* India and the United States have reached a framework for an interim agreement regarding reciprocal and mutually beneficial trade, a joint statement announced Saturday.
* Argentina announced Thursday the signing of a reciprocal trade and investment agreement with the United States.
* UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres welcomes the resumption of talks between Iran and the United States, said his spokesman on Friday. The secretary-general hopes that the talks will help reduce regional tensions and prevent a broader crisis, said his spokesman in a note to correspondents.
* U.S. President Donald Trump said Friday that the United States is holding "very good" talks with Russia and Ukraine, expecting "something could be happening" on resolving the conflict, which is approaching its fourth year. The president provided no further details.
* Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that the United States is seeking to end the Russia-Ukraine conflict by June, the Ukrinform news agency reported Saturday. He suggested that the proposal deadline is linked to the start of the U.S. Congress election campaign.
* U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Friday vowed that the United States will maintain a credible and modernized nuclear deterrent after the expiration of the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START).
* U.S. President Donald Trump said Friday that his administration will hold more talks on Iran early next week, hours after having a "very good" indirect dialogue with Iran in Oman amid high tensions.
* The Trump administration on Friday announced new sanctions targeting 15 entities, two individuals and 14 so-called shadow fleet vessels linked to Iran's oil trade.
* A delegation of U.S. lawmakers is set to visit Nuuk, the capital of Greenland, this weekend, the U.S. Consulate in Nuuk said in a press release on Friday.
* The European Commission has proposed a 20th package of sanctions against Russia, targeting key sectors including energy, financial services and trade, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Friday.
* A top Iranian general has warned that any attempt to impose war on Iran will expand the scope of conflict and crisis across the West Asia region, according to the semi-official Tasnim news agency.
* Iran's Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi said on Saturday that the country's missile program was "never negotiable" in talks with the United States.
* Pakistani security agencies have intensified nationwide operations following a suicide bombing in Islamabad, with multiple arrests and one key facilitator neutralized, security officials said on Saturday.
* The Palestinian death toll in the Gaza Strip has risen to 72,027, with 171,651 others wounded since Oct. 7, 2023, Gaza-based health authorities said on Saturday.
* Syria and Saudi Arabia on Saturday announced a series of strategic agreements, including establishing a joint airline, marking a significant step toward expanding economic cooperation.
* Yemen's Presidential Leadership Council (PLC) issued a decree on Friday evening announcing the formation of a new cabinet, led by Prime Minister Shaya Mohsen al-Zindani, according to the official news agency Saba.
* The Guinean government and the European Union (EU) intend to strengthen their cooperation through concrete actions to curb the irregular migration of young Guineans to Europe, according to official sources.
* Afghanistan remains one of the most perilous countries in the world for mothers and newborns due to extremely high mortality rates and persistent funding constraints, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) said, according to local media reports on Saturday.
* The Philippines ended 2025 with a sharply narrower agricultural trade deficit in December, as a surge in farm exports, led by tropical fruits, combined with softer imports to ease pressure on external accounts, the country's Department of Agriculture (DA) said Saturday.
* China was again Germany's most important trading partner in 2025, the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) reported on Friday, as bilateral trade rose despite a challenging year for Europe's largest economy. Trade between Germany and China totaled 253 billion euros (299 billion USD) last year, up 2.7 percent from 246.3 billion euros in 2024, Destatis data showed.
* China's railway ticketing platform 12306 had sold a total of 140 million train tickets for the ongoing Spring Festival travel rush as of 8 a.m. Saturday, according to the country's railway operator.
* The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has signed a 30-million-U.S.-dollar loan to Fuse Financing Inc., the lending arm of the Philippines' largest e-wallet provider GCash, to help expand access to credit for micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) through a digital lending platform.
* Bangladesh has confirmed its first Nipah virus (NiV) death in 2026, with officials reporting that a woman succumbed to the brain-damaging illness after consuming raw date juice.
* The death toll in the coal mine blast in India's northeastern state of Meghalaya rose to 27, multiple local media reports said on Saturday. The blast took place on Thursday inside the coalmine at Mynsyngat-Thangsko in East Jaintia Hills district, about 70 km east of Shillong, the capital city of Meghalaya.
* Extreme winter weather caused numerous traffic accidents across northeastern Germany on Friday, while flight operations at Berlin Brandenburg Airport were suspended for hours before gradually resuming later in the day.
