* The Office of the Commander-in-Chief of Defense Services of Myanmar on Tuesday announced the extension of the temporary ceasefire, which was originally in place from April 2 to April 22. According to the office's statement, the ceasefire has now been extended until April 30.
* Russia has expelled a former Moldovan intelligence officer for attempting to collect classified information, local media reported Wednesday citing the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB).
* Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Tuesday that Kiev is prepared to engage in talks in any format once a potential ceasefire with Russia is established, the government-run Ukrinform news agency reported.
* At least 25 tourists were killed and several others wounded Tuesday after unknown gunmen fired at them in the restive Indian-controlled Kashmir, police said.
* Chinese President Xi Jinping held talks with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev in Beijing on Wednesday. The two leaders announced the establishment of a comprehensive strategic partnership between the two countries.
* Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi held talks on Tuesday in the Saudi port city of Jeddah on bilateral ties and regional developments.
* Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Chilean President Gabriel Boric on Tuesday reaffirmed their commitment to multilateralism and regional integration, and their rejection of global trade wars.
* Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said on Tuesday that the technical talks with U.S. experts initially scheduled for Wednesday in Oman will be held on Saturday.
* Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez on Tuesday announced that the country will increase spending on security and defense by 10.47 billion euros (11.99 billion USD) to meet its commitment of spending 2 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) on defense in 2025.
* China on Wednesday reaffirmed its commitment to protecting intellectual property rights (IPRs) after the European Union (EU) appealed a WTO panel report under the Multi-Party Interim Appeal Arbitration Arrangement (MPIA).
* Cambodia and the United Kingdom on Tuesday pledged to further boost bilateral ties and cooperation for mutual benefit. The pledge was made between Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Prak Sokhonn and Catherine West, parliamentary under-secretary at the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, during their working lunch in Phnom Penh, the Cambodian Foreign Ministry said in a press release.
* South African President Cyril Ramaphosa held a telephone conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday, discussing issues of mutual interest.
* Japan's Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries began the third auction of government-held rice reserves on Wednesday as part of efforts to stabilize surging prices.
* Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis on Tuesday announced a 1-billion-euro (1.14 billion USD) package of support measures for low-income pensioners, tenants, and other vulnerable groups, following Greece's strong-than-expected fiscal performance in 2024.
* Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said on Tuesday that his country upheld the principles of environmental stewardship and sustainable development, calling for international cooperation to safeguard the Earth from the growing threat of climate change.
* As of Tuesday, 52 people have been rescued, and 103 bodies have been recovered from the collapsed Sky Villa condo in central Myanmar's Mandalay region, the state-run Global New Light of Myanmar reported on Wednesday.
* Yemen's Houthis said in a statement on Tuesday that the group had shot down a U.S. MQ-9 drone over the Yemeni northwestern province of Hajjah, and launched fresh attacks against two U.S. aircraft carriers.
* A senior official from the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) on Tuesday accused Israel of using humanitarian assistance as a "weapon of war" against the Gaza Strip.
* The number of digital reading users in China reached 670 million in 2024, marking a 17.5 percent year-on-year increase, according to a report on digital reading released on Wednesday in Taiyuan, north China's Shanxi Province.
* Republic of Korea's births grew for the eighth consecutive month amid a continued population fall, statistical office data showed Wednesday. The number of newborn babies swelled 3.2 percent from a year earlier to 20,035 in February, continuing to increase since July 2024, according to Statistics Korea.
* Northern Laos' Luang Prabang province welcomed 1,167,581 tourists in the first three months of 2025, marking a 162 percent increase compared to the same period in 2024, Lao National Radio reported on Wednesday.
* Austria reached a record level of research intensity in 2024, with research and development (R&D) expenditure accounting for 3.35 percent of the country's nominal gross domestic product (GDP), according to an official estimate released on Tuesday.
* Iran has unveiled a 10-part incentive package to boost investment in its upstream oil and gas industries, the official news agency IRNA reported.
* Uzbekistan implemented projects funded by foreign investment worth over 8.7 billion USD in the first quarter of 2025, up 20 percent year on year, the press service of the Uzbek president said Monday.
* Thailand's industrial confidence fell for the first time in three months in March due to a powerful earthquake that hampered tourism and slowed domestic economic activity, data showed on Tuesday.
* The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has sharply revised down its forecast for Romania's economic growth in 2025, cutting it from 3.3 percent to 1.6 percent, according to the latest World Economic Outlook report released on Tuesday.
* The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has slightly lowered Latvia's economic growth forecast for 2025, according to the IMF's latest World Economic Outlook, published on Tuesday.
* Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) recorded a 6.8 percent year-on-year increase in exports in the first quarter (Q1) of 2025, reaching 4.116 billion convertible marks (KM) (around 2.416 billion USD), the Agency for Statistics of BiH reported Tuesday.
* The Indonesia Carbon Exchange (IDXCarbon) has reported a sharp rise in service users, reaching 111 entities as of April 17, 2025, up from 16 participants at its launch on Sept. 26, 2023.
* Exports of cutlery from Pakistan witnessed an increase of over 4 percent during the first nine months of fiscal year 2024-25 compared to the same period of last fiscal year, the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) said on Tuesday.
* A 6.6-magnitude earthquake struck off Indonesia's North Sulawesi province on Tuesday without triggering large waves, according to the country's Meteorology, Climatology, and Geophysics Agency.
* About 450 people have been evacuated to temporary shelters in the Kirzhach District of Russia's Vladimir Oblast following an explosion at a military ammunition depot, regional governor Alexander Avdeev said Tuesday.
* A canoe carrying a group of people capsized on Monday in a lagoon in Dabou department, about 50 km from Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire's economic capital, resulting in at least 12 deaths, a security source told Xinhua on Tuesday.
