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• Turkey's Constitutional Court ruled that a more than two-year block on access to online encyclopaedia Wikipedia in the country is a violation of freedom of expression.


• The ruling opens the way for lifting the website ban, which has been in place since 2017 due to entries that accused Turkey of having links to terrorist organisations.


• On its website, the court said it had ruled "that freedom of expression, which is under the protection of the 26th clause of the Constitution, had been violated."

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• Communities across Asia commemorated the more than 230,000 victims of the Indian Ocean tsunami, the 15th anniversary of one of the world’s most deadly disasters.


• On the morning after Christmas Day in 2004, a 9.1 magnitude quake off northern Sumatra island triggered a tsunami with waves as high as 17.4 meters (57 feet) that swept over vulnerable coastal areas of Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, Thailand, and nine other countries.

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• US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday he and Chinese President Xi Jinping will have a signing ceremony to sign the first phase of the US-China trade deal agreed to this month.


• "We will be having a signing ceremony, yes," Trump told reporters. "We will ultimately, yes, when we get together.


• And we'll be having a quicker signing because we want to get it done. The deal is done, it's just being translated right now."

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• Exactly a century ago, in 1919, US President Woodrow Wilson, in the backdrop of the first World War, decided that there had to be a new way of governing the world.


• From the anarchy that prevailed in the international system, it was time to devise both a set of principles — he came up with 14 — and an institutional framework to guide inter-state relations.


• The world, devastated by the war, saw potential in the idea to establish a sustainable and just peace. At the Paris Peace Conference after the war, which eventually culminated in the Treaty of Versailles, the US president himself presided over the committee to draft the covenant of what came to become the League of Nations, the precursor to the United Nations.

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• Two days after a German student was forced to leave the country for participating in an anti-citizenship act protest in Chennai, a Norwegian tourist in Kochi in Kerala may face a similar fate.


• Foreign Regional Registration Office (FRRO) in Kochi summoned 74-year-old Janne Mette-Johannson, who arrived from Norway on a tourist visa two months ago and questioned her about being present in an anti-CAA protest in the port city. Johannson, a regular visitor to India since 2014, said her visa is valid till March 2020.

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• Here are today’s top news, analysis and opinion curated for you at this hour. Know all about the latest news and other news updates from Hindustan Times.


• India, Iran to boost the economic viability of Chabahar port


• The understanding was reached when external affairs minister S Jaishankar visited Tehran on December 22, 23 to co-chair the Joint Commission meeting with his Iranian counterpart Javad Zarif.

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• Union Home Minister Amit Shah will address a public rally in Shimla to commemorate BJP’s second year in power in the state.


• He will also be the chief guest at the ‘1st Ground Breaking Ceremony of Himachal Pradesh Global Investors’ Meet- 2019.


• Shimla police have made adequate arrangements for security and traffic management near the venues.

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• University students in the coming years may get to decide the time and place of when they sit for examinations as higher education sector regulator UGC has given a go-ahead to the concept of on-demand testing.


• In its latest guidelines on evaluation reforms which were released by Union human resources development (HRD) minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank, the University Grants Commission has held that a new national board should be created to conduct examinations on demand.

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• The RBI will conduct a second round of simultaneous bond buying and selling on Monday in an effort to lower long-term borrowing costs.


• It will purchase ₹10,000 crore worth of government bonds maturing in 2029 and sell ₹10,000 crore worth of short-term government bonds maturing in 2020.


• The move is similar to the US Federal Reserve's 'Operation Twist' in 2011-12.

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• Real Kashmir FC defeated defending champions Chennai City FC 2-1 in the ongoing I-League 2019-20 in their first home match since the abrogation of Article 370.


• While Danish Farooq put hosts in the front in the 22nd minute, Bazie Armand doubled the lead in the 27th minute. Syed Suhail Pasha was Chennai's lone scorer in the 48th minute.