1. The US Geological Survey says a magnitude 7.4 earthquake has struck near the southern Philippine island of Mindanao. Officials say there is not longer a threat of tsunami.
2. Russian President Vladimir Putin said his country was responsible for shooting down an Azerbaijan Airlines plane that killed 38 people last year. He said the crash was a “tragedy,” and that technical failures in the Russian air defense system were to blame. Putin made the remark at a meeting with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev on Thursday.
3. Hungarian author Laszlo Krasznahorkai has been named the winner of this year’s Nobel Prize in Literature. The 71-year-old writer was born in Hungary and studied law and literature at university.