Saudi Arabia in 2017 laid the groundwork for momentous change next year, defying its conservative reputation for slow, cautious reforms by announcing plans to let women drive, allow movie theaters to return and to issue tourist visas. The kingdom could even get a new king.

King Salman and his ambitious 32-year-old son and heir, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, have upended decades of royal family protocol, social norms and traditional ways of doing business. They bet instead on a young generation of Saudis hungry for change and a Saudi public fed up with corruption and government bureaucracy.

Cable channel FX said on Wednesday it had green-lit "Glee" creator Ryan Murphy's "Pose," a dance-musical series featuring the largest transgender regular cast in U.S. television history.

Amid the gray ruins of Syria's devastated city of Raqa, three boys stopped and stared as two Father Christmases walked by with black sacks slung over their backs.

Iranian police are taking a softer approach to breaches of Islamic rules, opting for education over punishment, Tehran's police chief said on Wednesday. 

New archeological research has shed fresh light on China's first emperor -- creator of the world-famous terracotta army -- and his quest for eternal life, state media reported.

It's the question every good little girl and boy asks on Christmas Eve: When is Santa coming? 

Working at "Hazara", a restaurant in the Pakistani city of Quetta, is a potentially deadly political act: all of the greasy spoon's employees are female members of a Shiite ethnic minority often targeted by extremists. 

US Vice President Mike Pence may have postponed his visit, but Palestinian Christians still say Washington's recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital is spoiling their Christmas.

Turkish police confiscated thousands of historical artifacts in a giant operation against smugglers in Istanbul, the private Dogan news agency reported on Thursday.

Police detained 13 suspects and seized 26,456 artifacts, Dogan said.

The metallic green Christmas tree towers over the bombed-out heart of Syria's third city Homs, where residents are relishing a holiday cheer they haven't felt in years.