Twenty of Yellowstone National Park's renowned gray wolves roamed from the park and were shot by hunters in recent months — the most killed by hunting in a single season since the predators were reintroduced to the region more than 25 years ago, according to park officials.

Fifteen wolves were shot after roaming across the park's northern border into Montana, according to figures released to The Associated Press. Five more died in Idaho and Wyoming.

One of the Israel Museum's biggest patrons, American billionaire Michael Steinhardt, approached the flagship Israeli art institution in 2007 with an artifact he had recently bought: a 2,200-year-old Greek text carved into limestone.

But shortly after it went on display, an expert noticed something odd — two chunks of text found a year earlier during a dig near Jerusalem fit the limestone slab like a jigsaw puzzle. It soon became clear that Steinhardt's tablet came from the same cave where the other fragments were excavated.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas declared Friday a day of mourning after truck and a van collided on a narrow two-lane highway in the occupied West Bank on Thursday, killing eight Palestinians and injuring another two.

Thousands of Palestinian laborers work in Jewish settlements along Highway 90, which runs through the Jordan Valley.

A New York man has been arrested on charges that he worked as a secret and unregistered agent of the Egyptian government, including by sharing information with American law enforcement officials about political opponents of President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi, the Justice Department said.

Pierre Girgis, a 39-year-old dual citizen of Egypt and the United States, is charged with acting as an agent of a foreign government without notifying the Justice Department, and with conspiring to do so.

A senior Army three-star general with extensive experience in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars has been nominated to become the top U.S. commander for the Middle East.

President Joe Biden has nominated Army Lt. Gen. Erik Kurilla to head U.S. Central Command and be promoted to four-star general, according to multiple U.S. officials.

Poland's most powerful politician has acknowledged that the country bought advanced spyware from the Israeli surveillance software maker NSO Group, but denied that it was being used to target his political opponents.

Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the leader of Poland's ruling conservative party, Law and Justice, said in an interview that the software, Pegasus, is now being used by secret services in many countries to combat crime and corruption. He noted that Pegasus represents a technological advancement over earlier monitoring systems, which did not allow the services to monitor encrypted messages.

Orthodox Christians in Russia, Serbia and other countries began Christmas observances Thursday amid restrictions aimed at dampening the spread of the coronavirus, but few worshipers appeared concerned as they streamed into churches.

The majority of Orthodox believers celebrate Christmas on Jan. 7, with midnight services especially popular. The churches in Romania, Bulgaria, Cyprus and Greece mark it on Dec. 25 along with other Christian denominations.

North Korea claimed Thursday to have conducted the second successful test flight of a hypersonic missile, days after leader Kim Jong Un vowed to bolster his military forces despite pandemic-related difficulties.

Wednesday's launch, the North's first known weapons test in about two months, indicates the country will press ahead with plans to modernize its nuclear and missile arsenals rather than return to disarmament talks anytime soon.

An Israeli court on Wednesday sentenced a man to one year in prison for his involvement in a mob attack on an Arab motorist during a spasm of communal violence last year.

Lahav Nagauker, who was 20 at the time, was convicted of incitement to violence and racism as part of a plea deal that resulted in lighter charges.

Israel's defense minister met with the Jordanian king on Wednesday, both sides said, part of a reset of ties between the two countries.

According to Benny Gantz' office, the two discussed "security and policy topics." Gantz "welcomed the expansion of relations between Jordan and the current Israeli government."