At least five militants have been killed and three soldiers wounded in Yemen in fighting near a damaged oil pipeline east of the capital, Sana’a.
President Jacob Zuma has issued a statement saying he has spent Christmas morning with former president Nelson Mandela, who is currently in hospital.
Pope Benedict XVI has prepared to deliver his traditional Christmas Day blessing to thousands of faithful in St. Peter’s Square.
Volunteers at a US Air Force base monitoring Father Christmas’s progress around the world have answered a record number of Christmas calls.
A plane from Burma carrying 65 passengers, including foreign tourists, has crash-landed in the country’s eastern Shan state.
Mohammed Morsi has ordered Parliament’s upper chamber to convene after the release of results of a referendum that gives it temporary powers.
Thousands of people streamed into Bethlemhem to mark the birth of Christ, and the Latin Patriarch has expressed the need for peace in the Middle East.
Former President Nelson Mandela will spend Christmas Day in hospital, the presidency has announced.
Spanish cyclist Roberto Heras has reclaimed his crown for the 2005 Tour of Spain after the Supreme Court overturned a positive doping test.
An airlift from Khartoum of sick, elderly and other "extremely vulnerable" South Sudanese has re-started on Christmas Eve.