* Trade talks between India and Britain have not been suspended and will continue this year, three officials said on Monday, responding to a British newspaper report that said India had "disengaged" from the talks after London failed to condemn Sikh separatists.
* Russia and Ukraine carried out a major prisoner swap on Monday, with 106 Russian prisoners of war being freed in exchange for 100 Ukrainians, both sides said.
* Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Sunday called for national unity to rebuild Brazil. He made the appeal on the eve of his 100th day in office while reviewing the main measures his administration has taken since he took office on Jan. 1.
* US President Joe Biden said on Monday he plans to run for reelection in 2024 but was not prepared to announce it yet.
* China plans to build an over-400-km hydrogen pipeline to more effectively transfer clean fuel from the resources-rich west to energy-consuming regions in the east.
* The number of start-ups grew in India 300 times in the last nine years, said Jitendra Singh, minister of state for the ministry of science and technology, on Monday.
* Egypt's foreign minister Sameh Shoukry will travel to Turkey this week, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Monday.
* Saudi and Omani delegations held talks with Houthi officials in Yemen's capital Sanaa on Sunday, Houthi-run media said, as Riyadh seeks a permanent ceasefire to end its military involvement in the country's long-running war.
* Thousands of Israeli settlers and dozens of politicians, including seven cabinet ministers, on Monday marched to an abandoned illegal Israeli outpost in the occupied West Bank.
* Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry on Sunday calls for an end to all forms of terrorism and foreign interference in Syria in order to restore its security and stability.
* China State Shipbuilding Corporation has signed a cooperation agreement with France's CMA CGM Group to produce 16 large container vessels worth more than 21 billion yuan (about 3 billion USD).
* Israel signed a 1.44 billion shekel (400 million USD) deal to sell Spike anti-tank missiles to Greece, Israel's Defence Ministry said on Monday, just days after reaching a similar-sized deal to provide air defences to newly-inducted NATO member Finland.
* The Italian coastguard is carrying out operations to rescue two boats carrying a total of 1,200 people, it said on Monday, after a surge in the number of migrants crossing the Mediterranean from North Africa over the weekend.
* Turkey launched its first aircraft carrier on Monday, aiming to extend its drone capabilities from land-based to naval operations amid increased regional tensions as conflict rages in Ukraine on the other side of the Black Sea.
* Cambodia attracted 39 fixed-asset investment projects worth 294 million USD in the first quarter of 2023, generating some 47,000 new jobs, a report of the Council for the Development of Cambodia said Monday.
* The central bank of Indonesia reported on Monday that the country's foreign exchange reserves grew to 145.2 billion USD in March from 140.3 billion dollars in February. This number is the highest in the last 16 months amid the uncertain global economy.
* Thailand's investor confidence plunged in March from a positive to a neutral level as the local stock market fluctuated and weakened over concerns about the US and European banking crises, a survey showed Monday.
* Malaysia's unemployment rate in February dipped to 3.5 percent from 3.6 percent in January, official data showed Monday.
* Remittances sent by overseas Pakistani workers increased by 27.1 percent in March on a month-on-month basis, the State Bank of Pakistan has said.
* Egypt's annual urban consumer inflation rate in March climbed to 32.7% year-on-year, just shy of an all-time record, from 31.9% in February, data from the country's statistics agency CAPMAS showed on Monday.
* Peru expects to produce 2.8 million tonnes of copper in 2023, Minister of Energy and Mines Oscar Vera said in a news conference Monday.
* Five people were dead and six others were wounded after a shooting attack on Monday at a bank in downtown Louisville, Kentucky, the city's police department said.
* At least four people, including two policemen, were killed and 15 others injured in a blast on Monday in Quetta, the provincial capital of Pakistan's southwest Balochistan province, police and health officials said.
