* The Kremlin said on Monday that Russian President Vladimir Putin and his US counterpart Joe Biden could set up a call or meeting any time but there were no concrete plans yet for a summit.
* Ukraine hopes a proposed summit between the presidents of the United States and Russia can be implemented and that Kyiv can join the meeting, Ukrainian Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov said on Monday.
* French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said on Twitter he would hold talks later on Monday with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov, amid intensified diplomatic efforts to defuse the Ukraine crisis.
* The EU will not impose sanctions on Russia just yet, the bloc's foreign policy chief said on Monday, rebuffing a call from Kyiv to take such steps now to avert a war, rather than wait until after any possible Russian invasion.
* European Union foreign ministers will call on the bloc's top diplomat to scale up efforts on climate change this year to help clinch tougher emissions-cutting goals from individual countries, a draft document due to be adopted on Monday said.
* Arab oil and energy ministers said on Sunday that OPEC+ should stick to its current agreement that adds 400,000 barrels per day a month to output.
* European Union foreign ministers meeting in Brussels must take decisions to stop a "critical" crisis in Bosnia becoming worse, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said on Monday.
* The European Union will provide Cyprus with extra support to help it cope with a surge in migrant arrivals across the island's ceasefire line, the bloc's executive said on Monday.
* Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani said on Monday he had discussed the Vienna nuclear talks with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, who is currently visiting Doha.
* Kuwait Airways has increased the number of planes it plans to purchase from Airbus AIR.PA to 31 from 28, the chairman of the company told a news conference in Kuwait City, estimating the value of the deal at 3 billion USD.
* Iran's oil minister Javad Owji said on Monday that his country provided the best option for gas exports to east and west, the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported.
* Asian share markets pared losses and Wall Street futures rallied as a glimmer of hope emerged for a diplomatic solution to the Russian-Ukraine standoff.
* The Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics Organising Committee said on Monday zero new COVID-19 cases were detected among games-related personnel on Feb. 20, according to a notice on the Beijing 2022 official website.
* Malaysian researchers found that treatment with the anti-parasite drug ivermectin did not prevent patients with COVID-19 from becoming severely ill in a randomised clinical trial published in the JAMA Internal Medicine journal.
* Italy's health ministry has recommended that people with a severely compromised immune system receive a fourth mRNA vaccine shot against COVID-19, provided that at least 120 days have passed from their previous booster.
* Brazil registered 406 COVID-19 deaths on Sunday and 40,625 additional cases, according to data released by the nation's Health Ministry. The South American country has now registered a total of 644,286 coronavirus deaths and 28,208,212 total confirmed cases.
* Australia on Monday fully reopened its international borders to travellers vaccinated against the coronavirus after nearly two years of being shut in the pandemic as tourists returned and hundreds of people were reunited with family and friends.
* Canadian police on Sunday secured the downtown core of the capital with fencing as city workers cleaned up trash and snow plows cleared streets after two days of tense standoffs and 191 arrests ended a three-week occupation of Ottawa.
* South Africa's health department said on Monday that it was changing COVID-19 vaccination rules to try to increase uptake, as inoculations have slowed and the country has ample vaccine stocks.
