* Top cabinet ministers, defense officials meet to discuss Iran Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday convened a meeting of the forum of seven cabinet ministers along with top defense officials to discuss the Iranian nuclear issue.

* China’s strategic alliance with Iran is off most radar screens Since the 1990s China has successfully been expanding its influence in the Middle East and Iran in particular without attracting the attention of the global community.

* Clashes at Montazeri ceremony, Iran opposition says Iranian security forces have clashed with opposition supporters in the city of Isfahan, opposition websites say.

* Franklin Graham: True Islam cannot be practiced in this country Evangelical Christian leader Franklin Graham challenged President Obama’s statement in Norway that Islam is a “great religion” and said Islam is “violent” and cannot be practiced in the United States.

* “Stop talking so much about Mideast” Lithuanian Foreign Minister Vygaudas Usackas urged European diplomats this week to “stop talking too much about the Middle East” and said he believes Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu “wants peace and genuinely wants a Palestinian state.”

* Bethlehem gets first Christmas rock concert O Come All Ye Faithful to Bethlehem’s first Christmas rock festival.

* Abbreviating Christmas in Iraq As a priest led prayers for a few dozen worshipers inside St. Joseph Chaldean Church here on Sunday, Iraqi police officers stood guard outside.

* Iraq signs oil deal worth tens of billions for field in South near Basra Iraq has signed a major energy deal with a consortium led by Royal Dutch Shell.

* Letters to God – a world searches for an address If you send a letter to Santa Claus, it may or may not reach the North Pole. But if you address one to God, Jesus, or King David, chances are it will wind up in a warehouse in Jerusalem.

* PM: Israel faces the Goldstone threat Prime Minister Netanyahu called on the opposition to support the Israeli government at a time when Israel is trying to fend off attacks on its rights to self-defense and advance the peace process with the Palestinian Authority.