* A Chinese envoy said Friday that Washington's response to a Chinese unmanned civilian airship unexpectedly entering US airspace was an overreaction, urging the US side not to let bilateral relations go astray as a result of this isolated incident.
* US diplomatic communications with China remain open after the shooting down of a Chinese spy balloon this month, but contact between the countries' militaries "unfortunately" remains shut down, the White House said on Friday.
* Russia is unlikely to change its policy towards Moldova and remains open to developing constructive dialogue, the TASS news agency cited Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova as saying on Saturday.
* Brazil's new President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva will meet Chinese leader Xi Jinping on March 28 on Lula's first trip of his current term to his country's largest trading partner, official sources told Reuters.
* The International Monetary Fund on Friday said it reached a staff-level agreement with Ukraine, setting the stage for talks on a full loan program that would support Kyiv's economy and its bid to join the European Union.
* Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin said on Saturday her country was aiming to join NATO at the same time as neighbouring Sweden.
* Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and visiting Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte on Friday discussed defense aid for Kiev and new sanctions on Russia.
* Ukraine will hold the first trilateral meeting with the European Union (EU) and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) this month, Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said on Friday.
* The 59th Munich Security Conference (MSC) opened in Munich (Germany) on Friday with a focus on giving voice to countries of the Global South, especially their resentment toward the existing West-led global order.
* The United States should try to prove its innocence of blowing up the Nord Stream gas pipelines, the Russian Embassy in the United States said on Thursday.
* US Trade Representative Katherine Tai on Friday met with European Union Executive Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis and discussed the US Inflation Reduction Act, Tai's office said in a statement.
* The leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan are set to meet for the first time since October at trilateral talks with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Munich on Saturday, the US State Department said.
* US President Joe Biden said in a statement on Friday that American communities are "being torn apart by gun violence." The statement was issued hours after six people were shot and killed in a rural Mississippi town.
* Cambodia on Friday decided to lower the fee for a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) COVID-19 test with a certificate to 50 USD from the current 130 dollars for outbound travelers, Health Minister Mam Bunheng said.
* Health Canada updated its website on Friday announcing it has authorized the use of Moderna's Spikevax bivalent COVID-19 booster vaccine in children and adolescents six to 17 years of age targeting the Omicron variant BA.1.
* More than 60,000 Somalis, mainly women and children, have fled to Ethiopia's Somali region in the past few weeks following clashes between security forces and clan leaders in Las Anod in northern Somalia, the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, said on Friday.
* The security forces had killed all three terrorists who attacked the police chief's office in Karachi, capital of Pakistan's southern Sindh province, on Friday night, Spokesperson of the Sindh government Murtaza Wahab said.
* The Japanese government plans to raise the country's legal age of consent for sex, currently among the world's lowest at 13, to 16, as part of a major overhaul of sex crime legislation.
* A total of 179,649 students registered for the upcoming nationwide matriculation exam in Myanmar, an official from the Information Team of Myanmar's State Administration Council told Xinhua on Saturday, citing the ministry of education.
* A six-seater Cessna 340 plane was reported missing shortly after taking off Saturday morning in the Philippines' Albay province, southeast of Manila, said the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP).
* Canada on Friday released a long-awaited sustainable jobs plan, laying out how the federal government plans to help train workers for roles in the coming clean energy economy as the world aims for net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.
* The value of Ecuador's mining exports grew 32.6% in 2022 from the year before, reaching $2.78 billion after its two large-scale mines operated at full capacity, the country's energy and mines ministry said Friday.
* Nigerian police on Friday said some citizens frustrated by cash shortages in the country were attacking banks and vandalising cash-dispensing machines, and warned that they would be treated as armed robbers.
* Uzbekistan plans to commission solar and wind power plants with a total capacity of 4,300 megawatts by year's end, a presidential decree released Friday said.
* A year since Malawi confirmed its first case of wild poliovirus type 1 in 30 years, more than 33 million children across five southern African countries have been vaccinated against the virus, with over 80 million vaccine doses administered over the past year, said the World Health Organization (WHO) in a statement released on Friday.
* Rio de Janeiro Mayor Eduardo Paes handed the key of the city to King Momo on Friday, marking the official launch of Carnival 2023 in full force.
* At least 18 migrants were found dead in an abandoned truck near Bulgaria's capital Sofia on Friday, the Ministry of Interior said in a statement.
* Kyrgyzstan has declared a state of emergency in its Naryn Oblast due to avalanches, the press service of the country's Ministry of Emergency Situations reported on Friday.
* Tunisian coast guards have foiled a total of 191 illegal immigration attempts since the beginning of 2023, according to a statement released by the country's Interior Ministry on Friday.
* As many as 53 people were killed on Friday when attacked by the Islamic State (IS) group in the desert region in eastern Syria, the Syrian national TV said.
