A Mexican journalist has been shot dead in the northern border city of Tijuana, officials say, the third journalist to be killed in the country this year. Lourdes Maldonado López, who had decades of experience, was attacked in her car as she arrived home on Sunday. She had previously said she feared for her life, and was enrolled in a scheme to protect journalists, activists said. The country is one of the world’s most dangerous for journalists, and dozens have been killed in recent years. Many of those targeted covered corruption or powerful drug cartels. Campaigners say the killings are rarely fully investigated, with impunity virtually the norm. The motive for Maldonado’s killing was not clear and no-one has been arrested.(BBC)…[+]

An Australian man has pleaded guilty to abducting four-year-old Cleo Smith and holding her at his home for 18 days. Cleo vanished from her family’s tent last October while on a camping trip in Western Australia, sparking a huge search that gripped the country. Police later found her at a stranger’s house in her hometown of Carnarvon, a short drive from the campsite. Terence Darrell Kelly, 36, admitted a charge of child stealing to a magistrate on Monday. He was remanded in custody to face the Perth District Court in March, and is expected to be sentenced at a later date. Australian media reported that Mr Kelly’s guilty plea had come as a surprise ahead of what many expected to be a lengthy legal process. He has been held in a Perth jail since 5 November – two days after police smashed their way into his locked house, found Cleo inside, and arrested him on a nearby street.(BBC)…[+]

A volcanic eruption in Tonga that triggered a tsunami was hundreds of times more powerful than the atomic bomb the US dropped on Hiroshima during World War Two, Nasa says. The eruption “obliterated” a volcanic island north of the Tongan capital Nuku’alofa, the agency said. Tonga says more than four-fifths of the population has been affected by the tsunami and falling ash. Three people were confirmed killed in the tsunami last week. Before the eruption, the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai volcanic island was two separate islands joined by new land formed in 2015. Nasa says the eruption was so powerful all the new land is gone, along with “large chunks” of the two older islands. The widespread emission of volcanic ash, gases and particles from the eruption has proven to be a massive challenge for Tongan officials. In the immediate aftermath of the eruption and tsunami, there were fears that water sources had been polluted by the thick blanket of ash, increasing the risk of diseases like cholera and diarrhoea. However, officials noted that testing in recent days had cleared ground water and rainwater as safe to drink.(BBC)…[+]