Shoppers spent more this year

NEW YORK -- Holiday shoppers spent a little more this season, according to data released Monday, giving merchants some reason for cheer.

The spending bounce means retailers managed to avoid a repeat of last year's disaster even amid tight credit and double-digit unemployment. Profits should be healthier, too, because stores had a year to plan their inventories to match consumer demand and never needed to resort to fire-sale clearances.

Retail sales rose 3.6 percent from Nov. 1 through Dec. 24, compared with a 3.2 percent drop in the year-ago period, according to figures from MasterCard Advisors' SpendingPulse, which track all forms of payment, including cash.

Adjusting for an extra shopping day between Thanksgiving and Christmas, the number was closer to a 1 percent gain.

Bombs kill seven pilgrims in Iraq

BAGHDAD -- A bomb killed five Shiite pilgrims in a procession in northeast Iraq on Sunday and blasts in Baghdad killed two more pilgrims as millions of people marched to commemorate the most important Shiite religious observance.

Pilgrims traveling to the southern holy city of Karbala have come under repeated attack during the 10-day religious ceremonies that culminated Sunday with huge processions.

Dozens of pilgrims have been killed and more than 150 wounded during the Ashoura observance by insurgents hoping to intensify sectarian violence that reached a peak in 2006 and 2007, though the pace of violence has dropped sharply since then.

Roadside bomb kills U.S. soldier

KABUL -- NATO says an American serviceman has been killed by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan.

A statement from NATO's International Security Assistance Force says the incident took place Saturday in southern Afghanistan, but it did not give further details or the victim's branch of service.

The statement also says a joint Afghan-international force killed several militants, including a Taliban commander responsible for roadside bomb attacks, during an operation in southern Afghanistan's Zabul province on Sunday.

Pope visits Rome soup kitchen

VATICAN CITY -- Pope Benedict XVI waded into a crowd of well-wishers in Rome on Sunday, just days after he was knocked down by a woman at a Christmas Eve Mass.

Security was tight but Benedict greeted well-wishers as usual. He kissed some children and caressed the hands of others as he entered a soup kitchen operated by the Sant'Egidio Community, a lay Catholic group based in Rome, a few miles from the Vatican.

Many in the crowd applauded, some shouting "Viva il Papa!" or "Long Live the Pope!"

The pope has kept up his busy holiday schedule despite the incident, in which a woman jumped a barricade in St. Peter's Basilica and pulled the pope to the ground as she was taken down by guards.

-- From wire reports