* Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Kazakh counterpart Kassym-Jomart Tokayev signed a cooperation document on Monday as the two countries mark three decades of diplomatic ties this year.
* Sweden is on track to meet Turkey's requirements for accepting it and Finland as new members of NATO, Sweden's foreign minister Tobias Billstrom said on Tuesday.
* Russian troops continued offensive operations in the Donetsk direction, and took out more than 100 Ukrainian servicemen, one tank, five armored combat vehicles and five automobiles in the past day, the Russian Defense Ministry said in a daily report on Tuesday.
* More than 4,000 emergency shelters called "Points of Invincibility" have been set up in Ukraine amid blackouts after Russia's recent missile attacks on energy infrastructure, said Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal.
* Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Monday met with visiting foreign ministers of seven European countries, said Ukraine's presidential press service. The meeting was attended by foreign ministers of Estonia, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Finland and Sweden.
* Moscow is seeking to bolster the recognition of Russian maritime cargo insurance to allow it to ship oil and related products abroad in the face of Western sanctions, a government official was quoted as saying on Tuesday.
* UN General Assembly President Csaba Korosi on Tuesday stressed the importance of bringing hope to Palestinians, especially the young generation.
* Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi said in Tehran on Tuesday that Iran and Iraq have agreed to work together to improve bilateral ties and safeguard regional security.
* Two major UN agencies warn that a lack of funding threatens the cuts in food assistance programs for refugees in Chad, a UN spokesman said on Tuesday.
* UN Special Envoy for Syria Geir Pedersen on Tuesday warned of a dangerous escalation in Syria.
* OPEC+ is likely to keep oil output policy unchanged at a meeting on Sunday, five OPEC+ sources said, although two sources said an additional production cut was also likely to be considered to bolster prices that have slid due to fears of an economic slowdown.
* Iran has signed a Memorandum of Understanding valued at 300 million USD with Russia for car exports to the country, semi-official Fars news agency reported on Monday.
* Italy's ruling parties on Tuesday withdrew an amendment that would have allowed the government to continue sending weapons to Ukraine throughout 2023, a parliamentary source said, after the opposition called for a separate decree on the issue.
* The International Energy Agency expects Russian crude production to be curtailed by some 2 million barrels of oil per day by the end of the first quarter next year, its chief Fatih Birol told Reuters on the sidelines of an energy conference.
* Republic of Korea's transport ministry on Tuesday issued its first-ever return-to-work order to truckers who have been on a strike demanding reasonable freight rates.
* Mexico's exports grew 19.5 percent year on year to 479.56 billion USD in the first 10 months, driven by manufactured goods and oil, the National Institute of Statistics and Geography said Monday.
* Latin America and the Caribbean received 142.79 billion USD in foreign direct investment (FDI) in 2021, 40.7 percent more than 2020, the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) said Tuesday.
* Brazilian financial analysts raised their inflation forecast for 2022 from 5.88 to 5.91 percent, the fifth consecutive weekly hike, while increasing it for next year from 5.01 to 5.02 percent, the Central Bank of Brazil said Monday.
* French police stopped close to 50 migrants on Tuesday from attempting to cross the English Channel to Britain after mild weather and calm waters led a growing number of people to undertake the dangerous journey in recent days.
* Pakistan's minister of state for foreign affairs met Afghanistan's acting foreign minister in Kabul on Tuesday, the latest international minister to visit the country whose Taliban rulers are not formally recognised by foreign governments.
* Statistics Netherlands (CBS), the Dutch government's statistics office, is looking at a problem with its energy price measurements, which it said has caused the country - and possibly other European countries - to overstate inflation.
* Another 40 million USD in humanitarian cash assistance arrived in Afghanistan's capital Kabul on Tuesday and were deposited in a private bank, said the Da Afghanistan Bank (DAB), the country's central bank, in a statement.
* New Omicron subvariants BQ.1 and BQ.1.1 accounted for over half of new COVID-19 cases in the United States in the latest week, according to the latest estimates of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
* The largest nuclear reactor in Sweden will be taken off-grid next week for repairs, as electricity prices soar during the winter season.
* Ukraine is interested in extending the Black Sea Grain Initiative by at least one year, the Infrastructure Ministry reported Monday.
* Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei on Tuesday called on visiting Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia' al-Sudani to strengthen security measures along their common borders, official IRNA news agency reported.
* The exports of Israeli hi-tech services rose in the third quarter by 13.5 percent year-on-year, the country's Central Bureau of Statistics reported on Tuesday.
* Powerful tornadoes and large hail may batter a large swath of the southern United States on Tuesday afternoon and evening, the National Weather Service (NWS) forecast.
* Brunei will be entering the northeast monsoon in early December, which is expected to persist until March 2023, the country's meteorological agency said on Tuesday.
