The Associated Press

The government had pushed for a life sentence, but the judge said that punishment was not necessary to deter future similar acts.

China has stepped up its military harassment of Taiwan, sending fighter planes and navy vessels toward the island on a near-daily basis in recent years.

A United Nations agency is seeking information about the voyage of over 100 Rohingya Muslim refugees who landed on an Indonesian beach this week, and warned Tuesday that there will likely be more.

Companies welcomed China's decision to end quarantines for travelers from abroad as an important step to revive slumping business activity.

As of late Monday, lottery officials estimate Tuesday's Mega Millions prize at $565 million — or more than $293 million if delivered in cash.

The scrapping of the quarantine requirement starting Jan. 8 is a major step toward reopening travel with the rest of the world, which the government severely curtailed in a bid to keep the virus out.

Ukraine's foreign minister told the AP that his government is aiming to have a summit, preferably at the United Nations with Secretary-General António Guterres as a possible mediator.

South Korea's military says it detected five drones, and that one traveled as far as the northern part of its capital region.

Whitworth, whose LPGA Tour victories spanned nearly a quarter-century, died on Christmas Eve. Her 88 victories are the most by any player on a single professional tour.

More than half the deaths occurred in western New York, which struggled with super-size snow drifts that snarled emergency vehicles. Buffalo's responders rescued hundreds trapped in cars.

The Russian military reported on Monday that it shot down a Ukrainian drone approaching an airbase deep inside Russia, after three servicemen were killed from the debris.

Heavy snow in large swaths of Japan has killed 17 and injured more than 90 people and left hundreds of homes without power, disaster management officials said Monday.

Avatar: The Way of Water sailed to the top of the box office in its second weekend, bringing in what studios estimate Sunday will be a strong $56 million in North America.

Putin said in a state television interview, excerpts of which were released Sunday afternoon, that Russia is "prepared to negotiate some acceptable outcomes with all the participants of this process."

Pope Francis used his Christmas message to make a plea for an immediate end to the fighting in Ukraine, which he decried as "senseless." He also addressed long-running conflicts in the Middle East.

The frigid Christmas storm has killed at least 24 people across the country, trapping some residents inside homes with snow drifts, and knocking out power to hundreds of thousands of homes.

Members of France's Kurdish community and anti-racism activists joined together in mourning and anger on Saturday in Paris after three people were killed at a Kurdish cultural center.

Five people were arrested in the fatal shooting of a 19-year-old man at the Mall of America that sent the commercial center into lockdown on one of the final days of the holiday shopping season.

Recalling Jesus' birth in a stable, Pope Francis rebuked those "ravenous" for wealth and power at the expense of the vulnerable in a Christmas Eve homily decrying war, poverty and greedy consumerism.

Three major international aid groups on Sunday suspended work in Afghanistan following a decision by the country's Taliban rulers to ban women from working at non-governmental organizations.