Russia and Ukraine exchanged hundreds of prisoners of war in a deal brokered by the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The Russian defence ministry said it had swapped 150 Ukrainian soldiers held captive for an equal number of Russian troops. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenksy said 189 Ukrainians had returned home. He added that those released included "defenders of Azovstal and Mariupol", the Chernobyl nuclear power plant and Snake Island.

The Russian defence ministry meanwhile said newly-released Russian troops were in Belarus and were being given medical assistance and the chance to contact their families. was the 59th prisoner exchange since the full-scale invasion began and one of the biggest so far. On the Ukrainian side, those released included soldiers, border guards, National Guardsmen and Navy servicemen. Many had been in captivity for more than two-and-a-half years, and Ukrainian officials said some had returned with serious illnesses and injuries.

A man inspired by the so-called Islamic State terrorist group drove a pickup truck through a crowd of pedestrians gathered in New Orleans' bustling French Quarter district early on New Year's Day, killing at least 15 people and injuring about 30 other revelers. The suspect was killed in a shootout with police. Police said the driver steered around a police blockade and raced through a crowd along Bourbon Street, which is famous worldwide for hosting large parties on New Year's Eve, around 3:15 a.m.

The FBI said the driver was 42-year-old Shamsud-Din Bahar Jabbar, a US citizen and Army veteran from Texas. A flag representing the Islamic State group, aka Daesh, was found on the vehicle's trailer hitch, the FBI said. The bureau is trying to determine if Jabbar was associated with any terrorist organisations. Alethea Duncan, an assistant special agent in charge of the FBI's New Orleans field office, said during a news conference that the agency does not believe Jabbar acted alone.

Jeju Air Flight 2216 crashed at Muan International Airport, about 290km (180 miles) southwest of Seoul, killing 179 of 181 people on board, on Sunday morning (Dec. 29) - the worst-ever air disaster on South Korean soil and the deadliest accident involving a South Korean airline since a Korean Air flight crashed in Guam in 1997, killing 228 people. The Boeing 737-800 plane was travelling from Bangkok when it crash-landed at Muan International Airport on Sunday and slid into a wall off the end of the runway, bursting into flames and killing everyone on board except two crew members.

Many questions remain unanswered and investigators are looking at the role a bird strike or weather conditions may have played. They are also examining the concrete wall at the end of the runway, which some experts say could have exacerbated the impact of the crash. Police in South Korea raided Muan international airport, the offices of Jeju Air and a regional aviation body as part of the investigations into the disaster.

An Ecuadorean judge ordered the arrest of 16 soldiers charged with the disappearance of four children who went missing three weeks ago in the coastal city of Guayaquil. In a statement on X the law enforcement agency said its request had been granted, adding that the detained soldiers would be transferred from a military base. The case of the missing children, aged 11 to 15, has shaken Ecuador. They were reported missing by their parents on Dec. 8, after they went to play soccer in a working-class sector of Guayaquil and did not return home.

A video taken by a security camera shows a military patrol taking two of the children into the back of a pickup truck and driving off with them. Ecuador's military has admitted the children were in its custody and claimed they were arrested because they were participating in a robbery attempt. The military says the children were released on the same night they were detained and that gangs are to blame for their disappearance.