BRISBANE, Australia, Dec. 18 (UPI) -- A large dust storm blanketed a rural area in northeastern Australia early Friday.
ANTANANARIVO, Madagascar, Dec. 18 (UPI) -- Madagascar will hold elections in early 2010 to choose the members of the country's Parliament, the African country's military-backed leader says.
WASHINGTON, Dec. 18 (UPI) -- Washington Mayor Adrian M. Fenty said signing a bill Friday that legalizes same-sex marriage is a "leap forward" for the District of Columbia.
PARIS, Dec. 18 (UPI) -- A court in France declared Internet giant Google guilty of copyright infringement and ordered it to remove content of some books from its online database.
AUCKLAND, New Zealand, Dec. 18 (UPI) -- A New Zealand church said its controversial Christmas season billboard depicting Joseph in bed with Mary was defaced with brown paint.
KABUL, Afghanistan, Dec. 18 (UPI) -- NATO officials said Friday they will work with Afghan officials to investigate reports of civilian casualties from a military operation in Kandahar province.
AUSTIN, Minn., Dec. 18 (UPI) -- Authorities in Freeborn County, Minn., Friday said the man who was driving a bus that crashed in November, killing two people, will not face criminal charges.
PITTSBURGH, Dec. 18 (UPI) -- A machine with computer vision could replace human workers in sorting strawberry plants, engineers in Pittsburgh said.
OTTAWA, Dec. 18 (UPI) -- Canada's Supreme Court Friday denied a man a $200,000 insurance award, saying a rare side effect of genital herpes that paralyzed him was not an accident.
SASKATOON, Saskatchewan, Dec. 18 (UPI) -- The Canadian province of Saskatchewan's law banning biker gangs from wearing their "colors," or insignia, in public places is unconstitutional, a judge ruled.
BETHESDA, Md., Dec. 18 (UPI) -- The discovery of a gene linked to a form of hearing loss primarily in males could lead to early treatment, U.S. scientists said.
SANTA MONICA, Calif., Dec. 18 (UPI) -- The top four songs of the year in the United States were performed by Interscope Records acts, the label said.
NEW MADRID, Mo., Dec. 18 (UPI) -- The U.S. Geological Survey said the epicenter of Friday's 3.1-magnitude earthquake in the Midwestern United States was outside New Madrid, Mo.
WASHINGTON, Dec. 18 (UPI) -- The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics said Friday the unemployment rate fell in 36 states in November and was higher in only eight.
STOCKHOLM, Sweden, Dec. 18 (UPI) -- Officials with a Swedish bank said they are "really sorry" about a Web address for a porn site that appeared in the institution's children's magazine.
ORLANDO, Fla., Dec. 18 (UPI) -- A judge in Orange County, Fla., ruled Friday that prosecutors can seek the death penalty against Casey Anthony, mother of slain 2-year-old Caylee Anthony.
WASHINGTON, Dec. 18 (UPI) -- The U.S. Senate's top Republican, Mitch McConnell, Friday ripped the Senate majority leader's haste to push healthcare reform to a vote before Christmas.
WASHINGTON, Dec. 18 (UPI) -- Broader research is needed in the area of healthcare utilization in regards to minorities in the United States, an expert says.
LEGAZPI CITY, Philippines, Dec. 18 (UPI) -- The Mayon Volcano in the Albay Province of the Philippines is nearing possible eruption after days of volcanic activity, state volcanologists said Friday.
STOCKHOLM, Sweden, Dec. 18 (UPI) -- A Swedish lawmaker has apologized for shedding clothing and making sexual advances toward a colleague while drunk at a parliament Christmas party.