* Fuel shortages in Cuba have triggered a humanitarian crisis with the island nation's health system approaching a critical point, a UN spokesman said Tuesday.
* Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan urged Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Tuesday not to let the escalating U.S.-Israeli military campaign against Iran derail efforts to end the war in Ukraine, calling for peace negotiations to resume "without delay."
* A destroyer of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) test-fired strategic cruise missiles on Tuesday, the official Korean Central News Agency reported Wednesday.
* U.S. forces in the Republic of Korea (ROK) were preparing to relocate interceptor missiles of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) battery to the Middle East, a local newspaper said Wednesday.
* China's position of opposing the deployment of the U.S. Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system in the Republic of Korea (ROK) remains unchanged, a Foreign Ministry spokesperson said in Beijing on Wednesday. Spokesperson Guo Jiakun made the remarks at a regular news briefing when responding to a query about the U.S. moving parts of its THAAD system from the ROK to the Middle East.
* Some 25,000 military personnel from 14 NATO member states are taking part in Exercise Cold Response 2026 in northern Norway, Finland and Sweden, the Finnish Defense Forces said at a press briefing on Tuesday.
* India has decided to ease Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) norms for the countries sharing a land border with it. The decision was taken late on Tuesday evening at a federal cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
* U.S. Central Command said Tuesday that it struck 16 Iranian mine-laying vessels near the Strait of Hormuz.
* Israel said on Tuesday afternoon that new missile salvos from Iran targeted the country, with air raid sirens activated in the north, center and south of the country, including Tel Aviv.
* Iran's new supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei is "safe and sound," said Yousef Pezeshkian, son of Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, on Wednesday.
* Iran will take "proportionate and immediate" responses if the United States begins attacks on Iran's infrastructure, Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf warned Tuesday.
* The UAE Ministry of Defense said early Wednesday that its air defense systems were responding to incoming missile and drone threats originating from Iran.
* The Iraqi Civil Aviation Authority on Tuesday announced a new 72-hour extension of the country's airspace closure amid ongoing regional tensions.
* German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul visited Israel on Tuesday and said he believes the United States and Israel "are ready for a diplomatic solution."
* French, Greek and German leaders rushed to Cyprus this week after a drone strike struck near a British air base on the island last week amid escalating tensions in the Middle East that have also raised fears of a potential spillover.
* Russia is ready to help reduce tensions in the Middle East, but a broad agreement is necessary, Kremlin Spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Tuesday.
* German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said on Tuesday that there is "clearly no joint plan" to bring a swift and convincing end to the war launched by the United States and Israel against Iran.
* Azerbaijan has dispatched a convoy of humanitarian aid to support the essential needs of the Iranian people after the two countries' presidents talked over the phone, the Azerbaijan State News Agency reported on Monday.
* Dutch Foreign Minister Tom Berendson announced on Tuesday that the Dutch embassy in Iranian capital Tehran has been temporarily relocated to Baku, Azerbaijan, due to increasing security risks to embassy staff.
* Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi and his Egyptian counterpart, Badr Abdelatty, spoke Tuesday about the latest developments in West Asia, emphasizing both security concerns and diplomatic efforts.
* Ukraine has sent three groups of military experts to Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, where they will share expertise on intercepting drones, President Volodymyr Zelensky told reporters on Tuesday.
* UN humanitarians said on Tuesday that 10 days of war in the Middle East are upending lives across the region and beyond, with toxic "black rain" linked to strikes on oil depots, and disruption to humanitarian supply chains causing widespread impacts.
* A Pentagon spokesman said Tuesday that about 140 U.S. troops have been wounded, including eight seriously injured since the United States and Israel launched joint military attacks on Iran on Feb. 28.
* More than 1,300 civilians have been killed and 9,669 civilian sites destroyed in Iran in the military strikes launched by the United States and Israel since Feb. 28, Amir Saeid Iravani, Iran's ambassador and permanent representative to the United Nations, said Tuesday.
* The death toll from ongoing Israeli attacks on Lebanon has risen to 570, with 1,444 others wounded since the escalation began on March 2, figures released on Tuesday by the Disaster Risk Management Unit at the Lebanese Council of Ministers showed.
* Recent disruptions to maritime traffic in the Strait of Hormuz have raised concerns about potential ripple effects on energy markets, maritime transport and global supply chains, the United Nations Trade and Development (UNCTAD) said on Tuesday.
* The Ruwais oil refinery, considered the largest single-site refinery in the Middle East and among the top four largest in the world, has been closed as part of precautionary measures following a drone attack, Bloomberg reported Tuesday.
* The Sri Lankan government has approved a 14-day free visa extension for foreign nationals stranded in the country due to flight disruptions linked to the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, a statement by the Department of Government Information said on Tuesday.
* Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said Tuesday that Greece should explore the potential role of nuclear energy in its future energy mix, according to Greece's public broadcaster Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation (ERT).
* The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has provided a 150-million-U.S.-dollar loan to internet service provider PT Link Net Tbk (Linknet) to help improve Indonesia's digital infrastructure and broadband service quality, the bank said on Tuesday.
* Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said Tuesday that 1,009 Mexican nationals have left the conflict zone in the Middle East.
* Sri Lanka has allocated emergency funds to its diplomatic missions to assist Sri Lankans living in the Middle East as conflicts continue in the region, a senior Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment (SLBFE) official said on Wednesday.
* Latvian President Edgars Rinkevics met with visiting Czech President Petr Pavel on Tuesday to discuss bilateral cooperation, particularly in the military industry and transport sectors, according to the Latvian presidential office.
* Latvia and Lithuania have launched a joint project to develop a cross-border quantum communication infrastructure, said the Latvian telecommunications and technology company Tet, the coordinator of the project, on Tuesday.
* Fitch Ratings said Tuesday the war in the Middle East has had a limited direct impact on Malaysia's debt capital market (DCM), given largely domestic issuers and investors. The rating agency said in a statement that fiscal consolidation should keep Malaysia's sovereign issuance flat, but non-sovereign funding needs and implementation of the Capital Market Masterplan 2026-2030 will drive supply.
* Foreign direct investments (FDIs) into the Philippines recorded net inflows of 560 million USD in December 2025, according to data released by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP).
* The Cambodian government had a total public debt of 13.05 billion USD at the end of 2025, up 8.47 percent at the end of 2024, said a Cambodia Public Debt Statistical Bulletin released on Tuesday.
* Hungary's consumer price index (CPI) rose by 1.4 percent year-on-year in February, down from 2.1 percent in the previous month, according to the Hungarian Central Statistical Office (KSH) on Tuesday.
* Mount Semeru in Indonesia's East Java province erupted on Tuesday evening, sending an ash column about 1,000 meters above its summit, the country's volcanology agency said.
