Saudi Arabia has accepted accreditation of Fawzi Kabbara as the new Lebanese Ambassador to Saudi Arabia, said pan-Arab al-Hayat daily Wednesday, after months of delay over what was perceived as a diplomatic tussle between the two countries.

The daily quoted unnamed sources at the Lebanese Foreign Ministry who said they “received a letter from the Saudi Foreign Ministry accrediting ambassador Fawzi Kabbara as Lebanon's ambassador to Riyadh.”

The Kremlin on Tuesday rejected concerns that its decision to ban opposition leader Alexei Navalny from running against President Vladimir Putin in a March election could undermine the vote's legitimacy.

The good news for many in the Northeast and Midwest was that it has been a white Christmas. The bad news was that a blizzard swept into parts of New England and bitter cold enveloped much of the Midwest.

Even the usually rainy Pacific Northwest got the white stuff. The National Weather Service says it's only the sixth time since 1884 that downtown Portland had measurable snow — only an inch or two — on a Dec. 25.

Actress Heather Menzies-Urich, who played one of the singing von Trapp children in the hit 1965 film, "The Sound of Music," has died. She was 68.

Her son, actor Ryan Urich, told Variety that his mother died late Sunday in Frankford, Ontario. She recently had been diagnosed with brain cancer.

East Coast fishermen are turning a wary eye toward an emerging upstart: the offshore wind industry.

In New Bedford, Massachusetts, the onetime whaling capital made famous in Herman Melville's "Moby-Dick," fishermen dread the possibility of navigating a forest of turbines as they make their way to the fishing grounds that have made it the nation's most lucrative fishing port for 17 years running.

Cheap, electric bicycles have made life a lot easier for New York City's legions of restaurant delivery workers, but the party may be over in the New Year.

City officials are promising a crackdown on e-bikes, which may be loved by environmentalists and the largely poor, immigrant workforce that relies on them, but are loathed by many drivers and pedestrians who think they are a menace.

Lamenting "the winds of war" blowing around the world, Pope Francis in his traditional Christmas message on Monday called for a two-state solution to find peace in the Middle East and prayed that confrontation can be overcome on the Korean Peninsula.

The pope took particular aim at areas of global tension where President Donald Trump is playing a critical role. Trump's decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital has ignited fresh violence in the Middle East, while confrontation with North Korea over its nuclear tests has escalated tensions in Asia.

The war in Syria seems to be winding down nearly seven years into the conflict, largely because of Russian-backed government victories and local cease-fires aimed at freezing the lines of conflict.

Underscoring this perception is the fact that President Bashar Assad — however battered and bruised — has survived the war, sitting more comfortably now than at any time since the rebellion against his rule erupted in March 2011.

For six hours he hid in an upstairs room, listening to the crackle of gunfire and the screams of people being slaughtered outside his Myanmar home.

With every footstep that drew near, every cry that pierced the air, 52-year-old Bodru Duza braced for the soldiers to find him, to kill him like all the others who had fled to his compound that morning seeking a safe place to shelter. They were being blindfolded and bound, marched away in small groups, then butchered and shot as they begged for their lives.

Interior Minister Nouhad al-Mashnouq warned on Wednesday against using Uber after a driver for the ride-hailing service was arrested in connection with the murder of a British woman who worked at the U.K. Embassy.

Mashnouq said the driver had a criminal record, without elaborating, but said that should have been an alarm for anyone seeking to hire him. Mashnouq urged Lebanese to use "traditional" taxis, saying Uber is a "virtual" entity that has no physical representation.