* Russia's top diplomat Sergei Lavrov arrived in China, the Russian foreign ministry said on Monday, for what Moscow had said was talks on the war in Ukraine, bilateral ties and the situation in the Asia-Pacific region.
* Kuwaiti Emir Sheikh Mishal Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah issued on Sunday a decree accepting the cabinet's resignation and another decree calling on the National Assembly to hold its first session on April 17.
* Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Monday that a planned German military presence in Lithuania would escalate tensions. The NATO military alliance and EU member Lithuania, which borders Russia and its ally Belarus, said earlier it would partly finance permanently hosting of 5,000 German troops from 2027.
* UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was alarmed by Ecuador's raid of the Mexican Embassy late Friday, said his spokesman on Saturday.
* Ecuador's armed forces will continue carrying out joint anti-crime operations with the police under a presidential decree announced at midnight on Monday, the government said.
* Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said dialogue was needed to resolve heightened friction between arch-rivals Pakistan and India during a meeting in Riyadh with visiting Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.
* Mexican embassy staff departed Sunday after Mexico broke diplomatic relations with Ecuador following Ecuadorian police stormed the Mexican embassy to arrest former Vice President Jorge Glas, who has been convicted of corruption.
* The recent shelling of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant (NPP) was "a very dangerous provocation" with negative consequences, Kremlin Spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on Monday.
* Israel is yet to provide a satisfactory explanation for the death of seven aid workers last week, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Monday as Australia appointed a senior former military official to study Israel's inquiry into the incident.
* Iran's Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian left Oman to visit Syria's capital Damascus a week after Iran's consulate there was targeted in a suspected Israeli attack, state media reported on Monday.
* Nicaragua asked the International Court of Justice on Monday to order Germany to halt military arms exports to Israel and to resume its funding of U.N. Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA, saying there is a serious risk of genocide in Gaza.
* Spain will scrap the so-called golden visa programme granting residency rights to foreigners who make large investments in real estate in the country, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez told reporters on Monday.
* The European Union is not planning to delay a new law to crack down on the import of commodities linked to deforestation, its environment commissioner said, despite some governments urging Brussels to postpone the landmark rules.
* Progress has been made in discussions in Cairo on a Gaza conflict truce and there is agreement on the basic points between all parties involved, Al-Qahera News, an Egyptian state-owned TV channel, reported on Monday.
* At least 33,207 Palestinians have been killed and 75,933 others wounded in Israel's military offensive on Gaza since Oct.7, Gaza's health ministry reported on Monday.
* The African Union Peace and Security Council (AUPSC) has called for adequate, sustainable, and predictable funding for the soon-to-be-established follow-up mission after the exit of the AU Transition Mission in Somalia (ATMIS) in December this year.
* Three soldiers on a Southern African peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo were killed and three others wounded after a hostile mortar round landed near their camp, the Southern African Development Community (SADC) said on Monday.
* South Korea has launched its second military spy satellite into orbit on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, the defense ministry said Monday.
* A Boeing 737-800 plane made an emergency stop on Sunday after the crew reported the engine cowling fell off and struck the wing flap during takeoff from Denver International Airport in U.S. state of Colorado, authorities said.
* The Philippine central bank opted Monday to keep the bank's target reverse repurchase rate at 6.5 percent, and the interest rates on the overnight deposit and lending facilities at 6 percent and 7 percent respectively.
* Thai Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin said the central bank should cut its key interest rate by at least a quarter point this week to support government efforts to revive Southeast Asia's second-largest economy.
* Italy is ready to intervene in case it overshoots its budget goals but does not see the need at the moment, Economy Minister Giancarlo Giorgetti said on Monday, ahead of a new set of government economic projections expected this week.
* Greece's economy is seen growing by 2.3% this year, well above the euro zone's average, said a report by Greece's central bank released on Monday.
* Egypt's annual urban consumer price inflation rate slowed to a lower-than-expected 33.3% in March from 35.7% in February, data from the country's statistics agency CAPMAS showed on Monday.
* Myanmar imported 1.047 million tons of fertilizers in the 2023-24 fiscal year, the official Global New Light of Myanmar, citing the Ministry of Commerce, reported on Monday.
* Iraq announced on Sunday its decision to send 10 million liters of fuel to the Gaza Strip and offer medical treatment to wounded people from the enclave in Iraqi hospitals.
* Thousands of Ugandans took part in a mega run on Sunday organized by the Buganda Kingdom to raise funds for the fight against HIV and AIDS in the East African country.
* At least 91 people died after an overloaded boat capsized near the Island of Mozambique in Mozambique's northern province of Nampula on Sunday, the state-run Radio Mozambique (RM) reported.
* More than 10,400 residential houses have been flooded across Russia's western Siberia, the Volga region and Central Federal District, the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations said Monday.
* The state weather bureau of the Philippines on Monday warned of a scorching heat index of up to 51 degrees Celsius in at least nine areas across the country.
* Mosquitoes are hatching earlier in Argentina and reaching cooler regions than before, as rising temperatures drive the country's worst outbreak of dengue fever and raise the risk of more regular epidemics of the insect-borne virus, scientists said.
