Iranian opposition website, Kaleme, has reported that at least 631 people have been killed in protests against the rise in fuel prices which began on 15 November. 

The actual figure of those who died during the protests has been disputed as Reuters has reported the death toll was closer to 1,500 and Amnesty International has estimated the figure closer to 1,800.

US President Donald Trump was pictured with a former US Navy Seal who was granted clemency after being committed for war crimes.

Chief petty Officer Eddie Gallagher, who had initially been cleared by a military jury of murder but was convicted with posing with the body of a dead teenage Islamic State fighter, was pictured with Trump in Florida last week.

The New York Times published excerpts of video interviews that fellow soldiers had with military investigators, where they described Gallagher as “evil” and “toxic”. He was accused of killing civilians, including a small girl in Afghanistan.

Some 400 protestors were arrested by police in Hong Kong after hundreds of thousands of people reportedly attended a New Year’s Day march in the city, in the latest round of anti-government demonstrations.

Riot police were deployed and tear gas fired after police officials blamed radical protestors for “hijacking” the march, which was initially permitted by authorities before they attempted to shut it down.

“The government is not willing to back down at this moment,” protestor Grace Ng told the New York Times. “I want the government to compromise, but I think there isn’t enough international attention at the moment to make them bow down to the people.”  

A mother of a British woman who was convicted in Cyprus after authorities claimed she had lied about being raped, has called for a tourism boycott of the country.

Britain’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office expressed “serious concern” over the case of the 19-year-old woman who has convinced of causing “public mischief” in a widely criticised trial. The woman had recanted a claim that she had been raped in a hotel room in Ayia Napa in July. Her lawyers state she had no legal representation or translators present when she recanted the claim, which was done during interrogation by police officers.

Dozens of political prisoners have been released form Nicaragua, following the strengthening of US sanctions on the country and hunger strikes from the mothers of those being detained.

The Nicaraguan government said that at least 91 prisoners had been released, but the New York Times reported that it remained unclear whether their sentences have been converted to a form of house arrest or if the charges had been dropped.

Many of those arrested were detained after taking part in anti-government protests in the country in April 2018.

The Indian government announced it will begin plans for a third lunar mission this year, named “Chandrayaan-3”.

The head of India’s space agency K Sivan made the announcement on Wednesday, stating the project “may spill over” into 2021.

Only Russia, the United States and China have managed to make soft moon landings, with India striving to be the fourth country to do so. The previous Indian attempt - Chandrayaan-2 - failed in September when the module crashed onto the lunar surface.

A Sudanese court has sentenced 29 intelligence officers to death by hanging for torturing and killing a teacher.

Ahmad al-Khair, 36, was arrested and kept in custody due to taking part in the protests against former president Omar al-Bashir in February this year. His family were told by security officials that Ahmed al-Khair died from food poisoning but a state investigation later revealed he had died due to injuries sustained through beating.

<p>The UN has passed a non-binding resolution calling on Myanmar to stop the incitement of violence and hatred against Rohingya and other communities.</p> <p>During a brutal military crackdown in the northern state of Rakhine over 700,000 Rohingya were forced to flee and thousands were killed in 2017.</p> <p>This resolution follows Aung San Suu Kyi’s denial of genocide at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) at the Hague earlier this month.</p> <p>Read more here:</p>

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Guam, which is a US territory, has filed an appeal against a court decision which denied the right of Guam to hold a vote on independence based on the principal of self-determination.

The court ruled that such a vote would violate the constitution as it is ‘race-based’ and contradicts the Fifteenth Amendment.

Human Rights Watch has reported that human rights activist and lawyer, Gamal Eid, the executive director of the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANRHI), was attacked for the second time since October by what appears to be the Egyptian security force.

Eid had told Human Rights Watch that when he left his residence in Cairo Maadi, three cars without license plates awaited him. Around ten men came and beat him to the ground, threw paint on him and threatened him with pistols. When neighbours tried to intervene to stop the attack, the assailants threatened them.