WORLD

NASA's pioneering Parker Solar Probe is poised to make its closest-ever approach of the Sun on Christmas Eve, a record-setting 3.8 million miles (6.2 million kilometers) from the surface.

Two Syrian doctors and a nurse told AFP in a series of interviews over the weekend that Bashar al-Assad's government coerced them into providing false testimony to international investigators after a deadly 2018 chlorine attack.

Two former Israeli spies explained how they used the exploding pager attack against Hezbollah strategically making the terrorist group help fund Mossad and kill their own members.

Bangladesh has launched a probe into the alleged $5 billion embezzlement connected to a Russian-backed nuclear power plant by ousted leader Sheikh Hasina and her family, the anti-corruption commission said.

The United States said Monday it is opening an investigation into China's policies for its semiconductor industry, over concerns that Beijing is turning to "extensive anticompetitive and non-market means" to undermine other economies.

New York City police arrested a man suspected of setting fire to a woman on the subway in Brooklyn who died from the incident, authorities said, calling it "one of the most depraved crimes" a person could commit.

Beijing on Monday promised to continue "cooperation" with regional authorities over a Chinese ship linked to the recent severing of two undersea cables in the Baltic Sea.

Two US Navy pilots were shot down over the Red Sea early Sunday in "an apparent case of friendly fire," the US military said.

Exhausted by more than 14 months of war, the wives and mothers of Israeli soldiers are uniting in protest against exemptions from conscription for ultra-Orthodox men.

Asian markets rose Monday after big gains on Wall Street, with traders welcoming below-forecast US inflation data that tempered worries that the Federal Reserve will take a more hawkish tone with interest rates next year.

President-elect Donald Trump on Sunday pledged to "stop the transgender lunacy" on day one of his presidency, as Republicans -- set to control both chambers of Congress and the White House -- continue their push against LGBTQ rights.

Just 12 trucks distributed food and water in northern Gaza in two-and-a-half months, aid group Oxfam said on Sunday, raising the alarm over the worsening humanitarian situation in the besieged territory.

Russian President Vladimir Putin held surprise talks at the Kremlin on Sunday with Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, officials said, after he had warned of harsh reprisals against Ukraine over a drone attack.

Pope Francis doubled down Sunday on his condemnation of Israel's strikes on the Gaza Strip, denouncing their "cruelty" for the second time in as many days despite Israel accusing him of "double standards".

Authorities on Sunday raised to 41 the death toll in a weekend bus crash in southeastern Brazil that President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva called a "terrible tragedy."

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday vowed to bring more "destruction" to Ukraine in retaliation for a drone attack on the central Russian city of Kazan a day earlier.

President Emmanuel Macron returned to Paris on Sunday after a visit to cyclone-devastated Mayotte and East Africa, as a France racked by political deadlock awaited the appointment of a new government.

Gaza's civil defence agency said Israeli strikes overnight and early Sunday killed at least 28 Palestinians, including at one family's home and at a school building the military said was used by Hamas.

Thousands of selfie-taking Ho Chi Minh City residents crammed into train carriages Sunday as the traffic-clogged business hub celebrated the opening of its first-ever metro line after years of delays.

The German government faced growing questions Sunday about whether more could have been done to prevent the Christmas market car-ramming attack that killed five people and injured over 200.

There are no photos or videos of LocalThunk, an anonymous computer programmer who lives in the vast and desolate prairies of Canada's Saskatchewan province, far from Silicon Valley.

A magnitude-6.1 earthquake rattled buildings on Vanuatu's main island early Sunday but did not appear to have caused major damage, five days after a more powerful quake wreaked havoc and killed 12 people.

Oleksandr Usyk won his heavyweight championship rematch against Tyson Fury by unanimous decision on Saturday to stay unbeaten across two divisions and cement his place among the greats.

Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama said Saturday the government would shut down social network TikTok for at least a year from 2025.

Teachers and parents on Saturday condemned the lack of security at schools in Croatia, a day after a stabbing spree in the Croatian capital Zagreb in which a seven-year-old was killed and four others wounded.

At least 38 people were killed in a bus crash in southeastern Brazil on Saturday, officials said, in what President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva called a "terrible tragedy."

Animal rights activist Paul Watson, freed this week from detention in Denmark, vowed on Saturday to end whale hunting worldwide and to stop Japan if it tried to resume whaling in the Southern Ocean.

A Chinese ship linked to the recent severing of two undersea cables and anchored off Denmark's coast since November 19, departed Saturday, Sweden's coast guard said.

The German city of Magdeburg was in mourning Saturday over a car-ramming attack that brought death and carnage to its Christmas market, but the sorrow gave way to anger when the politicians showed up.