The city of Bethlehem in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, the traditional birthplace of Jesus, will not have the usual trappings of the city's favorite holiday: no public Christmas tree, no raucous scouts march, no decorations and no twinkling lights, in deference to the ongoing war in Gaza.

Two recently retired senior Israeli intelligence agents are sharing details about a deadly clandestine operation that targeted Hezbollah militants in Lebanon and Syria with exploding pagers and walkie-talkies.

Pope Francis is formally inaugurating the 2025 Holy Year, reviving an ancient church tradition encouraging the faithful to make pilgrimages to Rome.

Donald Trump is suggesting that his new administration could try to regain control of the Panama Canal.

Rome’s iconic Trevi Fountain reopened Sunday after three months of renovations on the 18th-century monument that’s one of the Italian capital’s main attractions.

Brazil’s Civil Defense Agency says a small plane has crashed into a Brazilian town that's popular with tourists and killed all 10 passengers and crew on board.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has hosted Slovakia’s prime minister, Robert Fico, in a rare visit to the Kremlin by an EU leader since Moscow’s all-out invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Stampedes during three Christmas charity events across Nigeria have left at least 67 people dead in the past week, many of them children.

Ukrainian drones have struck a major Russian oil terminal for the second time in just over a week, according to the Russian local governor, as part of what he called a “massive” cross-border attack on fuel and energy facilities that Kyiv says supply Moscow's military.

A prominent Lebanese politician has met with the insurgent who led the overthrow of Syrian leader Bashar Assad, and both expressed hope Sunday for a new era in relations between their countries.

Nigerian police say the death toll from stampedes during two Christmas charity events has increased from 13 to 32.

German authorities say they received tipoffs last year about the suspect in a car attack at a Christmas market in Magdeburg as more details emerged about the five people killed.

Hanukkah — also spelled Chanukah or other transliterations from Hebrew — is Judaism’s “festival of lights.”.

A week after Cyclone Chido ravaged Mayotte, France’s poorest territory, the island remains in crisis.

Ukraine has brought the war into the heart of Russia with drone attacks that Russian authorities said damaged residential buildings in the city of Kazan, some 600 miles from the front line.

The Israeli military said a rocket fired from Yemen hit an area of Tel Aviv injuring 16 people on Saturday, and Houthi rebels later reported airstrikes in Yemen’s rebel-held capital, Sanaa.

Church bells rang out in the German city of Magdeburg exactly 24 hours after authorities say a man drove into a busy Christmas market, killing five people and injuring 200 others.

The toppling of Bashar Assad has raised tentative hopes that Syrians might live peacefully and as equals after a half century of authoritarian rule.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has dismissed an assertion by Elon Musk that only a far-right party can “save Germany.”.

For the world, 2024 was riven by conflict on two fronts.

Hundreds of Serbian students and others again blocked traffic for 15 minutes throughout the country as political tensions continue to simmer following last month's collapse of a concrete canopy that killed 15 people.

Crowds in Mayotte have vented their frustration at French President Emmanuel Macron, with some booing.

The U.N.'s food agency says more than 40 million people are struggling to feed themselves across West and Central Africa.

Hungary has given political asylum to a Polish opposition politician who is wanted on suspicions of corruption.