13 feared dead in New Zealand volcano eruption
Updated 7:37 p.m. ET, December 9, 2019
A 5.3-magnitude earthquake has been recorded less than 200 kilometers (124 miles) away from the site of Monday's deadly White Island volcanic eruption.
However the country's official geological hazard information site GeoNet said the two events were "unrelated."
The earthquake occurred off the coast of Gisborne, in northern New Zealand, just after midday local time. There has been no reports of damage so far.
India braces for protests over citizenship bill excluding Muslims
Lower house approves bill, drawing outcry amid claims prime minister Narendra Modi is seeking to sideline the faith
India’s lower house has passed controversial legislationthat will grant citizenship to religious minorities from neighbouring countries, but not Muslims, amid raucous scenes in parliament and protests in the country’s north-east.
The citizenship amendment bill provides that Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis, and Christians fleeing persecution in Muslim-majority Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan can be granted citizenship.
It comfortably passed the lower house with 311 votes in favour and 80 against just after midnight on Tuesday. The legislation seeks to amend the Citizenship Act of 1955, which prohibits illegal migrants from applying for Indian citizenship.
US-Iran prisoner exchange sees thaw in tensions as domestic chaos takes centre stage
Analysis: With both Iran and Washington heading into volatile election years, the prospect of conflict between the two nations is as distant as ever, writes Borzou Daragahi
Iran and the United States appear to be easing tensions as both countries head into political volatile election years, with the threat of an armed conflict that seemed increasingly likely just months ago fading away.
A weekend exchange of detainees between Iran and the United States brokered by diplomats indicated ongoing back-channel discussions among regional and global powers attempting to resolve the standoff between the two countries.
“Thank you to Iran on a very fair negotiation,” US president Donald Trump wrote after the Swiss-brokered prisoner exchange in which US scholar Xiyue Wang was traded for Iranian cancer researcher Masoud Soleimani. “See, we can make a deal together!”
Russia and Ukraine leaders, in first talks, agree to exchange prisoners
The leaders of Russia and Ukraine agreed on Tuesday to exchange all remaining prisoners from the conflict in east Ukraine by the end of the year, but left thorny questions about the region's status for future talks.
Russia's Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, in their first face-to-face meeting, took part in nine hours of talks in Paris, brokered by French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
The conflict in eastern Ukraine that broke out in 2014 has killed more than 13,000 people and aggravated the deepest east-west rift since the Cold War.
Security forces are called ‘shoot and kill’
Law’s disorder in Nigeria
by Marc-Antoine Pérouse de Montclos
The grand narrative of the war on terror usually focuses on atrocities committed by jihadist groups while ignoring those perpetrated by government forces fighting them. Political decision-makers and media comment on the crimes of Boko Haram in the Nigerian state of Borno, bordering Lake Chad: beheading soldiers, executing aid workers, suicide bombing, kidnapping girls. They say less about the crimes of those supposed to be fighting terrorism: torturing prisoners, raping girls in refugee camps, murdering and bombing civilians in Baga (April 2013) or Rann (January 2017).
The GOP's bottom-line Trump defense: Get over it
Analysis: Ultimately, most Republicans said Monday at the Judiciary Committee's impeachment hearing, they saw no evil and heard no evil — except when it came to Trump rival Joe Biden.By Jonathan Allen
The impeachment of President Donald Trump boiled down to a reality test Monday as the Judiciary Committee moved a step closer to drafting articles formally charging the president.
Trump's fellow Republicans mounted a vigorous defense that held — all at once — he didn't do it, nothing he did was wrong and that they will impeach his rival for doing the same thing (even if it's not really the same thing) if the president eventually loses to that rival, former Vice President Joe Biden.
"We already we got the forms — all we have to do is eliminate Donald Trump’s name and put Joe Biden’s name," Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas, said during a raucous and unusual Judiciary hearing in which lawyers for that panel and the House Intelligence Committee testified as witnesses.
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