Russia's defense ministry said on December 2 it had proof that Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan and his family were benefiting from the illegal smuggling of oil from Islamic State-held territory in Syria and Iraq.

The United States said on December 1 it was deploying a new force of special operations troops to Iraq to conduct raids against Islamic State there and in neighboring Syria, a ratcheting up of Washington's campaign against the group that was quickly rejected by Iraq's government.

US President Barack Obama urged Turkey on December 1 to reduce tensions with Moscow after the downing of a Russian warplane and to seal its border with Syria to choke off the supply of money and fighters to Islamic State militants.

With encouragement from 150 world leaders ringing in their ears, government negotiators in Paris sought on December 1 to turn that rhetoric of unity into the text of a global deal to slow climate change.

Turkey's prime minister dismissed on November 30 any suggestion Ankara should apologize for downing a Russian warplane in its airspace last week, after winning strong NATO support for the right to defend itself.

For world leaders attending a long-planned climate summit in Paris just weeks after 130 people were killed by Islamic State militants in the French capital, addressing the coincidental convergence of global warming and terrorism was unavoidable.

Turkey recovered the body of a Russian pilot from northern Syria and presented it to Russian diplomats on November 29, five days after shooting down his warplane in an incident that wrecked relations between two of the main powers involved in Syria's war.

Air strikes believed to have been carried out by Russian jets killed at least 30 people in the town of Ariha in northwestern Syria on November 29, rescue workers in the rebel-held area said, part of an escalation of Russian strikes near the Turkish border.

US Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton plans to make job creation the focus of her campaign over the next month, beginning with a US$275 billion infrastructure spending plan that will be released this week.

President Vladimir Putin signed a decree imposing a raft of punitive economic sanctions against Turkey on November 28, underlining the depth of the Kremlin's anger toward Ankara four days after Turkey shot down a Russian warplane.