* Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili said on Monday he has decided to resign. Earlier in the day, local media said Garibashvili will be appointed the head of the ruling Georgian Dream party, while Irakli Kobakhidze, the current party leader, will become the country's prime minister.
* The leader of Northern Ireland's Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) said it had reached a deal with the British government on the operation of post-Brexit trade rules that would allow it to return to the region's power-sharing government.
* China Vice Foreign Minister Sun Weidong met with Ukrainian ambassador to China Pavlo Riabikin and exchanged views on issues of common concern, including the Ukraine crisis, the Chinese foreign ministry said in a statement on Tuesday.
* UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is scheduled to hold a meeting with key donors to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) on Tuesday, to ensure continued support for relief work for Palestinian refugees, his spokesperson said Monday.
* Russia is discussing with other BRICS countries the interaction of national systems for transmitting financial messages, the country's central bank governor, Elvira Nabiullina, said on Tuesday.
* Venezuela on Monday warned it will respond in a "severe, reciprocal and strong" way if the United States resumes sanctions or applies sanctions against the South American country.
* King Abdullah II of Jordan on Monday underlined the need for the international community to maintain support for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) to enable its continuous provision of vital relief services in accordance with the UN mandate.
* Pakistani Prime Minister Anwar-ul-Haq Kakar has reaffirmed his country's strong commitment to further consolidate bilateral ties with Iran, the prime minister's office said in a statement.
* Israel's military said on Monday it will keep pressure on the city of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, which for weeks has been the focus of Israel's offensive, and said it has killed more than 2,000 Palestinian militants there.
* Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres stressed on Monday the necessity to keep funding the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA).
* Qatar's prime minister on Monday said he hoped U.S. retaliation for an drone attack that killed three U.S. troops in Jordan would not undercut progress toward a new Israel-Hamas hostage release deal in weekend talks.
* The government of Colombia and the National Liberation Army (ELN) group said on Monday they would extend a bilateral ceasefire for seven days while they finish evaluating a much longer extension to the measure.
* Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Monday discussed in a phone call the recent developments and expansion of the regional tension, the Egyptian presidency said in a statement.
* Canada on Monday said it had dropped weapons export controls to Turkey, including drone optical technology, according to a notice posted online, saying that from now on it would review all exports on a case-by-case basis.
* The United States expects Hungary to approve Sweden's NATO accession in the weeks ahead, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Monday.
* Russia and Belarus will work together to ensure equal and indivisible security for both countries, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Monday.
* French President Emmanuel Macron has told the European Commission that it was impossible to conclude trade deal negotiations with South America's Mercosur bloc and understands the EU has put an end to the talks, his office said on Monday.
* Ukraine and Hungary said they had laid the ground for a meeting of their leaders during talks in western Ukraine on Monday and agreed to work together on the divisive issue of Hungarian minority rights in Ukraine.
* Belgian farmers outraged over rising costs, European Union environmental policies and cheap food imports plan to block access roads to the Zeebrugge container port in Belgium, financial daily De Tijd reported on Tuesday.
* Nigeria's foreign ministry on Monday said the military authorities in Niger, Burkina Faso and Mali were not acting in good faith with their joint decision to quit the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).
* Sales of U.S. military equipment to foreign governments in 2023 rose 16% to a record $238 billion, the U.S. State Department said on Monday, as countries sought to replenish stocks sent to Ukraine and prepare for major conflicts.
* The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) on Tuesday slightly upgraded year-on-year growth of gross domestic product (GDP) for the third quarter of 2023 to 6 percent from preliminary estimate of 5.9 percent.
* Japan's average unemployment rate in 2023 stood at 2.6 percent, unchanged from the previous year, government data showed Tuesday.
* The Republic of Korea's export volume rose for the fourth successive month in December last year on recovering demand for locally-made tech products and transport equipment, central bank data showed Tuesday.
* The French economy failed to grow in the fourth quarter, preliminary data from the INSEE statistics agency showed on Tuesday, in line with analyst expectations.
* The tax revenues of Germany's federal and state governments rose by 1.8% in 2023 to 829.8 billion euros ($898.9 billion), the finance ministry said on Tuesday.
