* Myanmar's Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) has won a majority of seats in the Union Parliament, according to official results released by the Union Election Commission (UEC) on Thursday. Latest figures from the UEC showed that the USDP has secured 231 seats in the Pyithu Hluttaw (Lower House) and 108 seats in the Amyotha Hluttaw (Upper House), totaling 339 seats.
* Deadly pre-election violence left a local leader of the Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami party dead and dozens of others injured in Bangladesh's northern Sherpur district on Wednesday, police said.
* Russia and Ukraine have conducted another exchange of fallen soldiers' bodies, authorities said Thursday. Russia and Ukraine agreed on an "all-for-all" exchange of seriously ill and wounded prisoners, soldiers under the age of 25, and the bodies of fallen soldiers during their talks in Istanbul on June 2, 2025.
* Representatives from Mexico and the United States have made progress on the review of the trilateral free trade agreement, aiming to complete the process "as quickly as possible," Mexican Economy Minister Marcelo Ebrard said Wednesday.
* A massive armada, headed by the Aircraft Carrier Abraham Lincoln and larger than that sent to Venezuela, is heading to Iran, U.S. President Donald Trump said in a Truth Social post on Wednesday.
* Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen on Wednesday denied that there was an agreement between the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the United States on the Greenland issue.
* A tripartite meeting on the Cyprus issue ended on Wednesday without agreement, and no enlarged meeting will be held for now, United Nations (UN) envoy Maria Angela Holguin said. Holguin met with Cyprus President Nikos Christodoulides and Turkish Cypriot leader Tufan Erhurman in the UN buffer zone.
* Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda said Wednesday that Lithuania stands in solidarity with Denmark on the issue of Greenland and is ready to contribute to the efforts of Denmark and other NATO allies to strengthen security in the Arctic region.
* Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian has ordered the public release of the names of all those killed in recent unrest and called for an accelerated release of detainees, his office said on Wednesday evening.
* Military actions in Iran could create chaos and destabilize security systems across the entire Mideast region, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Thursday. He called on all parties to exercise restraint and abandon the use of force to resolve the issue, as diplomatic and negotiating options have not been exhausted.
* The Lebanese army said Thursday it received a shipment of food aid from Jordan.
* Iran said Thursday it has inducted 1,000 domestically developed "strategic combat" drones into the combat formations of its army divisions, the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported.
* Palestinian Vice President Hussein Al Sheikh on Thursday called on the international community to take firm action against Israel over its treatment of Palestinians.
* Iran's Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi is due to arrive in Türkiye on Friday for high-level talks, Iranian officials said on Thursday, as heightened tensions with Washington coincide with a major U.S. military buildup in the region.
* Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema on Thursday assured diplomats accredited to the country that Zambia will hold peaceful, credible and transparent elections in 2026.
* The United Nations (UN) relief agency has approved the allocation of 10 million USD to address urgent and life-saving needs triggered by escalating violence in South Sudan's Jonglei State.
* A total of 255 Afghan prisoners have been released from Pakistani jails and safely returned to Afghanistan over the past week, the Ministry of Refugees and Repatriation announced on Thursday.
* Indonesian authorities have stepped up passenger screening at Bali's I Gusti Ngurah Rai International Airport to prevent the possible entry of the Nipah virus, an airport official said on Thursday.
* The U.S. Federal Reserve on Wednesday kept the target range for the federal funds interest rate unchanged at 3.5 percent to 3.75 percent at its first policy meeting of 2026. The decision follows three consecutive rate cuts in the second half of 2025.
* The Bank of Canada on Wednesday held its policy interest rate at the current level of 2.25 percent. Tiff Macklem, governor of the Bank of Canada, said at a press conference that the Canadian economy is adjusting to the structural headwinds of U.S. protectionism.
* Inter-regional passenger trips across China during the 2026 Spring Festival travel rush, also known as chunyun, are expected to reach a record high of 9.5 billion, the National Development and Reform Commission said Thursday.
* Thailand's industrial output expanded in December 2025, supported by a continued rise in auto production and industrial exports amid government stimulus measures, official data showed on Thursday.
* New Zealand's annual exports hit a record high of 80.7 billion NZ dollars (about 49 billion USD) in 2025, Stats NZ reported Thursday.
* The Australian government on Thursday announced an additional 50 million Australian dollars (35.4 million USD) in funding for humanitarian assistance to the people of Afghanistan.
* Sri Lanka's targets under the Extended Fund Facility (EFF) will remain unchanged, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said on Wednesday, signaling continuity in the country's reform program as the organization concludes a fact-finding mission assessing the economic impact of Cyclone Ditwah.
* A passenger plane carrying 15 people lost contact with air traffic control on Wednesday while operating a domestic flight in northeastern Colombia, the country's state airline Satena said. Colombia's civil aviation authority said it has activated emergency protocols and launched a unified command post to gather information on the loss of communication.
* Indonesia's joint search and rescue teams recovered three more bodies on Thursday, the sixth day of operations following a landslide in Cisarua, West Java province, bringing the total number of deaths to 56, the National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB) said.
