The U.S. has eased some restrictions on Syria's transitional government to allow the entry of humanitarian aid after Islamist insurgents ousted Syrian leader Bashar Assad last month.

The U.S. Treasury issued a general license, lasting six months, that authorizes certain transactions with the Syrian government, including some energy sales and incidental transactions.

Visiting U.S. envoy Amos Hochstein said Israeli forces began withdrawing on Monday from a south Lebanon border town more than halfway into a fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah.

A strong earthquake killed at least 95 people in Tibet on Tuesday and left many others trapped as dozens of aftershocks shook the high-altitude region of western China and across the border in Nepal.

Officials in the region said at a brief news conference that 130 others were injured, state broadcaster CCTV said.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced his resignation after facing an increasing loss of support both within his party and in the country.

Now Trudeau's Liberal Party must find a new leader while dealing with U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's threats to impose steep tariffs on Canadian goods and with Canada's election just months away.

A main road in the provincial capital of Quneitra in southern Syria was blocked with mounds of dirt, fallen palm trees and a metal pole that appeared to have once been a traffic light. On the other side of the barriers, an Israeli tank could be seen maneuvering in the middle of the street.

Israeli forces entered the area — which lies in a U.N.-patrolled buffer zone in the Golan Heights that was established by a 1974 ceasefire agreement between Syria and Israel — soon after the fall of President Bashar Assad last month in the country's 13-year civil war.

Gunmen opened fire on a bus carrying Israelis in the occupied West Bank on Monday, killing at least three people and wounding seven others. Violence has surged in the territory since Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023 attack out of Gaza ignited the ongoing war there.

The attack occurred in the Palestinian village of Al-Funduq, on one of the main east-west roads crossing the territory. Israel's Magen David Adom rescue service said two women in their 60s and a man in his 40s were killed, and the military said it was looking for the attackers.

France's former President Nicolas Sarkozy goes on trial Monday over alleged illegal financing of his 2007 presidential campaign by the government of late Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi.

The so-called "Libyan case," the biggest and possibly most shocking of several scandals involving Sarkozy, is scheduled to run until April 10, with a verdict expected at a later date.

Syria's new foreign minister has met with his Qatari counterpart and Qatar's prime minister in Doha, as Syria's new de facto authorities under Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS, establish diplomatic ties with regional and global governments.

Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shibani posted Sunday on X that he's also set to visit Jordan and the United Arabs Emirates to develop strategic partnerships, and support Syria's security and economic recovery.

A fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah has held up for over a month, even as its terms seem unlikely to be met by the agreed-upon deadline.

The deal struck on Nov. 27 to halt the war required Hezbollah to immediately lay down its arms in southern Lebanon and gave Israel 60 days to withdraw its forces there and hand over control to the Lebanese Army and U.N. peacekeepers.

Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, is starting the new year with her first Instagram account since 2020.

The Associated Press confirmed Wednesday that @meghan belongs to the Duchess of Sussex. Her first post is a black and white video of herself at the beach, wearing white and drawing 2025 in the sand on an overcast day. The account already has more than 200,000 followers.