Church leaders in Bethlehem and elsewhere in the Palestinian Holy Land have asked local Christians to avoid public displays of celebration.

Pope Francis deplores the ‘desperate humanitarian situation’ in Gaza, and repeats his call for a ceasefire in his Christmas Day message on Monday.

Jerusalem’s Latin Patriarch Pierbattista Pizzaballa arrived in Bethlehem for Christmas amid the bloodiest-ever hostilities in Gaza.

The death toll from a fierce winter storm that gripped much of the United States over Christmas rose to at least 61 on Thursday, officials said.

Temperatures were expected to moderate across the eastern and midwest United States on Tuesday, after days of freezing weather from "the blizzard of the century" left at least 49 dead and caused Christmas travel chaos.

Drone footage shows a neighborhood in New York state's Buffalo city blanketed in thick snow amidst an intense blizzard on Monday.

Tens of thousands of British nurses has gone on strike in their unprecedented second round of industrial action in less than a week.