* Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr on Sunday welcomed the European Commission's (EC) decision to continue recognising certificates issued by his country for Filipino seafarers, saying it averted job losses for roughly 50,000 sailors.
* Bulgarians went to polls on Sunday to vote in the country's early parliamentary elections, Bulgaria's fifth parliamentary elections in two years. Nearly 6.6 million voters are eligible to elect 240 lawmakers from 14 political parties and seven coalitions, according to official data.
* Montenegrins went to the polls on Sunday in a run-off presidential election pitting incumbent Milo Djukanovic against a Western-educated economist pledging to lift the nation out of a crisis marked by no-confidence votes in two governments.
* India's defense exports reached an all-time high of approximately 160 billion Indian rupees (1.94 billion USD) during the 2022-23 financial year (April 2022-March 2023), showed data released by the Defense Ministry on Saturday.
* Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry held talks on Saturday with his Syrian counterpart Faisal Mekdad who is visiting Cairo for the first time in more than a decade, said the Egyptian Foreign Ministry.
* India's foreign ministry said Saturday that trade between New Delhi and Kuala Lumpur can now be settled in Indian rupee in addition to other currencies. The development followed a decision by India's central bank in July last year to allow settlement of international trade in Indian currency.
* Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe has established a committee to oversee Sri Lanka's utilization of the credit facility provided by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), state media reported on Sunday.
* Saudi Arabia is planning to invite Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to an Arab League summit that Riyadh is hosting in May, three sources familiar with the plans said, a move that would formally end Syria's regional isolation.
* Namibia and Botswana on Saturday launched the 24-hour operation at Trans-Kalahari/Mamuno border posts, which is expected to boost trade between the two countries.
* Sudanese parties involved in the political process on Saturday agreed to postpone the signing of the final agreement to April 6.
* Tens of thousands of Israelis resume demonstrations in the coastal city of Tel Aviv Saturday night, calling for a complete cancelation of the government's judicial overhaul plan, according to the local media.
* The Iranian navy said it identified and warned off a US reconnaissance plane near the Gulf of Oman on Sunday, the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported.
* The African Union Transition Mission in Somalia (ATMIS) marked a year of service in Somalia on Saturday with a renewed commitment to strengthening cooperation and building partnerships to enhance peace and stability in the country.
* Israel launched a fresh missile attack against military sites in the central Syrian province of Homs after midnight Sunday, the state TV reported. Syrian air defenses were triggered by the attack, intercepting some of the missiles, according to the report.
* Russia's Gazprom said that it would ship 37.6 million cubic metres (mcm) of gas to Europe via Ukraine on Sunday.
* The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) successfully conducted a reusable launch vehicle autonomous landing mission at the aeronautical test range in the Chitradurga district of Karnataka on Sunday, said a statement by ISRO.
* Peru's cumulative inflation rose to 2.1 percent in the first quarter of 2023 after the national Consumer Price Index (CPI) increased by 1.19 percent in March, the National Institute of Statistics and Information (INEI) reported Saturday.
* Israeli forces carried out air strikes on outposts in Syria's Homs province in a raid early on Sunday, Syria's defence ministry said, while Western intelligence sources said a series of air bases in central Syria where Iranian personnel are based were hit in the bombings.
* A violent storm packing high winds and heavy rains ripped through Southern and Midwestern sections of the United States as it headed east on Saturday, leaving at least 22 dead and scores injured, according to officials and media reports.
* A forest fire raged in central Seoul, the Republic of Korea, on Sunday, forcing the evacuation of at least 120 homes in the densely populated capital, authorities said.
