An undersea power cable linking Finland and Estonia broke down Wednesday, Finland's prime minister said, the latest in a series of incidents involving telecom cables and energy pipelines in the Baltic ...

Hamas and Israel traded accusation on Wednesday over delays in finalising a ceasefire and hostage release deal, after both had reported progress in the latest round of Gaza truce talks.

A "terrorist act" sank the cargo ship that went down in international waters in the Mediterranean this week, the Russian state-owned company that owns the vessel said Wednesday.

Desi Bouterse, the former dictator and later elected president of Suriname, who became a fugitive of justice for the killing of political opponents, has died at 79, the government said Wednesday.

Hamas said Wednesday that "new conditions" imposed by Israel had delayed the finalisation of a ceasefire agreement in Gaza, but acknowledged that negotiations were still proceeding.

Thirty-eight people were killed when an Azerbaijan Airlines plane with 67 on board crashed in Kazakhstan on Wednesday, a senior Kazakh official said.

FÚTBOL ...

The incoming head of the world's Anglicans urged the Church of England to "kneel in penitence" in a Christmas Day sermon as its leadership faces criticism over the handling of sexual abuse scandals.

Angry protests broke out Wednesday in several areas of Syria after a video circulated showing an attack on an Alawite shrine in the country's north, a war monitor and witnesses said.

The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said on Wednesday that 23 people had been killed in the Palestinian territory in the past 24 hours, taking the overall war death toll to 45,361.

A Ukrainian strike on Wednesday killed four people and injured five in the Russian town of Lgov in the Kursk region flanking Ukraine, the regional governor said.

Hundreds of students protested on Wednesday in Serbia's capital Belgrade demanding that the authorities take responsibility for the collapse of a train station roof that killed 15 people last month.