As a number of botched executions in 2014 led to renewed debate about the validity of practices used to carry out the death penalty and the death penalty itself, the governor of Maryland has decided to end the year by commuting the death sentences of the last people on Maryland's death row.
The US government has released five people previously held in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba to the government of Kazakhstan.
A prominent anti-government activist in Russia was given a suspended sentence of three years for charges of fraud.
The New York Police Department, already under intense scrutiny for politicizing a funeral for one of their fallen comrades, seems as though it has chosen not to enforce the laws of New York City, putting millions at risk.
A South Korean heiress to an airline fortune has been arrested for her role in forcing a plane to return to the gate after its initial departure.
A Pakistani judge has ruled that a key member of the group behind the bloody and vicious 2008 Mumbai terror attacks, Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, can be released on bail, despite the fact that Lakhvi is widely believed to have been the driving force behind the assault.
House Majority Whip Rep. Steve Scalise gave a speech at a white supremacist convention in 2002, embroiling the Republican Party in a fresh controversy before the newly elected Congress has even sat for the first time.
The military of Cameroon responded forcefully to incursions into its territory by Boko Haram, which has been terrorizing Nigeria for years.
A high-ranking member of the Somali terrorist organization al Shabaab has turned himself into Somali authorities.
As Mayor of New York Bill de Blasio and Vice President Joe Biden delivered eulogies for slain officers of the New York Police Department, thousands of officers turned their back on the mayor, suggesting a deep seated contempt for democracy and civilian rule.
Tesla, Elon Musk's electric car company, has announced an upgrade to one of its most popular models, the Roadster, which will greatly increase the distance the car can travel in between stops at charging stations.
Ukraine and pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine's east have swapped hundreds of prisoners as Russia names NATO's expansion as a critical threat.
The National Security Agency has released its quarterly and annual reports on its surveillance practices revealing incidents of illegal misconduct that violated the constitutional rights of US citizens.
The governments of Jordan and the United States have denied that the Islamic State shot down a fighter jet, allowing IS to take the pilot hostage, while the Jordanian Parliament issued a strong warning to IS against harming the pilot.
Two women who challenged Saudi Arabia's strict rules about sexuality and gender by defying the kingdom's ban on female drivers have had their cases referred to a court dedicated to cases of terrorism.
