NEW YORK, Dec 19 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Women's rights campaigners in Lebanon said they were confident that lawmakers were set to abolish a law that absolves convicted rapists of their punishment if they marry their victim. Rights groups have led a campaign protesting the law on the grounds it sides with rapists rather than protecting victims.

Elie Kayrouz, a member of Lebanon's parliament who sits on a parliamentary committee tasked with examining the law - article 522 of the penal code - said the committee had agreed to recommend its repeal. "For article 522 there is consensus among all members of the committee to abolish this article," he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation in a telephone interview.

But the committee has yet to issue a formal statement announcing its decision because it was still working on reforming other elements of the penal code, Kayrouz said.

In order to become law, parliament will have to vote on a bill following the parliamentary committee's recommendations. "It is likely that the parliament will pass ... the repeal of article 522 as proposed by the committee," said Rothna Begum, Middle East women's rights researcher at Human Rights Watch.

By Natasha Bertrand

At least nine people were killed and 50 were wounded after a truck plowed into a Christmas market in Berlin on Monday evening, German police said. Berlin police tweeted that "a suspicious person was arrested near #Breitscheidplatz," the site of the incident. Police said they are investigating whether the suspect was the truck driver.

A person who had been in the truck's passenger seat at the time of the incident was killed in the crash, police said.  The video below appears to show the scene in the aftermath of the incident: The truck, which apparently belonged to a Polish transportation company, ran into the market outside the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church about 8 p.m. local time on Monday.

The owner of the company told German newspaper Bild that he had not communicated with the driver of the truck since about 4 p.m. local time, approximately four hours before the incident. He said he assumed the truck was stolen. The passenger who was killed in the crash was Polish, Reuters reported, citing German police. The nationality of the suspected driver is still unclear.

Facebook has activated its safety-check feature for "The Attack in Berlin, Germany." A bystander tweeted that "there is no road nearby," indicating she believed that the incident was not an accident.

by Natasha Bertrand

The assassination on Monday of Russia's ambassador to Turkey at an art gallery in Ankara is unlikely to fracture relations between the two countries as they work to improve their tumultuous relationship, analysts said. "On the contrary, both Russia and Turkey will point to the murder as reason why they should cooperate more closely in fighting terrorism," geopolitical expert Ian Bremmer, president of the political risk firm Eurasia Group, told Business Insider on Monday.

"Erdogan will surely express great regret to the Russian, and acknowledge that Turkey must do more in their domestic security environment," Bremmer said, referring to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. "That means more crackdowns at home, but not a sudden blowup with Moscow."

The death of the ambassador, Andrey Karlov, immediately prompted comparisons to the assassination of Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo in 1914 that led Austria-Hungary to declare war on Serbia, which ultimately sparked World War I.

But statements released by Russian and Turkish officials in the aftermath of Karlov's death suggested Moscow and Ankara were determined not to let the incident derail their rapprochement. Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım said in a statement that the government would not allow the assassination to harm Russian-Turkish relations.

Erdogan echoed Yildirim's sentiment, calling the attack "provocation" aimed at damaging Turkey's normalization of ties with Russia. He said that Turkey and Russia will jointly investigate the assassination, reiterating that "intense cooperation with Russia" over Aleppo was "helping to save lives." "I call out to those who are trying to break this relationship," Erdogan continued, "Your expectations are wasted."

Nike is breaking new ground with the HyperAdapt 1.0, its first self-lacing sneaker for the general public. The sneakers are pretty slick and easy to use for a first-generation product, and they're full of promise for things to come, as I said in my hands-on review of the shoe.

For most buyers, however, there remains a $720 barrier to purchase.  Though the shoe is not part of a limited-time collection, it's being rolled out slowly, in waves, and only in particular stores in the US. Interested customers need an appointment to test out or purchase the shoe, and stock can be hard to come by depending on how you time your visit. Nike says it has seen an "extremely strong response" from customers interested in the product.

Though it's not the newest Jordan-branded shoe or a limited-time collaboration, it's clear who the shoe is targeting with its high price and limited supply: collectors, according to NPD sports retail analyst Matt Powell. "I think the shoe will sell very well," Powell told Business Insider. Flight Club, one of the biggest shoe resellers both in New York City and online, has noticed that demand for the shoe has been high. 

"Since its release, the Nike HyperAdapt 1.0s have sold extremely well for us," Flight Club spokesman Steven Luna told Business Insider. "Being the first of its kind, a self-lacing sportswear shoe, we were certain it would generate much fanfare amongst sneaker and technology enthusiasts."