MELBOURNE, Dec 30 (Reuters) - In the hinterlands of Australia's historic goldfields, Vicki Plumridge jumps for joy when she digs a small golden nugget out of the earth. Read full story

MOSCOW, Dec 30 (Reuters) - Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has signed a decree pardoning 22 prisoners, the Belarusian news agency Belta reported on Tuesday. Read full story

DHAKA, Dec 30 (Reuters) - Khaleda Zia, who became Bangladesh's first female prime minister in 1991 and went on to develop a bitter rivalry with Sheikh Hasina as they spent decades trading power, died on Tuesday after a long illness. She was 80. Read full story

QARDAHA, Syria, Dec 30 (Reuters) - Khairallah Dib needed a promise of amnesty to come out of hiding. Read full story

ISTANBUL, Dec 30 (Reuters) - Turkish police detained 110 suspects in an operation against Islamic State on Tuesday, a day after three police officers and six militants were killed in a gunfight in northwest Turkey, the Istanbul chief prosecutor's office said. Read full story

Dec 30 (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia said on Tuesday its national security was a red line, hours after an airstrike on Yemen's southern port of Mukalla by a Saudi-led coalition, and gave UAE forces 24 hours to leave, in Riyadh's strongest language against Abu Dhabi yet. Read full story

DHAKA, Dec 30 (Reuters) - Bangladesh's first female prime minister, Khaleda Zia, died after a prolonged illness, her opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party said on Tuesday. Read full story

SYDNEY, Dec 30 (Reuters) - Two gunmen who allegedly opened fire on a Jewish celebration on Sydney's Bondi Beach earlier this month acted alone and there was "no evidence" they were part of a militant cell, police said on Tuesday. Read full story

(Corrects story to fix spelling in headline) Read full story

SAN SALVADOR, Dec 29 (Reuters) - El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele, who came to power in 2019 and is now serving a second term which critics have called unconstitutional, said he was open to staying in power for another decade. Read full story

WASHINGTON, Dec 29 (Reuters) - The U.S. military said it killed two men in a strike on a boat suspected of carrying drugs in international waters in the eastern Pacific Ocean on Monday. Read full story

LIMA, Dec 29 (Reuters) - Shamans in Peru gathered for an annual New Year's ritual on Monday where they made predictions for the year to come, including illness for U.S. President Donald Trump and the downfall of Venezuelan counterpart Nicolas Maduro. Read full story

Dec 29 (Reuters) - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, in an interview published late on Monday, said the West must understand that Russia holds the strategic initiative in Ukraine as discussions move forward on a possible settlement. Read full story

Dec 29 (Reuters) - Winter Storm Ezra disrupted holiday travel across the U.S. Northeast, Midwest and Great Lakes for a third straight day on Monday, causing thousands of flight delays and hundreds of cancellations as airlines scrambled to recover and meteorologists warned of a brewing "bomb cyclone" that could further snarl trips ahead of the New Year's holiday. Read full story

SEOUL, Dec 29 (Reuters) - The wife of former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol interfered in state affairs in return for expensive valuables and money, a special prosecutor said on Monday. Read full story

SYDNEY, Dec 29 (Reuters) - Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Monday an independent review into law enforcement agencies set up after the Bondi mass shooting will assess whether authorities could have taken additional steps to prevent the terror attack. Read full story

KATHMANDU, Dec 29 (Reuters) - Two popular leaders have formed an alliance ahead of March parliamentary elections in Nepal that will challenge the older parties which have dominated the Himalayan nation's politics for over three decades, party officials and analysts said on Monday. Read full story

SEOUL, Dec 29 (Reuters) - South Korean President Lee Jae Myung on Monday apologised to the families of the 179 people who died in a Jeju Air crash a year ago, vowing to reveal the truth behind the worst aircraft accident on the country's soil. Read full story

JAKARTA, Dec 29 (Reuters) - A fire at a retirement home in the city of Manado on Indonesia's on Sulawesi island has killed 16 people, a local police official was quoted as saying on Monday by state news agency Antara. Read full story

MEXICO CITY, Dec 28 (Reuters) - Mexican authorities said on Sunday that at least 13 people were killed after an Interoceanic Train carrying 250 people derailed in the southern state of Oaxaca. Read full story

SEOUL, Dec 29 (Reuters) - North Korean leader Kim Jong Un oversaw the launch of long-range strategic cruise missiles on Sunday, which confirmed the integrity of its nuclear power and counter-attack readiness in the face of security threats, state media KCNA said on Monday. Read full story

VALENCIA, Dec 28 (Reuters) - Torrential rains flooded Spain's southern and eastern provinces over the weekend, with one person dead and two missing on Sunday evening as overflowing riverbeds swept away cars and motorcycles and authorities warned residents to stay indoors. Read full story

SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 26 (Xinhua) -- Four people were injured in a shooting on Friday in San Jose, U.S. state of California, local police said. Read full story

Dec 26 (Reuters) - A group of Venezuelans who were sent to a maximum-security El Salvador prison from the U.S. and then returned to Venezuela called on Friday for the United States to comply with a ruling that would allow them to challenge their deportation in U.S. courts. Read full story

Dec 26 (Reuters) - President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Friday that Russia was using ordinary apartment blocks on the territory of its ally Belarus to attack Ukrainian targets and circumvent Kyiv's defences. Read full story

SAO PAULO, Dec 26 (Reuters) - Brazil Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes on Friday ordered the preventive detention of the former head of the country's federal highway police, who was captured in Paraguay, according to a court document seen by Reuters and information from two people familiar with the matter. Read full story

LONDON, Dec 26 (Reuters) - High-profile activist Alaa Abd el-Fattah, who was released from prison after an Egyptian presidential pardon in September, has arrived in Britain, the Egyptian-British campaigner's family and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said on Friday. Read full story

WASHINGTON, Dec 26 (Reuters) - Moscow is likely stationing new nuclear-capable hypersonic ballistic missiles at a former airbase in eastern Belarus, a development that could bolster Russia's ability to deliver missiles across Europe, two U.S. researchers have found by studying satellite imagery. Read full story

TRIPOLI, Dec. 25 (Xinhua) -- The Libyan Interior Ministry said on Thursday that the Turkish chief public prosecutor and a Libyan committee investigating the crash of a plane carrying Libyan military officials have agreed to send the aircraft's black box to Germany for technical analysis. Read full story

DHAKA, Dec 25 (Reuters) - Bangladesh Nationalist Party acting Chairman Tarique Rahman returned from nearly 17 years in exile on Thursday, a homecoming the party hopes will energise supporters with Rahman poised to be the top contender for prime minister in February. Read full story

DUBAI, Dec 25 (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia said on Thursday it remains hopeful that Yemen's main southern separatist group will end an escalation that has given it broad control across the south, deepening uncertainties in a country already divided between two administrations since civil war erupted over a decade ago. Read full story

ZURICH, Dec 24 (Reuters) - Police on Wednesday discovered the bodies of two men and two women believed to belong to a single family from Liechtenstein, authorities in the tiny Alpine principality said. Read full story

LOS ANGELES, Dec 24 (Reuters) - Torrential rains drenched Southern California on Wednesday, unleashing widespread flash flooding as authorities urged motorists to stay off roads and residents living downslope of wildfire-scarred foothills and canyons to evacuate. Read full story

WASHINGTON, Dec 24 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump's administration on Wednesday urged all parties to accept the outcome of Honduras' presidential election where Nasry Asfura, the conservative National Party candidate backed by the U.S. president, was declared victor by the electoral body. Read full story

SEOUL, Dec 25 (Reuters) - North Korean leader Kim Jong Un oversaw the test- firing on Wednesday of long-range surface-to-air missiles at a launch site near its east coast, state media KCNA reported on Thursday. Read full story

TEGUCIGALPA, Dec 24 - Nasry Asfura, the conservative National Party candidate backed by U.S. President Donald Trump, has won Honduras' presidential election, the electoral body said on Wednesday as it finally declared a victor of the November 30 presidential election after weeks of delays, technical problems, and allegations of fraud. Read full story

DHAKA, Dec 24 (Reuters) - The Bangladesh Nationalist Party aims to gather five million supporters to welcome its leader Tarique Rahman home from nearly 17 years in exile on Thursday, a show of strength as he emerges as a leading contender for prime minister in February elections. Read full story

SEOUL, Dec 24 (Reuters) - South Korea's special prosecutor has indicted ex- president Yoon Suk Yeol on allegations of violating the political fundraising act by illegally receiving public opinion polls, according to a statement from the special prosecution team on Wednesday. Read full story

Dec 24 (Reuters) - Guinea coup leader Mamady Doumbouya is expected to coast to victory in a presidential election on Sunday, buoyed by the launch of a long- awaited iron ore mega-mine and weak competition from a fragmented field of challengers. Read full story

BANGKOK, Dec 24 (Reuters) - Thailand's caretaker leader Anutin Charnvirakul was picked by his party on Wednesday to stand as its candidate for prime minister in a general election in early February, as he bids to benefit from a wave of nationalism arising from an ongoing border conflict with Cambodia. Read full story