Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday made Israel the first U.N. member state to formally recognize the independent Republic of Somaliland. File Photo by Ronen Zvulun/UPI | License Photo Dec. 26 (UPI) -- Israel on Friday became the first U.N. member state to formally recognize the Rep»»»

A medical evacuation helicopter crashed on Mount Kilimanjaro on Christmas Eve and killed all five on board. File Photo by Daniel Irungu/EPA Dec. 26 (UPI) -- A medical evacuation helicopter crashed on Mount Kilimanjaro on Christmas Eve killing all five people aboard. Tanzanian officials said the Air»»»

Damage pictured Friday after an explosion at the Imam Ali ibn Abi Talib Mosque in the Wadi al-Dahab neighborhood of Homs, western Syria. Ambulances rushed victims during Friday prayers as security forces sealed off the area and began an investigation. Photo Provided by Ahmad Fallaha/EPA Dec. 26 (UP»»»

A Syrian refugee family that resettled in the West Midlands shares how they found kinship in the friendship of strangers. Khaled loved his job working at the department of water management in Syria. His wife, Bushra, spent her days teaching primary school children, while evenings were for maqluba a»»»

Former Prime Minister of Malaysia Najib Razak was sentenced Friday to 15 years in prison for money laundering and abuse of power in the 1MDB scandal. File Photo by Ismael Mohamad/UPI | License Photo Dec. 26 (UPI) -- Former Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak was found guilty Friday of abuse of pow»»»

Throngs of feral cats emerge from the shade of parked trucks and bushes as soon as the familiar Subaru Forester pulls into a dump on Hawaii's Big Island. They run after the vehicle to a certain meal — a gravy train that might not be around much longer. A Hawaii County law set to take effect at the »»»

On Dec. 26, 1935, Shenandoah National Park was established in northern Virginia after years of raising funds to purchase the land 1 of 7 | The northern lights can be seen in the skies above the Shenandoah National Park near Front Royal, Va., on October 10, 2024. The park was established December 26»»»

Tokyo: The Japanese government on Friday approved a record budget for the upcoming fiscal year, to pay for everything from bigger defence spending to ballooning social security costs as inflation persists. The 122.3-trillion-yen ($782 billion) budget for the fiscal year from April 2026 will include»»»

Bulgarian Patriarch and Metropolitan of Sofia Daniil arrived on his first peaceful visit to the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Istanbul on Thursday. On the church delegation are metropolitans Anthony of Western and Central Europe, John of Varna and Veliko Preslav, Naum of Ruse, Cyprian of Stara Zagora,»»»

London: Britain's Princess Catherine and her daughter Charlotte have teamed up to perform a piano duet in a prerecorded clip for a Wednesday replay of a Christmas carol service. Sitting side by side, with Catherine using only her left hand and the 10-year-old Charlotte -- deep in concentration -- u»»»

Four United Nations rights experts on Wednesday condemned the US partial naval blockade of Venezuela, determining it illegal armed aggression and calling on the US Congress to intervene. The United States has deployed a major military force in the Caribbean and has recently intercepted oil tankers »»»

Doha: Qatar Police Sports Federation concluded its inaugural Police Open Padel Championship for Men at the 1969 Platinum Padel Hall, with 48 players from 24 teams participating. The closing ceremony was attended by HE Security Advisor to HE the Minister of Interior Lieutenant General Saad bin Jassi»»»

Scouts marched and crowds gathered under clear skies in Bethlehem on Wednesday as the Palestinian city celebrated its first festive Christmas in more than two years. The return of public celebrations followed a fragile truce in Gaza, after previous Christmases were subdued by the war that started i»»»

As a schoolboy growing up in Allahabad, the winter holidays were pure magic. Around Christmas, North India was usually in the grip of a cold wave — foggy mornings, drizzle that made clothes cling stubbornly, and icy winds that made every fire, every steaming cup of chai, and every warm kitchen feel»»»

The Department of Justice announced it received more than a million files on Wednesday that might pertain to the Jeffrey Epstein case and will be posted after undergoing review and redactions where required. File Photo by Bonnie Cash/UPI | License Photo Dec. 24 (UPI) -- A million more files that mi»»»

Dec. 24 (UPI) -- A visitor from Texas who was afflicted with measles might have exposed many to the airborne virus while in Massachusetts, state health officials announced Wednesday. The individual flew from the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport to Boston Logan International Airport on Americ»»»

Spectators take photo of a Tesla Model 3 at an event in Tokyo. The NHTSA is investigating Model 3s released in 2022 for a possible flaw in the vehicle's emergency door function. File Photo by Keizo Mori/UPI | License Photo Dec. 24 (UPI) -- The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration opened a»»»

The National Weather Service issued flash-flood and high-wind warnings for parts of Southern California on Wednesday and Thursday as a storm system passes through the area before dissipating on Saturday. File Photo by Jim Ruymen/UPI | License Photo Dec. 24 (UPI) -- High winds, torrential rains and »»»

Democratic US Representative Joyce Beatty has filed a lawsuit seeking to remove President Donald Trump's name from the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Last week, the board of the Kennedy Center - which Trump filled with allies - voted to rename the performing arts centre the Trump-K»»»

Bethlehem: Scouts marched under a clear blue sky in Bethlehem on Wednesday, as the Palestinian city emerged from the shadow of the war in Gaza to celebrate its first festive Christmas in more than two years. Throughout the Gaza war that began with Hamas’s attack on Israel in October 2023, a sombre »»»

Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri extended his Christmas greetings, highlighting the Palestinian suffering as well as the resilience in south Lebanon in face of the Israeli aggression. In a statement on the occasion, Speaker Berri Christmas offered “warmest congratulations and best wishes to »»»

The governments and media elites of the West pride themselves on providing and promoting freedom of thought, opinion, and debate. Together with a selective feminism that easily sacrifices the women of, say, Libya, Iraq, and Palestine, and a very odd understanding of “democracy” that includes the us»»»

SP Jain School of Global Management the top ranked Australian Business School has partnered with the International Women Board of Directors (IWBD) to launch the Global Board Readiness Programme, a comprehensive 30-hour executive development initiative designed to prepare mid- to senior-level profes»»»

Dubai: A digital creator behind the viral Emirates Dubai Air Hotel video that fooled millions has spoken out about how news outlets transformed his AI-generated concept into a real project proposal with fabricated price tags and specifications that never existed in his original post. On Sunday, Gul»»»

On Dec. 24, 1923, President Calvin Coolidge lit the first national Christmas tree on the White House lawn. 1 of 4 | On December 24, 1923, President Calvin Coolidge lit the first national Christmas tree on the White House lawn. File Photo courtesy of the Library of Congress Dec. 24 (UPI) -- On this »»»

Washington: President Donald Trump on Monday said he will oversee the development of a new class of Navy battleship - named after himself. The move was cast in part as an effort to give the nation’s stagnant shipbuilding industry a shot in the arm, but also will upend the Navy’s ship-naming norms a»»»

Liberia’s mining industry contributes around 15% to GDP and has rebounded significantly since the country’s devastating civil war ended in 2003. Traditionally focused on iron ore, gold and diamonds, the sector is expanding as discoveries of lithium, rare earths and other critical minerals»»»

On Dec. 23, 1948, former Prime Minister Hideki Tojo and six other Japanese war leaders were hanged in Tokyo under sentence of the Allied War Crimes Commission. 1 of 3 | A protester steps on a Japanese naval flag symbolizing war-time Japan with a picture of former Prime Minister Hideki Tojo outside »»»

Dec. 23 (UPI) -- An explosion Tuesday afternoon at a nursing home in eastern Pennsylvania left an unknown number of people trapped and injured, local officials said. The explosion took place at 2:15 p.m. EST at the Silver Lake Nursing Home in the borough of Bristol. It originated in the nursing hom»»»

Dec. 23 (UPI) -- A Delaware state trooper and a shooting suspect are dead after an incident occurred before 2 p.m. EST at a Division of Motor Vehicles office in New Castle, Del. Neither the deceased officer's name nor the suspect's name were released as law enforcement investigated the matter, USA »»»

Dec. 23 (UPI) -- Former Conservative politician Philip Young has been charged with 56 offenses, including multiple counts of rape against his ex-wife, Joanne Young. Young, 49, a former Swindon borough councillor from 2007 to 2010 and now living in Enfield, appeared before Swindon Magistrates' Court»»»

Tribune News Network Doha Celestyal has held a series of plaque exchange ceremonies to mark Celestyal Discovery’s debut in the Arabian Gulf.The 1360-guest ship, which has joined Celestyal Journey in the region, set sail on December 12, operating the cruise line’s new three-, four- and seven-night ‘»»»

Dec. 23 (UPI) -- A Wisconsin judge on Tuesday revoked the conditional release of Morgan Geyser, 23, after she fled a Wisconsin group home in November and was caught a day later. Waukesha County Circuit Court Judge K. Scott Wagner granted the Wisconsin Department of Health Services' request to revok»»»

A New York State Lottery PowerBall lottery sign displayed Monday as the jackpot $1.6 billion payout hit a new record in New York City. The Powerball jackpot jumped to an estimated $1.6 billion ahead of Monday night's drawing, making it the fifth-largest prize in U.S. lottery history. Photo by John »»»

Dubai: Churches across the UAE are preparing for one of the most significant occasions on the Christian calendar, with special Christmas Eve and Christmas Day services scheduled to accommodate the country's diverse Christian community. The UAE's churches reflect the multicultural tapestry of the na»»»

Every animal with a brain needs sleep - and even a few without a brain do, too. Humans sleep, birds sleep, whales sleep and even jellyfish sleep. Sleep is universal “even though it’s actually very risky,” said Paul-Antoine Libourel, a researcher at the Neuroscience Research Center of Lyon in France»»»

Kerala achieved a historic milestone by successfully performing the first heart transplant at a district-level government hospital in India. The groundbreaking procedure took place at Ernakulam General Hospital in Kochi on Monday. The recipient, Durga, a woman from Nepal, has been moved to the ICU »»»

President of Kyrgyzstan Sadyr Japarov attended an informal meeting of the Heads of State of the Commonwealth of Independent States in St. Petersburg. The press service of the President of the Kyrgyz Republic reported. Russian President Vladimir Putin welcomed Sadyr Japarov, Armenian Prime Minister »»»

Dubai: Football superstar Cristiano Ronaldo and his partner Georgina Rodríguez have purchased two luxury villas at Nujuma, a Ritz-Carlton Reserve within the Red Sea International development, according to media reports. Also Read: A peek into Cristiano Ronaldo’s earnings, luxury lifestyle and spend»»»

Dec. 22 (UPI) -- The former CEO of a healthcare software company in Arizona was sentenced to 15 years in prison and ordered to pay more than $452 million in restitution for conspiring to defraud Medicare for $1 billion, the U.S. Department of Justice said Monday. Gary Cox, 79, of Maricopa County, w»»»

Donald Trump's campaign manager Kellyanne Conway Donald Trump's and her husband George Conway arrive for the Candlelight Dinner at Union Station in honor of the president-elect in Washington, D.C., on January 19, 2017. They divorced in 2023, and Conway filed paperwork to run for the U.S. House seat»»»

U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem testifies during a House Committee on Homeland Security hearing in the Cannon House Office Building near the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on December 11, 2025. DHS increased its stipend to $3,000 for undocumented immigrants to self-deport. Photo »»»

Most companies and bosses would squirm at the idea of being called "woke" and may even regard it as an insult. But not Mark Constantine. Lush's outspoken co-founder and chief executive wears it like a badge of honour and is not ashamed of turning it into a business philosophy. The firm is renowned »»»

The aftermath of a deadly car-bombing in Moscow on Monday targeting Lt. Gen. Fanil Sarvarov, head of operational training for the Russian Armed Forces. He died of injuries sustained in the blast. Photo courtesy Russian Investigative Committee/EPA Dec. 22 (UPI) -- A senior Russian general in charge »»»

Washington: In a parallel reality, Queen Elizabeth II gushes over cheese puffs, a gun-toting Saddam Hussein struts into a wrestling ring, and Pope John Paul II attempts skateboarding. Hyper-realistic AI videos of dead celebrities - created with apps such as OpenAI’s easy-to-use Sora - have rapidly »»»

POLITICS Trud covers the creation in Nessebar of the Treti Mart [March 3, Bulgaria's Liberation Day] Movement, whose founders describe President Rumen Radev as an informal leader, while Radev distances himself in advance from similar formations. Political scientist Pervan Simeonov says on bTV the n»»»

After a long and painful labour, Yemeni unity emerged into the world just over a quarter of a century ago, on 22 May 1990, after a tumultuous period marked by wars, revolutions, crises, moral desiccation, and deep hostility and rancour between the two regimes that ruled the country’s divided halves»»»

Comedian Bowen Yang is leaving the cast of Saturday Night Live, and will no longer be part of the long-running sketch programme after the latest episode airs. In a post on Instagram, Yang declined the share the reason for his departure, which comes in the middle of the season, but said he is "grate»»»

The release of thousands of pages of documents related to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein's abuse has left some who were anxiously awaiting the files disappointed. The documents' release was prompted by an act of Congress that directed the US Justice Department (DOJ) to make materials related»»»

Every animal with a brain needs sleep — and even a few without a brain do, too. Humans sleep, birds sleep, whales sleep and even jellyfish sleep. Sleep is universal “even though it’s actually very risky,” said Paul-Antoine Libourel, a researcher at the Neuroscience Research Center of Lyon in France»»»