* The presidential election of Bangladesh will be held by Feb. 23, the Election Commission (EC)'s secretary Md Jahangir Alam said here on Sunday.
* Japanese Prime Minister Kishida Fumio on Monday warned that the country is on the "edge of losing its social function" owing to its plunging birthrate and addressing this will be the government's top priority.
* South Africa's foreign minister Naledi Pandor said on Monday after talks with her Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov that joint military drills South Africa will hold with Russia and China next month were part of the "natural course of relations" between countries.
* The Kremlin said on Monday that the Ukrainian people would suffer if the West sent tanks to support Kyiv, as the question of whether German-made Leopard tanks will be transferred to Ukraine remained unresolved.
* Germany on Monday dispatched the first two out of three Patriot air defence units that will be sent to the Polish town of Zamosc close to the Ukrainian border where they will be deployed to prevent stray missile strikes.
* Russia has decided to downgrade diplomatic relations with Estonia to the level of charge d'affaires in retaliation of Estonia's move to reduce Russian embassy staff.
* Estonia has asked the Russian ambassador to leave the country in response to a similar decision announced by the Russian side, Estonian Foreign Minister Urmas Reinsalu said on Monday.
* France and Germany should together become "pioneers" in the refoundation of Europe, French President Emmanuel Macron said on Sunday in Paris during the celebration of the 60th anniversary of France-Germany reconciliation.
* Brazilian Finance Minister Fernando Haddad played down the idea of a single shared currency between Argentina and Brazil late on Sunday, saying the countries were looking at ways to stimulate bilateral trade but not extinguish their own currencies.
* Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Monday that the terms of the Black Sea grain initiative, which facilitates the export of Ukrainian grain from its southern Black Sea ports, were "more or less being fulfilled".
* Kuwaiti Prime Minister Sheikh Ahmad Nawaf al-Sabah on Monday submitted the resignation of his cabinet to Crown Prince Sheikh Meshal al-Ahmad al-Sabah, who has taken over most of the ruling emir's duties, the state news agency KUNA reported.
* Exchange of messages among different parties to revive a 2015 nuclear deal continues through different channels, the Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman said on Monday.
* The Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Libya Abdoulaye Bathily on Sunday called for international support to help Libya overcome its crisis.
* Jordan's Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi on Sunday stressed the need to diversify funding sources for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) to ensure its financing sustainability.
* The displacement of Syrians has cost Lebanon more than 40 billion USD since the outbreak of the Syrian civil war in 2011, Lebanese Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib said on Monday.
* European Union proposals to overhaul its electricity market will attempt to better protect consumer energy bills from short-term swings in fossil fuel prices, the European Commission said on Monday.
* US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Monday said a strong labor market and easing inflation in the United States were "very hopeful signs."
* The World Health Organization has called for "immediate and concerted action" to protect children from contaminated medicines after a spate of child deaths linked to cough syrups last year.
* Ten people were killed and at least 10 wounded in a mass shooting in Monterey Park in Southern California on Saturday night, said local police.
* Suspected Islamists killed about 20 people in a raid on a village in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo on Sunday night, a local chief and a military official said on Monday.
* China's meteorological authority on Monday issued its blue alert for a cold wave, forecasting big temperature drops and gales across most of the central and eastern regions of the country.
* Heavy snowfall and freezing weather have claimed 104 lives including children and women in Afghanistan over the past two weeks, spokesman for the Ministry of Natural Disaster Management and Humanitarian Affairs Shafiullah Rahimi said on Monday.
* Japanese weather officials warned on Monday that the coldest air mass of the season is likely to lead to heavy snow blanketing wide swathes of Japan from Tuesday.
* Large parts of Mongolia have been experiencing extreme cold weather in recent days, the country's National Agency for Meteorology and Environmental Monitoring said Monday.
