* The newly elected members of Bangladesh's parliament will take the oath of office on Wednesday, K.M. Abdus Salam, senior secretary of Bangladesh Parliament Secretariat, told Xinhua Tuesday.
* Voters in Bhutan began casting their ballots Tuesday as polls opened for the country's final round of parliamentary elections, local media reported. The polling hours for the elections to the National Assembly, the 47-seat lower house of Bhutan's bicameral legislature, is from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. local time (0200 GMT to 1100 GMT).
* Singaporean Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat Tuesday called on young scientists to venture beyond academia and deliver more impact by solving real-world problems.
* The Republic of Korea's parliament on Tuesday passed a special bill to ban dog meat trade and consumption in the Asian country. The bill would outlaw the slaughtering and breeding of dogs for their meat as well as the sale and distribution of dog meat for human consumption.
* The Afghan caretaker government's security forces conducted around 3,000 operations against terrorist groups including the rival Daesh or the hardliner Islamic State (IS) outfit in 2023, spokesperson for the Ministry of Interior Affairs Abdul Matin Qani has said.
* President of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken stressed on Monday the importance of avoiding the expansion of conflict in the region and finding a clear solution to achieve regional stability.
* Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud met Monday with visiting U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken in the kingdom's oasis city of Al-Ula to discuss the ongoing conflict in Gaza and bilateral relations, the Saudi Press Agency reported.
* U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told Israel following visits to Arab capitals on Tuesday that he saw opportunities for it to build closer ties in the region after the Gaza crisis.
* The European Commission announced on Monday its approval of state aid schemes from France and Germany, as part of the bloc's efforts to advance the transition towards a net-zero economy.
* China's exports grew for the first time in seven months in November, suggesting factories in the world's second-largest economy are attracting buyers through discount pricing to get over a prolonged slump in demand.
* India's coffee exports are likely to rise as much as 10% in 2024 as a rally in global prices prompts European buyers to pay premiums in order to increase purchases from the country, industry officials told Reuters.
* Japan plans to expand its budget reserves for fiscal 2024/25 to support recovery from the Noto peninsula earthquake, Minister of Finance Shunichi Suzuki said on Tuesday.
* Italy showed resilience in the European Commission's latest economic sentiment survey for 2023, despite an overall decline in sentiment levels across the continent compared to the start of last year.
* The Philippines has indefinitely banned the importation of poultry and other poultry products from Belgium and France due to the outbreak of bird flu in the two European countries, the Philippines' Department of Agriculture said Tuesday.
* The International Monetary Fund's executive board has completed the third review of Mozambique's three-year loan program, allowing for an immediate disbursement to Maputo of about $60.7 million, the fund said.
* The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said late on Monday it could not yet tell whether a recovered cabin panel that blew off an Alaska Airlines ALK.N Boeing BA.N 737 MAX 9 plane in mid-air last week had been properly attached.
