* Leo Varadkar, former Irish Deputy Prime Minister and leader of the Fine Gael party, has been elected as the new prime minister of Ireland following a vote in the lower house of the Irish parliament on Saturday.
* Peruvian President Dina Boluarte, who has said she is leading a transitional government, urged the country's Congress to pass a proposal to bring forward general elections in a news conference from the presidential palace on Saturday.
* No political party has secured more than 50 percent of the total votes in Fiji's 2022 general elections which were held last Wednesday. This means that Fiji will have a coalition government which is underway to form.
* Tunisia held on Saturday the first parliamentary elections since President Kais Saied disbanded the legislative body in March. At 8 a.m. local time (0700 GMT), Tunisians began casting ballots at 4,551 voting centers and 11,310 polling stations across the North African country.
* Former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan announced on Saturday that his party would dissolve two provincial assemblies next week, earlier than scheduled, in an attempt to build pressure on the federal government to hold early general elections.
* European Union negotiators reached agreement early on Sunday on overhauling the bloc's carbon market, the bloc's main policy tool for fighting global warming, the Czech EU presidency and the European Council said.
* China's installed capacity of renewable energy has continued to expand in the January-November period amid the country's pursuit of green development.
* Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr has approved the recommendation of the economic ministry to extend up to the end of next year lower tariff rates on rice and other food items to help combat inflation, his office said on Sunday.
* Romania, Hungary, Azerbaijan and Georgia signed on Saturday an agreement on the Black Sea submarine cable for the transport of electricity from the Caspian area to Romania.
* Ukraine has managed to restore power to almost 6 million people in the last 24 hours after massive Russian strikes against the electricity generating system, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Saturday.
* Türkiye said on Saturday that its warplanes gave a "necessary response" to an attempt by Greek aircraft to "block" a Turkish-NATO mission in the Aegean.
* Members of the World Trade Organization (WTO) substantially concluded on Friday in Geneva the text negotiations on Investment Facilitation for Development (IFD).
* Jordan's Public Security Directorate (PSD) said on Saturday that it will beef up security presence across the country to ensure enforcement of the law after a police officer was killed on Thursday in "riots" in southern Jordan.
* The International Monetary Fund (IMF) said on Friday that its executive board had approved a loan to Egypt of about 3 billion USD over 46 months.
* Sri Lankan police said on Saturday that over 90,000 people have been arrested so far this year over drug-related offenses.
* Greek parliament ratified on Saturday the 2023 state budget, which foresees 1.8 percent gross domestic product (GDP) growth and a 5 percent inflation rate for the year.
* Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni lifted all Ebola-related movement restrictions on Saturday, saying the East African country had made progress in curbing the deadly disease.
