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People gather at the Sednaya prison as Syrian rescuers search for potential hidden basements at the facility in Damascus on 9 December, 2024. Photo: AFP / Mohammed Al-Rifai Families hunt through labyrinthine prison complex Thousands wait outside hoping for news of loved ones Efforts to find prisoners in hidden cells fruitless As families desperately scoured the filthy cells of Syria's forbidding Sednaya prison on Monday for any sign of long-detained relatives after its gates were flung open by rebels, hope for finding missing loved ones began to fade. Thousands of prisoners spilled out of president Bashar al-Assad's pitiless detention system after he was toppled on Sunday, sometimes to tearful reunions with relatives who believed they had been executed years earlier. But countless ...

Photo: X / @PepMangione Police have named the "strong person of interest" in the shooting of UnitedHealthcare chief executive Brian Thompson in New York City as 26-year-old Luigi Nicholas Mangione. Mangione was born and raised in the state of Maryland and had ties to San Francisco in California, according to New York Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny, He was arrested in Pennslyvania - the state between Maryland and New York - but his last previous address was in Honolulu, Hawaii. Mangione was arrested after he was recognised by an employee at a McDonald's restaurant in Altoona. He was "sitting there eating", Kenny added. He credited the tip to the wide circulation of a photo the New York City Police Department released of Mangione without a mask on. Luigi Mangione's profile picture on ...

From top left, clockwise, US President Donald Trump, Raygun (Rachael Gunn), British singer Liam Payne, and All Blacks' Beauden Barrett. Photo: Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images / AFP, Odd Andersen/AFP, Emma McIntyre / Getty Images via AFP, Photosport The heated US election, Olympics and the viral memes from athletes, and One Direction star Liam Payne were among the top search terms from Kiwis on Google this year. The search trends cover the period from the start of the year until about 1 December. US election The New York Post is displayed in the window of a newsstand inside of Trump Tower in New York City, on 6 November, 2024. Photo: DAVID DEE DELGADO/AFP The US election was the number one most searched term in Aotearoa. It was always set to be a heated battleground as Joe Biden ...

By Alli Rosenbloom and Lisa Respers France, CNN Emilia Pérez (2024), directed by Jacques Audiard, starring Selena Gomez. Photo: Page 114 - Why Not Productions / Collection ChristopheL via AFP The nominees for the 82nd Golden Globe Awards included some former child superstars, along with some surprises. Actors Mindy Kaling and Morris Chestnut announced the 2025 slate of nominees which was led by the musical Emilia Pérez with 10 nominations. Ariana Grande and Selena Gomez, former child stars of Nickelodeon and Disney respectively, both scored nods - Grande for Wicked and Gomez for both the film Emilia Pérez and her Hulu series Only Murders in the Building. The surprises included Pamela Anderson's nomination in the best actress in a drama category for her performance in The Last Showgi...

Rupert Murdoch and Lachlan Murdoch at the Allen & Company Sun Valley Conference, in 2017. Photo: AFP / Getty Images / Drew Angerer A Nevada commissioner has ruled against Rupert Murdoch's bid to change his family trust to consolidate control of his media empire in the hands of his son Lachlan, the New York Times reported on Monday, citing a sealed court document. Nevada commissioner Edmund Gorman concluded in a decision filed on Saturday that Rupert Murdoch and Lachlan, who is the head of Fox News parent Fox Corp and News Corp , had acted in "bad faith" in their effort to amend the irrevocable trust, the Times reported. The trust currently would divide control of the company equally among Rupert Murdoch's four oldest children - Lachlan, James, Elisabeth and Prudence - after his deat...