When Islamist rebels swept through Syria’s second largest city in an operation that would eventually culminate in the ouster of the brutal Assad regime, Christians were given assurances that their churches and property would remain protected. Three weeks since the rebels’ successful campaign to topple Assad, Syria’s Christians now join those in Lebanon and Palestinian territories to celebrate Christmas amid ...
2024 was the year of the vote. More than 60 countries – home to nearly half the planet’s population – selected their leaders. In the history of democracy, it is a first. In the history of humankind, it was a remarkable coming of age, an evolution, that at its best would not just reveal our collective soul but also propel ...
A Chinese court has issued a suspended death sentence to a man who rammed his car into crowds outside a primary school in southern China last month, injuring more than two dozen people in one of several violent attacks that has recently rattled the country and prompted officials to ramp up security measures. The driver, named as Huang Wen, was ...
A Moscow court has on Tuesday sentenced a US citizen to 15 years in prison on charges related to espionage, according to state-run news agency RIA Novosti. Gene Spector, who was born in Russia but later moved to the United States and received citizenship, had previously been sentenced to four years in prison in Russia for acting as an intermediary ...
At least 12 people were killed in a blast at an explosives and ammunition factory in the Karesi district of Balikesir province in northwest Turkey on Tuesday, the country’s interior ministry said. At least four others were injured in the explosion, which also caused a building to collapse, according to the ministry. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on X ...
South Korea has become a “super-aged” society with one in five people aged 65 or older, official data showed Tuesday, underscoring the country’s deepening demographic crisis. The number of people aged 65 and older stands at 10.24 million, accounting for 20% of South Korea’s population of 51 million, according to new data released by the Ministry of the Interior and ...
Japanese automakers Nissan and Honda on Monday announced they had entered into official talks to merge and create the world’s third-largest automaker by sales. In a news conference on Monday, Honda CEO Toshihiro Mibe said the companies needed greater scale to compete in the development of new technologies in electric vehicles and intelligent driving. A business integration would give the companies an “edge that will not ...
At least 32 people were killed in crowd crushes at two separate charity events in Nigeria on Saturday, police say. Some 22 people were killed at an event held in a community center in Okija in the southeastern state of Anambra, state police said on Sunday. The event was held to distribute bags of rice to women in need, state ...
Its glühwein stalls, festooned with Christmas lights and tinsel, stand emptied and shuttered. The horrific car-ramming attack on this Christmas market on Friday night left at least five people dead, including a 9-year-old boy, plunging this provincial German city into shock. At the entrance to the market, grieving locals have lit candles and laid flowers to pay their respects, many ...
Albania on Saturday announced a one-year ban on TikTok, the popular short video app, following the killing of a teenager last month that raised fears over the influence of social media on children. The ban, part of a broader plan to make schools safer, will come into effect early next year, Prime Minister Edi Rama said after meeting with parents’ ...