Americans Held Hostage In Iran Win Compensation

The American victims of the Iran hostage crisis of 1979 are to receive compensation. A US spending bill passed last week awards each of the 53 hostages or their estates up to 4.4 million dollars. The money will come in part from a 9-billion dollar penalty paid by the French bank BNP Paribas for breaking sanctions against Iran.

A huge explosion at a butane gas depot in southeastern Nigeria has killed dozens of people. An activist who's been to the scene of the blast in the town of Nnewi said customers had gone to the plant to fill up gas bottles ready to cook meals on Friday, Christmas Day.

Tim Peake, the first British astronaut at the International Space Station phoned home from orbit. He asked the woman who answered; "Hello, is this planet earth?". But it turned out not to be his wife Rebecca. In a tweet, he apologised for dialling the wrong number.