* China's central bank said on Monday it would cut the amount of cash that banks must hold as reserves, its second such move this year, releasing 1.2 trillion yuan in long-term liquidity to bolster slowing economic growth amid persistent COVID-19 cases.
* Japanese support for Prime Minister Fumio Kishida ticked up after his government enforced tighter border controls, the Yomiuri Shimbun daily reported.
* The Kremlin on Monday described the state of US-Russia relations as "quite lamentable" on the eve of a video call between President Vladimir Putin and his US counterpart Joe Biden when the two will discuss tensions around Ukraine.
* US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is due to visit Indonesia and Malaysia next week as the Biden administration ramps up engagement in Southeast Asia.
* Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said his government would present a new package of pandemic restrictions this week in response to the new Omicron coronavirus variant and was considering how to handle the approaching Christmas holidays.
* Doha and Ankara are set to sign dozens of agreements during Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan's visit to Qatar on Monday but Turkey had no plans to ask for financial assistance, the two countries' foreign ministers said.
* Bulgaria's largest political party, We Continue The Change (PP), expects to forge a coalition government with three other parties soon and put an end to a political deadlock, PP leader Kiril Petkov said on Monday.
* Austria's third conservative chancellor in two months, Karl Nehammer, takes office on Monday seeking to bring the coalition government out of months of scandal-tainted turmoil and guide the country out of its current coronavirus lockdown.
* The United Arab Emirates' senior national security adviser met his Iranian counterpart and hardline President Ebrahim Raisi in a rare visit to Iran on Monday in a move aimed at overcoming their long-standing differences and increasing co-operation.
* Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad said on Monday a visit to Damascus last month by the United Arab Emirates' foreign minister Abdalla bin Zayed had been "a courageous" move.
* China reported 61 new confirmed coronavirus cases for Dec. 5, up from 59 a day earlier, its health authority said on Monday. There were no new deaths, leaving the death toll at 4,636. As of Dec. 5, mainland China had 99,203 confirmed cases.
* India's Omicron cases rose to 21 over the weekend, officials said, urging people to step up for vaccination, while Nepal and Thailand detected their first cases.
* Russia on Monday reported its first confirmed cases of the new Omicron variant of the coronavirus, Russian news agencies reported, in two people who returned from South Africa.
* South Africa is preparing its hospitals for more admissions, as the new variant pushes the country into a fourth wave of COVID-19 cases.
* Chile and Argentina reported their first Omicron cases on Sunday.
* Croatia confirmed on Monday its first two cases of the Omicron variant of coronavirus, the state health institute said.
* European stocks opened higher on Monday while US futures also traded in the black in a tentative rebound from last week when the spread of the Omicron variant and expectations of tighter US monetary policy rocked global markets.
* The World Petroleum Congress kicks off this week with a sharply trimmed roster of energy executives and government ministers to grapple with the oil market's future as Omicron disrupted travel.
* Africa has little chance of overcoming the COVID-19 pandemic unless 70% of its population is vaccinated by end-2022, yet "extreme vaccine discrimination" is leaving the continent behind, a report published on Monday said.
* Future pandemics could be more lethal than COVID-19 so the lessons learned must not be squandered, one of the creators of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine said.
* Italy tightened curbs on Monday on people still not vaccinated against COVID-19, limiting their access to an array of places and services.
* Deliveries of vaccines to Africa are finally accelerating, but lack of funds, staff and community outreach mean not all countries are prepared to distribute them.
* Senegal recorded its first case of the Omicron variant in a tourist who attended a demonstration in Dakar last month with about 300 people of varying nationalities, a testing lab said on Sunday.
* Argentina has approved Russia's one-dose Sputnik Light as a standalone vaccine and a booster shot, according to the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF).
* The RDIF said it had sent documents to Indian regulators for use of the Sputnik M vaccine for children.
* Spain's Hipra is confident there will be European Union demand for its experimental vaccine once approved as it is designed to protect against new variants, can be moved easily and produced in mass quantity, a top executive said.
