Associated Press DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israeli strikes across the Gaza Strip overnight and into Sunday killed at least 22 people, including five children, Palestinian medical officials said, while Gaza’s small Christian community celebrated a pre-Christmas Mass. Israeli authorities allowed a rare Gaza visit by the leader of the Catholic Church in the
Continue ReadingBEIJING (AP) — The Chinese government is protesting the latest American announcements of military sales and assistance to Taiwan, warning the United States that it is “playing with fire.” A Chinese Foreign Ministry statement on Sunday urged the U.S. to stop arming Taiwan and stop what it called “dangerous moves that undermine peace and stability
Continue ReadingNEW YORK (AP) — The challenge of photographing Christmastime in New York is that there is so much of it. The big tree in Rockefeller Center. Ice skating in Central Park. The Rockettes at Radio City Music Hall. All those lavish, holiday-themed department store window displays. This is the iconic New York tourists come to
Continue ReadingAssociated Press CHICAGO (AP) — Adella Bass dropped her in-person college classes because it was just too hard to get there from the far South Side of Chicago, where the city’s famous elevated train doesn’t run. And it can take her nearly two hours to get to the hospital where she is treated for a
Continue ReadingAssociated Press OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Plunging participation in girls basketball led one of Nebraska’s largest high schools to cancel its varsity team for the year. The decision by Grand Island Senior High School — the state’s third-largest with more than 2,600 students — reflects a national decline in participation in the girls sport, even
Continue ReadingAssociated Press KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip (AP) — Winter is hitting the Gaza Strip and many of the nearly 2 million Palestinians displaced by the devastating 14-month war with Israel are struggling to protect themselves from the wind, cold and rain. There is a shortage of blankets and warm clothing, little wood for fires, and
Continue ReadingAssociated Press QARDAHA, Syria (AP) — On the walls of the palatial mausoleum built to house the remains of former Syrian President Hafez Assad — whose son, Bashar Assad, was ousted two weeks ago — vandals have sprayed variations of the phrase, “Damn your soul, Hafez.” While the Assads lived in luxury, most residents of
Continue ReadingAssociated Press AYOD, South Sudan (AP) — Long-horned cattle wade through flooded lands and climb a slope along a canal that has become a refuge for displaced families in South Sudan. Smoke from burning dung rises near homes of mud and grass where thousands of people now live after floods swept away their village. “Too
Continue ReadingAssociated Press DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Two U.S. Navy pilots were shot down Sunday over the Red Sea in an apparent “friendly fire” incident, the U.S military said, marking the most serious incident to threaten troops in over a year of America targeting Yemen’s Houthi rebels. Both aviators were recovered alive after ejecting
Continue ReadingSACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — A man has been arrested on suspicion of beheading his 1-year-old son, Northern California authorities said. The Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement Friday that deputies responding to an early morning family disturbance call found a woman outside a home who told deputies that her husband Andrey Demskiy, 28,
Continue ReadingAssociated Press SURIN ISLANDS, Thailand (AP) — When Hook was a child, he started his days by jumping off the boat that his family lived on and into the ocean. By age 3, he could already swim and dive in shallow waters. His home was a kabang, a boat, that his family sailed in Thailand’s
Continue ReadingAssociated Press SURIN ISLANDS, Thailand (AP) — When Hook was a child, he started his days by jumping off the boat that his family lived on and into the ocean. By age 3, he could already swim and dive in shallow waters. His home was a kabang, a boat, that his family sailed in Thailand’s
Continue ReadingKILLEEN, Texas (AP) — A pickup truck driver fleeing police careened through the doors of a JCPenney store at a busy Texas mall, injuring five people before he was fatally shot by officers, authorities said. A 53-year-old man identified as John Darrel Schultz of Kempner drove a truck and crashed into the department store in
Continue ReadingWASHINGTON (AP) — Lara Trump, the daughter-in-law of President-elect Donald Trump, says she’s removing herself from consideration to be a Florida senator. That ends speculation she could replace Sen. Marco Rubio, who has been tapped to be the incoming administration’s secretary of state. Lara Trump posted Saturday on X that she “decided to remove my
Continue ReadingAP Sports Writer OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — Hall of Famer Rickey Henderson, the brash speedster who shattered stolen base records and redefined baseball’s leadoff position, has died. He was 65. Henderson died on Friday. The Athletics said Saturday they were “shocked and heartbroken by his passing,” but did not specify a cause of death. Known
Continue ReadingAssociated Press NEW YORK (AP) — New York’s governor has ordered more than a dozen state prison staffers fired over the fatal beating of an inmate earlier this month. Gov. Kathy Hochul said Saturday that she has directed the state’s corrections department commissioner to begin the process of terminating 14 workers involved in the fatal
Continue ReadingAssociated Press QUITO, Ecuador (AP) — As Christmas approaches and people decorate their homes with lights, Ecuadoreans are getting some relief from the severe power cuts that have hounded the country this year with President Daniel Noboa saying there will be no power rationing for residential areas – for the time being. But some of
Continue ReadingAssociated Press WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Mark Burnett, the power producer who helped reintroduce Donald Trump to a national television audience with “The Apprentice,” is being tapped by the president-elect as special envoy to the United Kingdom in his upcoming administration. “With a distinguished career in television production and business, Mark brings a
Continue ReadingRIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Santa Claus has arrived in Rio de Janeiro — under water. Starting on Saturday, he’ll be spotted at AquaRio Marine Aquarium swimming with sharks during their daily fish feeding sessions as part of the city’s Christmas festivities. Nine-year-old Guilherme Martins Matos said he’d seen Santa — or at least an
Continue ReadingATHENS, Greece (AP) — Greece’s coast guard says it continues to search for survivors or victims of a speedboat that capsized carrying migrants off the eastern Greek island of Rhodes. The capsizing, the result of the boat’s maneuvering to evade a patrol vessel, according to authorities, left eight confirmed dead. A total of 18 migrants,
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