* China issued 9.78 trillion yuan (1.36 trillion USD) in new yuan-denominated loans in the first three months of 2025, central bank data showed on Sunday. At the end of March, outstanding yuan loans amounted to 265.41 trillion yuan, up 7.4 percent year on year, according to the People's Bank of China.
* U.S. special presidential envoy Steve Witkoff met with Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi on Saturday and had "very positive and constructive" discussions, said the White House.
* Iran and the United States will hold the second round of negotiations on April 19 after the two sides concluded their "indirect" talks on Saturday in the Omani capital of Muscat in a "constructive" atmosphere, according to the Iranian Foreign Ministry.
* At least 21 people were killed on Sunday morning in a Russian ballistic missile attack on the northeastern Ukrainian city of Sumy, Ukraine's Prosecutor General's Office said in a statement.
* Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha on Saturday said his country seeks peace and wants to end the conflict with Russia this year, The Kyiv Independent media outlet reported.
* Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi held talks on Saturday with visiting Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto in Cairo, discussing developments in the Gaza Strip and elevating bilateral ties to a strategic partnership, the Egyptian presidency said in a statement.
* Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said Saturday that Israel will soon expand its operations to most of the Gaza Strip territory.
* The Algerian Foreign Ministry said on Saturday it summoned French Ambassador to Algiers, Stephane Romatet, to lodge a "strong protest" against the detention of an Algerian consul in France.
* Pakistan expelled a total of 6,500 Afghan refugees on Saturday, Afghanistan's High Commission for Addressing Returnees Problems said in a statement on Sunday.
* A high-level meeting focused on Black Sea security will be held on Tuesday and Wednesday at the Naval Forces Command headquarters in Ankara, the Turkish Defense Ministry said on Sunday.
* The second edition of the Human Capability Initiative (HCI) conference opened in Riyadh on Sunday, drawing global leaders, policymakers, and experts to address strategies for advancing human skills and resilience in a fast-changing world under the theme "Beyond Readiness."
* An Israeli airstrike hit the Al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza City early Sunday, damaging key medical infrastructure and forcing the facility to shut down, according to Palestinian medical sources and eyewitnesses.
* Hamas said on Saturday that it is positive about any Gaza ceasefire proposal that guarantees a permanent ceasefire and a complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Gaza Strip.
* The U.S. military carried out 10 airstrikes across northern Yemen late Saturday night, targeting multiple locations, Houthi-run al-Masirah TV reported.
* China's railway network transported 970 million tonnes of cargo in the first three months of 2025, up 3.1 percent year on year, the railway operator said Sunday.
* Afghanistan's central bank, Da Afghanistan Bank, has collected and incinerated more than 3.3 billion afghani (about 46 million USD) of worn-out banknotes over the past year.
* Sri Lanka has recorded an increase in both tourism revenue and remittances, two major sources of foreign exchange earnings for the country, in the first quarter of 2025, according to latest data from the central bank. From January to March 2025, workers' remittances reached over 1.8 billion USD, compared to over 1.5 billion dollars in the same period in 2024.
* An earthquake with a magnitude of 6.1 jolted Afghanistan-Tajikistan border region at 0424 GMT on Sunday, the GFZ German Research Center for Geosciences said.
