Some Washington state residents are getting in the holiday spirit by decorating a Douglas fir that toppled onto an unused utility line in a recent windstorm and looks like an upside-down Christmas tree.

The 12-foot top of the tree that snapped off now dangles on the line on Indian Island, about 40 miles northwest of Seattle across Puget Sound.

Nearly 30,000 Syrian children born as refugees in Lebanon are in a legal limbo, not registered with any government, exposing them to the risk of a life of statelessness deprived of basic rights.

It is a problem that is replicated, to varying degrees, in nations across the Middle East where more than 3.3 million Syrians have found safe haven from the intractable civil war in their homeland.

The unprecedented hack of Sony Pictures which a U.S. official says is linked to North Korea may be the most damaging cyber-attack ever inflicted on an American business.

The fallout from the hack that exposed a trove of sensitive documents, and this week escalated to threats of terrorism, forced Sony to cancel release of the North Korean spoof movie "The Interview." The studio's reputation is in tatters as embarrassing revelations spill from tens of thousands of leaked emails and other company materials.

Johns Hopkins University mistakenly sent nearly 300 applicants welcome messages when they were actually rejected or deferred, and now the school has issued an apology.

University officials told The Washington Post (http://wapo.st/1vYGr7q) it was a mistake of human error. Vice Provost David Phillips said a contractor who works with Johns Hopkins on electronic communications pulled a wrong list of emails.

Beijing is ramping up its bid for the 2022 Winter Olympics by holding a series of international athletic competitions and promotional events.

Games organizers said Thursday the upcoming season-opening Freestyle Skiing World Cup in Beijing's Bird's Nest stadium will be the first of six international competitions in the capital city and Shanghai. Skating events make up most of the remainder.

It's a cold, hard fact of football: Countries with tiny populations don't generally beat big ones with deep wells of talented players.

So how embarrassing might the score be when Qatar — smallest host in World Cup history, with just 282,750 citizens — plays the opening game of its 2022 tournament against, for example, titans Brazil or Germany?

Memphis prevailed in a triple-overtime classic at San Antonio on Wednesday, blowing a 23-point lead before recovering to eke out a 117-116 victory over the NBA champions, a day after ending Golden State's 16-game winning streak.

The Grizzlies moved within half a game of the Warriors for the overall league lead and moved 4-1/2 games ahead of the Spurs, a Southwest Division rival.

If one ripple from the thaw in U.S.-Cuba relations means baseball prospects get off the island and into the major leagues without payoffs to smugglers and threats from kidnappers, it's hard to see the downside.

Just don't expect too much, too soon. Barely two hours after President Barack Obama's dramatic announcement Wednesday in Washington, both MLB and its players' union acknowledged as much in statements.

Elton John and his partner David Furnish plan to tie the knot for a second time, following the legalization of same-sex marriage in Britain.

The singer's spokesman, Gary Farrow, said Wednesday that the weekend ceremony will be private.

Princess Charlene of Monaco has revealed that the royal twins born last week were delivered by cesarean section — two weeks before they were due, and she hopes to be out of the hospital by Christmas.

The South Africa-born new mother of two has given her first interviews to French media since the Dec. 10 births — 15 days early — that captivated the tiny principality.