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© Luke MacGregor / Reuters A man enters BBC New Broadcasting House in London November 11, 2012. The company’s website was hacked on Christmas. A hacker secretly took over a computer server at the BBC, Britain’s public broadcaster, and then launched a Christmas Day campaign to convince other cyber criminals to pay him for access to the system. While it ...

Evan Vucci/AP President Obama ‘s administration initially cited local outrage over the film ‘Innocence of Muslims,’ which mocks the Prophet Muhammad, as the motivation for the attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, that killed four Americans, including Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens. The latest New York Times report supports that version of events. The deadly attack on the U.S. ...

altocumulus/Getty Images/iStockphoto A young Frenchman was so drunk it took him over a mile to realize he had taken a wrong turn and was driving on train tracks by mistake. A drunk French driver phoned police to tell them he was lost, after driving along train tracks for over a mile. The 30-year-old had been out partying in the Dordogne, ...

Abdel Magid al-Fergany/AP The U.S. Embassy in Tripoli, Libya. WASHINGTON — The State Department says the Libyan government is holding four U.S. military personnel. State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said officials are trying to determine what occurred. Psaki said Friday night that the United States is in touch with Libyan officials to ensure the Americans’ release. The four were “augmenting ...

Tumblr The since-pulled posters for ‘12 Years a Slave’ focused on the drama’s Caucasian stars, Brad Pitt (pictured) and Michael Fassbender. One of the stars of the critically acclaimed “12 Years a Slave” has dropped out of a film premiere in Italy after an ill-conceived marketing strategy came across as a throwback to a less enlightened era. Actress Lupita Nyongo’o, ...

BULENT KILIC/AFP/Getty Images A man helps build a barricade as demonstrators clash with riot police (unseen) during a protest against corruption in the Kadikoy district of Istanbul on Wednesday. Turkey’s prime minister says he believes he is the ultimate target of a corruption and bribery probe of his allies that has shaken the government. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said ...

Silvina Salinas/AP A man is treated after he was bit by a palometa, a type of piranha, while wading on Christmas in the Parana River in Rosario, Argentina. A swarm of biting fish injured more than 70 people who were bathing at a popular beach in Argentina on Christmas, a medical official said on Thursday. A 7-year-old girl had her ...

Shizuo Kambayashi/AP Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe (right), followed by a security officer, visits Yasukuni Shrine to pay respect for the war dead in Tokyo. TOKYO — Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe visited Yasukuni war shrine Thursday in a move sure to infuriate China and South Korea. Visits to Yasukuni by Japanese politicians have long been a point of friction ...

Karim Kadim/AP Iraqi officials say a car bomb went off near a Baghdad church during Christmas Mass, killing at least 15 people in the city’s southern Dora neighborhood, which has a small Christian population. BAGHDAD — Iraqi officials say a car bomb went off near a Baghdad church during Christmas Mass, killing at least 15 people. A police officer says ...

ETTORE FERRARI/EPA Pope Francis carried the statue of baby Jesus himself during Christmas Eve Mass, a task usually taken by his aides. Riding a worldwide wave of goodwill and popularity to his first Christmas Eve Mass as head of the Roman Catholic Church, Pope Francis encouraged the faithful to emulate Jesus to avoid the darkness of the world. The bells ...