1. Shinzo Abe re-elected Japan PM

    Shinzo Abe won endorsement on December 24 to serve another term as prime minister.

    Abe appointed a former military officer, Gen Nakatani, as defense minister but kept the other members of his previous Cabinet.

    The victory by the ruling Liberal Democrats and their coalition partner the Komei Party was viewed as an endorsement* by the public of Abe’s strategies for reviving Japan’s stagnant economy, despite a record low turnout.

    2. Rebel attacks in India kill 51

    Police in northeast India fired on December 24 on demonstrators protesting against the killings of dozens of people by tribal guerrillas*, killing five of them.

    Militants fighting for a separate homeland for indigenous* Bodo tribesmen went on a killing spree in Assam state on December 23, killing 51 people in four attacks in the space of an hour, the deadliest violence in months.

    3. Police shoot black teen at gas station

    An 18-year-old U.S. black man was shot and killed by police at a gas station on December 23 in a St. Louis suburb near where unarmed teen Michael Brown was killed by a white officer in August.

    A live video showed the gas station was cordoned off* by yellow tape and guarded by police. Police said the man had pointed a handgun at an officer who approached him and another man outside a gas station where the officer was “conducting a routine business check” in the suburb of Berkeley. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch named the dead man as 18-year-old Antonio Martin, citing his mother.

    4. ‘El Gordo’ lottery pays out 2.2b euros

    Thousands of Spaniards, including humble restaurant workers and care home residents, celebrated wins in the world’s biggest lottery draw, scooping up* shares in over 2.2 billion euros (US$2.68 billion) in prizes doled out* across the country.

    El Gordo, or “the Fat One,” is the top award millions vie for every year in the traditional Christmas lottery.

    5. U.S. monitoring tech for Ebola exposure

    A laboratory technician at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) was being monitored on December 25 for possible accidental exposure to the Ebola virus that came during an experiment.

    The person working in a secure laboratory in Atlanta may have come into contact with a small amount of a live virus, CDC spokeswoman Barbara Reynolds said. The experimental material was on a sealed plate, but wasn’t supposed to be moved into the lab in which the technician was working, Reynolds said. The worker will be monitored for 21 days.

    6. AirAsia jet carrying 162 missing

    Rescuers saw yesterday a shadow believed to be part of a plane around the waters where an exit door, several objects and six bodies were found off Pangkalan Bun of Central Kalimantan, Indonesia.

    A massive sea search is underway for the AirAsia plane that disappeared on Sunday while flying from Indonesia to Singapore with 162 people on board.

    More than 12 hours later, shocked family members huddled at the Surabaya airport, from where the Airbus A320 had taken off, awaiting any news of the jetliner*.

    7. Indonesia urged to probe rape

    The Chinese Embassy in Indonesia on Sunday urged Indonesian authorities to investigate a rape case immediately and completely following local media reports that a Chinese female tourist was raped by two security officers in Jakarta’s international airport days ago.

    According to the embassy, the Indonesian authorities have named two suspects. The suspects may be charged for forcing sexual intercourse with a woman, with a maximum sentence of 12 years in prison.

    The victim, who only spoke Mandarin, said she had been sedated* and taken to a nearby hotel. She claimed that she was held in the hotel room for two days and was raped by the two men.(SD-Agencies)