* Former Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri declared on Friday he would revive his Future Movement party and re-engage in elections, reversing a 2022 decision to quit politics, during a rally marking 20 years since his father Rafik Hariri's assassination
* Togo held its first-ever Senate elections on Saturday, marking a significant step toward establishing the Senate and the full operation of the bicameral system. The Senate elections will select 41 senators from 92 candidates.
* China is willing to work with the European Union (EU) to host a series of celebratory events and prepare for the next China-EU leaders' meeting, laying a new blueprint for bilateral ties for the next 50 years and injecting fresh momentum into it, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said during his meeting in Munich with Kaja Kallas, the high representative for foreign affairs and security policy of the European Commission, on Friday.
* Bolstering self-defensive capabilities is an essential requirement for deterring rivals' provocative attempts and ensuring national security, Pyongyang said Saturday.
* Saudi Arabia welcomed on Friday the announcement by U.S. President Donald Trump regarding the possibility of meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in the kingdom.
* U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth urged Europe to increase spending on defense during his visit to Warsaw on Friday. Hegseth underscored strong U.S.-Polish relations, calling Poland a strategic frontline partner on NATO's eastern flank.
* Nobody could impose their model on Europe, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said on social media X on Saturday, in response to U.S. Vice President JD Vance's comments over Europe's electoral and immigration policies a day earlier.
* Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that Ukraine stands ready to move towards peace following his meeting with U.S. Vice President JD Vance in Munich of Germany on Friday.
* Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said Friday that she wrote another letter to U.S. President Donald Trump to voice opposition to his new tariffs on steel and aluminum imports.
* Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said Friday that Brazil will impose reciprocal tariffs on the United States in response to new U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminum imports.
* U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order Friday on establishing a new council to boost U.S. production and export of fossil fuels.
* Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad on Saturday handed over three Israeli hostages to the International Committee of the Red Cross in Khan Younis in southern Gaza Strip, as part of the sixth swap in the first phase of the ceasefire agreement.
* Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi and Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim affirmed Friday the two countries' rejection of the displacement of Palestinians from their land, the Egyptian presidency said in a statement.
* Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei on Friday condemned Israel's "threat against a civilian plane carrying Lebanese citizens" from Tehran to Beirut, saying the move disrupts normal flights bound for Beirut's international airport.
* Officials and experts from African countries and the African Union (AU) on Friday reaffirmed their commitment to advancing the continent's reparatory justice agenda, urging concrete steps to ensure full accountability for historical injustices against Africans and people of African descent.
* African Union (AU) Commissioner for Education, Sciences, Technology and Innovation Mohammed Belhocine has called for urgent action to address structural funding deficits in education and eradicate learning poverty in Africa.
* An escalation of fighting in and around a displaced people camp in western Sudan where famine conditions have been identified is alarming aid workers, UN humanitarians said on Friday.
* Four soldiers and 15 terrorists were killed in separate operations in Pakistan's northwest Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province, the military said on Saturday.
* The supply of Turkmen natural gas to Turkey will begin on March 1 through Iran under a barter scheme, Turkmen media reported on Friday.
* U.S. retail sales fell by 0.9 percent in January after a strong holiday spending, the U.S. Commerce Department reported on Friday. Advance estimates of U.S. retail and food services sales for January 2025, adjusted for seasonal variation and holiday and trading-day differences, but not for price changes, were 723.9 billion dollars, down 0.9 percent from the previous month, and up 4.2 percent from January 2024.
* Cambodia had exported 59,086 tons of milled rice in January 2025, making a total revenue of 48 million USD, the Cambodia Rice Federation (CRF) said in a news release on Friday.
* Malaysian central bank announced Friday that the country's economy grew 5.1 percent year-on-year in 2024, due to continued expansion in domestic demand and a rebound in exports.
* The growth of Slovenia's economy slowed in 2024, expanding by 1.6 percent in 2024 compared to 2.1 percent in 2023 and 2.7 percent in 2022, the country's Statistical Office said on Friday.
* The volume of exports of dried fruits in Afghanistan's eastern Khost province has exceeded 11 million USD over the last 10 months, a local media outlet reported Saturday.
* Iran plans to increase exports from its free trade zones to 2 billion USD by March 2026, a senior Iranian economic official said on Saturday.
* China's railways handled over 400 million passenger trips during the ongoing 40-day Spring Festival travel rush, data from the China State Railway Group Co., Ltd. (China Railway) showed Saturday.
* Latvia's birth rate continued to decline in 2024, reaching record lows each month, the national statistics office reported on Friday. The number of births fell by 13.2 percent from the previous year to 12,571, marking the lowest levels in a century.
* The death toll due to intense rains in Bolivia since November last year has risen to 28, said Juan Carlos Calvimontes, vice civil defense minister, on Friday.
* Flood warnings have been issued for northwest Australia after a tropical cyclone made landfall on Friday, bringing intense rainfall and strong winds.
* There is a possibility that temperatures in Sri Lanka during March and April 2025 will be higher than in previous years, said a meteorologist on Saturday.
