* Japan and China will work towards launching a direct communication line for security from this spring, Japan's defence ministry said on Tuesday in a statement after talks between senior defence officials from both countries.
* Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha on Tuesday said he would dissolve parliament next month ahead of an election that would likely take place on May 7, a potential date previously outlined by the country's poll body.
* President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday that Russia was suspending its participation in the New START treaty with the United States that limits the two sides' strategic nuclear arsenals.
* China would like to take top diplomat Wang Yi's visit to Russia as an opportunity to promote the steady development of relations, the foreign ministry said on Tuesday.
* US President Joe Biden promised new military aid for Ukraine worth 500 million USD during a surprise visit to Kyiv on Monday, almost a year to the day since Russia’s “special military operation”.
* Russia's Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday that it had summoned United States ambassador Lynne Tracy over what it called Washington's increasingly "aggressive course", accusing it of widening its involvement in the Ukraine conflict.
* US President Joe Biden and his Polish counterpart Andrzej Duda will discuss reinforcing Poland's security and increasing the NATO presence in the country on Tuesday, the Polish president's foreign affairs adviser said.
* Chinese customs will drop some COVID-19 requirements for the declaration of imported goods from March 1, including disinfection of the items, it said in a notice on its website on Tuesday.
* US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday urged Aegean Sea rivals Greece and Turkey to engage to resolve differences and avoid unilateral actions that could increase tension.
* Belarus said on Tuesday that there was a significant grouping of Ukrainian troops massed near its border and warned that this posed a threat to its security.
* Russia renewed its calls on Sweden late on Monday to share its findings from the ongoing investigation into the explosions that damaged the Nord Stream gas pipelines last year.
* A key border crossing between Pakistan and Afghanistan remained closed for a third day, with thousands of goods vehicles stuck and businesses facing losses as officials from both sides try to broker a solution.
* Ireland's prime minister said Britain and the European Union have made huge progress in talks on Northern Ireland's post-Brexit trading arrangements and British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak should be given time and space to finalise a deal.
* British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak told his senior ministers on Tuesday that intensive negotiations continue with the European Union on resolving their dispute over post-Brexit trading arrangements with Northern Ireland, his spokesman said.
* Turkish foreign minister on Monday reaffirmed Ankara's demands for more Swedish steps over its security concerns despite US pushes for Sweden and Finland's rapid accession into NATO.
* The United Nations and its partners continue to scale up cross-border aid operations from Türkiye into Northwest Syria in the aftermath of massive earthquakes, said a UN spokesman on Monday.
* The major twin earthquakes that struck southern Türkiye on Feb. 6 have raised serious concerns about the country's agricultural capacity as the 10 hardest-hit provinces are home to about 3.58 million hectares of agricultural land, or 15 percent of the nation's total.
* Two senior German ministers landed in southern Turkey on Tuesday to visit one of the areas hit by a devastating earthquake more than two weeks ago, to underscore Berlin's support for the victims and reconstruction efforts.
* Three United Nations peacekeepers were killed and five were seriously injured after their convoy hit an improvised explosive device in central Mali, the U.N. peacekeeping mission in the West African country said on Tuesday on Twitter.
* Russia's oil output so far in February has been in line with production in previous months, Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said on Tuesday.
* The Spanish government is planning to raise around 6 billion euros (6.39 billion USD) from the windfall tax on large energy companies and banks following ammendments in the Congress, Spain's Budget Minister Maria Jesus Montero said.
* Uncertainty and volatility remain risks to Britain's fiscal position, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's spokesman said on Tuesday, after data showed the government ran an unexpected budget surplus in January.
* The price of permits on the European Union's carbon market hit 100 euros (106.57 USD) per tonne for the first time on Tuesday, a milestone that reflects the increased costs that factories and power plants must pay when they pollute.
* The Republic of Korea's inflation expectations kept rising for the second straight month in February on worry about hikes in public utility rates, central bank data showed on Tuesday.
* French President Emmanuel Macron said on Tuesday he was in favour of a new gesture on diesel prices, potentially a discount, to help customers grappling with inflation.
* The government on Tuesday revised its monthly assessment of wholesale prices to reflect slower price hikes, while the general review of the Japanese economy remained unchanged.
* Sri Lanka needs to pay over 2.6 billion USD to foreign parties in 2023 in loan repayments and interest, Cabinet spokesman Bandula Gunawardena told reporters on Tuesday.
* Foreign direct investment (FDI) into Pakistan increased by 100.2 percent year on year in January as compared with the same period last year, said the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Tuesday.
* Saudi Arabia will deposit 1 billion USD in Yemen's central bank based in the southern port city of Aden to help the war-ravaged Arab country weather cash and financial hardships, a government official told Xinhua on Tuesday.
* A fresh batch of 40 million USD in cash that came as humanitarian aid reached the cash-strapped and war-torn Afghanistan on Tuesday, a statement of Da Afghanistan Bank (DAB), the country's central bank said.
* Russian space agency Roscosmos said on Tuesday the three astronauts who were left stranded by a pressure leak in their return capsule last year will be able to return on the Soyuz MS-23 replacement capsule in September.
* Australia's Sydney Airport on Tuesday released a monthly report on its traffic performance, saying that a total of 3,120,000 passengers passed through the airport in January, which marked a 78.8 percent recovery compared to the pre-COVID-19 level.
* The number of people who died from COVID-19 in the Philippines has reached 66,030, according to the Philippines' Department of Health (DOH) data.
* Stronger El Nino events in the future could cause irreversible melting of ice shelves and sheets in Antarctica, Australian research has warned.
* The death toll from devastating rainfall in southeastern Brazil rose to 40 on Monday, official figures showed, as President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva visited the region and said homes should no longer be built in areas at risk of landslides and major floods.
