1. Italian PM resigns after defeat

    Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi on Monday announced his resignation* after a defeat in Sunday’s constitutional* reform.

    “My government clearly ends here,” Renzi told a press conference on Monday. He said he called a last Cabinet meeting in the afternoon and then handed his formal resignation to President Sergio Mattarella.

    The most significant changes of the reform concern Italy’s law-making process, parliament composition, and balance of power between the central government and the regions.

    2. New Zealand PM John Key quits

    Popular New Zealand Prime Minister John Key announced his shocking resignation on Monday, saying he was never a career politician and it was the right time to go after eight years in the job.

    The former Merrill Lynch currency trader called it “the hardest decision I’ve ever made,” with no plans on what to do next other than spend more time with his family.

    “Being leader of both the party and the country has been an incredible experience,” he told a regular weekly news conference. “But despite the amazing career I have had in politics, I have never seen myself as a career politician.”

    3. Park faces crucial week

    South Korea’s embattled* President Park Geun-hye faces a pivotal* week, with an effort to impeach her gaining support from within her own party and the heads of the country’s biggest business groups set to give testimony* to a parliamentary committee.

    Three opposition parties introduced a bill on Saturday to impeach* Park, who is accused of abuse of power, putting her in danger of becoming the first democratically elected South Korean leader to leave office early.

    “The chances of the impeachment bill passing on December 9 are 50-50,” said Woo Sang-ho, parliamentary leader of the main opposition Democratic Party.

    4. Pakistani police say hotel fire kills 11

    A massive fire swept through a four-star hotel in the southern port city of Karachi on Monday, killing at least 11 people, officials said.

    More than 50 people suffered injuries in the early morning blaze, which started in the hotel kitchen, police officer Tauqeer Naeem said.

    The exact cause of the fire was not yet known, he said, adding that four of the people who died were women. Dr. Semi Jamali at Karachi’s Jinnah’s Hospital said some foreigners were among those being treated for burns. Suffocation* caused more deaths, she said.

    5. Mladic back in court as trial nears end

    Former Serb military commander Ratko Mladic was back in a U.N. court on Monday as his trial for genocide* and war crimes in the 1990s conflict nears an end.

    More than four years after Mladic’s trial opened at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague, prosecutors will begin three days of closing arguments and will likely call for a long jail term.

    Defiant to the last, Mladic, 74, has denied 11 charges including two of genocide, as well as war crimes and crimes against humanity for his role in the bloody 1992-95 Bosnian conflict, which saw Europe’s worst bloodshed since World War II.

    6. US warehouse fire death toll climbs

    Searchers have recovered 33 bodies — some of them teens 17 years old or possibly younger — from a fire-ravaged warehouse in Oakland, California, that housed artist studios and was hosting a dance party when the deadly blaze broke out, U.S. officials said on Sunday.

    Sgt. Ray Kelly of the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office warned that he anticipates that “the number of victims will rise” from a fire officials say may be the deadliest ever in Oakland. The search effort is expected to last for days, he said.(SD-Agencies)