The alleged mastermind of a radical Islamist sect’s Christmas Day church bombing fled across Nigeria after escaping police custody and hid for about a month before finally being apprehended, authorities said.

NIGERIA lacks competent leaders to tackle its security problems, a former military ruler said yesterday, after Christmas Day bomb attacks on churches by Islamist militants that killed more than two dozen people.

Terror attacks across Nigeria by a radical Muslim sect killed at least 39 people – the majority dying on the steps of a church after celebrating Christmas Mass as blood pooled in dust from a massive explosion.

At least 25 people were killed today when an explosion ripped through a Catholic church during Christmas Mass near Nigeria’s capital.

Christmas Mass has been held at the Vita Cortex plant in Cork where 32 workers are continuing their protest throughout the festive period.

At least 25 people were killed today when an explosion ripped through a Catholic church during Christmas Mass near Nigeria’s capital city.

An explosion ripped through a Catholic church during Christmas Mass near Nigeria’s capital today.

MORE than 50 Kerry children yesterday made a simple but special request to Santa — save our school.

LASAGNA, veal and cake were on the menu yesterday as Pope Benedict XVI invited about 250 poor people to join him for a post-Christmas lunch and denounced as “absurd” new attacks on the faithful around the globe.

Lasagne, veal and cake were on the menu today as Pope Benedict XVI invited about 250 poor people to join him for a post-Christmas lunch and denounced as "absurd" new attacks on the faithful around the globe.

The Pope paid a hospital visit today to an elderly cardinal who broke a hip when a mentally disturbed woman knocked the Pontiff down on Christmas Eve, the Vatican said.

Three men in a car sprayed automatic gunfire into a crowd of churchgoers in southern Egypt as they left a midnight Mass for Coptic Christmas, killing at least seven people.

Iraq’s Christians were today quietly celebrating Christmas with a present from the government, which declared it an official holiday for the first time.

Campaigners for the reopening of a Catholic church in North Belfast have celebrated Christmas Mass on the street.

Palestinian Christians in Bethlehem are to restrict Christmas observances to religious ritual this year – the first time since 1994 that Jesus’ traditional birthplace is under Israeli occupation during the holiday.

Israel says it will only allow Yasser Arafat to attend Christmas Mass in Bethlehem if he arrests the assassins of an Israeli Cabinet minister today.