CANBERRA, Australia – An Australian lawyer has set a world record by stringing up almost 1.2 million Christmas lights in the center of the national capital.

Guinness World Records confirmed today that the 75 miles of multicolored wire strung in the shape of three interconnected giant, wrapped Christmas gifts in a downtown Canberra mall was the largest image ever made of LED lights.

Lawyer David Richards assembled the Canberra light show with the help of an army of volunteers and powers it with electricity donated by a local power company.

He set a Guinness World Record a year ago for the most Christmas lights on a residential property by cocooning his Canberra home with 502,165 bulbs.

The 1,194,380 twinkling bulbs arranged since Wednesday beat the previous record set in Shurtan in southern Uzbekistan by 181,540 lights.

Scots to get more autonomy

LONDON – Britain’s main political parties have agreed to grant Scotland new tax and spending powers to fulfill a promise of greater autonomy made before a recent independence referendum.

In the Sept. 18 ballot, 55 percent of Scottish voters opted to remain in the United Kingdom, while 45 percent voted to leave.

Since then, a commission of politicians from Scotland and the rest of Britain has been thrashing out proposals.

A plan published Thursday would give the Edinburgh-based Scottish parliament the power to set income tax rates and keep the revenue. Scotland also would gain new control over welfare spending.

The proposals open a constitutional can of worms, with some saying other British regions, and even major cities, also should get tax-raising powers.

The proposals will be introduced in Parliament in January.

Boys saved from snow bank

NEWBURGH, N.Y. – Two boys who had gone out to build a snow fort were inadvertently trapped for several hours in a Newburgh, New York, snow bank when a plow operator clearing a parking lot pushed snow over them, not realizing they were there, officials said.

The 11-year-old and 9-year-old were taken to the hospital. Officials said one child was hospitalized for observation.

Authorities said the boys’ parents became alarmed when they didn’t come home from playing, and after a fruitless search, called police about 11:50 p.m. Wednesday.

Officials searching a snow bank at a health center nearby found the boys about 2 a.m. Thursday, after an officer saw a shovel half buried. The officer took the shovel and started to dig, and saw a small boot. Others joined in, some digging with bare hands, and the boys were found.

They were conscious and suffering from exposure. The city had received more than a half-foot of snow.