News Headlines - 26 December 2019

▽Ari Behn: Ex-husband of Norwegian princess dies by suicide - CNN

Ari Behn, an author and the former husband of a Norwegian princess, died by suicide on Christmas Day, Behn's family's spokesman Geir Håkonsund announced... Behn, 47, was the ex-husband of Princess Martha Louise, the eldest child of Norway's King Harald V and Queen Sonja, and the fourth in line to the throne. They married in 2002 and announced they were separating in 2016, according to Behn's website. The divorce was finalized in 2017.

▽Hong Kong protests: Christmas marked by demonstrations and tear gas - CNN

Anti-government protesters returned to the streets of Hong Kong over the Christmas holiday, clashing with riot police in malls and busy shopping districts across the semiautonomous Chinese territory... Hundreds of black-clad protesters, many wearing reindeer antlers, occupied malls and other shopping areas on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day as part of the months-long campaign for democratic and police reforms in the city.
Police accused the protesters of "rioting" and vandalism, and attempted to disperse them using pepper spray and batons while indoors, and firing tear gas and deploying water cannons on the streets.

▽Chinese man executed for killing family of four in Fukuoka：The Asahi Shimbun

Justice Minister Masako Mori holds a news conference in Tokyo after a Chinese man was executed in Fukuoka on Dec. 26. (Kazuhiro Nagashima)
A Chinese man was executed on Dec. 26 for his involvement in murdering a family of four and dumping their bodies into the sea in Fukuoka in 2003, the Justice Ministry said.
Wei Wei, 40, a former vocational school student in Japan, was the first person executed under Justice Minister Masako Mori, who assumed the post in October. It was also the first death penalty carried out in Japan since August.

▽Annular solar eclipse observed in Southeast Asia | NHK WORLD

People in some Southeast Asian nations have been treated to a celestial show known as a "ring of fire" when the moon moved in front of the sun.
The annular solar eclipse was observed in large areas near the equator, including Singapore and Malaysia on Thursday.

▽Japan set to break record for highest yearly average temperature - The Mainichi

Japan's average temperature for 2019 is expected to hit an all-time high since records started to be kept in 1898, the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) announced on Dec. 23... Relatively high temperatures continued to be observed across the country this year, with the average temperature estimated to be 0.92 degrees Celsius higher than the mean temperatures between 1981 and 2010.