* South Korea's police, Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials (CIO) and the defense ministry will jointly investigate President Yoon Suk-yeol's martial law declaration, multiple media outlets said Wednesday.
* German Chancellor Olaf Scholz is set on Wednesday to submit a request to parliament to hold a vote of confidence, the necessary precursor to holding new federal elections after the collapse of his coalition last month.
* Ghanaian Vice President and presidential candidate Mahamudu Bawumia, who leads the governing New Patriotic Party, on Tuesday urged party members to work together to strengthen their party.
* China has decided to impose visa restrictions on U.S. personnel over interference in Hong Kong affairs, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson said on Tuesday.
* Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed the situation in Ukraine in a phone call with Hungarian President Viktor Orban, the Kremlin said on Wednesday.
* China customs has banned the direct and indirect import of ruminant animals and related products from Poland and Croatia due to an outbreak of bluetongue disease, the General Administration of Customs said on its website on Wednesday.
* The New Zealand government unveiled its second Emissions Reduction Plan on Wednesday, saying it will meet its net zero 2050 target as early as 2044.
* Russian President Vladimir Putin will talk about artificial intelligence later on Wednesday at a conference organised by Russia's largest state-owned lender Sberbank SBER.MM, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday.
* Developing Asia is likely to grow more slowly than previously thought this year and next, and the outlook could worsen if President-elect Donald Trump makes swift changes to U.S. trade policy, the Asian Development Bank said on Wednesday.
* The World Summit AI Qatar 2024 began in Doha, Qatar, on Tuesday, marking the first event of its kind in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, Qatar News Agency (QNA) reported.
* The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) on Tuesday appointed Haitham Al Ghais for a second three-year term as its secretary general.
* The U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA) said on Tuesday that it has successfully intercepted a ballistic missile target during a test off Guam for the first time.
* Qatar will soon reopen its embassy in Syria after finalising necessary arrangements, foreign ministry said in a post on X on Wednesday.
* U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is set to visit Ankara to meet Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan on Friday, a Turkish official said on Wednesday. The two are expected to discuss the situation in Syria after Bashar al-Assad was ousted as president in a lightning rebel offensive.
* Syria is undergoing a major transition after the military forces, that recently overthrew President Bashar al-Assad, formed a new transitional government.
* The United Nations stands against any violation of the territorial integrity of Syria, a UN spokesperson said on Tuesday, after Israel seized a buffer zone in the Golan Heights following the collapse of Bashar al-Assad government.
* Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Tuesday that Israel was creating a "sterile defense zone" in southern Syria to prevent hostile forces from approaching its borders.
* A spokesperson from Qatar's Foreign Ministry said Tuesday that Qatar remains committed to maintaining open dialogue with all Syrian groups through its embassy in Doha.
* UN humanitarians said on Tuesday the humanitarian situation in Syria remains volatile, with continuing hostilities and looting reported in the capital Damascus area but relative calm in the country's northwest.
* A high-level Israeli security delegation held talks in Cairo on Tuesday with their Egyptian counterparts on a potential truce agreement in the Gaza Strip.
* Fighting has erupted between forces from Somalia's semi-autonomous Jubbaland region and federal government forces, officials said on Wednesday, in an escalation of tensions after Jubbaland held elections against the federal government's advice.
* About 86 Pakistanis, including 79 pilgrims and seven teachers stranded in Syria, have successfully reached Lebanon's capital city of Beirut, the federal cabinet said on Tuesday.
* The Japanese government is finalizing plans to increase corporate and income tax rates to fund its plan to nearly double defense spending to 2 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), Kyodo News cited sources as saying on Wednesday.
* The real boom in Russian Initial Public Offerings (IPOs) is still ahead, with the market expected to grow many times larger in the coming years, Anatoly Popov, Deputy Chairman of Russia's largest bank Sberbank was quoted by local media Wednesday as saying.
* Malaysia has approved 254.7 billion ringgit (57.58 billion USD) of investments for the first nine months of 2024, marking a 10.7 percent increase from the previous year, its investment agency said Wednesday.
* Inflation in Brazil slowed to 0.39 percent in November, down from 0.56 percent in October, but has accumulated a 4.29 percent increase so far in 2024, the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) reported on Tuesday.
* The Asian Development Bank (ADB) on Wednesday said it has approved a 200-million-USD loan to modernize Pakistan's power distribution infrastructure and improve distribution companies' ability to deliver reliable electricity.
* Iran is working to attract a share of the Asia-Europe goods transit by developing a free zone in its northwest, not least by completing a key rail route, an Iranian official said on Tuesday.
* Russian gas producer Gazprom GAZP.MM said it would send 42.4 million cubic metres (mcm) of gas to Europe via Ukraine on Wednesday, the same volume as on Tuesday.
* Environment and Climate Change Canada released Tuesday its annual top ten list of the country's most severe weather events of 2024.
* The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) on Tuesday expressed concern about the recent increase of people arriving in South Sudan in need of protection and assistance, with tens of thousands of people fleeing fresh violence in border areas of neighboring Sudan.
* At least 76 percent of the estimated 12.4 million South Sudan population lives below the national poverty line of 358,724 South Sudan pounds (about 105 USD) per person per year, a new World Bank report revealed on Tuesday.
* Uruguay's 2023 national census counted 3,499,451 inhabitants, 2.5 percentage points higher than the 2011 one, the National Statistics Institute (INE) reported on Tuesday.
