* UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres welcomes the announcement of a 10-day ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon, his spokesman said on Thursday.
* U.S. President Donald Trump said Thursday at an event in Las Vegas, Nevada, that the war in Iran was going "swimmingly" and could end "pretty soon."
* U.S. President Donald Trump said Thursday he will meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Lebanese President Joseph Aoun at the White House "over the next week or two."
* U.S. President Donald Trump said Thursday he would consider visiting Pakistan if a peace deal is reached between the United States and Iran to end the weekslong conflict.
* U.S. President Donald Trump said Thursday the United States and Iran will "probably, maybe" resume in-person talks over the weekend as efforts continue to reach a deal on ending the conflict.
* Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore, the littoral states of the Straits of Malacca and Singapore (SOMS), have reaffirmed their commitment to keeping the straits open and safe in accordance with international law, Singapore's Maritime and Port Authority said on Friday.
* Venezuela has resumed relations with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) after years of suspension, acting President Delcy Rodriguez said Thursday.
* Slovakia will not support a new European Union (EU) package of sanctions against Russia if the Druzhba oil pipeline is not restored, Foreign Minister Juraj Blanar said in parliament on Thursday.
* The Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant temporarily lost all off-site electrical power on Thursday evening, highlighting the continued precarious nuclear safety situation, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said on social platform X on Thursday.
* Myanmar's President U Min Aung Hlaing granted amnesty to over 4,500 prisoners on Friday, the first day of the Myanmar calendar New Year, state-owned Myanmar Radio and Television reported.
* French President Emmanuel Macron said Friday that the ceasefire between Hezbollah and Israel may have been broken by continuing military actions.
* European leaders on Thursday called for the full implementation of the 10-day ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon and urged efforts toward a lasting peace.
* Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf said Thursday that Tehran is determined to ensure complete peace and security in West Asia, accusing the United States of undermining such efforts by repeatedly breaking its promises.
* Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday said that even after the ceasefire with Hezbollah takes effect, Israel will maintain a 10-km security zone in southern Lebanon.
* Romuald Wadagni has won Benin's presidential election with 94.27 percent of valid votes, according to provisional results announced on Thursday afternoon by the country's Constitutional Court.
* Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty and his Turkish counterpart Hakan Fidan stressed the importance of renewed regional efforts to push for the resumption of negotiations between the United States and Iran, the Egyptian Foreign Ministry said in a statement Thursday.
* Syria's foreign affairs authority said Thursday that all military sites previously used by U.S. forces in the country have been evacuated and transferred to the Syrian interim authority, marking the completion of the U.S. military withdrawal.
* As part of ongoing reviews of European Union (EU) member state export applications, Singapore has approved Greece, Lithuania and Latvia as new import sources for meat, eggs and their products.
* Singapore's non-oil domestic exports (NODX) rose 15.3 percent year-on-year in March, accelerating from 4 percent growth in the previous month, data from Enterprise Singapore showed on Friday.
*Australia will import 250,000 tonnes of fertilizer urea from Indonesia under a deal announced by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Friday.
* Russian investments in Azerbaijan totaled 10.7 billion USD as of April 1, while Azerbaijan invested 1.2 billion dollars in Russia, Azeri Deputy Prime Minister Shahin Mustafayev said Thursday.
* The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has projected that Ukraine's GDP will grow by 2 percent this year, up from 1.8 percent in 2025, the Interfax-Ukraine news agency has reported, citing the fund's latest forecast.
* Britain's real gross domestic product (GDP) rose by 0.5 percent in February 2026 from the previous month, ahead of the shocks triggered by the conflict in the Middle East, data released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed on Thursday.
* Lithuania recorded one of the highest annual inflation rates in the European Union (EU) in March, according to figures published by Eurostat on Thursday.
