DUBAI: Preparations for the highly anticipated New Year’s Eve celebration in Dubai are in full swing, with plans for an extraordinary display to mark the arrival of 2026.

The spotlight will once again fall on the iconic Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building, where preparations for an awe-inspiring fireworks show are already underway.

In a sign of the scale of the event, Dubai Mall is also getting ready to dazzle with a spectacular light display, set to complement the grand fireworks at the Burj Khalifa.

Mohammed Al Abbar, the Emirati businessman whose construction company built the world’s tallest building, the Burj Khalifa, and the iconic Dubai Mall, is personally supervising the preparations for this year’s New Year’s Eve celebration.

Al Abbar shared a behind-the-scenes video on the social media platform X, offering a glimpse into the monumental efforts underway ahead of the grand event.

Syria will start swapping old banknotes for new ones from January 1, 2026, Central Bank Governor Abdelkader Husrieh said on Thursday, under a plan to replace Assad-era notes to try to strengthen the currency’s value.

Syria’s new government, led by Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, is seeking to rebuild state institutions and revive the economy after more than a decade of war, sanctions and financial isolation that left the local currency severely weakened.

“The central bank has been given authority to decide the deadline for the swap and its locations,” Husrieh said, adding the bank would issue instructions.

Sources familiar with the matter told Reuters in August that the country will issue new banknotes, removing two zeros from its currency to try to restore public confidence in the severely devalued pound.

Some bankers have voiced fears that the new currency could drive up inflation and further erode the purchasing power of Syrians reeling from high prices, but Husrieh said the operation will take place through a smooth and orderly swap.

He added that a press conference will be held on December 27 to “explain all the details of the replacement process and deadlines”.

Assad fled Syria in December 2024 for Russia after rebels seized Damascus following an eight-day blitz through the country, ending six decades of his family’s autocratic rule, more than 13 years after an uprising had spiralled into civil war.

Syria marked earlier this month the first anniversary of the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad with jubilant celebrations in major cities.

• Militants crossed from Afghanistan, resisted orders.
• Weapons, explosives, recovered from attackers.
• Two Tajik border personnel also killed in operation.
  

Tajik security forces killed three armed militants who crossed into the country from Afghanistan and refused to lay down their weapons.

In a statement, Tajikistan’s Press Centre of the Border Troops of the State Committee for National Security said that the incident took place on December 23.

“They intended to carry out an armed attack on one of the border outposts of the Border Troops of the State Committee for National Security of the Republic of Tajikistan,” it added.

Tajik security forces swiftly identified the militants’ location and ordered them to surrender. However, they offered armed resistance, leading the forces to kill all three militants in a combat operation, read the statement.

Tajik forces also recovered firearms, including an M-16 rifle, a Kalashnikov assault rifle and three foreign-made pistols equipped with suppressors, ten hand grenades, one night-vision device, explosives, and other military equipment, from the killed militants.

During the fire exchange, two Border Troops personnel were also killed.

The Press Centre of the Border Troops noted that it was the third incident involving an armed attack following illegal border-crossing from Afghanistan into Tajikistan over the past month.

The Central Asian country assailed the Afghan Taliban regime’s failure to prevent terrorist outfits from using its soil for launching terrorist attacks into its neighbouring countries.

The incident comes weeks after five Chinese nationals were killed and five more injured in attacks launched from Afghanistan.

Tajik authorities and China’s embassy in the country said that the Chinese citizens were targeted in armed and drone attacks.

Following the deadly attacks, China’s embassy in Dushanbe, the capital, advised Chinese companies and personnel to urgently evacuate the border area.

Pakistan has repeatedly invited global attention to increased terrorist safe havens in Afghanistan since the Afghan Taliban returned to power in 2021.

Islamabad has lost nearly 1,200 lives this year alone in terrorism linked to networks based in Afghanistan, Pakistan’s permanent representative to the UN, Ambassador Asim Iftikhar Ahmad, said earlier this month.

Pak-Afghan tensions

The issue of cross-border terrorism escalated after the Afghan Taliban and militants launched unprovoked attacks against Pakistan’s border posts on the night between October 11 and 12.

The clashes led to the killing of over 200 Taliban and affiliated militants, while 23 Pakistani soldiers laid down their lives defending the motherland.

Pakistan also conducted “precision strikes” deep inside Afghanistan, targeting terrorist safe havens in Kandahar province and Kabul.

A temporary 48-hour ceasefire was announced on October 15 at Afghanistan’s request, with the two sides eventually reaching an official ceasefire agreement on October 19 in Qatar in talks mediated by Doha and Turkiye.

Under the deal, terrorism from Afghanistan on Pakistani soil should have stopped immediately, with Islamabad and Kabul agreeing to establish mechanisms to consolidate lasting peace and stability between the two countries.

However, the following talks in Turkiye collapsed after Islamabad refused to accept the Afghan Taliban delegation’s “illogical” arguments and refusal to address Islamabad’s concerns regarding cross-border terrorism.

However, mediators persuaded Pakistan to give the talks another chance, which ultimately resulted in an agreement to uphold the ceasefire.