* China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi discussed lifting sanctions against Chinese companies and individuals in a meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken at the Munich Security Conference, the Chinese foreign ministry said on Saturday.
* French President Emmanuel Macron and King Abdullah II of Jordan on Friday called for a two-state solution to the ongoing conflict in Gaza.
* Ukraine has ordered the withdrawal of troops from the frontline eastern town of Avdiivka, Oleksandr Syrsky, the commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, said Saturday.
* German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky signed a long-term security agreement in Berlin on Friday.
* French President Emmanuel Macron and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky signed a 10-year security pact in Paris on Friday.
* There is "an extraordinary opportunity" in the coming months for Israel to normalise ties with its Arab neighbors, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Saturday, while also emphasizing the need for the creation of a Palestinian state.
* Israeli forces carried out arrests in Gaza's largest functioning hospital, health officials and the military said on Saturday, as airstrikes hit across the enclave and rain battered Palestinians taking shelter in Rafah.
* The European Union (EU)'s foreign policy chief urged the Israeli government on Friday not to take military action in Rafah, Gaza's southernmost city, which shelters more than 1.3 million displaced Palestinians.
* Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh on Saturday accused Israel of impeding efforts to achieve a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.
* Yemen's armed Houthi group on Friday vowed to launch more attacks on commercial shipping vessels, just a few hours after the U.S. designation of the group as a "global terrorist organization" came into effect.
* The Iranian Defense Ministry on Saturday unveiled an anti-ballistic missile defense system and a low-altitude air defense system, the official news agency IRNA reported.
* African countries need to harness opportunities presented through digitization to improve citizens' quality of life and enable economic diversification, African Union (AU) Commissioner for Infrastructure and Energy Amani Abou-Zeid has said.
* Russia's Gazprom GAZP.MM said it would ship 42.3 million cubic metres of gas to Europe via Ukraine on Saturday, a volume in line with recent days.
* In 2023, Kyrgyzstan's foreign trade turnover increased by 29.9 percent compared to the previous year and amounted to 15.7 billion USD, the country's National Statistics Committee reported Friday.
* The European Union (EU) on Friday pledged a significant investment of 37 million euros (about 40 million USD) to bolster Nigeria's power sector.
* Malaysia, the world's second-largest palm oil producer, has maintained its crude palm oil (CPO) export duty for March at 8 percent.
* Sri Lanka has rolled out infrastructure development projects and innovative tourism promotion programs in a bid to attract high-end tourists, the President's Media Division (PMD) said on Saturday.
* Brazil recorded an unemployment rate of 7.8 percent in 2023, down 1.8 percentage points from 2022, the state-run Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) reported on Friday.
* The death toll from a landslide in a mining town in Davao de Oro province in southern Philippines on Feb. 6 has climbed to 98, a regional disaster prevention office said Saturday.
* The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Friday warned of E. coli outbreak linked to raw milk cheese.
