Top 10 world news: Canada's Deputy PM resigns; Syria's Assad says Russia 'requested' his evacuation, and more

Canada's Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland on Monday (Dec 16) announced her resignation from the cabinet over disagreements with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Ottawa's response to US President-elect Donald Trump's tariff threats.

In other news, ousted Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, in his first statement since his regime fell, said on Monday (December 16) that his departure to Russia was not “planned”.

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Canada's Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland on Monday (Dec 16) announced her resignation from the cabinet over disagreements with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Ottawa's response to US President-elect Donald Trump's tariff threats.

Ousted Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, in his first statement since his regime fell, said on Monday (December 16) that his departure to Russia was not “planned”.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz lost a confidence vote in parliament on Monday. This development has set the stage for an early general election scheduled for 23 February. In the German Bundestag, 394 deputies voted against Scholz, while 207 supported him. There were also 116 absentees.

Ukraine's military agency on Monday (Dec 16) claimed that around 30 North Korean troops were killed or wounded in Russia's Kursk border region. This comes as the first reported casualties since Kyiv announced that Pyongyang has sent 10,000 troops to Russia to help in its war with Ukraine.

The alleged Chinese spy with connections to Prince Andrew and the UK establishment has been identified as Yang Tengbo, also known as Chris Yang, a businessman currently banned from entering Britain.

As the probe in the Bengaluru techie suicide case continues, details have emerged that Nikita Singhania, the estranged wife of 34-year-old techie Atul Subhash, changed her location every dayand made calls only on WhatsApp to not get caught by the police.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi Monday held extensive talks with Sri Lankan President Anura Kumara Dissanayake, focusing on further shoring up India-Sri Lankan cooperation in a range of areas, including defence, trade and investment.

Eleven Indian nationals were found dead at a restaurant in Gudauri, a mountain resort in Georgia, according to a statement by the Indian embassy in Tbilisi.

India pacer Jasprit Bumrah has defended his fellow bowlers after poor show in the ongoing Border-Gavaskar Trophy (BGT) Test series against Australia. Bumrah's comments come as Australia piled on 445 runs in third Test at the Gabba in the first innings with Bumrah taking 6/76 while others accounting for just four wickets for the remaining runs.

After making millions of people groove to his tunes, Diljit Dosanjh's DIL-Luminati tour is set to wrap up with the last show in Guwahati on December 29. Days before he's set toend his India tour, the singer sent shockwaves amonghis fans as he announced that he would not be performing any more shows in India until the infrastructure gets better.