Gaza Strip's artists seek to rebuild hope
Ruth Pollard 3:00 PM "When the war finished, the talk was all about rebuilding Gaza but there was no talk of rebuilding the people," says artist Majdal Nateel.
Top world stories
Hanging out with the orangutan whisperer
Jewel Topsfield 12:15 AM This year Leif Cocks testified before an Argentinian court that Sandra, a shy 30-year-old orangutan, was, in fact, a person.
Rebel commander killed in Russian air strike
Hugh Naylor 10:13 AM The leader of a powerful Syrian rebel group that controls key suburbs of Damascus was reportedly killed in an air strike on Friday.
China's most-travelled leader since 1949
He travelled to more countries than Barrack Obama, and as many as Vladimir Putin last year. What does Xi Jinping have in mind?
Indian PM makes surprise visit to Pakistan
Visit is first by an Indian prime minister to Pakistan since 2008 Mumbai attacks in which militants trained in Pakistan killed 166.
Sorry, wrong number: British astronaut's flub
John Markoff 11:07 AM Timothy Peake, a former British Army Air Corps officer and current European Space Agency astronaut aboard the International Space Station is not used to space dialling.
Latest world news
Belgian college's concerns over Paris attacker ignored
11:28 PM A police commission is interviewing staff at a Brussels college after education authorities failed to act on concerns that a student who later became one of the Paris suicide bombers had been radicalised.
World's fattest man dies of heart attack
4:27 PM A Mexican man once regarded as the world's most obese has died of heart failure at the age of 38, two months after surgery to lose weight.
French journalist at L'Obs to be expelled from China
Astrid Wendlandt 4:04 PM China will expel a French journalist who criticised its treatment of its Muslim Uighur minority in the north-western region of Xinjiang, her employer, the weekly l'Obs news magazine said on Friday.
Japan Coast Guard says three Chinese ships near Senkaku Islands
Yuji Nakamura 2:34 PM Three Chinese government ships have entered territorial waters near disputed islands known as Senkaku in Japanese and Diaoyu in Chinese, Japan's Coast Guard said on Saturday.
Gaza Strip's artists seek to rebuild hope
Ruth Pollard 3:00 PM "When the war finished, the talk was all about rebuilding Gaza but there was no talk of rebuilding the people," says artist Majdal Nateel.
Eight fishermen rescued after five days in lifeboat
12:34 PM Eight fishermen who spent five days on a lifeboat after their vessel sank in the Atlantic Ocean have been rescued off the Brazilian coast.
US foreign arms deals up by nearly $13 billion
Nicholas Fandos 12:23 PM The US controls just over 50 per cent of the world's weapons markets.
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan 'talks man out of jumping off bridge'
Tulay Karadeniz and Ece Toksabay 10:52 AM Pro-Kurdish opposition leader accused of treason after using a trip to Moscow to slam Ankara's shooting down of a Russian warplane.
Pope Francis urges unity against militants
Philip Pullella 10:21 AM Archbishop of Canterbury says Christians in the Middle East face extinction at the hands of Islamic State.
Americans held in Iran during 444-day hostage crisis finally get compensation
Carol Morello and Frances Stead Sellers 8:09 AM Compensation for American Embassy personnel held hostage for 444 days in Iran more than three decades ago has been hailed by the former captives and their lawyers.
Wealthy men targeted in New York nightclubs by thieving women, police say
Benjamin Mueller 5:28 AM A succession of high-wattage thefts in New York has uncovered a bizarre pattern involving women who target wealthy men at nightclubs, accompany them home and then disappear with tens of thousands of dollars in cash and jewellery.
China seeks to turn film stars into models of morality
Julie Makinen 12:40 AM With China developing a hearty appetite for marijuana, methamphetamine and other illicit substances, Chinese authorities are training their crosshairs squarely on stars - even as they look to celebrities as front-line soldiers in the nation's nascent war on drugs.
Iraq aims to retake Mosul after Ramadi
Iraq's armed forces will move to retake the major northern city of Mosul from Islamic State once they capture the western city of Ramadi, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi says.
Eliza Szonert's desperate plea to Julie Bishop
Rory Callinan Australian actress Eliza Szonert who snatched her son in Malaysia has been released from the local jail where she had been locked up for refusing to reveal the boy's whereabouts.
US school worker fired over free lunch can have job back
Ashley Southall A school lunch worker in Idaho who said she was fired for giving a free hot lunch to a hungry student can now have her job back, thanks to the power of international social media, but she's not sure she wants it.
Tornado leaves long path of destruction in southern US states
Lacey Russell, Alan Blinder, Cynthia Howle The tornado - dark, wide and roaring - had already raced through about a half-dozen counties by the time it arrived here in Marshall County on Wednesday night and took the first lives of its long rampage.
African migrants win $603,000 each in Spain's Christmas lottery
About 35 African migrants, including at least one rescued at sea from an overcrowded wooden boat, are among the top prize winners of Spain's Christmas lottery, according to the owner of the lottery agency that sold more than 1000 tickets that shelled out 400,000 euros ($602,480) each.
Call for witness protection as Thai human trafficking trial begins
Alisa Tang Thai authorities must step up witness protection for a major human trafficking trial with the accused including an army general and one investigator fleeing the country fearing for his life, activists said.
Christmas shoppers flee as fight turns into fatal shooting at North Carolina mall
Jon Herskovitz and Karen Brooks An armed male in a fight inside a mall packed with Christmas shoppers on Thursday in Charlotte, North Carolina, was fatally shot in what emergency officials described as an "officer- involved shooting."
From goats to cement to piles of manure: how charity gifts work
Magdalena Mis When you buy a goat, a bag of cement, or even a pile of manure, does it mean that an animal will actually be delivered to a family in need, or a poverty-stricken farmer wake up on Christmas Day to a delivery for his crops?
Stabbed over and over, dumped in a ready-made grave
Dan Morse Police say they stabbed their victim over and over, including in the back, before dumping his body in a ready-made grave. And they are barely adults.
