* China encourages both Israel and Palestine to show political courage and take steps to resume peace talks, and China is ready to provide convenience for this, Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Qin Gang said Monday.
* Russian President Vladimir Putin has met his commanders in Luhansk and Kherson regions, while Russian forces stepped up heavy artillery bombardments and air strikes on the devastated eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut.
* The United States spoke to rival Sudanese commanders who have been waging fierce battles in Khartoum and beyond for a fourth day, telling them to stop fighting and to protect civilians and others after a U.S diplomatic convoy came under fire.
* Qatar and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) are restoring diplomatic ties and reopening embassies, officials said on Tuesday, more than two years after Arab states ended a boycott of Doha that had shattered the Western-allied Gulf Arab bloc.
* Russia's Foreign Ministry on Tuesday summoned the US, British and Canadian ambassadors to protest against what it said was their "interference in Russia's internal affairs", the Interfax news agency reported, citing a ministry statement.
* Lebanon's parliament on Tuesday voted to extend the terms of municipal councils and other local officials, delaying elections to avoid further political paralysis in a country still in the throes of an economic meltdown.
* The Slovakian government suspended imports of grain and other agricultural commodities from its neighbor Ukraine on Monday, but kept transit to third countries open, said interim Agriculture Minister Samuel Vlcan.
* Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday stressed the significance of developing the navy as the country's Pacific Fleet is undergoing a snap check.
* Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia' al-Sudani emphasized on Monday his country's openness to expanding cooperation with Ukraine, calling for settling international disputes by rejecting wars and adopting dialogue.
* The death toll in the continued clashes between the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has jumped to 144, the non-governmental Central Committee of Sudanese Doctors said on Tuesday.
* Ukraine will try to unblock exports of food and grain through Poland in a second day of talks in Warsaw on Tuesday after some of its staunchest allies in central Europe imposed bans on its products.
* UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Monday called for worldwide engagement and support to renew the international financial architecture, which he said was created for a world "no longer exists."
* Around 60 migrants were taken to Malta on Monday evening after being rescued from rough seas as they attempted to cross to Europe from Libya.
* The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) announced in a statement that 104 Yemeni detainees unilaterally released by Saudi Arabia had boarded ICRC planes and arrived in Yemen on Monday.
* Afghanistan's economy will contract, inflation will rise and liquidity will fall if there is a 30% drop in international aid as feared, according to an analysis by the United Nations' development agency released on Tuesday.
* Japan's benchmark Nikkei stock index gained for an eighth straight day on Tuesday, helped by a weaker yen boosting exporter issues, while banking issues followed their US peers higher.
* Britain will have sufficient gas supply to meet demand from April to September and is expected to sustain flows to Europe, the UK's National Gas Transmission company said on Tuesday.
* Bank Indonesia (BI) on Tuesday decided to hold the benchmark interest rate unchanged at 5.75 percent after a two-day meeting of the Board of Governors.
* Sergiy Nikolaychuk, the deputy chairman of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU), said that Ukraine plans to attract 42 billion USD in financial aid this year, the NBU said on Facebook Monday.
* Brazilian financial analysts raised the inflation forecast for this year from 5.98 percent to 6.01 percent, and from 4.14 percent to 4.18 percent for next year, the Central Bank of Brazil said Monday.
* Global inflation is becoming more entrenched and the risk is that it could be harder to reduce it, the head of Norway's 1.4 trillion USD sovereign wealth fund told Reuters on Tuesday.
* New Zealand Prime Minister Chris Hipkins will undertake a small number of international engagements this year, focused on advancing the country's trade and economic interests.
* The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the East African Community (EAC) on Monday signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) aimed at renewing and strengthening cooperation in addressing issues on refugees and asylum seekers in need of international protection across the region.
* As the implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Agreement gathers momentum, it is important to allow the pan-African business community to take ownership of this flagship project, an African Union (AU) Commission official has said.
* Life expectancy at birth in Bangladesh has gone down from 72.8 in 2020 to 72.3 in 2021, according to the "Sample Vital Registration System 2021" launched Monday by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics.
* Authorities in parts of India have shut schools for a week after they recorded sweltering temperatures of more than 40 Celsius (104 Fahrenheit).
