Nearly 90 people were killed during December 11's clashes in the Burundian capital, the army said on December 12, the worst outbreak of violence in Burundi since a failed coup in May.

The United States has asked Germany for more military help in the fight against Islamic State, a German magazine reported on December 12, a week after parliament approved a plan to join the campaign in Syria.

The global climate summit in Paris forged a landmark agreement on December 12, setting the course for a historic transformation of the world's fossil fuel-driven economy within decades in a bid to arrest global warming.

President Tayyip Erdogan declared on December 11 he would not bow to Iraqi demands he withdraw Turkish troops from a camp close to the Islamic State-held city of Mosul, and Baghdad said it would ask the UN Security Council to order them to leave.

Taliban fighters mounted a car bomb attack on a guest house near the Spanish embassy in Kabul on December 11, killing at least one security officer and further dimming any hopes of peace talks with moderate elements of the Islamist insurgent movement.

Donald Trump held onto his commanding lead in the Republican race for the White House after his call for a ban on Muslims entering the United States was condemned worldwide, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll, the first national survey conducted entirely after the billionaire's remarks.

The Swiss city of Geneva raised its alert level on December 10 and said it was looking for suspects who, according to national officials, had possible links to terrorism.

The U.S.-led coalition fighting Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria has killed the group's finance minister and two other senior leaders in air strikes in recent weeks, a U.S. military spokesman said on December 10.

India will resume high-level talks with rival Pakistan, the Indian foreign minister said on December 9, raising hopes that relations between the two nuclear-armed neighbors may be thawing slightly.

The United States is prepared to deploy advisers and attack helicopters if requested by Iraq to help it "finish the job" of retaking the city of Ramadi from Islamic State, US Defense Secretary Ash Carter said on December 9.