American officials say U.S.-Russian talks on their separate fights against the Islamic State group are improving and becoming more frequent, with each side trading information and even outlining some of their strategic objectives.

Such progress would dispel the notion that ties between the former Cold War foes are "frozen."

After the killing incident of army Corporal Ali al-Qaq on Monday, the Lebanese Army Airborne Regiment stormed several homes at dawn on Tuesday in the border town of al-Qasr in northeast of the Hermel district in search for the culprits, the National News Agency reported.

The army said the homes stormed in al-Qasr were of people suspected of involvement in the death of Qaq, who was gunned down while on vacation in Syria.

Under different circumstances, Syrian President Bashar Assad's capture of Aleppo would project an aura of invincibility. He has survived nearly six years of revolt.

Instead, it has underscored his dependence on outside powers.

Days after the United Nations voted to condemn Israeli settlements in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, Donald Trump questioned its effectiveness Monday, saying it's just a club for people to "have a good time."

The president-elect wrote on Twitter that the U.N. has "such great potential," but it has become "just a club for people to get together, talk and have a good time. So sad!"

Syrian authorities have accused rebel fighters of executing 21 civilians, including women and children, at close range as they quit second city Aleppo last week, state media reported.

The bodies were found in two neighbourhoods in east Aleppo, state news agency SANA said late Sunday. 

Syrian President Bashar Assad has visited a Christian orphanage near the capital Damascus on Christmas Day.

Photographs posted on the Syrian presidency's Facebook page showed the president along with his wife, Asma, standing with nuns and orphans in the Damascus suburb of Sednaya.

Alex Romero was delighted when President Barack Obama came to Havana in March bearing the promise of a bright new future.

Like so many other Cubans, the 42-year-old state photography shop employee thrilled at the president's vision of restored ties between the U.S. and Cuba. Families would reunite. A flood of American business would lift the stagnant centrally planned economy, fueling its slow path toward reform. Even as Obama spoke, an 80 percent surge in U.S. visitors was drenching state-run and private businesses with hundreds of millions of desperately needed dollars.

The Nativity scene and Christmas tree are in place on the corner of the street. Some of the children proudly wear red Santa Claus hats or show off new toys, mostly plastic guns for small boys. Windows and balconies are festooned with colorful balloons.

It is unmistakably Christmas on Friday at the Ankawa camp, home to thousands of Iraqi Christians who have been displaced since the Islamic State group seized their towns and villages in the Nineveh plains of northern Iraq in 2014.

Both the Ukrainian government and Russia-backed rebels in the east of the country say a new cease-fire has been violated.

Separatist mouthpiece Donetsk News Agency said on Saturday government troops had opened fire at least 140 times since midnight on Friday, the time both parties had agreed to cease fire in the conflict that began in 2014 and has claimed more than 9,600 lives.

China's military says its first aircraft carrier group has carried out a series of fighter launch, recovery and air combat exercises in the Yellow Sea ahead of a scheduled voyage farther afield.

The Defense Ministry announced late Friday that the Liaoning carrier group conducted the drills in the Yellow Sea in recent days, adding that the group "as a next step will conduct scheduled cross-sea training and tests." The ministry did not specify its destination, but its "cross-sea" wording has prompted speculation in the Chinese media that the warships could soon sail to the contested South China Sea.