New German Catholic Church Chief Stirs Up Traditions ...
Iraq moves against Mosul al-Qaeda ... Gunmen have kidnapped the archbishop of the Chaldean Catholic Church in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul and killed three of his aides, his church says.
Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho was seized as he left a church in the eastern al-Nour district, it added.
Most of Iraq's estimated 700,000 Christians are Chaldeans - Catholics who are autonomous from Rome but recognise the Pope's authority.
Many have been targeted since the 2004 invasion by Sunni extremists groups.
In January, bombs exploded outside two Chaldean churches, an Assyrian church and a monastery in Mosul, wounding four people.
Ambush
A spokesman for the Chaldean Church told the BBC that Archbishop Rahho was travelling in his car with his two aides and a driver shortly after he finished saying Mass at a church when they were ambushed by armed men.
The gunmen opened fire on the car, killing the three aides, before kidnapping the archbishop, he added.
The 65-year-old was ordained archbishop of Mosul in 2001.
There are an estimated 50,000 Christians in the traditionally ethnically and religiously mixed city of Mosul, Iraq's third-largest and a centre of the oil industry.
A rise in attacks on Christians since the US-led invasion in 2003 has prompted many to leave, although estimates that some 40,000-60,000 have left cannot be confirmed.
(BBC)
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