Inside a Syrian monastery desecrated by jihadists, Matanios Dalloul stood alone by the shattered altar where a once-thriving community celebrated Christmas before the threat of death drove them out. The 62-year-old is one of 20 Christians remaining in the central town of Al-Qaryatain out of...

Sleeping on mattresses in a Belarusian warehouse, hundreds of Middle Eastern migrants are still clinging to the hope of a future in western Europe as the year draws to a close. The nearly 600 migrants, from countries including Iraq, Turkey, Iran and Syria, are among thousands who flew...

BOSTON (AP) — Staff absences for COVID-19 tripled this month in London’s hospitals, and nearly 10% of the city’s firefighters called out sick. In New York, about 2,700 police officers were absent earlier this week — twice the number who are ill on an average day. And on Cape Cod in...

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Nations around the world are lurching into lockdown, steeling themselves for a brutal surge as the omicron variant spreads like wildfire. But in Dubai, Donna Sese is bracing for a very different surge: countless restaurant bookings and meter-long drink...