Iraqi army units surged toward the center of Mosul on December 6 in an attack from the city's southeastern edges that could give fresh impetus to the seven-week-old battle for Islamic State's Iraqi stronghold.

Syria's army and allies pushed into rebel-held parts of Aleppo's Old City on December 6, a monitoring group said, looking closer than ever to achieving their most important victory of the five-year-old civil war by driving rebels out of their last urban stronghold.

VOV.VN - Cuba and the United States will draw up a roadmap for deepening their detente on December 7 in a first meeting since the election of Donald Trump as US president and the death of Cuban revolutionary Fidel Castro.

New Zealand Finance Minister Bill English said on December 6 he will stand as a candidate to replace outgoing prime minister John Key.

More than 1,000 migrants were plucked from overcrowded boats and 16 bodies were recovered in the past two days, Italy's coastguard said on December 5, adding to the already record number of arrivals this year.

French Prime Minister Manuel Valls declared on December 5 that he would seek the Socialist Party's nomination for next year's presidential election and said he was quitting the government to focus on campaigning.

Russia and China on December 5 vetoed a UN Security Council resolution that would have demanded a seven-day truce in Syria's Aleppo, with Russia arguing it would allow rebels to regroup and that time was needed for talks between Washington and Moscow.

Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi vowed to resign after suffering a crushing defeat on December 4 in a referendum on constitutional reform, tipping the euro zone's third-largest economy into political turmoil.

Syria's army and allied militia advanced towards rebel-held areas of Aleppo's Old City on December 4 in an attack which a military source predicted would be over in a matter of weeks.

New Zealand Prime Minister John Key, who won praise for his economic stewardship after the global financial crisis, unexpectedly announced his resignation on December 5, saying it was time to leave politics after more than eight years in power.