Pope Francis appeals for peace and humanitarian help to suffering MidEast Christians as he delivers his traditional "Urbi et Orbi" ("To the City and the World") Christmas message and blessing at the Vatican. Justin Mitchell reports
Armenia has agreed to return to Azerbaijan four villages situated on their shared border, Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry spokesperson Aykhan Hajizada said on Friday. Hajizada posted on X that the four villages had been held by Armenia since the early 1990s and their return was a "long-awaited historic event". Armenia's Foreign Ministry said in a statement that the two countries had reached a preliminary agreement on four sections of their disputed border.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy told NATO members on Friday that Ukraine needed a minimum of seven Patriot or other high-end air defence systems to counter Russian air strikes, exhorting them to step up their military assistance for Kyiv. In an emotional speech by video link to the NATO-Ukraine Council, the Ukrainian leader described the current level of foreign aid as "very limited" and said Israel had not been left to fend for itself during Iran's massive air strike on Saturday.
NATO allies on Friday agreed to provide Kyiv with additional air defence systems, NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg said after a special meeting of allied defence ministers with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy. "In addition to Patriots, there are other weapons that allies can provide, including (the French system) SAMP/T, and many others, who do not have available systems, have pledged to provide financial support to purchase them for Ukraine," Stoltenberg told reporters in Brussels.
Democratic Republic of Congo should file a complaint with the International Court of Justice over Rwanda's failure to respect its border, Belgium's ambassador to Congo said on Friday at a meeting to assess the deepening crisis in eastern Congo. Congo has been struggling to push back M23 rebels since they launched a comeback offensive in the already restive east in 2022. The fighting has displaced 738,000 more people in the first three months of this year alone, according to the U.N. aid agency OCHA.
Israel's apparent strike on Iran after days of prevarication was small and appeared calibrated to dial back risks of a major war, even if the sheer fact it happened at all shattered a taboo of direct attacks that Tehran broke days earlier. Netanyahu's war cabinet had initially approved plans for a strike on Monday night inside Iranian territory to respond forcefully to last Saturday's missile and drones from Iran, but held back at the last-minute, three sources with knowledge of the situation said. By then, the sources said, the three voting members of the war cabinet had already ruled out the most drastic response - a strike on strategic sites including Iran's nuclear facilities whose destruction would almost certainly provoke a wider regional conflict.
Six alternates still need to be chosen before opening arguments in the case against the former president can begin.
Mexico’s president is in a rush to finish the big legislative and building projects he promised before his term ends in September, and experts say officials are getting a bit sloppy amid all the haste. This week, legislators from the governing Morena party mistakenly submitted the wrong bill on pension reform for a vote in Congress, before sheepishly admitting the error and rescheduling the vote. “In the legislative process, as in life and all activities, human mistakes are made that aren't premeditated, that aren't ill-intentioned,” said Sen. Ignacio Mier, the point man for President Andrés Manuel López Obrador's party in the Senate.
A former Russian tycoon jailed in Azerbaijan on charges stemming from his time as a top separatist figure in the Karabakh region has gone on a hunger strike, his family said Friday. Ruben Vardanyan started the fast two weeks ago to press demands for a speedy trial, news agencies cited the family as saying. In 2022, he renounced his Russian citizenship and moved to the Karabakh region, parts of which were run by ethnic Armenians who sought to split away from Azerbaijan.
EDITOR’S NOTE — On April 20, 1999, two teenage boys dressed in black trench coats went on a killing rampage at Columbine High School in suburban Denver. LITTLETON, Colo. — Her favorite lunchtime meal was ready — “my only meal,” jokes Sarah DeBoer. Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris had endgame in mind.
Republican senators from Alaska and several other states cricisized the administration's widely anticipated decisions.
Three workers from the Philippines have died in heavy flooding in the United Arab Emirates, Filipino officials announced, as the desert country struggled Friday to recover from record rains.Two women suffocated inside their vehicle during the flooding and one man died when his vehicle fell into a sinkhole, the Philippines' Department of Migrant Workers said.
One of the Fed's more dovish officials said Friday that 'progress on inflation has stalled' and that 'it makes sense to wait' before cutting interest rates.
Three days after a fire which ravaged Copenhagen's historic former stock exchange broke out, emergency services said Friday that the situation was "unstable" due to equipment issues and a strong breeze.It was the stock exchange until the 1970s.
With rare bipartisan momentum, the House pushed ahead Friday on a foreign aid package of $95 billion for Ukraine, Israel, Taiwan and humanitarian support as a coalition of lawmakers helped it clear a procedural hurdle to reach final votes this weekend. Friday’s vote produced a seldom-seen outcome in the typically hyper-partisan House, with Democrats helping Republican Speaker Mike Johnson’s plan advance. It was a victory for the strategy Speaker Mike Johnson set in motion this week after he agonized for two months over the legislation.
Parents in the Cumberland Valley School District are petitioning for the board to overturn its decision to cancel an event featuring ’30 Rock’ actor Maulik Pancholy.
Tesla is recalling almost 4,000 of its flagship Cybertrucks to fix a potentially dangerous fault with their accelerators' pedals.
The Security Council veto has triggered backlash as global divisions continue to sharpen over Israel’s war on Gaza.
An Italian anti-fascist activist held in Hungary for allegedly assaulting far-right militants will be a candidate for a left-wing party at European elections in June, possibly putting an end to her detention. The Italian Green and Left Alliance announced late on Thursday she would be among their candidates at the European ballot, in agreement with her father Roberto, who is campaigning for her release. "We want to defend the rights and the dignity of a European citizen in the face of the inertia of the Italian authorities," said Angelo Bonelli, one of the leaders of the Green and Left grouping, which is running at around 4% in opinion polls.
Chinese carmaker Chery signed a deal Friday to produce mainly electric vehicles in Spain, as Beijing's auto sector pushes ahead with plans to expand into Europe despite growing competition concerns. It is the second Chinese carmaker to set up in Europe after China's top electric carmaker BYD said in December it would build a factory in Hungary.
A Maryland high school student has been charged with planning to carry out a school shooting, after authorities discovered a journal where he'd set out his intentions in detail and said he wanted to be famous.
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