Despite a bright bowling performance from the West Indies seamers, half-centuries from New Zealand’s Devon Conway and Mitchell hay extended the hosts’ advantage after an absorbing second day of the Wellington Test. New Zealand secured a 73-run first-innings lead before a double-wicket burst from their quicks left West Indies still 41 behind with eight wickets in hand.

West Indies produced bursts of quality with the ball to keep pegging New Zealand back, and several home batters contributed to their own dismissals with loose shots. But the visitors also offered enough scoring opportunities for Conway and Hay to make valuable inroads.

Conway’s 60 – his first fifty against West Indies and 13th overall – anchored one end, while debutant Hay struck an enterprising 61 from No. 6. Their efforts allowed New Zealand to declare at 278 for 9, with the injured Blair Tickner not batting.

The Situation Report issued by the Disaster Management Center at 0600 AM today [11th December 2025] confirms that there has been no addition to the death toll in the past 24 hours and remains at 639. The number of missing persons has reduced by ten [10] and stands at 193.

There is a slight reduction in the  number of persons who are at safety centers and, stands at 85,351  down from 86,040 yesterday.  Five safety centers have also closed down in the past 24 hours and  873 safety centers are still being maintained.

The United States has seized an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela, where President Donald Trump has been threatening military action for the last several months.

Members of the Trump administration confirmed reports that the US coastguard led an operation to commandeer the vessel on Wednesday afternoon.

But few details have been released about the circumstances of the seizure.

“We’ve just seized a tanker off the coast of Venezuela – large tanker, very large, largest one ever seized, actually,” Trump said during an event at the White House. “And other things are happening. So you’ll be seeing that later, and you’ll be talking about that later with some other people.”

When faced with questions about the tanker at a round table with business leaders, Trump encouraged reporters to “follow the tanker” to find out more.

He also declined to identify the vessel’s owner. But, he added, “I assume we’re going to keep the oil.”

The Venezuelan government responded to the seizure, accusing the US of carrying out a “blatant theft”, which it described as an “act of international piracy, publicly announced by the President of the United States”.

Venezuela would “defend its sovereignty, natural resources, and national dignity with absolute determination”, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement, adding that it would also denounce the US before international bodies.

US Attorney General Pam Bondi posted on social media that the tanker had been seized for transporting “sanctioned oil from Venezuela and Iran”.

“For multiple years, the oil tanker has been sanctioned by the United States due to its involvement in an illicit oil shipping network supporting foreign terrorist organizations,” she wrote.

Her post was accompanied by a video that showed US soldiers rappelling onto the tanker from military helicopters. Bondi explained that the Department of Defense, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Department of Homeland Security cooperated with the coastguard on the operation.

The takeover of the oil tanker is likely to further inflame tensions with Venezuela, as Trump continues with his campaign of “maximum pressure” against the South American country.

[Aljazeera]