1. 12 dead in New Year’s party rampage

    A gunman stormed a house party and killed 11 people, including his former wife and 8-year-old son, before shooting himself in the head during a New Year’s party in the southeastern Brazilian city of Campinas on Saturday.

    Police in the state of Sao Paulo said on Sunday the shooter, identified as 46-year-old Sidnei Ramis de Araujo, is believed to have been angry over a split with his wife, Isamara Filier, 41, and their son Joao Victor.

    Three other people remain hospitalized, police said, while four people survived the attack unharmed.

    2. S. Korean woman tied to scandal arrested

    South Korean pro-secutors said on Monday the daughter of the confidante* of disgraced President Park Geun-hye has been arrested in Denmark and authorities are working to get her returned home in connection with a huge corruption scandal.

    Park was impeached last month by lawmakers amid public fury over prosecutors’ allegations that the president conspired to allow her longtime friend, Choi Soon-sil, to extort* companies and control the government.

    Denmark police arrested Choi’s daughter, Chung Yoo-ra, on the weekend on charges of staying there illegally.

    3. Dozens killed in Istanbul gun attack

    Police in Istanbul launched a manhunt* on Sunday for a gunman who killed at least 39 people, many of them foreigners, at a nightclub packed with New Year’s revellers*, in an attack officials described as a terrorist act.

    The gunman shot his way into the Reina nightclub at around 1:15 a.m., just over an hour into the New Year, killing a police officer and a civilian as he entered before opening fire at random inside.

    Some witnesses spoke of multiple attackers, but officials have not confirmed this. Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said 15 or 16 of those killed were foreigners but that only 21 of the bodies had so far been identified.

    4. 23 dead as Indonesia boat catches fire

    At least 23 people have been killed and 17 are missing after a passenger boat caught fire on Monday near Jakarta, according to officials.

    The boat was ferrying around 200 people from Jakarta to Tidung island -- a tourist destination 50 kilometers from the capital -- on Sunday morning when the fire broke out, according to the national disaster agency.

    “A total of 194 people have been rescued. The boat’s manifest* says there are around 100 people on board, but obviously that’s wrong, so we are still searching,” disaster agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said.

    5. UN Security Council welcomes Syria truce

    The United Nations Security Council on Saturday welcomed a cease-fire in the Syrian civil war, but rebel groups threatened to abandon the two-day-old truce if violations persisted.

    A resolution welcoming the cease-fire, the third truce this year seeking to end nearly six years of war, was adopted unanimously* by the 15-member council, meeting in New York.

    The deal, brokered by Russia and Turkey, which back opposing sides, reduced violence, but firefights, airstrikes and shelling went on in some areas.

    6. Australia nets biggest cocaine bust

    A major cocaine* ring has been dismantled* in joint operations with Tahiti, Australian police said on Thursday, with a record 1.1 tons of cocaine worth hundreds of millions of dollars seized.

    Police listed 600 kilograms of cocaine intercepted* by the French navy off Tahiti, 500 kilograms seized on Christmas Day in Sydney and 32 kilograms of heroin in Fiji -- all destined for the Australian market.

    “The size of that seizure collectively -- 1.1 tons -- makes it the largest cocaine seizure in Australian law enforcement history,” said Australian Federal Police acting Assistant Commissioner Chris Sheehan.(SD-Agencies)