Suriname’s ex-president Desi Bouterse, who was on the run after being convicted for political murders, has died, several Surinamese sources say. He was 79.

A Dutch court handed down sentences Tuesday of up to six months imprisonment to the first men to be tried over what had been described as “the first pogrom in the Netherlands since World War Two.”

Investigators rushed to the scene of a blast that ripped through an explosives factory in northwest Turkey, killing 11 people and injuring seven.

China’s government protested U.S. military aid to Taiwan, warning that the U.S. is “playing with fire” and cautioning that such actions “will get the U.S. burned.”

The US Defense Department confirmed Thursday that there are actually around 2,000 American troops currently deployed in Syria, rather than the previously stated figure of around 900, MediaLine reports. The updated information follows the ouster of Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad by the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) Islamic insurgent group on December 1.

U.S. sanctions on Syria remain intact following a Friday meeting between the U.S. State Department and de facto Syrian leader Ahmed al-Sharaa (Abu Mohammed al-Golani). However, the bounty on al-Sharaa has been lifted, signaling a notable shift in U.S.-Syria relations.

The U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) announced on Friday that its forces carried out a precision airstrike on Thursday in Syria’s Dayr az Zawr Province, targeting ISIS leader Abu Yusif. The strike successfully eliminated him along with another ISIS operative. This action comes as the U.S. intensifies efforts to prevent the terrorist group’s attempts to liberate 8,000 ISIS operatives currently detained in Syrian jails.

Authorities say at least five people have been killed, including a child, and more than 200 injured after a car drove into a crowd at a Christmas market in the eastern German city of Magdeburg. The German chancellor has expressed his shock about the apparent attack.

The second oldest church in Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, was among sites hit by Russian ballistic missiles and other weapons, killing at least two personals and injuring over 20 people, a day after Russian President Vladimir Putin said his forces were winning on the bloodstained frontlines.

U.S. officials expressed to Politico their concern over a potential nightmare scenario involving an ISIS jailbreak, which could instantly create a “ticking time bomb” by forming a terrorist army in Syria.

Russia is moving advanced air defense systems and weapons from Syria to Libya following the ouster of long-time Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad, a close ally, Libyan officials said Thursday.

The United Nations’ top atomic regulator has warned that reviving a nuclear deal with Iran is “no longer useful” as the Islamic Republic is on the verge of having nuclear weapons.

The United States military says it has killed 12 fighters of the Islamic State group, also known as ISIS, in Syria amid concerns it will carve out a caliphate in central areas of the country.

Europe’s largest economy plunged into political turmoil Tuesday after German Chancellor Olaf Scholz lost a vote of confidence, while in neighboring France, new Premier François Bayrou struggled to raise support for France’s budget without being overthrown.

At least 14 people were dead and hundreds injured Wednesday after an earthquake of magnitude 7.3, described as the region’s worst in decades, rocked the island nation of Vanuatu, officials said.

Senior U.S. officials told the Wall Street Journal that Turkey and its allied militias are amassing military forces along the Syrian border, preparing for a possible large-scale operation against American-backed Syrian Kurdish forces in Northern Syria.

A general accused by Kyiv of ordering the use of chemical weapons against Ukrainian troops has been assassinated in Moscow using a bomb hidden in an electric scooter, Russian officials said Tuesday.

The UK government announced on December 11 that an existing emergency measure banning puberty blockers for minors under the age of 18 will now be kept in place “indefinitely” in light of an “unacceptable safety risk.”

Investigators revealed Tuesday that hundreds of thousands of Syrians who were “tortured to death by Bashar al-Assad’s regime” are believed to be burried in mass graves, including near Syria’s capital, Damascus.

A quarter of a billion dollars was reportedly airlifted from Syria to Russia by Bashar al-Assad long before the autocratic Syrian leader was ousted by Islamic rebels this month.