Kirkuk, IRAQ - Chaldean Archbishop Sako has been elected interim chairman of the Iraqi Council of Christians.  A newly formed body that works to broker peace in Iraq and help communicate the importance of Christians in the Middle East.  The Archbishop explains that the goal is to create a single unit to engage with the authorities and Christians’ Muslim brothers, but not to be a political party.

The idea developed after a series of deadly coordinated attacks against Christian early this year across Iraq.  Iraqi Christians remain at risk and weakened by persecution and continual harassment.  Mass emigration and without proper political representation the indigenous people of Iraq are fast faltering.  Working at first at the local level the Christian Council is hoping to create a unified voice that will work to promote peace and solidarity among all Iraqis. 

Baghdad, IRAQ - Here's what Karrar Haider, a 10-year-old Shi'ite boy at a school in eastern Baghdad, told Santa he wants this year for the holidays:  "I have one wish to ask Santa Claus. Please bring peace to my country. Stop the bombs so I can play with my friends again."

Santa - who spends the rest of the year disguised as a 48-year-old Chaldean Christian monastery administrator named Jalal Hourmoz - said he was delighted to spread joy after two years when sectarian violence made a merry Christmas impossible.

Vatican City – Hundreds and hundreds of Chaldeans traveled across the world to Rome to witness the appointment of the Chaldean Patriarch to a Vatican Cardinal.  Chaldeans across the globe glued to Nour Sat and EWTN to watch the world televised ceremony.

When Pope Benedict XVI placed a red hat on Cardinal Emmanuel-Karim Delly of Baghdad during a Nov. 24 consistory in St. Peter's Basilica, he was honoring not just the patriarch of the Chaldean church, but was elevating the plight of Iraqi Christians to the world's attention.

Washington DC, USA - While Iraq’s most dreadful year of 2006 is still comparably safer than some of America’s most popular cities the Democratic leaders in congress still wish to surrender the conflict.   Petraeus demonstrated a significant drop in violence since 2006 and still the Democratic leaders remained unconvinced of the need to stay in Iraq. 

Mgr Rabban al-Qas, Chaldean bishop of Ahmadiya, in Northern Iraq, speaking a day after the US commander in Iraq, General David Petraeus, began presenting his report to the Armed Services and Foreign Affairs committees of the US Congress on the impact of the recent surge of US troops in Iraq says progress has been made, but “A concrete solution to the Iraqi crisis must come from the people themselves, not from the barrel of the gun.”

Paris, FRANCE - After years of shunning involvement in a war it said was wrong, France now says it may help to bring peace in Iraq, proposing itself as an "honest broker" between the Sunni, Shi'ite, and Kurdish factions.

After meeting with the influential Chaldean Patriarch, Emmanuel III Delly, French world leaders talk of more active role in bringing peace to the war torn region.  The persuasive and passionate Patriarch urged world leaders to assist in ending the ongoing violence in Iraq.

The world renowned Catholic leader is known for his diplomacy in Islamic and Christian affairs, as well as his understanding and leadership in Middle Eastern and Western cultural differences. 

Jdeide, LEBANON- One-way exodus for Iraqi Christian families resigned to never returning to land of their ancestors.

Reduced to sneaking in the night across borders to escape and then moonlighting to survive, most Iraqi Christian families are resigned to never returning to the land of their ancestors.

"Under Saddam we lived in safety. At least we had our dignity and a decent life," said Duleir Nuri Sleiman, father of three girls, referring to Iraq's executed leader Saddam Hussein who ruled with an iron fist.

With his eyes on Europe or the United States for resettlement, Sleiman has reached the transit stop of Lebanon, filled with worries about health care, schooling and avoiding detention by immigration authorities.

The Chaldean family lives five to a spartan room above a barber's shop in the Christian suburb of Jdeide on the outskirts of Beirut, relying on his modest income as a painter and decorator.

Georgina, CAN - A Georgina man is in a desperate race against time to rescue his sister and her family from Baghdad, Iraq.

Described as the most dangerous city on Earth, Baghdad is torn apart by sectarian violence amid a wider civil war.

It is a city where how you worship God can literally get you killed.

Sam Taan, who operates the Daisy Mart in Sutton, said the urgency to get his sister, Ban, her husband Raad (their last names are withheld over safety concerns) and their two young sons, grew last month when Raad's brother Fatah was murdered by one of the many Islamic militias that prowl the city.

Baghdad, IRAQ - Chaldeans in Iraq go on high-alert as word spreads that Islamic terrorists groups are aggressively targeting non-muslims in Iraq.  The religious genocide by Islamic fanatics has taken a horrific and dreadful turn as over 500 Yazidi villagers were massacred this past week.  Islamic leaders and followers in Iraq and around the world continue to remain silent, and by doing so send a message of approval. 

The Tuesday bomb attack near Mosul is the latest in an onslaught of targeted killings against non-Muslims.  Provincial authorities in Nineveh province fear that in addition to those already accounted for, another 200 people might still be buried in the rubbles left by the devastating truck bombings. Sources in Iraq warn that the multiple attacks are part of a wider plan that is likely to target Christian villages in the historically Christian Nineveh plain very soon.

The bombings are the deadliest since the war began in 2003. The coordinated operation involved five trucks filled with explosives that killed indiscriminately as body parts of men, women, and children were torn apart and shredded across the streets in a ghastly portrayal of Islam gone awry.  

Goettingen, Gergmany — While Iraq is constantly in world news reports the plight of Iraqi Christians goes mostly unnoticed. According to the Society for Threatened People in Goettingen, Germany, Iraq currently experiences the biggest persecution of Christians of our time.

In fear of murders, bomb-attacks, kidnappings, and torture  Christians have been fleeing the country by the thousands.

Approximately 75 percent of the 650,000 Christians in Iraq have been driven from their homes. They have fled mainly to neighboring Syria or Lebanon.

A Christian community with a history of 2,000 years is in danger of becoming extinct, according to the human rights organization.

California, USA - The Chaldean Committe for the the Human Rights of the Christians of Iraq will be holding a peace rally on Friday, June 15, 2007, in front of the federal building at 880 Front St., San Diego between 12 noon - 2:00 p.m.

The rally hopes to bring to the world’s attention the continuous oppression, inhumane and brutal treatment of Iraqi Christians. The Iraqi Christians are a daily target for kidnapping, bombing, assassination and other acts of violence because of their religion.

Mosul, Iraq - Another Chaldean Catholic priest and three church deacons were gunned down in Mosul, Iraq, on Sunday, June 3rd.  Father Ragheed Ganni and three deacons from his parish-- Basman Yousef Daud, Wahid Hanna Isho, Gassan Isam Bidawed-- were slain after celebrating the Eucharistic liturgy on Sunday.

Chaldean Patriarch Emmanuel III Delly referred to the attack as “a crime against God.”

As the young priest and three deacons left the church their car was stopped by group of armed gunmen.  Pointing their weapons in the car they slaughtered the four Catholics then rigged the car to explode should anyone attempt to remove the dead bodies.   The horrific site remained for several hours until a police bomb-squad defused the devices. 

Texas, USA - San Anonio reporter Todd Bensman produces a stunning account of the tenuous journey of one Chaldean family forced to leave Iraq under Islamist threats of beheading.  The horrific tale of a young Chaldean family forced to abandon everything and to wander the world in fear with an infant and toddler.  The Genocide of Christians in Iraq continues to fall on deaf ears as the world plays politics and abandons the peaceful native Iraqi Christians.  Iraqi Christians are left to be slaughtered by Islamists or tortured for ransom money to fuel their insurgency.    

The journey north from Guatemala through Mexico to the Texas border lasted 17 days.  Finally, on the evening of Feb. 26, 2006, the young family of four saw the river come into view.  Weary and beaten, with the baby starting to fuss, they drove right up to the Rio Grande.

George and his wife, Baida, were Iraq refugees. They fled their homeland for Detroit because Muslim extremists had made two things very clear: They didn't like the family's Christian faith, for one. But what was worse, to the Islamic gunmen prowling the neighborhood, were the sons' names, George and Toni, which seemed to lionize U.S. President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

The decision to hire a smuggler to get them to the United States was clinched after militants told George Sr., a milk delivery man, that he was next on the beheading list for being an "infidel Christian," and the people running the nursery that cared for the couple's two children while Baida, a hair stylist, was working became untrustworthy.