Following is a summary of current world news briefs.

New Zealand’s Ardern keeps going as earthquake disrupts live event

New Zealand’s Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern, paused briefly as an earthquake rattled the capital Wellington on Friday while she was addressing the nation in a coronavirus briefing, but then continued speaking. Wellington and nearby areas were shaken by a 5.9 magnitude earthquake with the epicentre 35 km (21.75 miles) south-west of Taumarunui in central North Island, according to Geonet. While the shaking was felt widely there were no reports of damages or injuries. The U.S. Geological Survey put the magnitude at 5.6.

In U.N. showdown over Xinjiang, China says ‘lies still lies’

Dozens of countries kept up pressure on China at the United Nations on Thursday over accusations of rights abuses against Uyghur Muslims and other minorities in the country’s Xinjiang region, sparking an angry response from China’s U.N. envoy. Confrontations over Xinjiang between China and mostly Western countries, including the United States, have become a regular occurrence at both the U.N. General Assembly in New York and the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva.

Barbados elects first-ever president, shedding colonial past

Barbados has elected its first-ever president to replace Britain’s Queen Elizabeth as head of state in a decisive step toward shedding the Caribbean island’s colonial past. Sandra Mason was elected late on Wednesday by a two-thirds vote of a joint session of the country’s House of Assembly and Senate, a milestone, the government said in a statement, on its “road to republic.”

Haiti gang leader threatens to kill kidnapped American missionaries

A Haitian man identifying himself as the leader of the gang that kidnapped a group of American and Canadian missionaries said in a video posted on YouTube on Thursday that he was willing to kill “these Americans” if he does not get what he needs. The speaker in the video, dressed in a purple suit, is recognizable as the man known in Haiti by the alias Lamo Sanjou, the leader of the 400 Mawozo gang https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/haitis-400-mawozo-rose-petty-crime-gang-major-kidnapping-ring-2021-10-21 that authorities say is behind the abduction of the missionaries at the weekend.

Putin says Western military backing of Ukraine threatens Russia

President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that the Western-backed military development of Ukraine posed a serious threat to Russia, two days after the U.S. defense secretary staged a show of support for Kyiv and encouraged its aspiration to join NATO. Putin told a group of journalists and Russia experts that Tuesday’s visit to Ukraine by Lloyd Austin, in which he said no third country had the right to veto its hoped-for NATO membership, had effectively paved the way for Kyiv to join.

With Xi-Biden meeting, U.S. aims to show responsible handling of China ties

White House officials are gearing up for a virtual meeting between President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping they hope will show the world Washington can responsibly manage relations between the rival superpowers, people familiar with the matter say. Combative diplomatic exchanges with China early in the Biden administration unnerved allies and U.S. officials believe direct engagement with Xi, who has consolidated power in Beijing to a degree not seen since Mao Zedong, is the best way to prevent the relationship between the world’s two biggest economies spiraling toward conflict.

Syria executes 24 people over deadly forest fires

Syria executed 24 people it said had set fires that swept swathes of forests mainly in the coastal province of Latakia, the ancestral home of Syrian President Bashar al Assad, the justice ministry said on Thursday . Those executed on Wednesday were charged with committing “terrorist acts that led to death and damage to state infrastructure, public and private property,” the ministry said.

Queen Elizabeth back home after first night in hospital in years

Britain’s 95-year-old Queen Elizabeth spent a night in hospital for the first time in years for what royal officials termed ‘preliminary investigations’ but was in good spirits and back at work at her Windsor Castle home on Thursday. The world’s oldest and longest-reigning monarch cancelled an official trip to Northern Ireland on Wednesday. The palace said the queen had been told to rest by her medical staff, and that her ailment was not related to COVID-19.

EU leaders lambast Poland over its challenge to union

European leaders lined up to chastise Warsaw on Thursday for challenging the EU’s legal foundations, but Poland’s premier said he would not bow to “blackmail” as he joined a summit of the bloc’s 27 nations. Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said he was ready to resolve disputes with Brussels, though many are worried that a stubborn ideological rift between eastern and western Europe poses an existential threat to the EU itself.

Ethiopia hits Tigray region in third day of air strikes – government

Ethiopia carried out an air strike on the city of Mekelle for the third day this week, a government spokesperson said, in a campaign to weaken rebellious Tigrayan forces they have been fighting for nearly a year. Spokesperson Legesse Tulu told Reuters the strike hit a military training centre being used by the Tigrayan forces. He said the centre was a former base, known as the Northern Command, for the Ethiopian military in the area.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)