* Suspended British lawmaker Mike Amesbury on Monday told the BBC he will stand down as a Member of Parliament (MP), which will trigger the first by-election of Prime Minister Keir Starmer's Labour government.
* Romania's Constitutional Court will rule Tuesday on an appeal by former presidential front-runner Calin Georgescu against the Central Electoral Bureau's (BEC) decision to bar him from the May presidential election.
* The three-party ruling coalition in Estonia collapsed on Monday, as the Reform Party and Eesti 200 decided to stay in the two-party government, excluding the Social Democrats. Social Democratic Party chairman Lauri Laanemets said this on Monday at the end of the coalition council meeting.
* Chinese national lawmakers on Tuesday adopted a resolution on the execution of the central and local budgets for 2024 and the central and local budgets for 2025, and approved the central budget for 2025 at the closing meeting of the third session of the 14th National People's Congress.
* The Lao government, in collaboration with social organizations and the private sector, has launched a project aimed at strengthening the country's disaster preparedness and response capabilities.
* Under the guidance of Myanmar's State Administration Council, the government has been providing financial assistance to nearly 700,000 displaced people, according to the Department of Disaster Management under the Ministry of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement on Tuesday.
* Cambodia approved fixed-asset investment projects worth 1 billion USD in the first two months of 2025, said a press release from the Council for the Development of Cambodia (CDC) on Tuesday.
* Malaysia will refine its economic growth projections with the adoption of the 2025 System of National Accounts (2025 SNA) to enhance the accuracy and comprehensiveness of its statistical framework, the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM) said on Tuesday.
* The Sri Lankan cabinet has approved a proposal to allow several ministries and institutions to recruit over 5,800 people to fill existing vacancies, cabinet spokesman Nalinda Jayatissa announced at a press briefing on Tuesday.
* Moscow and Washington have not yet begun to work on addressing existing problems in bilateral relations, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Monday.
* A high-stakes meeting between U.S. and Ukrainian delegations started in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday. The talks in the Saudi port city of Jeddah came about two weeks after a U.S.-Ukraine minerals deal was called off. U.S. military assistance to Ukraine was also suspended after U.S. President Donald Trump and then visiting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky were embroiled in a rare shouting match at the White House.
* British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Monday spoke to U.S. President Donald Trump by phone ahead of the U.S.-Ukraine meeting in Saudi Arabia's port city of Jeddah, Downing Street said in a statement.
* Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said overnight Tuesday that he discussed steps toward peace in Ukraine with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman during a meeting in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
* Russia's air defense systems shot down 337 Ukrainian drones overnight, the Russian Ministry of Defense announced Tuesday on its Telegram channel.
* Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan have signed a memorandum for the implementation of a project aimed at strengthening stability in the border areas between the two countries, Trend news agency reported on Monday, citing the Committee on Emergency Situations and Civil Defense of Tajikistan.
* Japanese Minister of Economy, Trade, and Industry Muto Yoji has met with U.S. officials in Washington to seek exemptions from President Donald Trump's planned tariffs on steel, automobiles, and other imports, but failed to secure assurances, local media reported on Tuesday.
* Canada's Ontario government on Monday officially applied a 25 percent surcharge on all electricity exports to three U.S. states.
* European arms imports surged between 2020 and 2024, with most imports coming from the United States, according to a report published by Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) on Monday.
* UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is alarmed by the violent escalation in the coastal areas of Syria, that has seen widespread summary killings, including a UN staffer, a UN spokesman said on Monday.
* The Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), a trade bloc in East Africa, is set to hold its 43rd Extraordinary Summit of Heads of State and Government on Wednesday to discuss the evolving situation in South Sudan following the security crisis in the country.
* South Sudan President Salva Kiir dismissed three ministers in the latest cabinet reshuffle on Monday evening amid an ongoing political crisis that threatens the unity government, which was formed under a 2018 peace deal that ended the country's five-year civil war.
* Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi and his Tunisian counterpart Kais Saied on Monday reiterated their firm opposition to any efforts aimed at displacing Palestinians from their land or undermining their cause.
* The Israeli military said Tuesday it conducted airstrikes overnight on military headquarters and sites housing weapons and equipment in southern Syria.
* The Syrian interim government and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) on Monday reached an agreement on merging all civil and military institutions in the Kurdish-controlled region under state institutions, state news agency SANA reported.
* Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday warned against efforts to incite sectarian tensions in Syria, expressing support for interim Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa's commitment to hold those responsible for the recent surge in deadly clashes accountable.
* Iran has not received any letter from the United States on negotiations about the country's nuclear program, Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said Monday.
* Yemen's Houthi leader, Abdulmalik al-Houthi, announced on Monday that his group is preparing military operations against Israeli-linked vessels if humanitarian aid does not reach Gaza within a four-day deadline he set last week.
* Jordan's Foreign Ministry on Monday strongly condemned Israel's decision to halt the electricity supply to Gaza to pressure Hamas into releasing hostages.
* At least 70 bodies of migrants were recovered on Monday from the coast near Yakhtul, north of Mokha, Yemen, according to a Yemeni government official.
* Kenya is currently hosting an estimated 829,211 refugees and asylum seekers, up from 823,932 at the end of 2024, a senior government official said on Monday.
* Japan's real gross domestic product (GDP) grew by an annualized 2.2 percent in the fourth quarter last year, marking a downward revision from the preliminary estimate of 2.8 percent, data released by the Cabinet Office showed Tuesday.
* Myanmar's exports of rice and broken rice in the first 11 months of the 2024-25 fiscal year reached over 2.37 million tons, according to the Myanmar Rice Federation on Tuesday. The country earned 1.09 billion USD from rice and broken rice exports during the 11 months, from April last year to February this year.
* Indonesia plans to expand its crude oil refinery capacity to 1 million barrels per day across 16 locations, a significant increase from the previously planned 500,000 barrels per day at a single location, according to the National Energy Downstreaming and Resilience Task Force.
* Israel's budget deficit for the 12 months ending in February decreased to 5.3 percent of gross domestic product from 5.8 percent for the 12 months ending in January, the Israeli Finance Ministry said Monday in a statement.
* Operations at 13 major German airports resumed on Tuesday following a large-scale strike that had disrupted air travel across the country. While flights have restarted, terminals remain crowded as airlines work to clear backlogs caused by Monday's walkout.
* The Czech Republic is set to ban the transport of susceptible animals from Hungary starting Tuesday following an outbreak of highly contagious foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) there, Agriculture Minister Marek Vyborny announced Monday.
* Guatemala's active Volcan de Fuego (Volcano of Fire) poses an imminent threat to at least 30,000 people, the National Coordinator for Disaster Reduction (Conred) warned on Monday.
* Downpours and the resulting flooding in Bolivia have left 40 people dead and seven others missing since the annual rainy season began in November, authorities said Monday.
* Flooding displaced over 5,000 people in Malaysia on Tuesday, with the hardest-hit area being the northern Borneo state of Sabah, according to authorities.
* Four people were killed and about 100 families were left homeless due to a landslide in southern Colombia's Narino department, local authorities confirmed Monday.
