* Austrian Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg was sworn in as the country's interim chancellor on Friday, succeeding Karl Nehammer, who resigned as chancellor of the caretaker government and chairman of the People's Party on Jan. 4 following the collapse of coalition talks. This marks the latest twist in Austria's ongoing coalition formation dilemma.
* Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly said Friday she won't run in the Liberal leadership race. The foreign minister said she is ready to become the first woman to lead the party, but the unjustified threat of tariffs from the president-elect of the United States requires a firm and urgent response.
* The Republic of Korea's acting president on Friday accepted resignation from presidential security chief who appeared before police for questioning over the obstruction of execution to arrest impeached President Yoon Suk-yeol.
* Days after being announced as a full member of BRICS, Indonesian Foreign Minister Sugiono said on Friday that joining the group will bring a positive impact to Indonesia, the region and the world.
* China's fiscal operation was generally stable in 2024 and is expected to achieve a balanced budget for the year, China's Vice Minister of Finance Liao Min said Friday.
* International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva on Friday warned that global economy in 2025 faces heightened uncertainty due to economic policies, particularly the directions of U.S. trade policy.
* Russian President Vladimir Putin is open to potential negotiations with U.S. President-elect Donald Trump without any preconditions, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Friday.
* Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan hope to bolster tourism with plans for a new railway route between Astana and Samarkand, the Interfax-Kazakhstan news agency reported on Friday.
* Malaysia will cooperate with Japan on several economic and technology development projects, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said on Friday.
* Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov on Friday detailed the results of the 25th meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group held at the U.S. airbase in Ramstein, Germany.
* Italian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Antonio Tajani said on Friday that Italy will play a role in preserving the ceasefire between Lebanon and Israel.
* China has discovered a substantial uranium deposit in its northwestern region, significantly boosting its uranium resources. The China Geological Survey under the Ministry of Natural Resources announced on Friday that major uranium exploration breakthroughs have been made in the Jingchuan area of the Ordos Basin.
* The Indonesian government is ready to launch its first overseas carbon trading on Jan. 20, the country's Ministry of Forest and Environment said on Friday.
* Ukraine's Finance Ministry announced on Friday that it has secured 3 billion euros (about 3.09 billion USD) from the European Union (EU) backed by the revenues of the frozen Russian assets.
* Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned on Friday that "Yemen's Houthis are paying and will continue to pay a heavy price for their aggression (on Israel)," describing them as a proxy of Iran and "a threat to Israel and the entire region."
* Israeli airstrikes on Friday claimed the lives of at least 22 Palestinians, including a journalist, as fuel shortages threaten to plunge Gaza into a communications blackout, officials warned.
* Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas had a phone conversation with Lebanese President Joseph Aoun on Friday to discuss the situation of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon.
* Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian on Friday vowed to improve conditions in the country's southeastern province of Sistan and Baluchestan, the official news agency IRNA reported.
* Newly elected Lebanese President Joseph Aoun hosted Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides on Friday, discussing bilateral relations and Lebanon's pressing needs.
* An estimated 3.2 million children under 5 are projected to suffer from acute malnutrition this year in war-torn and famine-afflicted Sudan, a UN spokesman said on Friday.
* India's Index of Industrial Production (IIP) grew 5.2 percent in November 2024, the government data showed Friday. The data issued by the federal ministry of statistics and program implementation (MoSPI) showed that the growth rates of the three sectors, mining, manufacturing and electricity, for November 2024 are 1.9 percent, 5.8 percent and 4.4 percent, respectively.
* Mongolia's inflation rate, measured by the consumer price index (CPI), reached 9.0 percent in December 2024, up from 8.1 percent in November, according to official data by the country's National Statistics Office (NSO) on Friday.
* Inflation rate in Nepal grew to a 15-month high of 6.05 percent by mid-December due to rising food prices for the last few months, the central bank said on Friday.
* South Sudan's health ministry said Friday that it has rolled out a week-long campaign aimed at vaccinating more than 300,000 people against cholera in Rubkona, a hotspot county in Unity State.
* Fuel oil was detected in four districts along almost 15 km of the Crimean coastline on Friday, following a recent accident involving two Russian tankers, according to the Main Directorate of the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations in Crimea.
