* The Republic of Korea's court on Tuesday granted the extension of the warrant to arrest the impeached President Yoon Suk-yeol.
* Ghanaian President John Dramani Mahama took the oath of office on Tuesday after winning the presidential election in December last year.
* Austria's Freedom Party leader Herbert Kickl said on Tuesday that he planned to invite the conservative People's Party for coalition talks. Kickl's announcement came one day after he was given a mandate by Austrian President Alexander Van der Bellen to form a new government.
* Belgium's King Philippe met with Bart De Wever on Tuesday at the Royal Palace in Brussels to review progress on forming a new federal government. Belgium has been without a federal government since legislative elections in June 2024, prolonging a political deadlock.
* Lao government officials gathered for a two-day meeting to discuss pressing issues, and the progress of implementing socio-economic development plans for 2024 and new directions for 2025.
* Malaysia and Singapore announced an agreement on the Johor-Singapore Special Economic Zone (SEZ) here on Tuesday, with the goal of supporting investment and allowing free movement of goods and people between the two countries.
* The prime ministers of Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan will hold a trilateral meeting on state border issues on Wednesday, the press service of the Kyrgyz Cabinet of Ministers announced in a statement on Tuesday.
* The Maltese government said on Tuesday it had presented the updated National Energy and Climate Plan to the European Commission with a pledge to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 41 percent over 2005 levels by 2030.
* Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Tuesday dismissed U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's willingness to use "economic force" to merge Canada into the United States.
* Former foreign ministers from various Latin American countries have expressed their support for Panamanian sovereignty over the Panama Canal, in response to recent comments made by U.S. President-elect Donald Trump suggesting the possibility of retaking control of the waterway.
* Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen reiterated on Tuesday that Greenland's future must be decided by its people, as renewed attention turned to the autonomous territory following a visit by Donald Trump Jr.
* The escalation of geopolitical conflicts and regional instability have brought the level of global cooperation to a low point, according to a report released by the World Economic Forum (WEF) on Tuesday.
* American tech giant Microsoft on Tuesday announced it will invest 3 billion USD in India on cloud computing and artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure and training over the next two years.
* Indonesian Minister of Health Budi Gunadi Sadikin announced on Tuesday that the country has detected infections of the respiratory virus HMPV, but assured the public that the disease is not dangerous.
* Following the detection of Human Metapneumovirus (HMPV) cases in India, the federal health ministry Tuesday asked states to review Influenza-Like Illness (ILI) and severe acute respiratory infection (SARI) surveillance.
* Sri Lanka's cabinet has approved a proposal to extend further relief which is relevant to tax deviations for three international airports in the country, according to the government's information department on Tuesday.
* UN humanitarians and their partners have distributed food assistance to nearly 3 million people in Syria since late November, the UN relief agency said on Tuesday.
* Lebanon's Speaker of Parliament, Nabih Berri, on Tuesday called for a general session to be held on Thursday to elect a president for the republic.
* Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, deputy prime minister and minister of foreign affairs of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), on Tuesday held talks with visiting Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar on regional developments.
* Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan met Masrour Barzani, prime minister of Iraq's Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), on Tuesday in Ankara to discuss relations and regional issues.
* The Lebanese army command said Tuesday that army units began deploying in several towns and villages in southern Lebanon following the Israeli army's withdrawal.
* President of the Iranian Civil Aviation Organization (CAO) Hossein Pourfarzaneh on Tuesday expressed readiness to resume flights from Iran to Syria, according to the official news agency IRNA.
* Syria's interim Foreign Minister Asaad Hassan al-Shibani visited Jordan on Tuesday to discuss security and economic cooperation, marking a shift in bilateral relations following Damascus's recent change in leadership.
* Iran's armed forces began a large-scale joint air defense exercise near the Natanz uranium enrichment facility in central Isfahan province on Tuesday, state television reported.
* At least 13 Palestinians, including five children, were killed in Israeli attacks across the Gaza Strip, according to Palestinian sources on Tuesday.
* Turkish security forces captured 65 suspects linked to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in operations conducted across 17 provinces, the country's Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said Tuesday.
* Over 5,600 people lost their lives to gang violence in Haiti in 2024, marking a significant increase from the previous year, according to UN figures.
* South Sudan said Tuesday that it would resume the production and export of crude oil to the international market through Port Sudan starting Wednesday.
* Ukraine's annual budget deficit grew by about 33 percent last year, reaching 1.77 trillion hryvnias (about 42 billion USD), the government-run Ukrinform news agency reported on Tuesday, citing data from the central bank.
* Natural gas prices in Europe have surged by 20 percent after Ukraine ceased the transit of Russian natural gas through its territory, Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Peter Szijjarto said Tuesday.
* The eurozone's annual inflation rate for December of last year stood at 2.4 percent, up from November's 2.2 percent, according to a flash estimate released by Eurostat on Tuesday.
* Italy's unemployment rate fell to a record low of 5.7 percent in November, the lowest level ever recorded since the historical series began in 2004, the national statistics institute ISTAT said on Tuesday.
* The Philippines' unemployment rate in November 2024 fell to 3.2 percent, down from 3.9 percent in the previous month, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said Wednesday.
* Thailand's exports are expected to grow by 1 percent to 3 percent in 2025 amid uncertainties on trade policies and geopolitical tensions, the Thai National Shippers' Council (TNSC) said on Tuesday.
* Australia's annual rate of inflation rose slightly in the year to November, new official figures have revealed. According to the new data, which was published on Wednesday by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, the consumer price index (CPI) -- the headline measure of inflation -- rose by 2.3 percent in the 12 months to November 2024.
* Slovenia's budget deficit fell to 1.2 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2024, according to preliminary figures, and was the lowest in the past five years, the Ministry of Finance said on Tuesday.
* Sri Lanka's foreign reserves will reach 7 billion USD by the end of 2025, the Governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) Nandalal Weerasinghe has said.
* Afghanistan's central bank injected 15 million USD on Wednesday into the local market to boost the national currency afghani.
* 2024 was New Zealand's 10th-warmest year on record, and eight of New Zealand's 10 warmest years on record have occurred since 2013, according to the annual climate summary published by the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) on Wednesday.
* Mount Ibu, located in Indonesia's eastern North Maluku province, erupted on Tuesday, prompting the Center for Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation to issue a flight alert.
* California governor Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency on Tuesday after around 30,000 people were ordered to evacuate due to a fast-moving wildfire in Southern California, the United States.
