* Turkey's foreign minister said Russia and Ukraine were nearing agreement on "critical" issues and he was hopeful for a ceasefire if the two sides did not backtrack from progress achieved so far.
* Russia remains open to cooperation with Western countries, but will not initiate an improvement in the relations with them, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Saturday.
* Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said seven humanitarian corridors would open on Sunday to enable civilians to leave frontline areas.
* Pakistan's parliament will convene on Friday to take up a no-confidence motion against Prime Minister Imran Khan, the lower house speaker's office said on Sunday, in what shapes up as his toughest test since coming to power in 2018.
* French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said on Sunday he hoped the current energy price shock to inflation rates would last a matter of months and that he did not see a years-long inflationary spiral in European Union economies.
* The Patriot air defence system has started arriving in Slovakia from NATO partner countries and the deployment will continue in the coming days, Slovakia's defence minister said on Sunday.
* A car drove at high speed into a group of Belgian carnival performers who were preparing a parade early on Sunday, killing six people and seriously injuring 10 others, authorities said, saying the incident did not appear to be a militant attack.
* Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani met Republic of Korean Prime Minister Kim Boo-kyum and the two leaders reviewed cooperation between their countries, the Qatar News Agency reported on Sunday.
* Austria unveiled a 2 billion euro (2.2 billion USD) package on Sunday to help households and businesses shoulder massive increases in energy prices in the wake of Russia-Ukraine crisis.
* Algeria has summoned its ambassador to Spain back for consultations over Madrid's recent comments on Western Sahara, the foreign affairs ministry said on Saturday.
* The International Money Fund (IMF) has asked Pakistan to explain how it would fund a 1.5 billion USD subsidy package announced by Prime Minister Imran Khan, Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin said on Sunday.
* Mainland China reported 1,737 new COVID-19 cases for March 19, down from 2,228 cases a day earlier, the country's national health authority said on Sunday.
* Italy reported 74,024 COVID-19-related cases on Saturday, down from 76,250 the day before, the health ministry said, while the number of deaths nearly halved to 85 from 165.
* Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthi group fired missiles and drones at Saudi energy and water desalination facilities, causing a temporary drop in output at a refinery but no casualties, the Saudi energy ministry said on Sunday.
* At least one person died and dozens went missing after a small ferry packed with passengers collided with a cargo vessel and sank on Sunday on the Shitalakhsya River in central Bangladesh, the latest waterway tragedy to hit the nation.
* The Saudi-led coalition fighting the Houthis in Yemen said on Sunday it destroyed a boat laden with explosives that belongs to the Iran-aligned group, the Saudi-owned al-Hadath TV channel said.