* The Indonesian government has provided emergency assistance to quake-stricken Vanuatu to help the nation carry out emergency relief efforts following the 7.3-magnitude quake on Dec. 17 that killed a dozen people and wounded hundreds of others.
* U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has urged the Supreme Court to delay the TikTok ban in order to allow time for a negotiated solution, according to a legal document filed Friday.
* Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico said Friday that his government may stop electricity supplies to Ukraine following the anticipated end of Russian gas transit through Ukraine on Jan. 1, 2025.
* Italy's Ministry of Enterprises and Made in Italy authorised the sale of Italian aviation company Piaggio Aerospace to Turkish drone maker Baykar, according to the ministry on Friday.
* Greece, Cyprus and Armenia signed new military cooperation agreements for 2025 in Athens on Friday, the Greek national news agency AMNA reported.
* Heavy clashes erupted between Afghanistan and Pakistan border forces at border crossing points, resulting in 19 Pakistani soldiers and three Afghans killed, local media reported on Saturday.
* World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus departed Yemen on Friday after an Israeli airstrike on Sanaa's international airport left him stranded and injured a UN staff member.
* The UN Security Council on Friday adopted a resolution to authorize the African Union Support and Stabilisation Mission in Somalia (AUSSOM) from Jan. 1, 2025.
* Iran's Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi on Friday expressed concern over the "acts of sedition" in Syria while assuring that Iran seeks to promote calm and prevent chaos in the country.
* Lebanese security forces on Friday arrested 67 Syrian nationals for illegally entering Lebanon, along with a Lebanese bus driver who was transporting them, the official National News Agency (NNA) reported.
* The U.S.-British navy coalition launched a fresh airstrike on the Houthi-held Yemeni capital of Sanaa on Friday night, targeting the 1st Armor Division in the city, Houthi-run al-Masirah TV reported.
* Saudi Arabia has allocated 500 million USD to the Yemeni government to cover state employees' salaries and other expenses, Yemeni Prime Minister Ahmed Awad bin Mubarak said on Friday.
* China created a total of 11.98 million new urban jobs in the first 11 months of the year, official data showed on Friday.
* Japan's industrial output fell 2.3 percent in November from the previous month, marking the first decline in three months, government data showed. The seasonally adjusted index of production at factories and mines stood at 101.7 against the 2020 base of 100, a preliminary report from the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry showed Friday.
* Cambodia's central bank has given the green light to commercial banks and payment service institutions to carry out activities related to cryptoassets.
* Brazil created 2,224,102 new formal jobs in the first 11 months of 2024, showed a government report released Friday. This represents a 16.6 percent increase from a year ago, when 1.906 million formal jobs were created, according to the report by the Ministry of Labor and Employment.
* Albania's Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development said on Friday that new cases of African swine fever have been found in the country. They were detected in Ishull-Lezhe in the municipality of Lezhe, and 15 dead pigs were identified and buried to avoid further spread.
* A wildfire has destroyed around 1,450 hectares of the iconic Nahuel Huapi National Park in the southern Argentine province of Rio Negro, local authorities reported Friday.
* Heavy snow is forecast in Japan through Sunday, mainly in mountainous areas along the Sea of Japan coast, the country's weather agency said Saturday, due to a winter pressure pattern.
* Passengers at some of the busiest airports in the United Kingdom (UK) are facing widespread disruption due to fog, local media reported on Friday.
