President Vladimir Putin declined to say when Russian forces would retake the southern Kursk region from Ukraine, insisting that they were making advances “along the entire frontline,” as he began his year-end news conference. The Moscow event on Thursday consists of a public Q&A session combined with a public phone-in,…

Police in Spain have arrested two people in connection with a missing persons case after a Google Maps vehicle took a picture of someone apparently loading a large object into the trunk of a car. A man and a woman have been detained in connection with the disappearance and death…

The pilgrims crawled forward, some barely inching along the rough ground with hands, knees and elbows rubbed raw. The procession of St. Lazarus is one of the largest yearly religious processions in officially secular Cuba and also one of the most colorful. To show their devotion, thousands of Cubans walk…

Former Syrian regime security forces have been handing in their weapons to the rebel-linked transitional government in the southern Syrian city of Latakia, according to video filmed by Agence France-Presse. The footage, filmed earlier this week, shows long lines of men dressed in plain clothes as they wait to hand…

A horrifying, monthslong mass rape and drugging trial concluded in France Thursday, with Dominique Pelicot and 50 other men all found guilty of the rape or sexual assault of his former wife Gisèle Pelicot. Dominique Pelicot, 72, who solicited dozens of strangers to rape Gisèle while she was unconscious, received…

Swedish police said on Thursday they had boarded the Yi Peng 3 vessel, which is at the center of an investigation into Baltic Sea cable breaches, at the invitation of the Chinese authorities. The Chinese bulk carrier is wanted in Sweden for questioning over a breach of two undersea fiber-optic…

At least 35 children were killed and six others critically injured in a crowd crush at a funfair in southwest Nigeria on Wednesday, police said. Eight people have been arrested for their alleged involvement in the incident at the Islamic school in the city of Ibadan, an Oyo state police…

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had a tart response to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s annual year-end news conference Thursday, hurling a rude epithet at the Kremlin leader in comments online. During the press conference, Putin boasted about the capability of the Oreshnik, a new nuclear-capable ballistic missile that Russia recently fired…

Ahmad Morjan was desperate to hug his mother for the first time in more than 13 years but, when he reached the door of his childhood home, he found her head to the ground, kneeling in prayer. Morjan immediately dropped to his knees too and cried “Oh God!” in gratitude…