Thirty-eight people were killed when an Azerbaijan Airlines plane with 67 on board crashed in Kazakhstan on Wednesday, a senior Kazakh official said.

Angry protests broke out Wednesday in several areas of Syria after a video circulated showing an attack on an Alawite shrine in the country's north, a war monitor and witnesses said.

The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said on Wednesday that 23 people had been killed in the Palestinian territory in the past 24 hours, taking the overall war death toll to 45,361.

The incoming head of the world's Anglicans urged the Church of England to "kneel in penitence" in a Christmas Day sermon as its leadership faces criticism over the handling of sexual abuse scandals.

Hamas said Wednesday that "new conditions" imposed by Israel had delayed the finalisation of a ceasefire agreement in Gaza, but acknowledged that negotiations were still proceeding.

China on Wednesday said it would extend its anti-dumping probe into brandy imported from the European Union due to the case's "complexity", prolonging a trade standoff between Beijing and Brussels.