* Denmark will hold a parliamentary election on March 24, Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen announced on Thursday. The vote will determine the makeup of the 179-member parliament, which includes seats representing Greenland and the Faroe Islands.
* UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is following with concern cross-border clashes between Afghanistan and Pakistan, his spokesperson said Thursday.
* Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said on Friday morning that the country's armed forces possess the full capability to crush any aggressive ambitions and any act of belligerence will be responded to decisively, according to a statement from the Prime Minister's Office.
* Zabihullah Mujahid, spokesperson for the Afghan government, posted on his X account early Friday that the Pakistani military conducted airstrikes in parts of Kabul, southern Kandahar, and eastern Paktia province. He said no civilian casualties were reported.
* The Ninth Congress of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK), the ruling party of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), closed in Pyongyang on Wednesday, as its top leader used the major party congress to spell out a new five-year plan, state media said Thursday.
* A potential summit between Russia and Ukraine should bring closure to all negotiations, Kremlin Spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on Thursday. The latest round of talks involving Russia, the United States and Ukraine was held in Geneva on Feb. 17-18.
* The Iranian and U.S. delegations demonstrated "unprecedented openness to new and creative ideas and solutions" in the latest round of indirect nuclear talks on Thursday, according to an Omani Foreign Ministry statement on social media platform X.
* Ukraine is reinforcing its state border with Belarus and strengthening its defense capabilities in the north, State Border Guard Service spokesman Andrii Demchenko said on Thursday.
* Russian air defense forces intercepted and destroyed 167 Ukrainian fixed-wing drones between 2:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m. Moscow time, 12 of which were targeting Moscow, the Russian Ministry of Defense said Thursday.
* Iran's Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi said on Thursday that "good progress" was achieved in the third round of indirect nuclear talks between Tehran and Washington in Geneva, and that a fourth round would be held soon.
* Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) has thwarted a planned terrorist attack targeting a senior military officer in St. Petersburg.
* The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) on Thursday rejected Israel's expansion of settlements during an emergency meeting of its Executive Committee at the level of foreign ministers.
* Israel and India agreed on Thursday to elevate their bilateral ties, signing 16 agreements and memorandums of understanding to expand cooperation in defense, advanced technologies, and labor mobility, read a joint statement.
* Approximately 25,000 children in Afghanistan's eastern Kunar province remain housed in makeshift tents six months after a catastrophic earthquake ravaged the region, Save the Children, an international aid organization, reported on Thursday.
* At least 7,667 people died or went missing on migration routes worldwide in 2025, a UN spokesperson said Thursday, citing the International Organization for Migration (IOM).
* Ukraine will receive its first liquefied natural gas (LNG) shipment via the Klaipeda terminal in Lithuania, Ukraine's state-owned gas operator Naftogaz Group said on Thursday.
* China has seen strong growth momentum in eight emerging and nine future industries, with about 1.13 million companies established in these sectors in 2025, an increase of 9.9 percent year on year, official data showed on Thursday.
* Japan's industrial output in January expanded 2.2 percent from the previous month, driven by strong production of automobiles and plastic-related goods, government data showed Friday.
* Republic of Korean banks' lending rate rose for the third straight month on lower expectations for additional policy rate cuts, central bank data showed Friday. The weighted average rate for new bank loans gained 0.05 percentage points from a month earlier to an annualized rate of 4.24 percent in January, continuing to go up since November last year, according to the Bank of Korea (BOK).
* Cambodia's central bank, the National Bank of Cambodia (NBC), has set out conditions for the establishment of asset management institutions (AMIs), said an NBC edict publicized on Thursday. Any person applying for an AMI license will be required to have a minimum registered capital of 200 billion riels (50 million USD).
* Bangladesh's economy posted its slowest growth since the COVID-19 pandemic, with gross domestic product (GDP) expanding by just 3.49 percent in the 2024-2025 fiscal year (July 2024 to June 2025).
* The World Bank Group, through its private sector arm, the International Finance Corporation (IFC), has announced an equity investment of 155.6 million ringgit (40 million USD) in Malaysia-based blockchain firm Zetrix AI Berhad (Zetrix AI).
* The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has revised upwards its economic growth forecasts for all three Baltic countries this year, citing rising wages, increased defense expenditure and the implementation of major infrastructure projects.
* The Bank of Mexico said Thursday that it has raised its 2026 economic growth forecast for the country to 1.6 percent, up from 1.1 percent. The bank warned that investment will remain weak at least until the second half of 2026, reflecting uncertainty over trade with the United States and an upcoming review of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement on free trade.
* International credit rating agency Moody's Ratings has revised its outlook on Georgia's banking system from negative to stable, the National Bank of Georgia said Thursday.
* The World Bank will provide a loan of 70.4 million euros (about 83.1 million USD) to Armenia to upgrade the country's water supply and irrigation services, NEW.am reported on Thursday.
* The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has completed the combined fifth and sixth reviews of Egypt's economic reform program, unlocking about 2.27 billion USD in fresh financing, the Egyptian government said on Thursday.
* Authorities rescued more than 40 people on Thursday night after intense rainfall swept across Sydney, causing flash flooding and power outages.
* Mount Kanlaon in the central Philippines erupted on Thursday, generating an ash plume that rose about 2,500 meters above the crater before drifting southwest, the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) said.
