25 Dec 2018; AFP: US President Donald Trump vowed Tuesday he would not reopen the government until he gets $5 billion to fund his border wall, as the partial government shutdown dragged into a fourth day.

Trump's demand for a physical barrier on the US-Mexico border -- a pillar of his election platform -- has been rejected by Democrats and some Republicans. In retaliation, Trump refused last week to sign a wider spending bill, temporarily stripping funding from swaths of the government.

MOSCOW, December 25. /TASS/. Members of several Syrian opposition armed units are ready to lay down their arms and surrender to the Syrian army once US troops and their allies leave the Al-Tanf base in southeastern Syria, the Surya Al-An news portal reporters on Tuesday. According to the news portal, a large number of militants stationed in a 55-wide area around Al-Tanf have expressed readiness to surrender and make reconciliation agreements with the Syrian authorities.

26 Dec 2018; DW: The 8-year-old migrant boy was in US Border Patrol custody along with his father when he fell ill. He is the second Guatemalan child to die in custody at the border this month.

Another Central American child died during detention in the state of New Mexico, US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) confirmed on Tuesday. The boy was an 8-year-old from Guatemala.

JAKARTA, Dec. 25 (Xinhua) -- The death toll from the tsunami triggered by a volcanic eruption in Sunda Strait of western Indonesia has climbed to 429 so far, with a total of 1,459 others injured, a spokesman of the national disaster agency said on Tuesday.

The tsunami, triggered by an underwater landslide after the eruption of Anak Krakatau volcano Saturday night, destroyed 882 houses, 73 hotels and villas and scores of buildings along the coastlines, and displaced a total of 16,082 people, according to spokesman of the National Disaster Management Agency Sutopo Purwo Nugroho.

26 Dec 2018; DW: Japan will resume commercial whaling in July 2019. Tokyo has long deflected criticism for its commercial whaling activities, arguing that eating whale meat is a part of its culture.

Japan will withdraw from the International Whaling Commission (IWC), a government spokesman confirmed on Wednesday. The move sets the stage for Japan to resume commercial whaling activities next year.

MOSCOW, December 25. /TASS/. The family of Russian national Maria Butina, arrested in the United States on charges of conspiracy and acting as a foreign agent, needs about 30 mln rubles ($436,000) to pay her lawyer’s fees, Maria’s father Valery Butin told a Russian TV show on Tuesday.

"The debt amounts to about 30 mln rubles at the moment. It is indeed a huge debt. The case is politicized, this is why the fees are that high but the lawyer did not abandon the case in July and has been actually working for free since then," Butin said.

MOSCOW, Dec. 25 (Xinhua) -- Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has signed a decree expanding the list of Ukrainian individuals and entities subject to sanctions, the government said Tuesday.

Moscow will add over 200 Ukrainian citizens and legal entities to the list that already has 322 individuals and 68 entities, according to a Russian government statement.

"This was done to protect the interests of the Russian state, companies and citizens," Medvedev tweeted following his signing of the decree.

25 Dec 2018; DW: Despite the yellow vests winning a reprieve from a hike in fuel taxes, millions of French people want more done to fight climate change. Their legal case for lower carbon emissions could take several years.

A petition to force the French government to take urgent action against climate change has grown to 1.7 million signatures in just a few days, the organizers' website showed on Tuesday.

26 Dec 2018; DW: Journalist Abderrazak Zorgui set himself on fire and called for a revolution over poor living conditions and corruption. His death has triggered protests in a provincial city that threaten to spread.

Clashes between protesters and police erupted for the second day in Tunisia on Tuesday after a journalist set himself on fire to protest poor living conditions in the North African state.

TIANJIN, China (AP) — About two dozen plainclothes police were stationed outside a courthouse in northern China on Wednesday as the trial of a prominent human rights lawyer was expected to unfold.

Reporters, foreign diplomats and supporters were prevented from approaching the municipal court in Tianjin city where lawyer Wang Quanzhang was to be tried.

26 Dec 2018; AFP: Banned Australian player Cameron Bancroft on Wednesday confirmed David Warner asked him to alter the ball during the tampering scandal in South Africa and said he went along with it "to fit in".

Bancroft was seen using sandpaper to try to rough up the ball in the Cape Town Test in March, receiving a nine-month ban from international and domestic cricket for his part in an incident that rocked the sport.

Warner and then captain Steve Smith were exiled for a year after all three were found to be involved.

Imphal, Dec 25 (PTI) The All Manipur Working Journalists' Union (AMWJU) and Editors' Guild Manipur (EGM) Tuesday condemned the detention of journalist Kishorchandra Wangkhem under the stringent National Security Act (NSA).

In a joint special general body meeting held on Tuesday at the Manipur Press Club, here both AMWJU and EGM condemned the detention of Wangkhem under NSA, said a press release issued by Sukham Nanda, the general secretary of AMWJU.