Top News Stories –

New Zealand earthquake: Two dead following powerful tremor –
A powerful magnitude-7.8 earthquake has struck New Zealand’s South Island, killing at least two people. The quake hit just after midnight on Monday (11:02 GMT on Sunday), north-east of Christchurch. It was felt as far afield as the capital Wellington on the North Island, 120 miles (200km) away. A tsunami arrived about two hours later. Officials warned everyone along the eastern coast to head inland or for higher ground. Police said one person died in the town of Kaikoura on the eastern coast, which has been cut off by road and where electric power is out and phones are down. Another died in Mount Lyford, a ski resort nearby. It is not yet clear how they were killed. [BBC]

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Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

• Internal conflict in Myanmar
  • Rohingya insurgency in Western Myanmar
    • Eight people are killed and 36 are arrested in clashes between the Myanmar Army and what are believed to be Rohingya insurgents in Rakhine State. (Reuters)
• Iraqi Civil War (2014–present)
  • Human Rights Watch says that Kurdish Regional Government forces have destroyed Arab homes and villages in northern Iraq in what may amount to a war crime. (Reuters)
  • Battle of Mosul (2016)
    • The ancient Assyrian city of Nimrud, south of Mosul, is recaptured by the Iraqi Army after heavy fighting with ISIL militants. (The Guardian)
• Syrian Civil War
  • Militants launch projectiles containing toxic gas in an area near Aleppo International Airport, injuring at least 28 people. (South Front)
  • The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says an explosion from a suspected airstrike at a border crossing in Kurdish-held Afrin Canton kills 12 people. (AP)

Business and economics

• Volkswagen emissions scandal
  • A new class action lawsuit, filed on Tuesday in U.S. federal court in Illinois, claims the Volkswagen Group used emission defeat devices in at least six of its Audi V6 gasoline engines. (UPI) (Auto Week)(Industry Week)

Disasters and accidents

• A 6.2 magnitude earthquake strikes northwest Argentina, near Chilecito in La Rioja Province. No reports of damages or injuries. (AP)

International relations

• Australia–United States relations
  • Australia and the United States reach a deal to relocate asylum seekers from Nauru and Papua New Guinea‘s Manus Island to the U.S. (AAP via Yahoo News Australia)

Law and crime

• Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte threatens to suspend the country’s habeas corpus “if forced to” by what he says the worsening lawlessness in the country. He mentioned in the same speech, the alleged widespread illegal drug trade in the country, the rebellion in Mindanao, and the worsening campaign against the militant Maute group. (Philippine Daily Inquirer)

Politics and elections

• Bulgarian presidential election, 2016
  • Bulgarians head to the polls in a presidential runoff between BSP backed Rumen Radev, of the socialist opposition, and Tsetska Tsacheva, Chairwoman of the National Assembly, from incumbent prime-minister Boyko Borisov‘s conservative GERB. Exit polls by Alpha Research and Gallup International show Radev with about 58 percent of the vote with Tsacheva getting around 35 percent. (novinite.com)(Reuters)
• Moldovan presidential election, 2016
  • Voters in Moldova head to the polls in the country’s presidential runoff between two opposition candidates, Igor Dodon, from the pro-Russian socialist PSRM, and Maia Sandu, from the pro-EU liberal PAS, with Dodon expected to win. Preliminary results, in this first Moldovan election where the president is chosen by national votes rather than by parliament, will be announced Monday. (ABCNEWS) (Voice of America)
• 2016 South Korean political scandal
  • A South Korean official says prosecutors will question President Park Geun-hye, no later than Wednesday, about the political corruption scandal. This will be the first time a sitting president is questioned by prosecutors in a criminal case. (Reuters)
• Presidential transition of Donald Trump, Proposed cabinet of Donald Trump
  • President-elect of the United States Donald Trump says he plans to deport or imprison up to 3 million illegal migrants, targeting those with criminal records. (BBC)
  • President-elect Donald Trump names Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus as his White House Chief of Staff. (BBC)
  • Donald Trump’s presidential campaign chief executive and Breitbart News executive chairman, Stephen Bannon, is named as Trump’s Counselor to the President. (Sky News)
• Protests against Donald Trump
  • Trump’s campaign manager Kellyanne Conway asks outgoing U.S. President Barack Obama and former U.S. First Lady and Democratic Party presidential nominee Hillary Clinton to discourage the protests. (The Washington Post)
• 2016 Turkish purges
  • The Turkish Defense Ministry announces about 300 Turkish naval officers, suspected of having ties to the failed government coup, have been suspended or dismissed. (UPI)

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