Australia
CANBERRA — More than 50 bush fires raged around Australia's most populous state Monday, including one only miles from the Parliament building in the nation's capital.
CANBERRA — Australia's government increased security alert levels and issued a general warning Monday, citing a possible threat of terrorism against U.S. or British targets.
Britain
LONDON — A British man who went underground behind blast-proof doors and thick concrete to avoid a family Christmas has emerged early because he was "dying for a pint" of beer.
China
BEIJING — Four Chinese academics, a university staffer and a graduate student convicted of spreading material on the Internet about the banned Falun Gong spiritual group were sentenced to prison terms of up to 12 years, a human-rights organization said.
BEIJING — A woman who sued her boss over sexual advances has lost China's first sexual harassment case, state media reported on Monday.
Germany
BERLIN — A pre-dawn fire at a nursing home in northern Germany on Monday killed six people and injured 25, police said.
India
GUWAHATI — At least five people, including three tribal rebels, were killed in two incidents in the northeastern Indian state of Assam, police said Monday.
Indonesia
JAKARTA — Indonesian Christians flocked to churches across the world's most populous Muslim nation under heavy security on Monday night, many unwilling to let the memory of deadly bomb blasts one year ago keep them at home.
Ireland
DUBLIN — An Irish Protestant minister who does not believe in Christmas or that Jesus was the Son of God has been suspended from his post for three months to "reflect on his statements."
Italy
ROME — Jacques Mayol, the French diving legend who inspired the 1988 film "The Big Blue," was found dead in his villa on the Italian island of Elba. He was 74.
Nepal
KATMANDU — Nepal's tourism ministry said on Monday it has opened 103 new Himalayan peaks for mountaineers to climb from the spring season starting March next year to draw tourists to the country.
Pakistan
ISLAMABAD — Pakistan has ordered a freeze in the assets of two militant groups, Lashkar-e-Tayyaba and Ummah Tameer-e-Nau, after the United States called them terrorists and asked Islamabad to move against them, the central bank said Monday.
Puerto Rico
SAN JUAN — Flooding from Puerto Rico's heaviest December rainfall in four decades forced dozens of people to evacuate, officials said Sunday.
Russia
MOSCOW — A bear ate a local hunter in Russia's Jewish autonomous region in the country's far east, Interfax reported. It was not clear if the bear had killed the hunter or whether the man had died of cold before the animal found him, Interfax quoted local officials as saying.
Singapore
A 28-year-old British woman died during a flight from Singapore to London last week, Singapore Airlines said Monday. Singapore's Straits Times newspaper reported that the woman may have died from deep vein thrombosis, in which blood clots form in the legs. It identified the woman as Alayne Wake.
Solomon Islands
WELLINGTON — A strong earthquake with an estimated magnitude of 7 shook the Solomon Islands on Monday morning, officials said. By early evening there were no reports of damage, injuries or tidal waves in the far-flung archipelago
Sri Lanka
NEW DELHI, India — Sri Lanka's new Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said he hoped the first full cease-fire with Tamil Tiger rebels in nearly seven years would continue beyond its initial period of one month.
United Arab Emirates
DUBAI — An Emirates airline official denied that one of its planes had been hijacked to Yemen on Monday and said engine trouble had forced the aircraft to make an emergency landing at Aden airport.
Vatican
VATICAN CITY — Pope John Paul II's appeal to fast on Dec. 14 in the name of peace and to donate the skipped meal money for victims of terrorism and of war has brought in some $650,000 in donations, an official said Monday.