* UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Monday called for calm and restraint in Bangladesh, following the resignation of the country's prime minister and the military's announcement of plans to form an interim government.
* Sri Lanka's cabinet has approved the signing of a trade agreement with Indonesia in March, a government official said on Tuesday, as the island seeks to revive its crisis-hit economy following a severe foreign exchange crunch in 2022.
* The European Union and the Mercosur group of South American countries aim to conclude negotiations for a long-delayed trade deal before the end of the year, the Financial Times reported on Tuesday.
* Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian told a senior ally of Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin on Monday that Tehran was determined to expand relations with its "strategic partner Russia", Iranian state media reported.
* Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will visit Russia on Aug. 12-14, Russia's RIA state news agency reported on Tuesday, citing a diplomatic source.
* Iran and Hungary on Monday exchanged views on recent escalations in West Asia and the assassination of Hamas Politburo Chief Ismail Haniyeh, according to a statement released by the Iranian Foreign Ministry.
* U.S. President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris were briefed on Monday by their national security team on developments in the Middle East, including threats posed by Iran and its proxies to American servicemembers, the White House said.
* A Russian Pacific Fleet submarine destroyed a simulated enemy vessel during exercises in the Sea of Japan, Pacific Fleet Command was quoted Russia's RIA Novosti news agency as saying on Tuesday.
* Kiev, the Ukrainian capital, was hit by a wave of explosions late on Monday after an air raid alert, the government-run Ukrinform news agency reported.
* King Abdullah II of Jordan on Monday stressed the need for de-escalation and comprehensive calm to prevent a regional war, according to a statement released by the Royal Hashemite Court.
* Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Monday jointly stressed the need for calm and de-escalation in the Middle East.
* At least four Palestinians were killed and seven others injured by Israeli fire in the town of Aqaba, Tubas District, in the occupied West Bank early on Tuesday, according to the Palestinian health ministry. Two of the injured were in critical condition.
* Israel had returned the bodies of 89 Palestinians killed by the Israeli army in the Gaza Strip, the Hamas-run Gaza government media office said on Monday.
* U.S. troops based in Niger as part of the fight against terrorism, whose disengagement began on June 7 in Niamey, the Nigerien capital, concluded Monday in Agadez, northern Niger, according to a military source.
* The International Organization for Migration (IOM) said on Monday that 897 migrants were intercepted and returned to Libya during the week that ended on Saturday.
* Lebanon's armed group Hezbollah launched a series of drone and rocket attacks into northern Israel on Tuesday but warned that its much-anticipated retaliation for Israel's killing of a top commander last week was yet to come.
* More than 39,653 Palestinians have been killed and 91,535 have been wounded in the Israeli military offensive on Gaza since Oct. 7, the Gaza health ministry said in a statement on Tuesday.
* Ukraine received 3.9 billion USD in non-repayable financial assistance from the United States, Ukraine's Finance Ministry said on Monday.
* Iran's Acting Foreign Minister Ali Bagheri Kani said Monday that Israel's assassination of Hamas Politburo Chief Ismail Haniyeh had undermined regional and international stability and security.
* Chinese travelers accounted for more than half of Russia's foreign tourists during the first half of 2024, the Association of Tour Operators of Russia said on Monday, citing data from the Russian border agency.
* Uzbekistan has maintained a high rate of population growth, with its population increasing by 200,000 people over the past three and a half months, according to the state statistics agency.
* U.S. central bank policymakers pushed back on Monday against the notion that weaker-than-expected July jobs data means the economy is in recessionary freefall, but also warned that the Federal Reserve will need to cut rates to avoid such an outcome.
* Indonesia recorded an annual economic growth rate of 5.05 percent in the second quarter of this year, Statistics Indonesia (BPS) announced on Monday.
* The Philippines' headline inflation in July has reached its highest rate so far this year, accelerating to 4.4 percent in July from 3.7 percent in June, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said Tuesday.
* The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) left the cash rate target on hold at 4.35 percent on Tuesday as inflation is still some way above the midpoint of the 2-3 percent target range.
* The Asian Development Bank (ADB) Tuesday said it has approved a grant of 21 million USD as additional financing to expand the supply of renewable energy in Tajikistan by further modernizing a hydropower plant.
* Malaysia's approved digital investment has surged to 66.22 billion ringgit (14.9 billion USD) in the first half of the year, surpassing 46.2 billion ringgit of the whole of last year, a Malaysian official said on Monday.
* A section of the river embankment was breached on Tuesday following rising water levels caused by continuous heavy rains in northeast China's Liaoning Province, authorities said.
* More than 133,000 homes and businesses in Florida were still without power early on Tuesday, a day after Hurricane Debby slammed into the state's Gulf Coast, according to data from PowerOutage.us.
