Putin said in a state television interview, excerpts of which were released Sunday afternoon, that Russia is "prepared to negotiate some acceptable outcomes with all the participants of this process."
The frigid Christmas storm has killed at least 24 people across the country, trapping some residents inside homes with snow drifts, and knocking out power to hundreds of thousands of homes.
China's National Health Commission said in a statement it would no longer publish daily data and that "from now on, the Chinese CDC will release relevant COVID information for reference and research."
Three major international aid groups on Sunday suspended work in Afghanistan following a decision by the country's Taliban rulers to ban women from working at non-governmental organizations.
Pope Francis used his Christmas message to make a plea for an immediate end to the fighting in Ukraine, which he decried as "senseless." He also addressed long-running conflicts in the Middle East.
Recalling Jesus' birth in a stable, Pope Francis rebuked those "ravenous" for wealth and power at the expense of the vulnerable in a Christmas Eve homily decrying war, poverty and greedy consumerism.
Members of France's Kurdish community and anti-racism activists joined together in mourning and anger on Saturday in Paris after three people were killed at a Kurdish cultural center.
Five people were arrested in the fatal shooting of a 19-year-old man at the Mall of America that sent the commercial center into lockdown on one of the final days of the holiday shopping season.