* China's "dynamic clearance" strategy aimed at minimising COVID-19 infections is boosting the economy, not undermining it, the country's top anti-corruption body said.
* The Kremlin said on Friday that Moscow was alarmed by the situation in eastern Ukraine's Donbass region and that the situation there looked potentially very dangerous.
* Ukraine estimates the probability of a major escalation of conflict with Russia to be low, Ukrainian Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov told parliament on Friday.
* World leaders converge this weekend on Germany for the annual Munich Security Conference which will be dominated by the Ukraine-Russia crisis. No Russian delegation will attend the conference, the Kremlin said last week - the first no-show in years, underscoring how much East-West relations have deteriorated.
* Members of a trans-Pacific trade pact have agreed that Britain can proceed with its bid to join the group, Japan said on Friday, as it looks for new trading relationships after leaving the European Union.
* Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko landed in Moscow on Friday for talks with Russia's President Vladimir Putin that Minsk said could determine how much longer Russian military forces remain in the ex-Soviet republic north of Ukraine.
* Russia has expelled Bart Gorman, the No. 2 US official in Moscow, the State Department said on Thursday, with Washington warning that it would respond to the "unprovoked" move amid heightened fears of a Russian invasion of Ukraine.
* France and military allies said on Thursday they would leave Mali after almost a decade based there fighting Islamist insurgents around West Africa, moving instead to Niger despite public disenchantment with Paris' role in the region.
* Hundreds of people were rescued from a ferry that caught fire between Greece and Italy in the early hours of Friday, the Greek coastguard said. The fire, the cause of which was not immediately known, broke out near the island of Corfu in the Ionian Sea.
* The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will require attendees of the 94th Oscars ceremony in March to show proof of COVID-19 vaccination and at least two negative results from PCR tests, a person with knowledge of the matter said.
* A Japanese health panel approved on Friday a plan to bring in more targeted COVID-19 curbs across much of the nation, as overall new infections decline but fatalities rise to a record level.
* Canadian police are poised to clear out on Friday hundreds of truck drivers from Ottawa who have staged a three-week-long protest against pandemic restrictions that has crippled the capital and prompted Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to assume emergency powers for the first time in more than 50 years.
* The US Congress on Thursday gave final approval of legislation funding the government through March 11, avoiding the embarrassing spectacle of federal agencies having to shut many of their operations amid the Russia-Ukraine crisis.
* The Republic of Korea's new daily COVID-19 cases topped 100,000 for the first time amid its Omicron outbreak, with authorities saying social distancing measures would be only slightly eased ahead of the March 9 presidential election.
* The World Health Organization said on Friday six African countries - Egypt, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa and Tunisia - would be the first on the continent to receive the technology needed to produce mRNA vaccines.
* New Zealand police on Friday ruled out forcefully clearing vehicles blocking roads outside parliament in a protest against coronavirus vaccine mandates, saying that would risk "wider harm".
* Germany still expects to receive 1.4 million doses of Novavax COVID-19 vaccine Nuvaxovid on Feb. 21, Health Minister Karl Lauterbach said on Friday.
* Niger has accepted that French and European special forces will be deployed into its territory from neighbouring Mali, in order to secure the border area with the West African state, Niger's president said on Twitter on Friday.
* Mexican authorities on Thursday said they intercepted more than 1,000 migrants in the last 24 hours as the government tried to curb entry of undocumented travelers seeking to make their way to the United States.
* Ecuador's government said it has agreed to reopen its land border with Peru from Friday after nearly two years of closure, following a fall in cases of COVID-19.
* Britain's weather office on Friday issued a rare red warning for London and southeast England due to heavy winds from Storm Eunice, warning that there was a danger to life and that significant disruption was expected.
