Nation/world briefs

Sixteen people were killed in a clash between Chinese police and ethnic Uighurs near the far western city of Kashgar, another such incident in the ethnically divided region. The regional government's website said police were trying to make arrests when they were attacked by people who "threw explosive devices and wielded knives." Two policemen were also killed.

Soldiers loyal to the former vice president of South Sudan attempted to overthrow the government, President Salva Kiir said, continuing the political tension that has hung over the fledgling country for months. At a televised news conference, Kiir told the nation that a "group of soldiers" allied to the former vice president, Reik Machar, had attempted to orchestrate a coup in the capital, Juba.

The Mega Millions jackpot inched toward a U.S. lottery record as it soared to $586 million amid a frenzy of ticket purchases, raising the possibility that the prize could pass the once-unthinkable $1 billion mark by Christmas Eve should nobody win before then. The current record is $656 million, set in a March 2012 drawing.

An American organization of professors announced a boycott of Israeli academic institutions to protest Israel's treatment of Palestinians, signaling that a movement to isolate and pressure Israel, gaining ground in Europe, has begun to make strides in the United States. The American Studies Association has fewer than 5,000 members. But its vote is a milestone for a Palestinian movement known as BDS, for Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions.

A man accused of killing a 9-year-old neighbor and hiding her body under garbage in a trash bin was building a snowman with the girl just a few hours before she was reported missing, investigators said. Jerrod Metsker, 24, was the last person seen with Reann Murphy at the trailer park where both lived, a sheriff's investigator said. A judge Monday ordered that he be held in lieu of $1 million bond.

A pastor who was suspended for performing his son's same-sex marriage vowed to try to remain in the Methodist Church as an advocate for gay equality. A church jury last month suspended the Rev. Frank Schaefer for 30 days and told him to uphold doctrine "in its entirety" or surrender his credentials. He said he would do neither.