The family denied they had made any such demand, but yesterday’s minimalistic visit left observers speculating that, behind the scenes, haggling is continuing over whether they should be received with the pomp and circumstance they might believe they deserve, or as plain citizens of the Republic.. A passenger plane crashed in central Iran yesterday on a flight from Turkey, killing 46 people, mostly from Ukraine. Al-Jazeera said the plane had stopped off in Turkey.An aircraft manufacturing official said the plane lost contact with Isfahan airport’s control tower Why it crashed was not immediately clear (AP). Israel withdrew its armoured personnel carriers from Bethlehem yesterday and lifted a month-long curfew. The birthplace of Jesus Christ ceased to be a ghost town and sprang back to a semblance of life.

The stalls were suddenly filled with fish and fowl, oranges, corn on the cob, salads and spices.The trouble was that the West Bank city’s 30,000 people had little money to spend. Many have been unemployed since the intifada broke out two years ago and none has worked more than a couple of days since Israel imposed the curfew after a suicide bomber slipped out of Bethlehem and blew up a Jerusalem bus, killing 11 passengers.There may be relief, but there is little joy this Christmas. Jamal Toshia, a 62-year-old Catholic, carves Nativity scenes from olive wood and mother-of-pearl “This is the worst Christmas in 50 years,” he said “When I had money, I used to buy meat for the holiday We treated ourselves to fruit and nuts. Now I’m buying the cheapest things I can get, a few dried figs, one kilo of tomatoes.”At noon in the old city market, paved and spruced up three years ago for the millennium, a man was hawking plump live rabbits and quails for the pot. “Since 7 o’clock,” he complained, “I’ve sold only two.”Three-quarters of Bethlehem’s economy depends on the pilgrim trade. This year, as last, there are no pilgrims.Midnight mass will be celebrated tonight, but Israel has barred Yasser Arafat from attending.

Manger Square is bare of decorations.Journalists apart, the only foreigners in town were 20 musicians and four singers of the Orchestra Filarmonica di Verona, who performed at Sunday mass in the Nativity church and again in the Italian Salesian church yesterday.Their director, Alfredo Cavalieri, said: “We are here as witnesses to the possibility of normal life here.”That’s as optimistic a message as you will find in the Holy Land this Christmas.. In the crowded sweatshops of China’s Pearl river delta, the world’s toys are churned out, not by Santa’s elves, but by 1.5 million peasant girls toiling through shifts of 12 or 14 hours, inhaling toxic fumes. Another investigator, Monina Wong, author of a soon-to- be-published report for the Hong Kong Coalition for the Charter on the Safe Production of Toys, said: “Wages have actually gone down, there is so much surplus labour. Conditions have improved alittle, especially in overtime because big buyers are putting pressure on sub-contractors.”But workers still have no contracts or unions, and little protection from owners who sometimes withhold part or even all of the wages due. China makes 70 per cent of the world’s toys and its exports, now worth $7.5bn (£4.7bn) annually, have doubled in eight years. In addition, China exports nearly $1bn of plastic Christmas trees, ornaments and lights, tinsel, plastic angels and bells, Santa suits, framed pictures of Jesus and Bible scenes. Hong Kong and Taiwanese companies that make goods for the likes of Hasbro (whose brands include Action Man and Bob the Builder), Mattel (makers of Barbie) and Disney have shifted production to the Chinese mainland, lured by the plentiful supply of cheap, unregulated labour.

China has 6,000 manufacturers, largely funded by foreign companies and clustered in the Pearl river delta, or Zhejiang and Jiangsu provinces. Dr Anita Chan, an expert on Chinese labour issues at the Austrian National University, said: “People who buy toys should care, [because] conditions in the toy sector are probably worse than other factories.” Sixty per cent of the toy workers are women between 17 and 23 who live in cramped company dormitories, 15 to a room, earning 30 cents an hour painting colours with a brush or spraying, or clipping the pieces together Most get only two days off a month. Inhaling the spray paints, glue fumes and toxic dust is a health hazard, causing dizziness, headaches and rashes Over time, it can be fatal. The case of 19-year-old Li Chunmei, who fainted on the production line and died hours later, was reported by The Washington Post this year and taken up by trade unions in America But such deaths are common in the Pearl river delta.