* United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres on Sunday denounced Israel for the "heartbreaking" deaths of Palestinian civilians in Gaza and called it unacceptable to resist statehood for the Palestinian people.
* Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko said on Sunday that NATO's Steadfast Defender 2024 exercises signify a final and irrevocable return to the Cold War schemes.
* Israel approved a plan on Sunday to grant Norway the right to hold frozen Palestinian tax funds as a third party, while at the same time maintaining Israel's prerogative to decide the time of fund transfer to the Palestinian Authority (PA).
*The toll of Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes on Gaza since Oct. 7 has passed 25,000, health officials in the enclave said on Sunday, amid heavy Israeli strikes and street battles raging across the Hamas-run Strip.
* The Indonesian government targets to attract 1 to 1.5 million arrivals of tourists from China in 2024, local media reported Sunday.
* Large swaths of Australia sweltered again on Sunday through a widening heatwave, which the national weather forecaster said raised the bushfire risk in an already high-risk fire season as the country endures an El Nino weather pattern.
* A thick blanket of fog in Pakistan's federal capital Islamabad and its twin city Rawalpindi affected the daily lifestyle of the local residents starting from Friday night.
* The death toll due to landslides and severe flooding in the Davao region in southern Philippines has climbed to 15, official data showed on Sunday.
