* The Nepali Congress won nine seats, while the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist)(CPN-UML) emerged victorious in eight seats in the National Assembly election held on Sunday, the Election Commission said.
* Arrangements made between China and Canada to properly address their economic and trade issues are not directed at any third party, and are beneficial to world peace and prosperity, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said in Beijing on Monday.
* The Council of the European Union (EU) on Monday gave a final approval to a ban on imports of Russian pipeline gas and liquefied natural gas (LNG) into the EU, with a full ban entering into force from January 2027 for LNG and from October 2027 for pipeline gas.
* The Republic of Korea will build two new large-scale nuclear reactors by 2038 as planned, the country's climate minister said Monday. Kim Sung-whan, minister of Climate, Energy and Environment, told a press briefing that the government will proceed with the construction of new nuclear power plants under the 11th basic plan for electricity supply and demand as scheduled.
* Venezuela's acting president Delcy Rodriguez said Sunday that differences with the United States would be resolved through diplomatic channels.
* The World Economic Forum (WEF) on Africa is set to return to the continent in April 2027, ending an almost eight-year hiatus, with the event scheduled to be hosted in either Johannesburg or Cape Town, local media reported Friday.
* President of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan on Sunday met with Kirill Dmitriev, Russian special presidential envoy for foreign investment and economic cooperation.
* Israel has agreed to a limited reopening of the Rafah crossing for pedestrian passage only, subject to a full Israeli inspection mechanism, the Prime Minister's Office said Sunday evening in a statement.
* Israel's military has launched a new operation in the northern Gaza Strip to locate the remains of the last hostage, Israeli officials said on Sunday.
* The UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) and peace monitors have called for urgent efforts to avert the collapse of South Sudan's revitalized peace agreement, warning that the country's political and security situation has "continued to deteriorate significantly."
* A 24-truck humanitarian convoy reached the Kobani region of northern Syria on Sunday, even as a shaky ceasefire between the interim authority and Kurdish-led forces showed signs of strain.
* Gunmen opened fire during an amateur soccer match in central Mexico on Sunday, killing at least 11 people and wounding 12 others, local authorities said.
* A boat carrying 51 migrants capsized in the Mediterranean recently, with one confirmed alive and 50 still missing, local media reported. The only survivor was rescued by a merchant ship and transported to a hospital in Malta for treatment.
* Police in Western Australia (WA) have arrested a man after an apparent explosive device was thrown into a group of protesters in the state capital of Perth on Monday.
* The Mongolian banking sector's net foreign assets fell 0.1 percent year-on-year to reach 8.7 trillion Mongolian tugriks (2.4 billion USD) in December 2025, the country's National Statistics Office (NSO) said on Monday.
* Singapore's manufacturing output rose 8.3 percent year on year in December 2025, government data showed on Monday. On a seasonally adjusted basis, overall output fell 13.3 percent from November.
* Republic of Korea's foreign currency deposit grew for the second straight month due to solid demand for the U.S. and the European currencies, central bank data showed Monday. The deposit, denominated in foreign currencies, advanced 15.88 billion USD from a month earlier to 119.43 billion dollars at the end of December 2025, after rising 1.71 billion dollars in the previous month, according to the Bank of Korea (BOK).
* Bangladesh's economy is projected to grow at around 5 percent in 2026, balancing moderate expansion with persistent structural challenges, according to the Bangladeshi Planning Ministry's Economic Update & Outlook (January 2026) released Sunday.
* Turkish authorities have seized narcotics worth some 1.7 billion Turkish liras (about 39 million USD) in nationwide coordinated operations at border crossings, seaports and airports, the Trade Ministry said on Sunday.
* Afghanistan's Ministry of Industry and Commerce said that the country exported 317,517 tonnes of fresh fruit over the past year, generating an estimated 142 million USD, local media Tolo news reported on Monday.
* Thailand's Civil Aviation Authority announced that it will implement comprehensive screening for all flights arriving from India's West Bengal, a high-risk region for Nipah virus, starting from 00:00 local time on Monday to prevent the virus from entering the country.
* At least 18 bodies were recovered and 24 people remained missing after an inter-island ferry sank early Monday in waters off Basilan province in the southern Philippines, authorities said.
* A historic winter storm is sweeping across the Midwest and eastern parts of the United States on Sunday, causing unprecedented travel chaos.
* Authorities have warned that the southeast Australian state of Victoria is facing its most severe heatwave since 2009, with temperatures forecast to exceed record-highs.
