* German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier will decide on Dec. 27 whether to dissolve parliament to pave the way for new elections, according to a post on the Presidency website on Friday.
* South Korea's ruling party has decided to take part in a consultative body for stabilizing the operation of state affairs, its floor leader said on Friday.
* Iceland's Social Democratic Party, which finished first in November's parliamentary election, plans to present a new coalition government this weekend, public broadcaster RUV reported, citing the party's leader Kristrun Frostadottir.
* Brunei has urged ASEAN member states to strengthen their national preparedness and capacity to address the persistent issue of transboundary haze pollution, local media reported on Friday.
* The U.N. human rights office will send a small team of human rights officers to Syria next week for the first time in years following the overthrow of President Bashar al-Assad, U.N. spokesperson Thameen Al-Kheetan told a press briefing on Friday.
* The Kremlin said on Friday that any new G7 sanctions on Russia's oil industry would backfire and that it would act to minimise the consequences of any such move and adapt.
* Ending the conflict in Ukraine is of primary economic interest for Europe, a sentiment shared by European leaders, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said during his regular Friday morning interview on Hungarian public radio.
* U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has warned the European Union (EU) that it must commit to buying large amounts of U.S. oil and gas or face tariffs.
* The EU is ready to discuss further strengthening economic ties with U.S. President-elect Trump, including common interests in the energy sector, an EU spokesperson said on Friday, adding the EU was also committed to phasing out energy imports from Russia and diversifying supply sources.
* Switzerland and the European Union said on Friday they had reached a deal to update their trading relationship, overcoming Swiss concerns about immigration and opening the door for the biggest overhaul of bilateral ties in years.
* Poland summoned Hungary's ambassador to Warsaw on Friday over former Polish deputy justice minister Marcin Romanowski's political asylum granted by Budapest, and decided to recall its ambassador to Hungary.
* The Russian central bank announced on Friday its decision to keep the key interest rate unchanged at 21 percent per annum. The move came as Russia's monetary conditions tightened more than expected following the October rate decision, the bank said in a statement.
* Lithuania's parliament on Thursday approved the 2025 state budget, which raises national defense spending to 4 percent of GDP, the Baltic News Service reported.
* German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Thursday urged the European Union (EU) to quickly reach a deal with China on the tariff dispute over electric vehicles (EVs).
* Ukraine is working to create a joint gas hub with Poland to compensate for the loss of the Russian gas transit, the Interfax-Ukraine news agency reported Thursday, citing Deputy Energy Minister Mykola Kolisnyk.
* Turkey and Hungary said they have received exemptions for gas payments to Russia after the United States imposed sanctions on Gazprombank, removing a major hurdle to the gas trade with Moscow.
* The Malaysian government has agreed in principle to resume the search for Malaysian Airlines flight MH370, Malaysian Transport Minister Anthony Loke Siew Fook said on Friday.
* Greece has recovered the bodies of eight migrants who fell into the sea after their speedboat collided with a coastguard boat that was pursuing it off the island of Rhodes early on Friday, the Greek coastguard said.
* Cambodia's trade volume with its fellow ASEAN member states hit 14.3 billion USD in the first 11 months of 2024, up 12.8 percent from 12.68 billion dollars over the same period last year, said an official report released on Thursday.
* The Philippines has imposed a temporary ban on the importation of live cattle and buffalo as well as their products from Japan due to the outbreak of lumpy skin disease (LSD), the country's Department of Agriculture said Thursday.
* Kyrgyzstan has detained 22 active members of the religious extremist organization Hizb ut-Tahrir in an operation, the press service of the country's State Committee for National Security reported on Thursday.
* More than 700 people have been killed in al-Fashir in Sudan's North Darfur state since May, the U.N. human rights chief said on Friday, imploring the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces to halt a siege of the city.
* The Mongolian government declared a heightened state of preparedness on Friday in response to severe air pollution, traffic congestion, and other pressing issues in the nation's capital, Ulan Bator.
* UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Thursday urged Israel to stop violations of Syria's sovereignty and territorial integrity.
* Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi and his Iranian counterpart Masoud Pezeshkian met on Thursday to discuss efforts to strengthen bilateral relations and restore peace in the region, the Egyptian presidency said in a statement.
* Turkey will do whatever necessary for the reconstruction of Syria following the ouster of Bashar al-Assad, including improving ties in trade, energy and defence, President Tayyip Erdogan said.
* Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi reaffirmed on Thursday Egypt's support for Lebanon's unity, sovereignty, and territorial integrity during a meeting with Lebanon's Prime Minister Najib Mikati, the Egyptian presidency said in a statement.
* Malaysia's e-commerce income rose 4 percent year on year to 918.2 billion ringgit (203.82 billion USD) in the first nine months of 2024, official data showed Thursday.
* The Central Bank of Mexico (Banxico) announced its fourth consecutive interest rate cut on Thursday, lowering the overnight interbank interest rate target by 25 basis points to 10.0 percent.
* Cambodia's imports of diesel fuel and petroleum oils increased by 11.3 percent in the first 11 months of 2024, according to the latest report from the Ministry of Commerce on Friday.
* Pakistan's food exports in the first five months of the current 2024-25 fiscal year increased by 19.60 percent as compared to the corresponding period of last year, according to the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS).
* The death toll from Cyclone Chido in Mozambique has climbed to 73, with 543 individuals reported injured, the country's disaster relief agency announced on Thursday.
* Rwanda has declared an end to the country's Marburg virus outbreak following the recovery of the last patient 42 days ago, Health Minister Sabin Nsanzimana told a news conference on Friday.
