* People's Bank of China Governor Yi Gang vowed on Friday to maintain price stability amid high global inflationary pressure and said monetary policy will focus on supporting small firms and vulnerable groups hit by COVID-19 outbreaks.
* Britain and India signed a new defence cooperation agreement on Friday and will look to complete a free trade deal by the end of the year, their leaders said after a meeting in New Delhi.
* Russia plans to take full control of Donbas and Southern Ukraine as part of the second phase of the military operation, the deputy commander of Russia's central military district said on Friday, the Interfax news agency reported.
* NATO must avoid a direct military confrontation with Russia that could lead to a third world war, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said in an interview with Der Spiegel when asked about Germany's failure to deliver heavy weapons to Ukraine.
* German Chancellor Olaf Scholz will make a two-day visit to Japan from April 28, and hold talks with Prime Minister Kishida Fumio, Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Matsuno Hirokazu told a news conference on Friday.
* Bank Indonesia has already started normalising some of its pandemic-era ultra loose monetary policy by announcing three hikes in the RRR by 300 basis points between March to September.
* Malaysia's consumer price index (CPI) in March increased 2.2 percent from a year ago, surpassing the average inflation of 1.9 percent for the period January 2011 to March 2022, official data showed Friday.
* Singapore's Changi Airport handled 1.14 million passenger movements in March 2022, the first time exceeding the one-million level since March 2020, the airport said in its latest monthly e-magazine Changi Journeys.
* Kyrgyz President Sadyr Zhaparov on Thursday signed a decree on measures to develop a creative economy and create conditions for the progressive development of Kyrgyzstan, said his press service.
* Inflation will be high in 2022 and although the price pressure should progressively ease next year, France and its partner countries are set to enter into "a new era of higher inflation", said the French finance minister.
* British consumer sentiment tumbled in April to its second-lowest reading since records began nearly 50 years ago, as the worsening cost-of-living crisis hurt households' confidence in the economy and their personal finances.
* Climate change, cost of living and the economy are the most important issues to Australians in the general election to be held on May 21, a poll has found.
* The Turkish foreign ministry has summoned the Iraqi charge d'affaires to convey discomfort with statements by Iraqi authorities about a Turkish military operation against Kurdish militants in northern Iraq, the ministry said on Thursday.
* Israel said on Thursday it was enforcing a long-standing ban on Jewish prayer at the compound of Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem, rejecting an Arab League accusation that it was allowing such worship to take place.
* Ukraine and Russia on Thursday conducted their sixth prisoner exchange since the start of the conflict, Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said.
* Russian gas producer Gazprom GAZP.MM was supplying natural gas to Europe via Ukraine on Friday in line with requests from European consumers, it said. Requests stood at 58.2 million cubic metres for April 22, the company said, up from 57.3 million cubic metres for April 21.
* Britain has granted a licence for payments until May 31 to Russia's Gazprombank and its subsidiaries, so as to ensure gas supplies to the European Union, a Treasury document showed.
* Estonia will increase defense spending over the next four years to 2.5 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP) on average, Estonian Foreign Minister Eva-Maria Liimets said on Thursday.
* China’s Shanghai will start a series of campaigns on Friday to cut off all COVID-19 transmission chains in communities as soon as possible, local authorities said.
* India's COVID-19 tally rose to 43,052,425 on Friday, as 2,451 new cases were registered during the past 24 hours across the country, showed the federal Health Ministry's latest data. This is the third consecutive day when the number of new cases has breached the 2,000-mark, after hitting low for the past several months.
* The United States government said it was extending a requirement that non-US citizens crossing land or ferry terminals at the US-Mexico and US-Canada borders must be vaccinated against the coronavirus.
* The Republic of Korea recorded 81,058 new COVID-19 cases as of midnight Thursday compared to 24 hours ago, raising the total number of infections to 16,755,055, the health authorities said Friday.
