U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has said he would travel to Moscow next week for talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin on a political settlement in Syria, Reuters reports.
Reuters adds that Kerry said during an event on the sidelines of the Paris climate talks that despite its military and political interests in Syria, Moscow "has been constructive" in trying to find a political settlement to end the Syrian conflict.
From our news desk:
Report: California Shooters Financed Massacre With $28,000 Loan
A married couple who killed 14 people in California last week financed their shooting rampage with a $28,500 loan from an online lender, investigators said on December 8.
About two weeks before attack, the sum was deposited into the bank account of Syed Rizwan Farook, 28, who obtained the loan from San Francisco-based Prosper, an online lending service that arranged the financing through WebBank.com.
The method of financing the crime appears to be unique and unprecedented.
Farook reportedly withdrew $10,000 of the loan proceeds on November 20 and may have used the money to purchase two AR-15 semiautomatic weapons used in the attack from a friend and distant relative, Enrique Marquez.
In addition, in the days before the attack, at least three transfers of $5,000 were put into the account of Farook's mother, Rafia.
The couple left their infant daughter in the custody of the grandmother before going on the shooting spree.
The Kremlin is reporting on its website that Russian President Vladimir Putin has spoken by telephone with British Prime Minister David Cameron.
The two leaders discussed issues relating to the Syrian conflict, the Kremlin says.
"It was noted that Russia and the UK have similar approaches regarding the threat posed by the IS group and other terrorist groups in the region. In this context, issues of establishing bilateral cooperation regarding various government agencies were discussed," the Kremlin said in a statement on its website.
BBC: Third Bataclan Attacker Was Foued Mohamed-Aggad
The third attacker at the Bataclan theater during the November 13 Paris attacks was French national Foued Mohamed-Aggad, 23, from Strasbourg, the BBC is reporting.
The BBC says that French Prime Minister Manuel Valls did not name the man but has not disputed reports naming him as Mohamed-Aggad.
Mohamed-Aggad is believed to have traveled to Syria in late 2013 along with a group of individuals from Strasbourg, some of whom returned to France last year and who were then arrested. Mohamed-Aggad reportedly stayed in Syria.
Russia's TASS news agency has a text transcript of Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev's remarks this morning including a full quote of his comment about the downing of the Russian Su-24 jet by the Turkish air force on November 24.
"Turkey violated all the norms of international law and gave the grounds for a military response, but the Russian leadership did not go ahead with this," Medvedev was quoted as saying at 13.10 p.m. Moscow time, 10.10 a.m. GMT.
Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said this morning that Turkey had given "reasons for the outbreak of a war" when it downed a Russian Su-24 jet on November 24 near the Syrian border, RIA Novosti reports.
Russia Claims None Of Its Jets In Deir al-Zor During Strike On Syrian Base
As well as claiming that U.S.-led coalition war planes were flying in Deir al-Zor on December 6 at the time of an air strike on a Syrian army base, Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said this morning that no Russian planes had been flying in the area.
Konashenkov said that Moscow agreed all its flights with the Syrian Army and Air Force.
The Defense Ministry spokesman said that the air strike on December 6 had hit a camp belonging to the 168th Brigade 7th Division of the Syrian Arab Army, two kilometers west of Deir al-Zor.
Four people were killed and 12 wounded in the strike that also destroyed three infantry fighting vehicles and four vehicles equipped with heavy machine guns, the spokesman said.
Russia Claims Coalition Aircraft Flew In Deir Ezzor At Time Of Strike On Syrian Base
Two pairs of warplanes from two countries belonging to the U.S.-led coalition against the IS group were in the Deir Ezzor area on the day of an air strike on a Syrian army base, Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov has said.
Syria has accused the U.S.-led coalition of carrying out the strike on Sunday evening but the coaltion has denied the allegations.
"If they were not involved in this strike, then why do Pentagon spokespeople, as leaders of the anti-IS coalition, keep silent about the presence on December 6 of planes of their allies in the Deir Ezzor region? Is it not because coalition aircraft get all information about IS targets in Syria from the Pentagon?" Konashenkov said.
"I am sure that the answer to who actually carried out the air strikes on the Syrian soldiers will be revealed very soon. As soon as the Syrian authorities publish the results of their investigation into this incident and the type of ammunition used in the strike."
The United Kingdom's Special Representative for Syria, Gareth Bayley, has this upbeat assessment of the first day of the Syrian opposition talks at Riyadh.
AFP's Beirut correspondent Maya Gebeily has tweeted Syrian Islamist rebel group Ahrar al-Sham's statement in full in Arabic and this quote from it about Ahrar's demand that Syria is "purified" from "Russian-Iranian occupation & sectarian militias that prop them up."