* U.S. President Donald Trump said on Monday that Venezuela will not hold elections in the next 30 days. The remarks came two days after Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro was taken from the capital of Caracas by U.S. forces.
* UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Monday voiced deep concern over the lack of respect for international law in the U.S. military action against Venezuela on Saturday.
* Respect for the UN Charter and international law is the foundation of the international order, President of the UN General Assembly (UNGA) Annalena Baerbock said in a statement on the situation regarding Venezuela.
* The United Nations (UN) High Commissioner for Human Rights is deeply worried about the situation in Venezuela following the U.S. military operation in the country, a spokesperson for the UN human rights office said on Tuesday.
* Venezuelan UN ambassador Samuel Moncada on Monday requested action from the Security Council following U.S. strikes against his country over the weekend. Venezuela urges the Security Council to fully assume its responsibility and act in accordance with the mandate conferred on it by the UN Charter, Moncada told an emergency meeting of the council.
* Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on Monday pleaded not guilty to all U.S. charges during his first court appearance in New York. Maduro's wife, Cilia Flores, said at court that she is completely innocent of the charges brought against her by the United States. The next hearing on the case against Maduro is scheduled for March 17.
* Some 68.4 percent of the Cambodian evacuees from a recent border conflict with Thailand have returned to their homes so far, Cambodia's Interior Ministry Spokesperson Touch Sokhak said on Tuesday.
* Cambodia on Monday re-proposed to Thailand to convene a special meeting on border demarcation in the second or third week of January in Cambodia's Siem Reap province, said a press release from Cambodia's State Secretariat of Border Affairs.
* Thailand's caretaker Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul said in a media interview on Tuesday that the country's military has lodged a protest with Cambodia over an explosion in the border area that injured a Thai soldier.
* Leaders of seven European countries on Tuesday reaffirmed that Greenland "belongs to its people," stressing that issues concerning Denmark and Greenland must be decided solely by Denmark and Greenland, according to a joint statement.
* Russian air defense systems shot down 360 Ukrainian fixed-wing drones, two aerial bombs and two U.S.-made HIMARS rockets in the special military operation zone over the past 24 hours, Russia said on Tuesday.
* White House special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, U.S. President Donald Trump's son-in-law, will lead a U.S. delegation to a high-level meeting in Paris this week on security guarantees for Ukraine in a potential peace deal, a White House official told media outlets on Monday.
* Hungary will continue to pursue the "Hungarian path" in both domestic and foreign policies amid profound changes in the global political landscape, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said at his annual international press conference in Budapest on Monday.
* Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum on Monday rejected the possibility of U.S. intervention in Mexico to combat drug cartels, stressing the importance of maintaining national sovereignty and strengthening the country's unity.
* Chinese President Xi Jinping held talks with President of the Republic of Korea (ROK) Lee Jae Myung in Beijing on Monday. Xi said he and President Lee have met twice and conducted reciprocal visits, reflecting the importance both sides attach to China-ROK relations. As both friends and neighbors, China and the ROK should increase exchanges and maintain frequent communication.
* A total of 1,533,682 voters have registered to cast their ballots by post in Bangladesh's upcoming 13th general election and the referendum scheduled for Feb. 12. According to the Election Commission data released Tuesday, the registration process through the "Postal Vote BD" app concluded at midnight on Monday.
* More than 44 candidates have registered to run in Iraq's presidential election, the Iraqi parliament announced on Monday after the nomination period closed in the afternoon.
* African Union (AU) Commission Chairperson Mahmoud Ali Youssouf on Monday congratulated Guinea's president-elect Mamady Doumbouya on his election following the proclamation of the final results by the country's Supreme Court.
* Incumbent President of the Central African Republic, Faustin-Archange Touadera, has won the presidential election with an absolute majority of 76.15 percent of the vote, according to provisional results released by the National Elections Authority (ANE) late Monday.
* The Palestinian embassy in Britain officially opened on Monday in London after Britain announced the recognition of the State of Palestine in September last year. The embassy, formerly the Palestinian mission in Britain, is located in the Hammersmith area of west London.
* The Israeli military announced on Monday that it struck Hezbollah and Hamas sites in Lebanon, citing "continued violations of the ceasefire understandings."
* Addressing parliament on Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Israel would not allow Iran to revive its nuclear program or rebuild its ballistic missile industry, adding that the stance was coordinated with the United States.
* The continued closure of the Rafah border crossing has severely exacerbated the humanitarian situation in Gaza, confining residents and denying them vital access to medical care, education and essential supplies, according to Palestinians in the enclave and analysts.
* Egypt and Syria signed two Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) on Monday to enhance cooperation in the energy sector, the Egyptian Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources said.
* At least 2,597 terrorists were killed in more than 75,000 counter-terrorism operations conducted across Pakistan in 2025, a senior military official said on Tuesday.
* Cambodia exported a total of 940,321 tons of milled rice in 2025, a year-on-year increase of 46 percent, said a Cambodia Rice Federation (CRF) press release on Monday.
* China's central bank on Tuesday said that it will continue to implement a moderately loose monetary policy in 2026, using tools such as reserve requirement ratio and interest rate cuts to maintain ample liquidity.
* German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said restoring economic growth will be the government's main priority in 2026, after acknowledging that earlier steps have not been enough to strengthen Germany's competitiveness.
* The Philippines' headline inflation for 2025 was recorded at 1.7 percent, well below the government's 2 to 4 percent target range, even as price pressures picked up slightly in December, data released by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) showed on Tuesday.
* Kazakhstan's economy expanded by over 6 percent in 2025, pushing the nation's GDP above 300 billion USD for the first time, Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev said Monday.
* Cambodia approved fixed-asset investment projects worth 10 billion USD in 2025, a year-on-year increase of 45 percent, said a Council for the Development of Cambodia (CDC) press release on Monday.
* The Asian Development Bank (ADB) committed 2.57 billion USD in new sovereign financing for Bangladesh in 2025, more than double its 2024 commitment of 1.18 billion dollars.
* Kazakhstan's national oil and gas company KazMunayGas said Tuesday its diesel fuel output reached a record 6.14 million tonnes in 2025. The output was up by 850,000 tonnes from 2024, the company said, adding that gasoline production also rose by 400,000 tonnes, helping meet domestic demand and avert fuel shortages.
* Belarusian gold and foreign exchange reserves have reached a new all-time high, the country's central bank said on Tuesday. Belarusian gold and foreign exchange reserves increased by 5.5 billion USD over 2025 and exceeded 14.4 billion as of Jan. 1, 2026, the bank said.
* Several people have been injured after a 6.4-magnitude earthquake struck Shimane Prefecture in western Japan on Tuesday, local media reported.
* Philippine state volcanologists on Tuesday raised the alert level of Mayon Volcano in Albay province on Luzon island to Alert Level 3, citing the "onset of dome collapse pyroclastic density current," the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology said.
