A strong earthquake has hit the Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Tajikistann region, rattling buildings and forcing sleeping residents out of their homes. More than 30 people were injured as houses or walls collapsed in the Pakistani city of Peshawar.
The earthquake’s magnitude was between 6.2 and 6.9. According to ABC News, the epicentre was 285 kilometres from Kabul near Afghanistan’s borders with Pakistan and Tajikistan but tremors were felt as far away as Islamabad and New Delhi. The earthquake was more than 202 kilometres below the surface and lasted nearly a minute.
ABC News reports a Christmas Day bushfire in Australia has destroyed at least 53 homes in Victoria. No injuries or deaths have been reported so far. Hundreds of fire-fighters battled the blaze along the Great Ocean Road in Victoria’s south-west. A change to cooler weather and rain has greatly reduced the threat, but some emergency warnings remain in place.
Irrawaddy says more than 50 people are feared dead after another landslide at gold and jade mines in northern Myanmar. The latest spill occurred near jade mines in Kachin state, 350 kilometres north of Mandalay, where at least 115 people were killed in a landslide in late November.
According to Telesur, more than 150,000 people in Paraguay, Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil have been driven from their homes by some of the worst flooding in years. Heavy summer rains have caused rivers to swell across a vast area. In Paraguay, the most affected country, President Horacio Cartes declared a state of emergency, freeing up $3.5 million (€3.1 million) in relief funds.
VOA News reports at least 14 people have died during several consecutive days of severe weather systems that have resulted in more than a dozen tornadoes across a number of US states, the worst reported in Alabama. More severe weather was also in store for parts of Georgia and Tennessee that were again being pounded with rain. Residents have been warned to brace for flash flooding and possible tornadoes.
The Nation reports Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has met his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif during a surprise visit to the Pakistani city of Lahore. Modi, who was returning to India from Afghanistan, is the first Indian PM to visit Pakistan since 2004. The pair met briefly in Paris last month on the sidelines of the COP21 climate change conference.
France 24 says a crowd has vandalised a Muslim prayer hall in Corsica in apparent retaliation for an attack on firefighters. Officials say a small group of protesters also tried to burn copies of the Koran in the capital, Ajaccio. Several hundred people gathered in the city to express support for two firefighters and a police officer injured on Thursday. The French government has condemned the attacks.
El Pais reports a dawn rush by 300 migrants on Spain’s barb-wired Africa enclave of Ceuta ended with two people drowned and 12 others badly hurt.
The Red Cross said 185 individuals made it onto Spanish territory. Meanwhile, a crowd of some 40 African migrants rioted in Roquetas del Mar in the province of Almeria, a southern Spanish beach city, setting fire to garbage bins and cars, after a 41-year-old man from Guinea-Bissau was stabbed to death.
Cadena Ser says police suspect the man was stabbed following a dispute over a traffic accident. Fox News reports the UN General Assembly has trimmed its core budget for the next two years, with the aim of cutting waste. The 193-member General Assembly has agreed to a $5.4 billion (€4.9 million) budget for the years 2016/2017 – $100 million (€91 million) less than for the past two years. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon lamented the cuts, telling the assembly that the cuts were effectively penny-wise but pound-foolish.
Variety announces the death of George Clayton Johnson, who wrote the first episode of the original Star Trek television series and created the story for the first Oceans 11 film and the movie Logan’s Run. He was 86. Johnson also wrote several classic episodes for the 1960s TV series The Twilight Zone.
An 84-year-old New Yorker’s date with two 17-year-old twin sisters ended with the senior citizen being tied up and robbed.
The New York Times reports that Paul Aronson met up with 17-year-old Shaina Foster through SeekingArrangement.com – a sugar daddy site. The sisters allegedly tied Aronson up, stole cash from his wallet and took his credit card. They then went on a shopping spree and bought makeup.
New Zealand Herald reports unwanted Christmas gifts are flooding auction website Trade Me. Boxing Day is one of the sites busiest and today is proving to be no exception. Among the slew of socks, bevy of books and crates of cricket gear are one-of-a-kind auctions.
Trade Me’s picks for popular unwanted gifts this year: Adele CDs, selfie sticks, socks and lingerie CNN says in what Brazil’s Health Ministry is calling an “unprecedented situation”, six states have declared a state of emergency and health officials have warned women not to get pregnant due to a mosquito-carried virus linked to brain damage in infants. The Zika virus has been tied to microcephaly, a rare neurological condition in which an infant’s head is underdeveloped, which can even cause death.