AP National News

By JACK JEFFERY Associated Press BETHLEHEM, West Bank (AP) — Musicians banging drums and playing bagpipes marched through the biblical town of Bethlehem to the delight of smaller than usual crowds. The mix of conviviality and restraint on Friday was reflected in celebrations around the world on a Christmas Eve dampened once again by the

NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — Newly released video shows a security officer leaping over conveyor belt rollers and saving a 2-month-old boy who stopped breathing at a New Jersey airport security checkpoint. The footage from Newark Liberty International Airport was released Thursday by the U.S. Transportation Security Administration. It shows TSA officer Cecilia Morales springing into

By DAVID McHUGH Associated Press FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — At least three major airlines say they have canceled dozens of flights because illnesses largely tied to the omicron variant of COVID-19 have taken a toll on flight crew numbers during the busy holiday travel season. Germany-based Lufthansa said Friday that it was canceling a dozen

By NOHA ELHENNAWY Associated Press CAIRO (AP) — Hundreds took to the streets in several Libyan cities to protest the cancellation of Friday’s long-awaited presidential election, a blow to hopes of ending a decade of chaos in the oil-rich North African country. Several Libyan parliamentary candidates and political groups have called for nationwide protests over

MOSCOW (AP) — A Moscow court has fined Google nearly $100 million over its failure to delete content banned by local law. The Tagansky District Court ruled on Friday that Google repeatedly neglected to remove the banned content, and ordered the company to pay an administrative fine of about 7.2 billion rubles. Google said it

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard has fired more than a dozen of surface-to-surface ballistic missiles. The Friday report by the official IRNA news agency said the Guard fired 16 missiles during an ongoing military exercise across the country’s south. It said the missiles ranged up to 2000 kilometers (about 1250 miles) and

By DANICA KIRKA Associated Press LONDON (AP) — Queen Elizabeth II is expected to offer a particularly personal Christmas Day message to the nation this year. Buckingham Palace on Friday released a photo of the monarch recording the speech alongside a picture of her and her husband, who died earlier this year. The image provided

By NOHA ELHENNAWY Associated Press CAIRO (AP) — Several Libyan parliamentary candidates called for nationwide protests over the cancellation of a long-awaited presidential election, a blow to hopes to end a decade of chaos in the oil-rich North African country. While it was unclear to what extent Libyans would demonstrate publicly, the call underlines risks

BERLIN (AP) — Germany’s health minister says the proportion of coronavirus infections with the new omicron variant will increase sharply in the days ahead. He appealed to people not to get infected during Christmas festivities. German authorities are anticipating another wave of COVID-19 cases as a result of omicron, though so far the delta variant

FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — At least three major airlines have reported canceling dozens of flights as illnesses largely tied to the omicron variant of COVID-19 take a toll on flight crew numbers during the busy holiday travel season. Germany-based Lufthansa said Friday that it was canceling a dozen long-haul transatlantic flights over the Christmas holiday

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Coast guard divers are searching the hull of a submerged sailboat for passengers possibly trapped inside after the vessel hit rocks off the coast of southern Greece and sank. The Greek coast guard said at least seven people died and 90 others were rescued overnight from a rocky islet near the

BANGKOK (AP) — Thailand’s Central Group and Signa of Austria have confirmed plans to buy luxury British department store chain Selfridges. The deal, reportedly worth 4 billion pounds ($5.4 billion), adds to Central and Signa’s collection of posh retailers that includes Rinascente in Italy, Illum in Denmark, Switzerland’s Globus and The KaDeWe Group in Germany

PARIS (AP) — Protesters angry over virus and vaccine rules have occupied Guadeloupe’s regional legislature because of stalled negotiations over their grievances about management of the French Caribbean island. Officials in Guadeloupe and Paris denounced Thursday’s incursion as unacceptable and a threat to the democratically elected Regional Council. Officials posted images online that showed a

By MARI YAMAGUCHI Associated Press TOKYO (AP) — Japan’s Cabinet has approved a record 5.4 trillion yen ($47 billion) defense budget for fiscal 2022 that includes funding for research and development of a new fighter jet and other “game-changing” weapons as Japan bolsters its defense capabilities in response to China’s growing military might and its

BEIJING (AP) — The Chinese government has denounced a U.S. law that restricts imports from Xinjiang as a violation of international law and dismissed complaints of abuses against mostly Muslim minorities in the region as lies. President Joe Biden signed the measure amid mounting tension including appeals by activists for a boycott of February’s Winter

By JOE McDONALD AP Business Writer BEIJING (AP) — Global stock markets are mixed after Wall Street hit a new high as fears of the coronavirus’s omicron variant eased. London opened higher while Tokyo and Shanghai declined. Wall Street’s benchmark S&P 500 index rose 0.6% on Thursday in the last U.S. trading session before Christmas.

By JACK JEFFERY Associated Press BETHLEHEM, West Bank (AP) — The biblical town of Bethlehem is marking its second straight Christmas Eve under the shadow of the coronavirus — with small crowds and gray, gloomy weather dampening celebrations in the traditional birthplace of Jesus. A ban on nearly all incoming air traffic by Israel —

By ABDUR RAHMAN JAHANGIR Associated Press DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) — Officials say a massive fire swept through a crowded river ferry in Bangladesh, leaving at least 39 people dead and 70 injured. Many passengers leapt from the vessel into cold waters to escape the blaze early Friday. A fire officer said it took 15 fire

BERLIN (AP) — Police and prosecutors say a German man who fled after losing his final appeal of a murder conviction for the 1993 killing of a teenager has been arrested in the Netherlands after more than two days on the run. The 56-year-old was arrested shortly after midnight Friday at an apartment in Enschede,