Germany, Italy and France have called on the European Union to crack down on the illegal trade in antiquities used to bankroll attacks by the IS group, according to AFP.
"By taking part directly or indirectly in the trade in cultural artifacts from archaeological digs, museums and libraries finance their (IS's) atrocities in the region and in Europe," the culture ministers for the three countries, Monika Gruetters, Dario Franceschini, and Fleur Pellerin wrote.
Taliban militants have attacked the airport in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar and are engaged in fighting with security forces, regional officials said, Reuters reports.
Reuters quotes Taliban spokesman Qari Yousuf Ahmadi as saying that several suicide attackers had entered the airport grounds and were fighting security forces.
White House Communications Director Jen Psaki told Russia's TASS newspaper that the possibility of a combining the efforts of the United States, Russia, and other countries in the war on IS in Syria and Iraq depended on the success of the Vienna peace talks, TASS reports.
Under the Vienna process there should be formal talks between the Syrian government and the opposition by January 1.
TASS also reported that Psaki had emphasized that the United States believed "Assad has no place in Syria's future."
Syria Says It Will Suppy Russia With Citrus Fruits
Russians wondering where their supplies of citrus fruits will come from now that Moscow has banned imports from Turkey need wonder no longer: Syria has said that it will "fill the gap" left by the embargo.
"We are preparing some 700,000 tons of citrus, mostly oranges, to send to Russian markets," Fares Chehabi, head of Syria's Chambers of Industry, told AFP.
AFP notes that:
Samer Debes, head of the Damascus Chamber of Industry, told state news agency SANA the shipments provided "a real opportunity" for Syrian goods in the Russian market.
A latest-model Russian submarine equipped with cruise missiles has entered the eastern Mediterranean and is located off the Syrian cost, Interfax has reported, citing a source familiar with the situation.
The source named the submarine as the Rostov-na-Donu, a 636.3 Kilo-class submarine, dubbed the "quietest submarine in the world."
The submarine, from the Black Sea Fleet, is equipped with Kalibr-PL cruise missiles, the source said, similar to those used by Caspian Fleet ships on IS targets.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said today that he had no information about the reports that the submarine had been sent to Syria, telling journalists to ask the Defense Ministry.
Turkey is not planning to revise the Montreux Convention regulating international access to the Bosphorus and Dardanelles, a spokesman for the Turkish Foreign Ministry said today.
“We don’t currently have any preparation to that end. But anything could be subject to assessment due to developments,” spokesman Tanju Bilgiç said.
The comments come amid an ongoing row between Turkey and Russia after a Russian serviceman apparently held a surface-to-air missile launcher while aboard the Caesar Kunikov landing ship as it passed through the Bosphorus on December 6, en route to Syria.
Russia's TASS news agency has more on Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova's comments about Sunday's incident over the Russian landing ship passing through the Bosphorus with a soldier carrying a missile launcher on deck.
Zakharova said that Ankara had not given any specific reason why this incident had violated the Montreux Convention.
"When our diplomats asked the Turkish side what specifically they saw as a violation, we didn't hear anything except abstract references to 'context and the philosophy of international legal norms'," Zakharova was quoted as saying.
A Russian naval ship that passed through Istanbul on Sunday did not contravene "a single article of the Montreux Convention," a spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry has said.
Turkey accused Russia of a "provocation" after the large Russian landing ship Caesar Kunikov passed through the Bosphorus Strait on December 6 while a Russian serviceman allegedly holding a rocket launcher stood on deck.
Ankara summoned the Russian ambassador over the incident and said it constituted an act against the Montreux Convention, referring to the 1936 treaty regulating the transit of naval warships through the Bosphorus Strait and the Dardanelles.
Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that "protection of a vessel is the legal right of any crew."
"In Ankara, this event was for some reason treated as a 'provocation and constituting a threat'. Our ambassador was told by the Turkish Foreign Ministry of the 'concern of the Turkish side'. According to Turkish diplomats, local media [said] the incident apparently caused 'a deeply indignant response'," Zakharova said.
There could be an international meeting on Syria held in New York next week, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said today after speaking with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.
Kerry said the meeting depends in part on the outcome of the Saudi-led conference of Syrian opposition representatives that began today in Riyadh.
AFP has more photos of the Eagles of Death Metal band, who returned to the Bataclan theater in Paris to pay respects to the 130 people killed in the November 13 attacks in the city.