AUSTRIA: Talks on forming a new three-party government collapsed today as the smallest of the prospective coalition partners pulled the plug on the negotiations.

The talks had dragged on since President Alexander Van der Bellen tasked conservative Chancellor Karl Nehammer in October with putting together a new government. That decision came after all other parties refused to work with the leader of the far-right Freedom Party, which in September won a national election for the first time.

SOUTH KOREA: Around 240 people were rescued or evacuated after a fire broke out at a large commercial building in the city of Seongnam today.