By FRANCES ROBLES from NYT World https://ift.tt/2Qc5Z60
via IFTTT The release of dozens of Nicaraguan detainees came amid bolstered United States sanctions and criticism of a crackdown on hunger strikers.

By AURELIEN BREEDEN and ELIAN PELTIER from NYT World https://ift.tt/2SHcEa1
via IFTTT Marc Veyrat was outraged when La Maison des Bois, his restaurant in the French Alps, was stripped of the guide’s top rating.

By ANNA SCHAVERIEN from NYT World https://ift.tt/2ZGwBPH
via IFTTT The money, hidden in a box of possessions from a deceased relative, was returned thanks to a hawk-eyed (and honest) worker.

By CHRISTOPHER F. SCHUETZE from NYT World https://ift.tt/2ZAyNIw
via IFTTT Faced with the concerns about safety, pollution and potential damage to historic buildings, Germany is rethinking private fireworks.

By ALISSA J. RUBIN from NYT World https://ift.tt/2Cb6rtB
via IFTTT The Islamic Republic’s heavy-handed interventions in regional affairs are provoking growing resentments, particularly in Shiite-led Iraq.

By SARAH ECKINGER from NYT World https://ift.tt/2QfbD7q
via IFTTT Confetti is already flying as the new year makes its way across the globe.

By CHOE SANG-HUN from NYT World https://ift.tt/2tmNkvG
via IFTTT Kim Jong-un said North Korea was free of a self-imposed pause on testing nuclear weapons and long-range missiles, which President Trump had called a diplomatic victory.

By ANDREW HIGGINS from NYT World https://ift.tt/37siQ9Z
via IFTTT Best known as the most feared and frigid outpost of the Soviet gulag, Magadan struggles to keep its residents from fleeing. The ice cream isn’t enough to keep them.

By IVAN NECHEPURENKO from NYT World https://ift.tt/37rhDQf
via IFTTT Lacking snow to complete the holiday atmosphere, Moscow bought fake snow from skating rinks. “It will all create a festive mood, I am sure,” one Muscovite said.

By FALIH HASSAN and BEN HUBBARD from NYT World https://ift.tt/2tfzgnu
via IFTTT Demonstrators marched on the compound, breached the outer wall and lit fires. Tensions are high after American airstrikes killed 24 members of an Iraqi militia backed by Iran.

By ISABELLA KWAI from NYT World https://ift.tt/37kdAVS
via IFTTT The country’s east coast was dotted with apocalyptic scenes on the last day of the warmest decade on record in Australia.

By BRYANT ROUSSEAU from NYT World https://ift.tt/2snswUH
via IFTTT This year, we delivered 125 dispatches from 44 countries and six continents, each one offering an immersive experience of one of the world’s most noteworthy places. Here are the highlights.

By ALISSA J. RUBIN and BEN HUBBARD from NYT World https://ift.tt/37ofNjf
via IFTTT Iraqi leaders say the United States violated Iraqi sovereignty with attacks that killed 24 people in retaliation for the death of an American contractor.

By STEVE FISHER and ELISABETH MALKIN from NYT World https://ift.tt/2MHQuAZ
via IFTTT A look at 15 years of attempts to clean up Mexico’s most polluted waterway revealed that the country has neither the means nor the laws to preserve its environment.

By CHRIS BUCKLEY and AUSTIN RAMZY from NYT World https://ift.tt/2F7Sy0F
via IFTTT The Communist Party wants to remold Xinjiang’s minorities into loyal blue-collar workers to supply Chinese factories with cheap labor.

By ANDREW E. KRAMER from NYT World https://ift.tt/36dCyXa
via IFTTT Among those traded were riot police officers accused of killing protesters during mass demonstrations in the capital, Kyiv, in 2014.

By DIONNE SEARCEY and LAURA BOUSHNAK from NYT World https://ift.tt/39pjI17
via IFTTT Wives are shocking their traditional West African villages by earning money and running large households while their husbands are in Europe seeking jobs.

By ABDI LATIF DAHIR from NYT World https://ift.tt/2ZBa9HI
via IFTTT The ruling came just weeks after Omar al-Bashir, the ousted president, was convicted of money laundering and corruption.

By DAN BILEFSKY from NYT World https://ift.tt/2EC7cxa
via IFTTT Canada’s highest court ruled that the son of the Russian spies whose story helped inspire a hit TV series is entitled to citizenship.

By Unknown Author from NYT World https://ift.tt/2rc9uzF
via IFTTT For 40 years, journalists chronicled the eccentric royal family of Oudh, deposed aristocrats who lived in a ruined palace in the Indian capital. It was a tragic, astonishing story. But was it true?

By LIZZY IOANNIDOU and ILIANA MAGRA from NYT World https://ift.tt/2F3S8Zh
via IFTTT The British woman said that a dozen Israeli men had raped her in a resort town, and then retracted her statement. She could face up to a year in prison.

By RICHARD C. PADDOCK and ADAM DEAN from NYT World https://ift.tt/2MFmZzA
via IFTTT One large mining company is trying to shut illegal operations, which use mercury. The small-scale miners say there’s no other way to earn a living.

By PAUL MOZUR and IAN JOHNSON from NYT World https://ift.tt/356KCYb
via IFTTT The founder of one of China’s largest unregistered churches was given a lengthy sentence for what the government called subversion of state power.

By REUTERS from NYT World https://ift.tt/2MG0pqq
via IFTTT U.S. officials said on Sunday that air strikes in Iraq and Syria against an Iran-backed militia group were successful, but warned that "additional actions" may still be taken in the region to defend U.S. interests.

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS from NYT World https://ift.tt/2SHIPWO
via IFTTT The explosion took place at an event for recruits to a separatist militia. Children were among the dead.

By ANDREW E. KRAMER from NYT World https://ift.tt/36exq56
via IFTTT The Russian president called the American president to thank him for a tip about an attack said to be aimed at St. Petersburg.

By ISABELLA KWAI from NYT World https://ift.tt/2ZzvKAv
via IFTTT The Pacific island nation will reopen schools after a measles outbreak killed 81 people, many of them children.

By STEVEN LEE MYERS and GILLES SABRIÉ from NYT World https://ift.tt/2QqVlYh
via IFTTT China’s demand for this unlovely marine animal, a relative of the starfish, has brought economic benefits to a region of the country famous for the delicacy. It has also depleted natural stocks.

By KIRK SEMPLE from NYT World https://ift.tt/39ofwyz
via IFTTT While rising temperatures are increasing the range of disease-bearing mosquitoes globally, the effects are compounded in Honduras by government dysfunction and criminal gangs.

By JULIAN E. BARNES from NYT World https://ift.tt/355MznJ
via IFTTT The strikes were a response to a rocket attack that killed an American contractor.

By EVAN HILL and WHITNEY HURST from NYT World https://ift.tt/2MEedlp
via IFTTT Russian and Syrian forces have bombed sites on a flawed U.N. no-strike list with impunity. Relief groups are giving up hope.

By CHOE SANG-HUN from NYT World https://ift.tt/2rC0sfP
via IFTTT Analysts warned that the country’s leader, Kim Jong-un, might end a moratorium on testing long-range missiles and nuclear weapons.

By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK from NYT World https://ift.tt/2F2MmqN
via IFTTT The fateful decision in 1979 to admit Mohammed Reza Pahlavi prompted the seizure of the American Embassy in Tehran and helped doom the Carter presidency.

By ISABEL KERSHNER from NYT World https://ift.tt/37gcRoY
via IFTTT Handing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a victory in a Likud leadership primary, a tiny fraction of voters may have prolonged Israel’s political deadlock.

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS from NYT World https://ift.tt/37f3yFF
via IFTTT A SEAL who helped rescue of 12 boys and their soccer coach from a flooded cave has died of an infection contracted during the risky operation.

By ERNESTO LONDOÑO and LETÍCIA CASADO from NYT World https://ift.tt/39hfMzj
via IFTTT A drive against graft that started in Brazil left many hoping for a fairer, more equal region. That era is over.

By ELIAN PELTIER from NYT World https://ift.tt/2tYrpuX
via IFTTT The police arrested Paul Newey on suspicion of financing terrorism after his son, Daniel, traveled to Syria to fight with Kurdish-led forces.

By ANTON TROIANOVSKI from NYT World https://ift.tt/2Zxj8d9
via IFTTT Frode Berg, a trusting pensioner, willingly worked for Norwegian intelligence. Then, he says, they hung him out to dry.

By AMY QIN from NYT World https://ift.tt/2tdt3bv
via IFTTT In Xinjiang the authorities have separated nearly half a million children from their families, aiming to instill loyalty to China and the Communist Party.

By HUSSEIN MOHAMED and ABDI LATIF DAHIR from NYT World https://ift.tt/39ehtxD
via IFTTT Officials said a truck filled with explosives blew up at a busy intersection in the capital. Shabab militants are suspected in the attack.

By RUTH MACLEAN and ERIC SCHMITT from NYT World https://ift.tt/2tcrGtD
via IFTTT The grisly footage shows fighters aligned with the Islamic State cutting the throats of 10 prisoners and shooting an 11th captive.

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS from NYT World https://ift.tt/2Q2wB9H
via IFTTT Moroccan authorities have sentenced a Youtuber who criticized the king to prison, and detained a journalist-activist who defended anti-government protesters in a tweet.

By ANNA MOMIGLIANO from NYT World https://ift.tt/2Qp7oFp
via IFTTT The ruling adds Italy to the small number of countries where small-scale cultivation for personal use is allowed.

By MATINA STEVIS-GRIDNEFF from NYT World https://ift.tt/363D21Y
via IFTTT The Chinese tech giant is spending millions of dollars on a charm offensive in Brussels, hoping for a leading role in building 5G networks. It seems to be working.

By PAULINA VILLEGAS and ELISABETH MALKIN from NYT World https://ift.tt/37fJEdt
via IFTTT A new generation is demanding change, casting off the entrenched notion that women somehow provoke attacks against them.

By IAN AUSTEN from NYT World https://ift.tt/2YPGXfO
via IFTTT Investors poured money into Canada’s marijuana market, but one year after legalization, the euphoria has evaporated.

By ELISABETH MALKIN from NYT World https://ift.tt/2sq1QT7
via IFTTT The killings of three women and six children, members of a binational community that farms land in northern Mexico, reverberated worldwide.

By DAN BILEFSKY from NYT World https://ift.tt/2tRQ4kI
via IFTTT The Canadian broadcaster said it removed the cameo for the sake of time five years ago. President Trump, his son and some supporters suggested the omission was politically motivated.

By MARK A. WALSH from NYT World https://ift.tt/2QqSv5o
via IFTTT A father and two children, ages 9 and 16, who died in a pool at a resort on the Costa del Sol, found themselves in deep water and unable to get out, the authorities said.

By BEN DOOLEY from NYT World https://ift.tt/39jPXPo
via IFTTT The rare overseas mission follows an attack on a Japanese oil tanker and increased American pressure to play a more active role in the region.