Sir Keir Starmer has condemned Russia's Christmas Day bombardment of Ukraine, saying the hail of missiles and drones was "bloody and brutal".

Children are among 32 people rescued alive from the wreckage of a passenger plane that crashed in Kazakhstan on Christmas Day - but dozens are feared to have died in the catastrophe.

Dogs were the best of us in 2024.

The former boss of Abercrombie & Fitch may have dementia and a competency hearing is needed to assess whether he can face sex charges, defence lawyers have said.

Olympic snowboarder Sophie Hediger has died following an avalanche in Switzerland, the country's skiing federation has said.

Denmark has announced plans to boost its defence spending for Greenland with a "stronger presence in the Arctic" - a few hours after Donald Trump repeated his call for the US to buy the vast island.

The sense of hollowness of the Church of the Nativity is deeper than absent tourists.

Syria's de facto leader has reached an agreement with the heads of rebel factions to dissolve their groups and work under the country's defence ministry, his new administration says.

Shipping containers have fallen into the sea after a cargo vessel tilted sideways off the Turkish coast.

The conviction of dozens of civilian supporters of Imran Khan, the former Pakistani leader, in the country's military courts is of "deep concern" to the UK and the US, officials have said.

A huge snowstorm has left tens of thousands of homes in Bosnia without power on Christmas Eve and caused traffic chaos.

Hong Kong has imposed arrest warrants and HK$1m bounties on six pro-democracy campaigners, including a 19-year-old living in the UK after fleeing the city.

UN investigators say Syria's new authorities are "very receptive" to their request to probe possible war crimes that may have occurred during the Bashar al Assad regime.

Hundreds of people have protested in Christian areas of the Syrian capital of Damascus after a video emerged showing hooded fighters setting a Christmas tree on fire elsewhere in the country.

A Russian cargo ship that Ukraine claims was sent to Syria to collect weapons has sunk in the Mediterranean Sea, according to officials in Moscow.

A blast at an explosives factory in Turkey has killed at least 12 people, a government minister said.

A man has been charged over the death of a woman who was set on fire on a New York subway train.

The preserved remains of a juvenile mammoth have been discovered in thawing permafrost after more than 50,000 years.

In early December 1955, the phone rang at an air base in Colorado Springs. The officers on the watch floor of the Continental Air Defense Command (CONAD) - who were defending the skies above the US and Canada - stiffened.

In a year of very serious political shifts, there were still a load of very unserious WTF moments to gawk at.