Hungary's prime minister says sanctions issued by the United States last week against a powerful Hungarian official have “strengthened” that official’s standing within the populist government.

Israel’s Cabinet has approved a deal for a ceasefire in Gaza and the release of dozens of hostages that will pause the 15-month war with Hamas for six weeks.

The presidents of Russia and Iran have signed a broad cooperation pact to deepen their partnership amid stinging Western sanctions.

Three lawyers who once represented the late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny have been jailed in Russia as part of the Kremlin’s crackdown on dissent that has reached levels unseen since Soviet times.

French President Emmanuel Macron has met with Lebanon’s newly elected President Joseph Aoun and vowed to support the small nation as it attempts to recover from the 14-month Israel-Hezbollah war and an economic crisis.

A defense lawyer says a Pakistani court has sentenced the country’s already-imprisoned former Prime Minister Imran Khan and his wife to 14 and seven years in jail after finding them guilty of corruption.

Law enforcement authorities have requested a warrant to formally arrest impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, who is spending his third day at a detention center after his lawyers failed in a last-minute attempt to secure his release.

Russian President Vladimir Putin hosted his Iranian counterpart, President Masoud Pezeshkian, to sign a broad partnership pact.

A growing number of countries are confronting the dual challenges of population decline and aging.

China’s population has fallen for the third straight year, pointing to further demographic challenges for the world’s second most populous nation that is now facing both an aging population and an emerging shortage of working age people able to support their elders.

Chinese President Xi Jinping will not attend President-elect Donald Trump’s swearing-in ceremony, but he is sending Vice President Han Zheng as his special representative.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa is facing calls to order a national inquiry into a police operation that was meant to combat illegal mining but ended up leaving 87 miners to die underground as authorities attempted to force them to surrender during a monthslong standoff.

U.K.-based oil company is cutting 4,700 jobs worldwide and a further 3,000 contractor roles as part of a cost-saving drive.

A driver rammed his car into a crowd and seriously injured a young woman at one of the daily student-led protests and traffic blockades that have been held throughout Serbia following the collapse in November of a concrete canopy in the country’s north that killed 15 people.

Officials in Slovakia say an 18-year-old student fatally stabbed two people at a high school.

The European Union's top migration official says deportations of migrants who entered the bloc illegally will be a priority this year.

Over 1,000 people attended a memorial ceremony in central Paris for the founder of France’s main far-right party, Jean-Marie Le Pen, who died last week at the age of 96.

Pope Francis has fallen and hurt his right arm.

Britain’s government has confirmed that it will not finalize a deal to hand over sovereignty of the contested Chagos Islands to Mauritius until President-elect Donald Trump’s administration is consulted.

Mediators say Israel and Hamas agreed to a ceasefire deal to pause the devastating 15-month war in the Gaza Strip, raising the possibility of winding down the deadliest and most destructive fighting between the bitter enemies.

An 84-year-old British man armed only with a pair of trousers beat back a mugger half his age who tried to rob him at a laundry in the north of England.

The ceasefire announced between Israel and Hamas gives hope to families of hostages and war-weary Palestinians — but their nightmare is far from over.

South African police have ended a rescue operation at an abandoned gold mine where hundreds of illegal miners were trapped for months and say they believe they have rescued all the survivors and retrieved all the bodies of those who died.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has accused Russia of planning acts of sabotage worldwide including “acts of air terror” against airlines.