* The Chinese capital Beijing met state air quality standards for the first time last year, officials said on Tuesday, following a concerted effort to cut coal consumption, reduce transportation emissions and relocate heavy industry.
* French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said on Tuesday that the country's growth would be significantly higher this year than the government's current forecast of 6.25%.
* The Italian parliament will convene on Jan. 24 to begin voting for a new head of state to replace the outgoing Sergio Mattarella, the chief of the lower house of parliament ruled on Tuesday.
* NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has convened a meeting of the NATO-Russia council for Jan. 12, an official with the military alliance said on Tuesday in a statement to Reuters.
* Asian stocks were firmer on Tuesday following Wall Street's record highs on its first trading day of 2022, despite worries that the Omicron variant could put the brakes on global economic recovery.
* India reported 37,379 new COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours, the health ministry said on Tuesday, the most since early September as the Omicron coronavirus variant overtakes Delta in places such as the capital New Delhi.
* The number of new COVID-19 infections in Japan rose above 1,000 on Tuesday for the first time in three months, the Jiji news agency reported.
* Thailand's health ministry on Tuesday called on people to come forward to get booster vaccinations after reporting cases of the highly contagious Omicron coronavirus variant had more than doubled over the holiday period.
* Thousands of US schools delayed scheduled return to classrooms, while the US Congress experienced an unprecedented jump in infections as seven-day positivity rate at a congressional test site surged to 13% from just 1% in late-November.
* German unemployment fell more than expected in December, data showed on Tuesday, in a further sign that the labour market in Europe's largest economy remains resilient despite rising COVID-19 infections.
* France on Monday reported 67,641 new confirmed coronavirus cases in a 24-hour period, a figure much lower than a couple of days ago, when daily additional infections were over 200,000.
* Spain's Health Ministry reported a new record in the national 14-day COVID-19 infection rate on Monday, as the figure climbed to 2,295.8 per 100,000 people from 1,775.27 registered last Thursday, before a long weekend.
* Cruise ship companies in Brazil will suspend most operations until Jan. 21, an industry association said on Monday, after health authorities recommended against cruise ship travel.
* Israel will admit foreigners with presumed COVID-19 immunity from countries deemed medium-risk next week, partially reversing a ban imposed in late-November in response to the fast-spreading Omicron variant.
* The US Food and Drug Administration on Monday authorised the use of a third dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine for children ages 12 to 15 and narrowed the interval for booster shot eligibility to five months from six.
* People being hospitalised with COVID-19 in the United Kingdom are broadly showing less severe symptoms than before, Britain's vaccine minister said on Tuesday, adding there was no need for further restrictions at this stage.
* Saudi Arabia's non-oil private sector grew last month at the slowest pace since March, marking its 16th consecutive month of expansion, amid rising concern over Omicron, a survey showed on Tuesday.
* Twenty-three people have been reported killed so far in Colombia's Arauca province amid fighting between illegal armed groups, Defense Minister Diego Molano told a news conference late on Monday.
* The number of asylum applications in Mexico nearly doubled in 2021 from two years earlier, the head of the country's commission for refugee assistance said on Monday, with most applications being from Haitian and Honduran migrants.
* Gunmen unsuccessfully attempted to assassinate Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry during an event on Saturday commemorating the Caribbean country's independence, his office said in a statement.
* The number of foreign tourists coming to Spain jumped seven-fold in November from the same month a year ago to 3.35 million as looser travel restrictions encouraged visitors, official statistics showed on Tuesday.
