World datelines

Australia: Fireworks explosion

SYDNEY — Explosions ripped through a fireworks factory in eastern Australia, destroying 20 buildings in the complex and jeopardizing New Year's Eve displays in three state capitals, officials said Sunday.

No workers were inside the factory during the overnight explosions, but police were investigating whether someone broke in and tampered with shipping containers used to store the fireworks, said police Superintendent Greg Martin.

Bolivia: Endless re-elections

ORURO — Defying an opposition boycott, Bolivia's constitutional assembly approved a new charter Sunday that would empower the poor South American nation's indigenous majority and let President Evo Morales run for re-election indefinitely.

The new constitution must now be approved by Bolivians in a national referendum.

Brazil: Earthquake kills one

RIO DE JANEIRO — An earthquake shook two small towns in southeastern Brazil early Sunday, killing a child and injuring six other people, civil defense said.

The quake, which hit shortly after midnight local time, had a magnitude of 4.9, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

Germany: No Scientology?

BERLIN — Germany's interior minister called the Church of Scientology "an unconstitutional organization" and said the nation's domestic intelligence agency would move to ban the group, a report said Sunday.

Federal Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble's remarks followed a unanimous decision Friday by interior ministers from Germany's 16 states to seek a ban on Scientology.

Iraq: Vigilantes kill 40 women

BAGHDAD — Religious vigilantes have killed at least 40 women this year in the southern Iraqi city of Basra because of how they dressed, their mutilated bodies found with notes warning against "violating Islamic teachings," the police chief said Sunday.

Maj. Gen. Jalil Khalaf blamed sectarian groups that he said were trying to impose a strict interpretation of Islam.

Russia: Bus blast claims 2

ROSTOV-ON-DON — An explosion on a bus killed two people and wounded four others in southern Russia on Sunday, officials said.

The blast occurred when a bus traveling from Pyatigorsk to Stavropol stopped at a bus station in the city of Nevinnomysk, said Sergei Kozhemyaka, a spokesman for the Emergency Situations Ministry's branch in southern Russia.

Venezuela: 30-minute change

CARACAS — Venezuelans turned their clocks back 30 minutes Sunday in the latest measure by President Hugo Chavez to revolutionize their lives.

The time change is intended to optimize use of daylight hours and keep schoolchildren from having to wake up before dawn, according to Chavez.