Romania
BUCHAREST - A week of flooding in northern Romania, after unusually heavy rain, has killed 21 people, submerged vast tracts of farmland and driven thousands of people from their homes, but officials said the worst was over.
China
BEIJING - In an unprecedented move, Chinese authorities have ordered a bank to close its doors after it failed to repay debt, a central bank official said.
BEIJING - A disgruntled schoolteacher set off a bomb at a citation ceremony for outstanding instructors in China's southwestern Yunnan province in April, killing himself and five other teachers, police said.
New Zealand
WELLINGTON - New Zealand police searched downtown Wellington for gunmen carrying sawn-off shotguns before they realized the only thing the two were shooting was a movie.
Malaysia
KUALA LUMPUR - A Malaysian court gave a Philippine national the death penalty for dealing in cannabis, the national Bernama news agency said.
Japan
TOKYO - A remote island chain in western Japan was rocked by an earthquake that measured 5.1 on the Richter scale on Monday, but there were no immediate reports of damage or casualties, the public broadcasting network NHK reported.
Cyprus
NICOSIA - A British charter plane with 215 people on board had to return to Cyprus soon after taking off when a fire broke out in the cockpit, police said.
India
NEW DELHI - India will step up security along its borders in the violence-torn state of Jammu and Kashmir following the massacre of 25 Hindus by militants last week, the country's interior minister said Monday.
Egypt
CAIRO - Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, founder of the radical Palestinian Hamas movement, arrived in Cairo from Khartoum for medical tests, airport officials and security sources said.
Indonesia
JAKARTA - More than 500 young Muslim students demonstrated peacefully outside Indonesia's parliament in Jakarta on Monday urging the government to cut prices of basic commodities.
Iraq
BAGHDAD - President Saddam Hussein has ordered steps to tackle a crisis facing Iraq's archaeological treasures after years of looting and smuggling.
Singapore
One of the world's rarest and largest denomination banknotes has been sold for $83,636, a London auction house said.
Lebanon
BEIRUT - About 20 grenades were found on Monday in east Beirut, four days after a car bomb killed two people in the same area, a security source said.
Yemen
SANAA - An opposition Yemeni student group said a demonstrator was killed and a number of others injured and arrested during a recent protest against a steep rise in the prices of gasoline and basic foodstuffs.
Philippines
MANILA - Philippine President-elect Joseph Estrada told the widow of Ferdinand Marcos he would allow the late dictator's burial at Heroes Cemetery if those in attendance were limited to family and if there were no political speeches.