AP National News

By NICOLE WINFIELD Associated Press ROME (AP) — Christians around the world are celebrating their second COVID-19 Christmas as surging infections in many countries overwhelmed hospitals, canceled flights and curbed religious observances. While some countries in Asia imposed restrictions to try to contain the highly contagious omicron variant, governments in Europe and elsewhere preached common

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — The president of Ukraine has held a video call with 20 U.S. senators and members of Congress  amid tensions with Russia. Ukrainian According to his office, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy spoke with the senators and congressional representatives on Friday about Russia’s troop buildup near Ukraine’s border and the situation in his country’s

By MARCIA DUNN AP Aerospace Writer The world’s largest and most powerful space telescope has blasted off on a high-stakes quest to behold light from the first stars and galaxies. NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope rocketed away Saturday from French Guiana in South America. A European Ariane rocket provided the Christmas morning lift. The $10

By NICOLE WINFIELD Associated Press ROME (AP) — Pope Francis has used his Christmas Day address to pray for an end to the coronavirus pandemic. Amid a record-setting rise in COVID-19 cases in Italy this week, only a few thousand people flocked to a rain-soaked St. Peter’s Square for Francis’ annual “Urbi et Orbi” (“To

By SAMY MAGDY Associated Press CAIRO (AP) — Sudanese protesters have again taken to the streets in the capital Khartoum and elsewhere across the country to denounce the October military coup and subsequent deal that reinstated the prime minister but sidelined the pro-democracy movement. Authorities have tightened security across the capital, deploying troops and closing

By DEREK GATOPOULOS Associated Press ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Greece’s coast guard says at least 16 people died after a migrant boat capsized in the Aegean Sea late Friday. The Greek coast guard said Saturday that 63 people were rescued after the boat turned over some 8 kilometers (5 miles) off the island of Paros.

By DASHA LITVINOVA Associated Press MOSCOW (AP) — A Russian organization that tracks political arrests and provides legal aid to detainees says government regulators have blocked its website. OVD-Info said in a tweet on Saturday that it wasn’t formally notified about the action by Russia’s internet and communications watchdog, Roskomnadzor. The group says it doesn’t

By DANIEL COLE Associated Press MARSEILLE, France (AP) — The staff is tired, the omicron variant is bearing down and the intensive care unit beds are filling fast at a hospital in the French city of Marseille. The unit’s chief doctor is trying to keep his team members motivated as they spend another Christmas tending

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Hundreds of thousands of people in the Philippines, Asia’s largest Roman Catholic nation, are marking Christmas without homes, adequate food and water, electricity and cellphone connections after a powerful typhoon left at least 375 people dead last week and devastated mostly central island provinces. Elsewhere, New Zealanders are celebrating Christmas in

By SAMY MAGDY Associated Press CAIRO (AP) — Sudanese authorities have tightened security across the capital of Khartoum ahead of protests against the October military coup and subsequent deal that reinstated the prime minister but sidelined the country’s pro-democracy movement. Troops deployed across the city on Saturday and closed almost all bridges over the Nile

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Hundreds of thousands of people in the Philippines, Asia’s largest Roman Catholic nation, are marking Christmas without homes, adequate food and water, electricity and cellphone connections after a powerful typhoon left at least 375 people dead last week and devastated mostly central island provinces. Elsewhere, New Zealanders are celebrating Christmas in

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iranian media are reporting that a road accident in the country’s southwest has killed at least 10 people. The official IRNA news agency says the accident on Saturday took place as a truck hit a minibus carrying laborers on the road linking the city of Khorramshahr with the city of Ahvaz

Associated Press Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev’s resignation 30 years ago was a momentous event that ended an era by drawing a line under the USSR’s existence. The Moscow photo chief for The Associated Press was the only foreign photographer who caught the terminal moment of the Soviet Union. On Dec. 25, 1991. Liu Heung Shing

By VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV Associated Press MOSCOW (AP) — People strolling across Moscow’s snowy Red Square on the evening of Dec. 25, 1991 witnessed one of the 20th century’s most pivotal moments. That night, the Soviet red flag that flew over the Kremlin was pulled down and replaced with the Russian Federation’s tricolor. Minutes earlier, Soviet

By BHARATHA MALLAWARACHI Associated Press COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — A policeman has opened fire on a group of fellow officers in Sri Lanka, killing four of them and wounding three others. The shooting occurred Friday night inside a police station in the small town of Thirukkovil in eastern Sri Lanka, a police statement said.

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — Two servers at an Albuquerque restaurant got a big surprise when a group of business owners left a $5,555 tip. It was the idea of Battle Tested Business, a local entrepreneurship and leadership organization. Founder Ramon Casaus told KOB-TV that he and his colleagues look for ways to invest back into

By BHARATHA MALLAWARACHI Associated Press COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — A policeman has opened fire on a group of fellow officers in Sri Lanka, killing four of them and wounding three others. The shooting occurred Friday night inside a police station in the small town of Thirukkovil in eastern Sri Lanka, a police statement said.

By BHARATHA MALLAWARACHI Associated Press COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — A policeman has opened fire on a group of fellow officers in Sri Lanka, killing three of them and wounding three others, police say. The shooting occurred Friday night inside a police station in the small town of Thirukkovil in eastern Sri Lanka, a police