Around 18,000 people in western Indonesia have had to leave their homes after two rivers burst their banks and flooded thousands of houses, an official said Monday.

More than 4,500 houses and 500 shops in the coastal town of Tebing Tinggi on Sumatra island have been inundated since Saturday, when the Padang and Bahilang rivers swelled after days of torrential rain, said National Disaster Management Agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho.

Closed-door talks resumed Monday between Iran and world powers on implementing a landmark deal to rein in Tehran's controversial nuclear program in exchange for easing sanctions.

European Union foreign policy spokesman Michael Mann told Agence France Presse that the Geneva meeting began at 8:30 am (0730 GMT) but that no further details would be available immediately.

China on Monday said that Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was "not welcome" by the Chinese people after he visited the controversial Yasukuni war shrine.

Abe "has fully exposed his hypocrisy by saying that he pays attention to the development of the relationship with China and is hoping to carry out dialogue with Chinese leaders," foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang said.

Heavy gunfire erupted Monday in several parts of the Democratic Republic of Congo's capital Kinshasa, where the government said 40 assailants were killed by security forces.

The shooting erupted at the international airport and a military headquarters, causing panic among residents, while police said armed youths had taken hostage several reporters from the state television station RTNC.

Bangladesh's capital was cut off from the rest of the country Monday, with transport services into Dhaka halted to thwart the second day of a protest march against next week's elections.

With the opposition leader Khaleda Zia under de facto house arrest since last Wednesday, Britain's high commissioner became the first envoy to meet her, a day after police barred her from leaving the residence to address a rally.

Pakistan police on Monday found explosives on a road close to the home of former military ruler Pervez Musharraf, two days before he is to appear before a treason tribunal.

The 2.5 kilos (5.5 pounds) of explosives and two detonators were found around two kilometers (1.2 miles) from the retired general's home on the edge of Islamabad.

A powerful cyclone packing expected winds of more than 200 kilometers an hour was threatening Australia's west coast Monday, forcing towns into lockdown and shutting iron ore operations.

A red alert was issued for Port Hedland and South Hedland on Western Australia state's resource-rich but sparsely-populated Pilbara coast as the category three cyclone intensified offshore, forcing residents to batten down.

North Korea is purging officials who had been close to Jang Song-Thaek, the once-powerful uncle of leader Kim Jong-Un who was executed this month, a South Korean minister said Monday.

Jang, once the North's unofficial number two and Kim's political mentor, was executed on December 12 on a array of charges including treason and corruption.

Unknown attackers fired shots at the German ambassador's residence in northern Athens early on Monday but caused no injuries, police sources said.

The attack happened around 3:30 am (0130 GMT) and the assailants are thought to have fled by motorbike.

A blast that tore through an electric bus in the southern Russian city of Volgograd during Monday's morning rush hour, killing 14, was probably carried out by suicide bombers from the same organization behind a railway explosion a day earlier, officials said.

Together more than 30 people were killed in the explosions, putting the city of one million on edge and highlighting the terrorist threat Russia is facing as it prepares to host February's Winter Games in Sochi, President Vladimir Putin's pet project. While terrorists may find it hard to get to the tightly guarded Olympic facilities, the bombings have shown they can hit civilian targets elsewhere inRussia with shocking ease.