* Retired army general Petr Pavel was sworn in on Thursday as the fourth president of the Czech Republic before a joint session of both chambers of parliament at Prague Castle's Vladislav Hall.
* Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday officially sets the country's presidential and parliamentary elections for May 14, a month earlier than scheduled.
* Iran and Saudi Arabia agreed on Friday to re-establish relations after seven years of hostility which had threatened stability and security in the Gulf and helped fuel conflicts in the Middle East from Yemen to Syria.
* The Russian Foreign Ministry announced on Thursday that 144 citizens of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia have been barred from entering Russia.
* The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said on Thursday that the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine lost all its off-site power early Thursday morning and now runs on emergency diesel generators.
* Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Saudi Arabian Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud voiced common willingness on Thursday to further develop bilateral relations.
* Visiting Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian on Thursday voiced support for the upcoming quadripartite meeting of the deputy foreign ministers of Syria, Türkiye, Iran and Russia in Moscow.
* Switzerland's government said on Friday it will not change its long-standing policy banning the transfer of Swiss-made arms to a third country despite growing pressure from European nations to export them to Ukraine.
* The Brazilian and Australian governments have opened talks aimed at forging new agricultural trade agreements, according to a statement from the Brazilian agriculture ministry on Friday.
* The member states of the European Union (EU) and the European Parliament have agreed on a provisional deal aimed at reducing energy consumption across the bloc, the European Commission said on Friday.
* Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban said on Friday that the world is closer than ever to a world war because the leaders of the West are "gripped by war fever."
* UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Thursday proposed strengthening the international response to complex global shocks through an "Emergency Platform."
* The head of Lebanon's powerful armed group Hezbollah said on Friday the resumption of ties between its backer Iran and longtime rival Saudi Arabia was a "good development".
* Cambodia's tourism earned gross revenue of 1.41 billion USD in 2022, a 669 percent rise compared to the year before, according to a Ministry of Tourism report released on Friday.
* The US economy added jobs at a brisk clip in February, but monthly wage growth slowed and the unemployment rate rose, pointing to some labor market loosening and prompting financial markets to dial back expectations that the Federal Reserve would raise interest rates by half a percentage point this month.
* Britain will pay France 480 million pounds (577 million USD) over three years to try to stop migrants from travelling in small boats across the Channel, helping to fund enhanced patrols, the use of drones and a detention centre.
* Inflation in Germany stopped falling and remained unchanged at 8.7 percent in February, the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) said on Friday.
* Saudi Arabian Tourism Ministry on Thursday allowed all residents in Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) member states to apply for a tourist visa online to visit the kingdom, regardless of their profession.
* Spain's Socialists and their junior coalition partners Unidas Podemos have struck a deal on changes to the pension system that will put most of the additional cost on its highest earners, government sources said.
* NASA has been tracking a new asteroid named 2023 DW that has a "very small chance" of impacting Earth in 2046.
