* On a visit to China this week, EU Agriculture Commissioner Janusz Wojciechowski said his focus will be on increasing agri-food exports to the world's second largest economy and keeping food above the fray of rising tensions in China-EU trade.
* Fresh United States aid to Ukraine will not change the situation on the frontlines, where Russia has the upper hand, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Monday.
* Nearly 17,000 Filipino and American troops kicked off a three-week joint combat training exercise in the Philippines on Monday that includes maritime drills in the East Sea/South China Sea.
* European Union foreign ministers meet in Luxembourg on Monday to discuss bolstering Ukraine’s air defences and expanding sanctions on Iran.
* Global military expenditure grew 7% to $2.43 trillion in 2023, the steepest annual rise since 2009 as international peace and security deteriorated, the Stockholm International Peace Research InstitNATO spending target ute (SIPRI) said on Monday.
* Chinese police busted nearly 5,000 cases involving bank card forgery, theft of card data, card fraud, illegal card transactions and other card-related offenses last year, among a nationwide crackdown on crimes associated with bank cards.
* The Indonesian police have foiled an illegal attempt to send 24 migrant workers to neighboring Malaysia in the western province of North Sumatra, the provincial police said.
* New Zealand is contributing 7 million NZ dollars (4.14 million USD) to support communities affected by severe food insecurity and other urgent humanitarian needs in Ethiopia and Somalia.
* Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday he would fight against sanctions being imposed on any Israeli military units for alleged rights violations, after media reports said Washington was planning such a step.
* Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi arrived in Islamabad on Monday on a three-day official visit, the foreign office said, amid tight security in the Pakistani capital.
* Nuclear weapons have no place in Iran's nuclear doctrine, the country's foreign ministry said on Monday, days after a Revolutionary Guards commander warned that Tehran might change its nuclear policy if pressured by Israeli threats.
* Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday pledged to intensify the military crackdown on Hamas. In a video address, Netanyahu threatened action "in the coming days," without elaborating on the time and place.
* Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan began a rare visit to Iraq on Monday aiming to reset ties between the Middle East neighbours by inking a raft of deals covering security cooperation against Kurdish PKK militants, energy and trade.
* Iraq’s Kataib Hezbollah said Iraqi armed groups had decided to resume attacks on U.S. forces in the country after seeing little progress on talks to achieve the exit of American troops during a visit by the Iraqi prime minister to Washington.
* Turkish police detained 36 suspected members of the Islamic State (IS) group, the country's Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said on Sunday.
* The head of Israeli military intelligence, Major General Aharon Haliva, has resigned over the failure to prevent Hamas' Oct. 7 attack, local media reported on Monday.
* Armed gangs launched fresh attacks on parts of Haiti's capital Port-au-Prince ahead of the installation of a transitional council set to usher in a new government, local media said on Sunday, reporting arson and heavy gunfire in the city centre.
* India's COVID-19 tally rose to 34,666,241 on Thursday, as 9,419 new cases were registered during the past 24 hours across the country, showed the federal health ministry's latest data.
* The Brunei's economy is projected to grow 2.4 percent in 2024 and 2.5 percent next year, according to the latest report from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
* Mongolia's government and a coalition of partners have signed a nature finance agreement aimed at protecting 35.6 million acres (144,000 square km) of the country's lands and waters, including the world's last great tract of temperate grassland.
* A total of 38 hydrological stations at 24 rivers in south China's Guangdong Province have reported water levels surpassing the alert threshold as of 4 p.m. on Sunday, according to the provincial department of water resources.
* Europe is increasingly facing bouts of heat so intense that the human body cannot cope, as climate change continues to raise temperatures, the EU's Copernicus climate monitoring service and the World Meteorological Organization said on Monday.
* The upcoming heavier normal Gu rains and floods in 22 districts of Somalia are expected to affect some 770,000 people, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said on Sunday.
* Mongolia is now at high risk of forest and steppe fires amid the spring season's dry and windy weather, the National Emergency Management Agency warned Monday.
* Sam Ratulangi International Airport in the Indonesian province of North Sulawesi on Monday has been reopened after being closed since Thursday due to eruptions of Ruang volcano.
* The death toll from a shipwreck that occurred Friday in the Central African Republic (CAR) has risen to 62, locals and authorities said on Sunday.
