* The Nobel Prize award ceremony was held on Saturday in the Swedish capital. This year's laureates received their awards in the Concert Hall.
* Positive progress has been made in the consultations on the post-2020 global biodiversity framework, Huang Runqiu, president of the 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP15) to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity, said on Montreal, Canada, on Saturday.
* Leaders of China and the member states of the Arab League agreed in Riyadh on Friday to strengthen cooperation and enhance the China-Arab strategic partnership.
* Cambodia on Saturday began to provide cash handouts to almost 360,000 households with about 1.3 million people affected by inflationary pressures and recent floods, a senior official said.
* Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart Tayyip Erdogan discussed their two countries' joint energy projects, especially in the gas sector, in a phone call on Sunday, Russian news agencies cited the Kremlin as saying.
* Russia launched what it calls a special military operation in Ukraine because its concerns around peace accords between Kyiv and Russian-backed separatists were ignored, Russian news agencies quoted the Kremlin spokesman as saying on Sunday.
* British Conservative politicians on Sunday launched two campaigns to address concerns about the direction of the party and the government, the latest challenge to new Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's attempts to unite a fractured party.
* Serbia will ask NATO peacekeepers to let it deploy Serbian military and police in Kosovo, although it believes there is no chance of the request being approved, President Aleksandar Vucic said on Saturday.
* Kosovo's president on Saturday announced that local elections in majority Serb areas in the north would be delayed until April, a move aimed at defusing ethnic tensions that have intensified in recent months.
* Iran on Saturday condemned Australia's sanctions on Iranian individuals and institutions, saying they represent the country's interference in Iran's internal affairs.
* Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Saturday Germany could increase its population strongly in the years ahead as the government seeks to boost immigration to help avert labour shortages and a crisis in its pension system.
* The governments of the United Arab Emirates and Israel ratified their comprehensive economic partnership agreement, UAE minister of state for foreign trade, Thani Al Zeyoudi, said on Twitter on Sunday.
* Italy, which has vowed a tough line on immigration, took in more than 500 migrants on Sunday as two charity rescue ships were allowed to dock at ports in the south of the country after several days at sea in bad weather.
* Germany plans to tighten its gun laws in the wake of a suspected plot by a far-right group to violently overthrow the government and install a minor royal as national leader, its interior minister said in an interview published on Sunday.
* French police fired tear gas on the Champs Elysees in Paris as fans were celebrating victories by France and Morocco in the World Cup, sending them to the tournament’s semi-finals.
* Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Sunday urged international partners to support her country's efforts to implement its recently launched National Adaptation Plan (NAP) for 2023-2050, which requires a total of 230 billion USD.
* World Health Organization (WHO) has donated medical supplies worth over 1.1 million USD to be used in districts facing drought and food insecurity in Uganda.
* French nuclear output surpassed 40 gigawatts (GW) for the first time in nine months this weekend as the country experiences a cold snap, in a sign that the resumption of three reactors was boosting production, grid operator RTE data showed on Sunday.
* China reported 10,815 new COVID-19 infections for Dec. 10, of which 2,338 were symptomatic and 8,477 were asymptomatic, the National Health Commission said on Sunday.
* The Philippines reported 1,134 new COVID-19 infections on Sunday, bringing the total number of confirmed cases in the Southeast Asian country to 4,049,042.
* Malaysia reported 1,315 new COVID-19 infections as of midnight Saturday, bringing the total tally to 5,009,767, according to the health ministry.
* As plummeting temperatures hit Damascus with a shroud of winter fog, people in the Syrian capital have been battling fuel shortage and other adversities.
* Six Islamic State (IS) militants and a civilian were killed on Saturday during a clash in Iraq's Salahudin Province, north of the capital Baghdad, the Iraqi military said.
