Author: AFP

Russian President Vladimir Putin praised the achievements made under his rule in a New Year’s Eve speech on Tuesday marking 25 years since he came to power. “We still have a lot to decide but we can be rightfully proud of what has already been done,” Putin said in the annual address aired on state television.

The German government, under fire for failing to prevent a deadly car-ramming attack on a Christmas market, argued on Monday that the tragedy would have been hard to prevent and said that the suspect appeared to be mentally disturbed. Interior Minister Nancy Faeser along with security and intelligence chiefs faced questioning by a parliamentary committee about the attack that killed five people and wounded more than 200, and on whether there had been missed clues and security lapses. Faeser said no motive had yet been established for the December 20 attack in the eastern city of Magdeburg, where a Saudi…

Russia and Ukraine swapped more than 300 prisoners of war on Monday in an exchange brokered by the United Arab Emirates ahead of New Year’s Eve, officials from both countries said. The two sides have exchanged hundreds of captive soldiers since Russia began its military assault on Ukraine in February 2022, in one of the few areas of cooperation. “On 30 December, as a result of the negotiation process, 150 Russian servicemen were returned from territory controlled by the Kyiv regime. In return, 150 Ukrainian army prisoners of war were handed over,” the Russian defence ministry said. Ukrainian President Volodymyr…

Syria’s leader Ahmed al-Sharaa said Sunday that his country needed ties with Iran, a major ally of deposed leader Bashar al-Assad, but said relations had to be based on mutual “respect” for sovereignty. “Syria cannot continue without relations with an important regional country like Iran, but they must be based on respect for the sovereignty of both countries and non-interference in the affairs of both countries,” Sharaa said in an interview with Saudi-owned Al Arabiya television.

A Jeju Air plane carrying 181 people from Thailand to South Korea crashed on arrival Sunday, smashing into a barrier and bursting into flames, killing everyone aboard except for two flight attendants plucked from the wreckage. A bird strike was cited by authorities as the likely cause of the crash — the worst ever aviation disaster on South Korean soil — which flung passengers out of the plane and left it “almost completely destroyed”, according to fire officials. Video showed the Jeju Air Boeing 737-800 landing on its belly at Muan International Airport, skidding off the runway as smoke streamed…

Joe Biden and his wife Jill are “deeply saddened” by news of the fatal plane crash in Muan, South Korea, the US president said Sunday. “Our thoughts and prayers are with those impacted by this tragedy,” Biden said in a statement released by the White House, adding that Washington is ready “to provide any necessary assistance.”

Syria’s leader Ahmed al-Sharaa said new elections could take four years and that drafting a new constitution could take three, in an interview with Saudi-owned Al Arabiya television on Sunday. “The election process could take four years,” Sharaa said, three weeks after leading opposition group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham and allied anti-regime groups ousted longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad, adding: “We need to rewrite the constitution” which could take “two or three years.”

Syria’s leader Ahmed al-Sharaa told Al Arabiya TV on Sunday his country and Russia shared “deep strategic interests”, expressing his desire to rebuild ties with the close ally of deposed leader Bashar al-Assad. “Russia is an important country and is considered the second most powerful country in the world,” Sharaa said in an interview with Saudi-owned Al Arabiya, noting the “deep strategic interests between Russia and Syria” and adding: “all Syria’s arms are of Russian origin, and many power plants are managed by Russian experts… We do not want Russia to leave Syria in the way that some wish.”

France has sent Indonesia an official request to transfer a French death row inmate imprisoned on drug charges for nearly 20 years, a senior Indonesian minister told AFP on Saturday. Serge Atlaoui, a 61-year-old welder, was arrested in 2005 in a drugs factory outside Jakarta where authorities accused him of being a “chemist”. Indonesia has some of the world’s toughest drug laws, including the death penalty for traffickers and has executed foreigners in the past. In recent weeks, the Indonesian government has agreed to transfer a series of high-profile foreign detainees on death row, including a Filipina mom and the…

Law enforcement in the US state of New York on Friday released “devastating” footage of prison guards beating a Black inmate shortly before he died. The body-worn camera footage, recorded the night of December 9, shows Robert Brooks, 43, brutalized by multiple prison guards, with his face bloodied and neck held. Brooks, an inmate at a northern New York prison serving a 12-year sentence for assault, was pronounced dead later that night. Letitia James, the attorney general of New York, said the video was released to provide “transparency and accountability.” In a statement, Brooks’ relatives said they found “watching the…