* Hevron, The Day After A tense and cheerless quiet has fallen over the Hevron Jewish Community, following the violent and quick eviction of 18 Jewish families and their supporters from Beit HaShalom on Thursday.

* 3 million Muslims in Mecca for pilgrimage Draped in white robes to symbolize purity and the equality of mankind under God, nearly 3 million Muslims from all over the world gathered Friday in Mecca.

* Blair Urges Council on Foreign Relations to Pressure Israel Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair called for United States President-elect Barack Obama to press hard for Israel to make further territorial concessions to the Palestinian Authority.

* UN Mideast envoy slams settler violence against Palestinians The United Nations Middle East envoy on Friday praised Israeli security forces for evacuating the Beit Hashalom house in Hebron.

* Israeli West Bank forces on alert Israeli forces are on high alert after violence erupted following the eviction of Jewish settlers from a building in the West Bank city of Hebron.

* PA praises evacuation of Hebron home The Palestinian Authority on Thursday welcomed the evacuation of the settlers from Hebron’s Beit Hashalom building.

* U.S. military sets high-stakes missile-shield test The U.S. military is set to run a “realistic” test Friday of a system built to knock out long-range missiles that could be fired by North Korea or Iran.

* Atheists take aim at Christmas Alongside a Nativity scene at the Legislative Building in Olympia, Washington, a sign put up by an atheist organization celebrates the winter solstice.

* Obama’s ‘Palestinian friend’ laments catastrophic U.S. policy in Mideast No one stopped Rashid Khalidi, the Columbia University professor of Modern Arab Studies, at Ben-Gurion airport.

* Democracy on the Move For much of this year, a cynic might have suggested that one of the many reasons for the decline in violence in Iraq was the soaring price of oil.