Hirsi Ali plans to leave country

A Somali-born lawmaker and fierce critic of radical Islam tearfully announced Tuesday that she is leaving the Netherlands, reportedly for the U.S., after the government threatened to revoke her citizenship for lying on her asylum application.

The threat to strip Ayaan Hirsi Ali of Dutch citizenship unleashed a fierce debate in parliament at a time of heightened anti-immigrant sentiment in the country.

Hirsi Ali, 36, has been under police guard since a short film she wrote criticizing the treatment of women under Islam provoked the murder of its director, Theo van Gogh, by an Islamic radical.

She said she decided Monday night to resign from parliament after Immigration Minister Rita Verdonk told her “she would strip me of my Dutch citizenship.”

She declined to say what she will do next, or to comment on Dutch media reports that she will join the American Enterprise Institute in the United States.

Wellington, New Zealand

Deep-sea quake caused no damage

A powerful earthquake hit deep under the South Pacific late Tuesday north of New Zealand, and it rocked a wide area of the country, but no damage or injuries were reported.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center issued a bulletin saying the magnitude 7.4 quake had not generated a destructive Pacific-wide tsunami but warned it could spawn a small tsunami within 60 miles of its epicenter.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake hit at 10:39 p.m. about 90 miles below the seabed, and was centered about 180 miles south-southwest of Raoul Island in the Kermadec island chain, which is 712 miles northeast of New Zealand’s largest city, Auckland.

Later Tuesday night, an earthquake measuring magnitude 6.8 struck western Indonesia, but no damage or casualties were reported and the quake did not appear to have triggered a tsunami.

Beijing

Writer convicted of subversion

A freelance writer was sentenced to 12 years in prison Tuesday, receiving an unusually harsh penalty amid one of China’s most severe media crackdowns since the 1980s.

The sentencing of Yang Tianshui on subversion charges was one of a flurry of court actions Tuesday against Chinese reporters.

In Beijing, prosecutors filed a new indictment against a Chinese researcher for the New York Times who has been in custody since 2004 on state secrets charges. In southern China, a journalist went on trial and pleaded innocent to extortion charges.

Yang was convicted after being accused of posting articles on foreign Web sites, receiving money from abroad and helping a would-be opposition party.

The cases come amid a campaign by President Hu Jintao’s government to tighten control over newspapers, Web sites and other media.