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Here are the highlights of the top breaking-news stories from around the world on Saturday:

“Star Wars: The Force Awakens” is on track to reach $1 billion in box-office receipts tomorrow, which would make it the fastest movie ever to get to that mark.

Three Chinese ships were said to have gone into Japan’s waters, in the latest turn-of-the-screw on the disputes over China’s territorial claims. One of the three was an armed government vessel, which would be a first. Japan made an official protest.

FedEx Corp. said it’s just about caught up on its backlog of late Christmas deliveries, which was attributed to severe weather around its Memphis hub earlier in the week.

Islamic State’s caliph, in what was purported to be his first message in seven months, basically dared the U.S. to send in ground troops to fight the militant group in Iraq and Syria and mocked the new Saudi-led terror anti-coalition.

Southwest Airlines’ Teresa Laraba, who rose from a part-time customer service employee to become one of the top women in the U.S airline industry, died unexpectedly on Christmas Day at 53.

Former Democratic U.S. presidential candidate Jim Webb blasted front-runner Hillary Clinton on social media, in what appears to be a run-up to getting back into the race as an independent who could siphon off some votes from both parties.