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Russian rescuers found on Monday the first parts of the Syria-bound military plane that plunged into the Black Sea, as officials dismissed terrorism as a possible cause of the crash that killed all 92 people on board.
Police in Chicago said on Monday they were investigating 27 shootings -- 12 of them deadly -- that occurred on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, a remarkable spasm of violence there in what already has been a historically bloody year.
"Save us before we die from the cold," read the email in Father Zoltan Nemeth's inbox. It was an appeal that this Hungarian priest could not ignore.
The SOS was sent by an asylum-seeker, one of 14 relocated from a refugee camp earmarked for closure near Budapest to what they say are freezing military tents in Kormend close to the Austrian border.
Thousands of Indonesians prayed for their loved ones at mass graves and mosques Monday to mark a tsunami which devastated Aceh province 12 years ago today, one of the worst natural disasters in human history.
An armed gang slaughtered seven people - including three police officers - at a family Christmas celebration in Mexico's violent southern state of Guerrero on Sunday (Dec 25), police told AFP.
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South Korean lawmakers today sought to question the woman at the heart of a corruption scandal that triggered the impeachment of President Park Geun-Hye, as special prosecutors raided the home of a former top presidential aide.
A Russian military plane crashed today in the Black Sea as it made its way to Syria with 92 people onboard, including more than 60 Red Army Choir members heading to celebrate the New Year with troops.
A man who said he was armed with a grenade Friday hijacked a Libyan plane which landed on the Mediterranean island of Malta with 118 people on board, Malta's prime minister and government sources said.
The UN Security Council will vote on Friday on whether to impose an arms embargo and sanctions on South Sudan, but the measure is expected to fail amid divisions over how to pressure leaders to end the three-year war.
The army said on Thursday it had retaken full control of Syria's devastated second city Aleppo, scoring its biggest victory against opposition forces since the civil war erupted in 2011.
A "significant" Islamic State-inspired Christmas Day terror plot targeting central Melbourne with explosives has been foiled after a series of arrests in raids across the city, police said on Friday.
The Italian government approved a bailout plan to rescue the country's struggling banks on Friday, with Monte dei Paschi di Siena (BMPS) likely the first in line to receive state aid.
A prototype vaccine for Ebola may be "up to 100 percent effective" in protecting against the deadly virus, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Friday.
America must massively boost its nuclear capability until the "world comes to its senses," President-elect Donald Trump said on Thursday, hours after a similar vow by Russia's Vladimir Putin.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's cabinet on Thursday approved Japan's biggest annual defence budget in the face of North Korea's nuclear and missile threats and a territorial row with China.
The UN Security Council will vote on Thursday on an Egyptian-drafted resolution demanding that Israel immediately halt its settlement activities in the Palestinian territories and east Jerusalem.
Mexico was working to identify charred bodies left by an explosion that killed at least 32 people at its biggest fireworks market, as authorities investigated what caused the multi-colored salvo of destruction.
German authorities triggered a Europe-wide manhunt Wednesday for a rejected asylum seeker suspected of involvement in a deadly truck assault on a Berlin Christmas market claimed by the Islamic State jihadist group.
