• The United Nations, the United States and Russia will hold trilateral talks Dec. 11 in Geneva on the crisis in Syria.
• Syrian opposition and rebel groups meeting in Riyadh are expected to discuss forming a delegation for future peace talks, one of trickiest aspects of the attempt to forge a unified position against Syrian President Bashar al Assad's government.
• The White House said that President Barack Obama has not yet approved the use of helicopters in Iraq, though Defense Secretary Ashton Carter earlier said the Pentagon is ready to do so.
• Algerian authorities foiled what they are calling a terrorist plot to bomb a popular singer's concert in northeastern Annaba province.
• Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu accused Russia of ethnic cleansing in parts of Syria, another example of how far Turkish-Russian relations have declined since Turkey's downing of a Russian jet on Nov. 24.
• The European Union postponed a decision on whether to renew the bloc's economic sanctions against Russia after Italy called for a debate on the issue.
• Japan needs to craft an integrated immigration policy to cope with its shrinking population, or it will risk losing out to a similarly aging China in competition for vital foreign workers, Japan's minister for administrative reform said.
• The Colombian rebel group National Liberation Army, or ELN, has ordered a 72-hour armed strike in Arauca, Casanare, and Boyaca departments.
• Seven people are dead after violence between unknown assailants and police broke out in the northwestern Cibitoke district of Burundi.
