* Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that the Ukrainian delegation is looking for peace at the fresh round of talks with Russia, the presidential press service reported Monday.
* Chinese Vice Premier Hu Chunhua on Sunday called for more efforts to consolidate the achievements in poverty alleviation and ensure that rural vitalization policies are fully implemented and deliver tangible benefits.
* The Philippines and the United States on Monday kicked off their large-scale annual joint military drills in the Southeast Asian country.
* Russia said on Monday it will not supply gas to Europe for free as it works out methods for accepting payments for its gas exports in roubles but G7 nations refused the demand.
* The European Commission called on EU governments on Monday to end national programmes to sell citizenship to investors, also known as golden passports schemes, and urged them to suspend the sale of visas to Russians and Belarusians.
* A no confidence motion to remove Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan was presented in parliament on Monday, the speaker of the lower house, Qasim Suri, said.
* A rare Israeli-hosted summit with Arab partners that concluded on Monday will become a regular event, Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid said, inviting the Palestinians to join in.
* Israel on Monday voiced support for Morocco's autonomy proposal for Western Sahara after the countries' foreign ministers met at an Israel-Arab summit.
* Profit growth at China's industrial firms accelerated in January-February in line with other signs of momentum in the economy, although the outlook clouded by COVID-19 outbreaks and the war in Ukraine is stoking calls for supportive measures.
* The US trade deficit in goods narrowed in February as exports rebounded, data showed on Monday, which could provided a lift to economic growth in the first quarter.
* Foreign direct investment (FDI) into the United Arab Emirates rose to 20.7 billion USD in 2021, up 4% from 2020, the Minister of Economy told Sky News on Monday.
* Qatar's Minister of State for Energy Affairs Saad Sherida al-Kaabi discussed bolstering cooperation in the field of energy with the French Foreign Affairs Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian during their meeting in Doha on Monday, Qatar Energy said in a statement.
* Senior US official Amos Hochstein said on Monday he had no message for OPEC+ before it meets on March 31 and said the oil producing group would do what it saw as right.
* Search work at the site of the recent plane crash in south China is continuing after the second black box was found on Sunday, an official said at a press briefing on Monday afternoon.
* The Lao Ministry of Health plans to offer fourth doses of COVID-19 vaccines to healthcare workers and people at risk of serious illness starting in April to shield vulnerable groups from the Omicron variant.
* Italy reported 59,555 COVID-19 related cases on Sunday, against 73,357 the day before, the health ministry said, while the number of deaths fell to 82 from 118.
* French health authorities said the number of patients hospitalised for COVID-19 were down by 38 over 24 hours, at 20,616, but on a week-on-week basis, that figure was up for the second day running, after declining by that measure since early February.
* Senior citizens who received a second booster of the Pfizer–BioNTech COVID-19 vaccination had a 78% lower mortality rate from the disease than those who got one only, a study from Israel showed on Sunday.
