* The United States and Russia agreed to normalize bilateral ties and begin working on ending the Ukraine-Russia conflict, the State Department said following Tuesday's meeting between U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Saudi Arabia.
* Russia and the United States will hold regular consultations on Ukraine after both sides appoint negotiating teams, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Tuesday at a press briefing following talks with U.S. officials in Riyadh.
* Russian President Vladimir Putin remains ready to hold negotiations with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky if necessary, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Tuesday.
* U.S. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday he will "probably" meet Russian President Vladimir Putin this month.
* The UN Security Council should be enlarged and made more representative of today's geopolitical realities, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Tuesday.
* The Lao government, in collaboration with the country's National Assembly, has held a scientific symposium to discuss policies on fostering industrial park development and investment.
* Republic of Korea's constitutional court on Tuesday held the ninth hearing of President Yoon Suk-yeol's impeachment trial. Legal representatives of Yoon and the National Assembly summarized their respective arguments so far during the hearing, while the court examined evidence that was adopted but not yet reviewed.
* Finnish and Swedish politicians on Tuesday underscored Europe's interests in ongoing peace efforts as the United States and Russia held closed-door talks on ending the war in Ukraine.
* The United Arab Emirates (UAE) welcomed talks between Russian and U.S. delegations in Riyadh aimed at addressing the Ukraine crisis, the UAE foreign ministry said on Tuesday.
* Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in Riyadh that the presence of NATO troops in Ukraine is "unacceptable" to Russia.
* India and Qatar on Tuesday decided to elevate their relations to a strategic partnership, focusing on trade, energy, investments, innovation, technology, food security, culture, and people-to-people contacts. The two sides have agreed to double their trade to 28 billion USD in the next five years.
* Brazil announced Tuesday its decision to join OPEC+, a bloc that gathers the member countries of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) as well as observer nations.
* A long-awaited decision by Australia's central bank to cut interest rates will not influence the timing of the upcoming general election, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has said.
* U.S. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that he intends to impose tariffs of around 25 percent on auto imports, with more details coming out on April 2.
* Mexico has "relaunched" a "Made in Mexico" brand campaign to bolster national production and cushion the impact of the 25-percent tariffs on Mexican imports announced by U.S. President Donald Trump.
* Honduran President Xiomara Castro announced on Tuesday that her government reached an agreement with the United States to continue a bilateral extradition treaty.
* Egypt has postponed an emergency Arab summit on the Palestinian issue in Cairo to March 4, rescheduling it from the previous date of Feb. 27, the Egyptian Foreign Ministry announced Tuesday.
* China reaffirmed its firm support for the two-state solution as the only realistic path to resolving the recurring cycles of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, China's envoy to Egypt and the Arab League said on Monday.
* Israel and Hamas have reached an agreement to release the remaining six living hostages held in Gaza included in the first phase of the ongoing ceasefire deal on Saturday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said on Tuesday.
* Hamas reaffirmed on Tuesday its willingness to implement the second and third phases of the Gaza ceasefire agreement. Hamas spokesperson Hazem Qassem said in a statement that the group had agreed, at the request of a mediator, to double the number of Israeli hostages to be released, demonstrating its commitment to the deal.
* Israeli defense electronics company Elbit Systems has developed an advanced operating system to manage unmanned military platforms, according to a statement by the company on Tuesday.
* The Ground Force of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps on Tuesday launched a large-scale military drill in the country's southwestern region, the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported.
* The Israeli army withdrew from border areas of southern Lebanon on Tuesday but remained in five positions, an Israeli official said, despite the expiration of the deadline for a full withdrawal under a ceasefire agreement with Hezbollah.
* Morocco and France signed several agreements on Tuesday to strengthen cultural cooperation, covering areas such as film, artificial intelligence, cultural heritage protection, and video game development.
* Malawi, Mozambique and Zambia are working to integrate their customs systems to enhance trade, with a two-week workshop underway to facilitate the process, local media reported Tuesday.
* The International Organization for Migration (IOM) said on Tuesday that a new project to strengthen the climate resilience of Somali and Kenyan border communities has been launched.
* The East African Community (EAC) Sectoral Council on Energy, Petroleum, and Mining has agreed to establish an institution for renewable energy and energy efficiency, the EAC said in a statement on Tuesday.
* Oil flow through the Caspian Pipeline Consortium system has fallen by about 30 to 40 percent following a Ukrainian drone attack on its largest pumping station in Russia, a senior Russian official said Tuesday.
* The volume of water in the North Aral Sea is expected to increase from the current 22 billion to 27 billion cubic meters by 2030, said Moldir Abdualieva, spokesperson for the Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation of Kazakhstan, on Tuesday.
* Indonesia currently needs to secure at least 13,032 trillion rupiahs (around 800.56 billion USD) in both domestic and foreign investment over the next five years to achieve its 8- percent economic growth target, a senior official said on Tuesday.
* Australian wage growth has fallen to the lowest level in more than two years, official figures have revealed. Data released on Wednesday by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) showed that the wage price index (WPI) rose by 0.7 percent in the final quarter of 2024, spanning from the start of October through the end of December, and by 3.2 percent in the 12 months to December.
* The Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) lowered the official cash rate (OCR) by 50 basis points on Wednesday from 4.25 percent to 3.75 percent due to eased inflation to boost the subdued economy.
* France's consumer price index (CPI) rose by 1.7 percent year-on-year in January, the French National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies (INSEE) announced on Tuesday.
* Vital data and analyses from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) about dangerous flu outbreaks have been blocked from release since U.S. President Donald Trump took office, leaving doctors and public health experts struggling to respond to escalating infections, U.S. media quoted health experts as saying.
