President Joe Biden has imposed sanctions on Bidzina Ivanishvili, the founder of Georgia’s ruling political party.

A top White House official says a ninth U.S. telecoms firm has been confirmed to have been hacked as part of a sprawling Chinese espionage campaign that gave officials in Beijing access to private texts and phone conversations of an unknown number of Americans.

The State Department says an American schoolteacher arrested in Russia on drug charges more than four years ago has been designated by the U.S. government as wrongfully detained.

NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte says the military alliance will step up patrols in the Baltic Sea area as Finnish investigators work to establish whether a ship linked to Russia sabotaged undersea cables there this week.

Mexico is developing a cellphone app that will allow migrants to warn relatives and consulates if they think they are about to be detained by U.S. immigration officials.

The impeachment of South Korea’s acting President Han Duck-soo has plunged the country into further political turmoil, coming less than two weeks after lawmakers impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol.

Gaza's Health Ministry says Israeli troops have stormed one of the last hospitals operating in the territory's north and forced many of the staff and patients outside.

2024 was another banner year for a source of electricity that is better for people’s lungs, better for climate change and may be reaching your home now when you turn on the lights or turn up the thermostat — large banks of batteries.

A court in China has sentenced a man to death for killing 35 people last month by driving into crowd, in an attack that raised national concern about mass killings.

The Chinese government has placed sanctions on seven companies in response to recent U.S. announcements of military sales and aid to Taiwan, the self-governing island that China claims as part of its territory.

U.S. and Azerbaijani officials have said weapons fire may have brought down an Azerbaijani airliner that crashed on Wednesday, killing 38 people.

Osamu Suzuki, the charismatic former boss of Japanese mini-vehicle maker Suzuki Motor Corp., has died.

Gaza's Health Ministry says Israeli soldiers stormed and burned a hospital after forcibly removing staff and patients.

South Korea’s opposition-controlled National Assembly has voted to impeach acting President Han Duck-soo.

Authorities in India have declared a seven-day mourning period to honor Manmohan Singh as politicians and public paid tributes to the country’s former prime minister widely regarded as the architect of India’s economic reform program.

Scientists say human-caused climate change added an average of 41 days of dangerous heat worldwide in 2024.

Croatia’s left-leaning president, who has been critical of Western military support for Ukraine in the war with Russia, is running for reelection this weekend.

Stocks are closing lower as Wall Street ends a holiday-shortened week on a down note.

China’s leader Xi Jinping wants the recent spree of mass killings that shocked the country not to happen again.

Two top Canadian Cabinet ministers are visiting Palm Beach to talk border security and trade with officials in the incoming Donald Trump administration as Trump threatens tariffs on all Canadian products.

Syria’s new security forces checked IDs and searched cars in the central city of Homs a day after protests by members of the Alawite minority erupted in gunfire and stirred fears that the country’s fragile peace could break down.

Two sailors on separate boats have been killed in boom accidents two hours apart on a storm-ravaged first night of the annual Sydney to Hobart race, adding to the event’s long history of deaths at sea.

Israel’s attorney general has ordered police to open an investigation into Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s wife on suspicion of harassing political opponents and witnesses in the Israeli leader’s corruption trial.

U.S. officials say they asked for — and got — the retraction of an independent monitor's warning of imminent famine in north Gaza.

India’s former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, widely regarded as the architect of India’s economic reform program and a landmark nuclear deal with the United States, has died.

Ukraine's military intelligence says North Korean troops are suffering heavy losses in Russia's Kursk region and face logistical difficulties as a result of Ukrainian attacks.

Here are a few takeaways on electric vehicles in 2024: As of November, the global EV market grew by 25% year-over-year.

The World Health Organization’s director-general said airstrikes on Yemen’s main airport occurred as he was about to board a flight in the Houthi rebel-held capital of Sanaa.

Finnish police say authorities detained a ship linked to neighboring Russia as they investigate whether it damaged a Baltic Sea power cable and several data cables.

The crash of an Azerbaijani airliner in Kazakhstan has killed 38 of 67 people on board.

A Spanish migration rights group says more than 10,000 migrants died in 2024 trying to reach Spain by sea.

Russia’s top security agency says that it has arrested several suspects accused of involvement in an alleged Ukrainian plot to assassinate senior military officers.

Aviation experts say that Russian air defense fire was likely responsible for the Azerbaijani plane crash the day before that killed 38 people and left all 29 survivors injured.

Pope Francis is bringing his Holy Year to Rome’s main prison.

A spokesperson for Chinese automaker BYD has objected to reports about poor conditions at a construction site in Brazil where it is building a factory, saying the allegations were aimed at “smearing” China and Chinese brands.

South Korea’s main opposition party has submitted a motion to impeach the country’s acting leader over his reluctance to fill three Constitutional Court vacancies ahead of the court’s review of rebellion charges against impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol stemming from his short-lived martial law decree on Dec. 3.

A new round of Israeli airstrikes in Yemen has targeted the Houthi rebel-held capital of Sanaa and multiple ports.

A Syrian family that survived a 2013 chemical weapons attack that killed hundreds of people near the country's capital, Damascus, says the ordeal they experienced haunts them to this day.

A survivor of the worst gang attack on Haitian journalists in recent memory describes seeing colleagues cut down by bullets and reporters with head and chest wounds going without help.

Stock indexes drifted to a mixed finish on Wall Street as some heavyweight technology and communications sector stocks offset gains elsewhere in the market.

Prosecutors in Taiwan indicted former presidential candidate and Taiwan People’s Party founder Ko Wen-je on corruption charges, accusing him of taking bribes during his time as mayor of Taiwan’s capital.

People are gathering in prayer and visiting mass graves in Indonesia’s Aceh province to mark 20 years since the massive Indian Ocean tsunami, one of modern history’s worst natural disasters.

Finland’s prime minister says authorities are investigating an interruption in a power cable under the Baltic Sea between his country and Estonia.

A British-based war monitor said clashes between Islamists who took over Syria and supporters of ousted President Bashar Assad’s government have killed six Islamic fighters and wounded others.

A Japanese government panel has largely supported a draft energy policy calling for bolstering renewables up to half of Japanese electricity needs by 2040.

A baby girl froze to death overnight in Gaza, while Israel and Hamas accused each other of complicating ceasefire efforts that could wind down the 14-month war.

Former Surinamese dictator Desi Bouterse has died at 79.

A Taliban government official says Pakistan’s airstrikes on eastern Afghanistan killed 46 people, mostly women and children.

Pope Francis in his traditional Christmas message has urged “all people of all nations” to find courage during this Holy Year “to silence the sounds of arms and overcome divisions” plaguing the world, from the Holy Land to Ukraine, Africa to Asia.

Ukrainian officials say Russia has launched a massive missile barrage targeting Ukraine’s energy infrastructure.

An Azerbaijani airliner with 67 people onboard has crashed near the Kazakhstani city of Aktau and an official says 38 people were killed and 29 survived.

Shares are lower in Tokyo and Shanghai, two of only a handful of world markets open on Christmas day.

One-third of Turkey's children live in poverty, with many forced to work to support their struggling families.

Qurrata Ayuni, a 28-year-old survivor of the earthquake and tsunami that devastated her hometown two decades ago, has transformed her resilience into purpose.

King Charles III used his annual Christmas message to hail the selflessness of those who have cared for both him and Kate, the Princess of Wales this year, after both were diagnosed with cancer.

Violence that engulfed Mozambique after the country’s highest court confirmed ruling party presidential candidate Daniel Chapo as the winner of disputed Oct. 9 elections has killed at least 21 people, including two police officers.

Haiti’s online media association says two reporters were killed and several were wounded in a gang attack on the reopening of Port-au-Prince’s biggest public hospital.

The return of the notorious drug trafficker Fabio Ochoa to Colombia, following his deportation from the United States, has reopened old wounds among the victims of the Medellin cartel, with some expressing their dismay at the decision of Colombian authorities to let the former mafia boss walk free.

Local authorities say a Russian ballistic missile struck a residential building Tuesday in the Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih and at least one person was killed.

Pope Francis has opened the great Holy Door of St. Peter's Basilica.

A network of faith-based organizations minister to seafarers in hundreds of the world’s ports.

A leading global food crisis monitor says deaths from starvation will likely pass famine levels in north Gaza as soon as next month.

An Amsterdam District Court has issued sentences of up to six months in jail against 5 men who were involved in violent disorder after a soccer match between the Dutch club Ajax and Israel’s Maccabi Tel Aviv in November.

France’s president and prime minister have managed to form a new government just in time for the holidays.

The 50,000-year-old remains of a baby mammoth uncovered by melting permafrost have been unveiled to the public by researchers in Russia’s Siberia region.

Famine is reported to be spreading in Sudan amid relentless war between the military and a notorious paramilitary group that devastated the country and created the world’s largest displacement crisis.

Bethlehem is marking another somber Christmas Eve under the shadow of war in Gaza.

The Palestinian Health Ministry says at least eight people were killed by Israeli military operations in the northern West Bank.

An explosion at an ammunition factory in northwest Turkey left 11 dead and five injured Tuesday morning.

The United States and the United Kingdom have expressed deep concern over the recent handing down of convictions by Pakistani military courts to 25 civilian supporters of former Prime Minister Imran Khan over last year's riots.

Shyam Benegal, a renowned Indian filmmaker known for pioneering a cinema movement that tackled social issues in the 1970s, has died after chronic kidney disease.

South Korea’s main opposition party said Tuesday it will seek to impeach acting leader Han Duck-soo after he missed an opposition-set deadline to approve independent investigations into impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol and his wife.

Stocks closed higher on Wall Street ahead of the Christmas holiday, led by gains in Big Tech stocks.

A powerful government panel has failed to reach consensus on the possible national security risks of a nearly $15 billion proposed deal for Nippon Steel of Japan to purchase U.S. Steel.

The U.N. organization assisting in investigating the most serious crimes in Syria says the country’s new authorities were “very receptive” to its request for cooperation during a just-concluded visit to Damascus — and it is preparing to deploy.

President-elect Donald Trump is decrying rising shipping fees Panama has imposed to use the Panama Canal.

Members of Greece’s former royal family have expressed “deep emotion” after being granted Greek citizenship, ending a decades-old dispute with the country's government.

French President Emmanuel Macron’s office announced a new government Monday, after the previous Cabinet collapsed in a historic vote prompted by fighting over the country’s budget.

A biologist hid 350 audio monitors across Costa Rica’s tropical rainforests to spy on endangered spider monkeys in order to help protect them.

Netflix will have one of its biggest days since the site launched in 1998 when it carries two NFL games for the first time on Christmas.

First it was Canada, then the Panama Canal.

Bangladesh has sent a formal request to India to extradite ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

France marked a day of mourning Monday for victims of Cyclone Chido, which devastated its poorest territory, Mayotte, over a week ago.

Researchers and watchdog groups say the emergence of generative artificial intelligence tools that allow people to efficiently produce detailed and novel online reviews has put merchants, service providers and consumers in uncharted territory.

Japanese automakers Honda and Nissan will attempt to merge and create the world’s third-largest automaker by sales as the industry undergoes dramatic changes in its transition away from fossil fuels.

Mourners are laying flowers near the scene of the deadly Christmas market attack as investigators puzzle over the motive of the suspect and his previous encounters with authorities are scrutinized.

Romanian lawmakers have voted narrowly in favor of a new pro-European coalition government led by incumbent Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu.

Israel’s defense minister has confirmed that Israel assassinated Hamas’ top leader last summer and is threatening to take similar action against the leadership of the Houthi rebel group in Yemen.

A pair of five-year-old pandas, named An An and Ke Ke, celebrated their first Christmas early in a Hong Kong park, munching on special treats and looking cute for the cameras.

Japanese automakers Nissan and Honda have announced plans to work toward a merger that would catapult them to a top position in an industry in the midst of tectonic shifts as it transitions away from its reliance on fossil fuels.

Tens of thousands of people have fled their homes in India’s northeast Manipur state since violence erupted last year between the majority Meitei community and minority Kuki-Zo tribes.

Former U.S. Marine Corps pilot Daniel Duggan will be extradited from Australia to the United States over allegations that he illegally trained Chinese aviators.

The first season of “Squid Game” was Netflix's most-watched series and went on to win a variety of accolades including the Emmy Award for lead actor in a drama series for Lee Jung-jae and a directing award for Hwang Dong-hyuk.

The economic and technological rivalry between the U.S. and China has come to the drone market, where Chinese-made flying devices are a dominant player in America.

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.

Stocks closed higher on Wall Street at the start of a holiday-shortened week.

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.

Santa Claus has braved the sticky heat of the Amazon rainforest this weekend, taking two boats to bring gifts to the children of a small village near the Brazilian city of Manaus.

Albania’s prime minister says the ban on TikTok his government announced was “not a rushed reaction to a single incident.”.