Hogmanay lights up Scotland with fireworks, and Franz Ferdinand

Scotland's capital kicked off its New Year "Hogmanay" festivities on Monday with a traditional ceilidh folk music dance for kilt-wearing revellers under Edinburgh Castle.

Sherpa widows to climb Everest to inspire single women

The widows of two sherpa climbers, who died on Mount Everest, will try to climb the world’s highest mountain to complete the unfinished ascents of their husbands and hopefully inspire other single...

Lebanese bakers with special needs master German rye and Stollen

When Ali Kerdi, who has impaired speech and hearing, was a teenager, he would look on curiously as his mother kneaded and baked their homemade bread.

U.S. military tracking Santa despite partial government shutdown

The partial U.S. government shutdown is not preventing the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) from tracking Santa Claus as he embarks on his global trek to deliver Christmas gifts to...

'Heads - it's yours!' London meat market keeps Christmas Eve auction alive

Fresh meat was selling like hot cakes at Smithfield Market's Christmas Eve public auction on Monday, with auctioneers running up and down makeshift catwalks and handing over turkeys and huge cuts of...

Christmas cheer at Jesus's traditional birthplace of Bethlehem

Filing past a 16-meter (52-ft) Christmas tree in Manger Square, visitors from all over the world made a Christmas Eve pilgrimage to Bethlehem, the town revered as the birthplace of Jesus.

Singapore's 'freegans' find treasure in trash

A new movement in Singapore that seeks to reduce the amount of consumer waste in the affluent city-state is scavenging for unwanted goods, some in near-mint condition, that migrant workers can send...

Banksy gifts Welsh steel town a white Christmas attraction

Banksy fans are flocking to the Welsh town of Port Talbot to see a new mural by the elusive British street artist depicting a child covered in snow that is in fact ash from a burning bin.

Thousands descend on Britain's ancient Stonehenge for winter solstice

Wrapped in warm and brightly colored clothes, thousands of revelers gathered at Britain's Stonehenge to watch the first sunrise after winter solstice on Saturday.

Rock and sausage roll: blogger dad's novelty song is UK Christmas no.1

Perennial chart-topper Ariana Grande has lost the race to top the British singles chart at Christmas - to a blogger who posts about fatherhood and sings about sausage rolls.

In Egypt, weddings get costlier as economic hardships deepen

Nadia Mohammad Salem started saving up for her wedding long before she got engaged. But getting married proved far more stressful than she'd imagined when her husband proposed a year ago.

In a Tokyo neighborhood's last sushi restaurant, a sense of loss

"I'll have a draft," says Yasuo Fujinuma, heaving himself down at the sushi counter. He pulls a pack of cigarettes from a frayed pocket of his sweater. From the corner of the restaurant, a small TV...

Whisky sour? Rare or fake Scotch exposed by carbon-dating

A large number of rare and collectable whiskies, sometimes sold for hundreds of thousand of pounds, are likely to be fake, researchers have found.