal of a judge’s decision allowing a hospital to remove her from life support, said Omari Sealey, the girl’s uncle.

TURKS AND CAICOS

17 Haitian migrants die in capsizing

At least 17 migrants from Haiti died Wednesday when their overloaded sailboat capsized as it was being towed to shore in the Turks and Caicos Islands, officials in the British territory said. A marine unit of the Royal Turks and Caicos Islands Police Force had intercepted the packed sloop about two hours earlier and was escorting it to shore when it abruptly overturned, sparking a frantic search and rescue operation in the pre-dawn darkness. Authorities rescued 33 migrants, including one 12-year-old boy, and recovered the bodies of 17 people.