LOS ANGELES, USA - Authorities arrested a German man Monday in connection with dozens of suspected arson attacks that destroyed parked cars, scorched buildings and rattled much of the nation's second-largest city over the New Year's weekend.
BUDAPEST, HUNGARY - Thousands of people were expected to protest in Budapest on Monday night after the government made sweeping changes to the Hungarian constitution that opposition figures say are an attack on democracy.
IRAN - With international pressure mounting against Iran to end its nuclear ambitions, the country has begun ominously rattling its sabers in the Persian Gulf. German commentators on Monday urge caution on both sides.
EGYPT - Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood will not recognize Israel "under any circumstance," the party's deputy leader Dr Rashad Bayoumi told Arabic daily al-Hayat in an interview published on Sunday. In recent Egyptian elections the Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) won 36.3 percent of the list vote, while the ultra-conservative Salafi al-Nour Party took 28.8%.
USA - Governments of the world's leading economies have more than $7.6 trillion of debt maturing this year, with most facing a rise in borrowing costs. Led by Japan's $3 trillion and the US's $2.8 trillion, the amount coming due for the Group of Seven nations and Brazil, Russia, India and China is up from $7.4 trillion at this time last year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Ten-year bond yields will be higher by year-end for at least seven of the countries, forecasts show.
ISRAEL - Israeli and Palestinian negotiators are due to hold their first meeting in more than a year on Tuesday. Israeli envoy Yitzhak Molcho and Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat will meet in the Jordanian capital Amman alongside international mediators.
USA - President Barack Obama signed into law on Saturday a defense funding bill that imposes sanctions on financial institutions dealing with Iran's central bank, while allowing for exemptions to avoid upsetting energy markets.
BEIJING, CHINA - A crowd of Muslims fought with police who demolished a mosque in China's northwest, a police employee and a human rights group said Monday. The violence erupted Friday in Hexi, a town in the Ningxia region, after the mosque was declared an "illegal religious place" and about 1,000 officers arrived to demolish it, the Hong Kong-based Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy said.
USA - About 40,000 state laws taking effect at the start of the new year will change rules about getting abortions in New Hampshire, learning about gays and lesbians in California, getting jobs in Alabama and even driving golf carts in Georgia.
USA - According to the FBI, over 1.5 million background checks on customers were requested by gun dealers to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System in December. Nearly 500,000 of those were in the six days before Christmas.
EUROPE - Out with the old year, in with the new and for investors uncertainty is likely to be the only certainty once more. The euro zone debt crisis is far from resolved, turmoil in the Arab world has shifted to Syria and Iran has threatened to stop the flow of oil from the Gulf if sanctions are imposed due to its nuclear ambitions.
EUROPE - Shaky Europe. Political gridlock. Volatile markets. Familiar themes for those who lived through 2011, and investors should be ready to revisit them next year. With a spiraling debt crisis in Europe, political upheaval around the world, and crumbling creditworthiness in major industrial nations, 2011 was a tough year to know where to invest. 2012 is unlikely to offer much respite.
LOS ANGELES, USA - With about 40 arson fires across Los Angeles in the last three days, the wave of intentional blazes that started in Hollywood on Friday is the worst since the 1992 riots, officials said. Authorities said they remained unsure whether the fires were the work of one arsonist or several people, perhaps including copycats. Although the majority of the fires have occurred in the Hollywood area, some also were reported in the San Fernando Valley, Westside and as far south as Lennox near the 105 Freeway.
UK - An effort to convince families in England that they can eat healthily on a budget is being launched. Four million recipe leaflets will be mailed to families already signed up to the government's Change 4 Life public health campaign. Three supermarket chains have also agreed to offer discounts on products such as fruit, vegetables and fish.
SYRIA - An advisory body to the Arab League has called for the organisation's observers to be withdrawn from Syria because of the ongoing crackdown on protests. The speaker of the Arab Parliament said the monitors had to leave "considering the continued killing of innocent civilians by the Syrian regime".