Australia
CANBERRA — Australian right-wing firebrand Pauline Hanson resigned on Monday as leader of her floundering One Nation party in a move aimed at reducing her profile as she prepares to face electoral fraud charges this year.
Bangladesh
BARISAL — At least 50 people were feared dead after a river ferry with 80 passengers sank in southern Bangladesh on Monday, police and the vessel's owner said.
Belgium
BRUSSELS — A passenger train collided with a freight train in eastern Belgium late on Sunday, slightly injuring 17 people, a spokesman for the national railway said.
China
BEIJING — An explosion at a fireworks factory in southern China killed six people and prompted the temporary closure of 170 firecracker producers, a local official said Monday.
Egypt
CAIRO — A Cairo court has barred an Egyptian Coptic Christian from going to Israel to pray in Arab East Jerusalem, citing the danger caused by Israel's "oppressive occupation" of Palestinian land, court sources said on Monday.
England
LONDON — Police in the western English county where Prince Harry has admitted illegally drinking and smoking marijuana refused Monday to rule out legal action against the 17-year-old.
France
PARIS — The owner of the giant Millennium Wheel in Paris defied a court order and opened for business on Monday, threatening to fight police if they tried to take the wheel from the end of Champs Elysees avenue by force.
India
NEW DELHI — Indian Defense Minister George Fernandes said on Monday his visit to Washington this week, against a backdrop of heightened tensions with Pakistan, would help strengthen New Delhi's military ties with the United States.
Indonesia
JAKARTA — Indonesia's president has given the go-ahead for judges to sit on a special court that will try suspects including generals accused of major human rights abuses in East Timor in 1999.
JAKARTA — An Indonesian passenger jet crash landed immediately after taking off from an airport near the town of Pekanbaru on Monday, injuring seven people, officials said.
Jamaica
KINGSTON — Gunmen in a moving car fired wildly at pedestrians on a Kingston street, killing a 5-year-old girl and wounding two men, Jamaican police said Monday.
Malawi
BLANTYRE — Harvard University economist Jeffrey Sachs told African leaders on Monday to intensify their fight against HIV/AIDS and other diseases or see efforts for economic progress come to nothing.
Myanmar
NYA LI PHYO HTA CAMP — The rebel Karen National Union urged Myanmar's military regime on Monday to initiate peace talks aimed at ending five decades of fighting.
Northern Ireland
LONDON — Hundreds of police and soldiers guarded schools across bitterly divided north Belfast on Monday after Protestant militants who claimed responsibility for the killing of a Catholic man over the weekend threatened to target Catholic teachers.
Philippines
MANILA — A Philippine air force training jet crashed into a northern city on Monday, killing at least five people, including a child on the ground, officials said. At least five people were injured.
Russia
MOSCOW — Vyacheslav Shtyrov, a diamond magnate and Kremlin favorite, swept to victory on Monday in a scandal-stained vote in Russia's Siberian diamond region, consolidating President Vladimir Putin's drive to bring regional fiefdoms into line.
MOSCOW — A Russian airliner flying from Germany to Siberia made an emergency landing Monday and ran off the runway, landing in large snowdrifts.
Sweden
STOCKHOLM — A Swedish man convicted of a drugs offense failed to return to prison after a weekend of home leave — but was caught by police at his own wedding. Police allowed the 24-year-old to marry his bride but whisked him back to prison straight afterward, preventing the couple from spending their wedding night together.
Ukraine
KIEV — Ukrainian emergency services said on Monday they were searching for four miners trapped by a rock fall in a coal mine in the eastern Donetsk region.