He also called on thousands of faithful gather to cast aside hatred. Tomorrow Francis delivers his Christmas message from the balcony of the Basilica overlooking St. Peter’s square. 

 

Christians in Bethlehem greeted the Christmas with prayers, music and family entertainment. Thousands of visitors beat the turnout of recent years supporting the efforts to develop the local tourism industry. NPR’s Amelia Harris reports.

 

Music greeted Bethlehem visitors almost every evening in the weeks before Christmas except a record snowfall shutdown the city. Christmas is Bethlehem’s biggest tourism rush but local officials want more tourists to stay longer and come year round. The number of visitors to Bethlehem has been rising. 12 new hotels open to this year and the new hotel rating system will soon be in place. But most visitors come into the West Bank town with an Israeli guide and stay just a few hours and an ambitious plan to develop the Palestinian economy including tourism is being developed in parallel with peace negotiations under the way between Israeli and Palestinian officials. Many development plans will depend on whether peace is achieved. Amelia Harris, NPR News.

 

The State of Utah is heading to the US Supreme Court after the 10th US Circuit Court of Appeals denies their request to stop same sex marriages in the state ending appeals. That means gay marriages cannot continue in Utah. The US Supreme Court is the only option left for this state to temporarily stop the marriages.

 

Orders to US factory are for long-lasting manufacturing goods jump 3.5% last month. NPR’s Dave Mattingly reports it is the last sign of rebound in the manufacturing sector.

 

Businesses step up demand for durable goods across the border in November. Commercial aircraft orders were up nearly 22%, new cars and auto parts up more than 3%, orders for communications equipment up 13%. Demands for electronics, computer and machinery also rose. Economist Hugh Johnson says,

 

It is pretty much signals along with a lot of other numbers we see from month of November. There are starting to see a recovery and fairly robust recovering in the manufacturing sector of the economy. 

 

And Johnson says the numbers suggest continue to strengthen in manufacturing over the next three to six months. Dave Mattingly, NPR News, Washington.

 

Asian markets are opening and trading higher at last the check. The NIKKEI, the main market in Japan, up 0.2%, the Hang Seng in Hong Kong up over 1%. And US markets closed earlier today gaining by the closing bell.

 

This is NPR News.

 

At least 14 people have been killed in a snow and ice storm that is set in central northeast US. Around half million people are without power, making matters worse. Forecasters are predicting more snow moving into the Great Lake and Midwest by Christmas morning. In Maine, power is out for around 100,000 people.

 

The Russian government has dropped the hooliganism charged against one of the activists arrested for protesting with Green Peace. 29 other activists also facing charges may soon get a similar reprieve, one is said charges dropped. Fiona Zublin reports that others are expected to receive the same treatment soon. 

 

All 28 activists and two journalists who are arrested for demonstrations at Russia’s oil rig in the Arctic have been freed on bail. Anthony Perrett a Welshman is the first to have the charges against him entirely dropped by the Russian state. The activists maintain that they were peacefully protesting and committed no crime when they were intercepted by the Russian coast guard in September. The government seized the ship and arrested all the activists for piracy. Those charges were later downgraded to hooliganism. Russia recently passed amnesty law which could affect thousands of prisoners and which respond some high-profile releases in the last few days, including the freeing of two members of Russian punk band Pussy Riot. There has been speculation that the amnesty law is a public relations move in advance of Sochi Olympics. For NPR News, I am Fiona Zublin in London.

 

The Christmas Eve’s spacewalk is over. Two astronauts are safely back inside the international space station after replacing a pump in a crippled cooling line. So far that pumps seems to be working well. NASA is now hoping to have the full cooling station restore by this weekend with all equipment up and running again.