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.