* Croatian President Zoran Milanovic made an unexpected announcement on Friday, declaring his candidacy for prime minister in the forthcoming parliamentary elections scheduled for April 17.
* A Chinese envoy on Friday called on the parties to the Ukraine crisis to start peace talks at an early date.
* Cambodia and Laos have signed a memorandum on security cooperation for 2024, with a focus on combating all kinds of cross-border crimes, said a press statement from the Cambodian side on Friday.
* Russia has neutralized three U.S. Patriot air defense complexes in Ukraine in the past week, local media quoted the Russian Ministry of Defense as saying on Saturday.
* The European Commission on Friday announced the allocation of 500 million euros (about 544 million USD) to boost ammunition production as part of its support for the European defense industry.
* The Canadian federal government on Friday announced 15 participants in NATO's new defence innovation hub in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
* Israel on Friday approved a potential assault on the Gaza city of Rafah while also keeping ceasefire hopes alive with plans to send another delegation to Qatar for talks on a possible hostage deal with Islamist militant group Hamas.
* The Palestinian presidency warned on Friday against the Israeli government's decision to carry out a military operation in the city of Rafah, a city in southern Gaza.
* The White House on Friday said a proposal from Hamas militants on a Gaza ceasefire-for-hostages deal is certainly within the bounds of what is possible and expressed cautious optimism.
* Egypt has been making sincere efforts to reach a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip to protect and rescue innocent civilians, President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi said Friday.
* At least 36 Palestinians were killed, and several others were wounded in an Israeli airstrike on a house in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, medical sources and eyewitnesses said Saturday.
* An Indian navy warship has intercepted the hijacked the cargo ship Ruen and demanded the Somali pirates on board surrender, a navy spokesperson said on Saturday.
* Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud has vowed to intensify security operations across the country to reclaim territories from al-Shabab terrorists.
* Militants attacked a military post in Pakistan near Afghanistan on Saturday morning using a vehicle laden with explosives, killing five security force members, Pakistan's military said.
* Residents braced for another tense night in Haiti's capital Port-au-Prince on Friday, as attacks continued across parts of the city in the aftermath of the resignation of Prime Minister Henry and in the absence of a clear plan to replace him.
* The government of South Australia (SA) has announced it will provide additional humanitarian support to people who arrive in the state from war-torn countries.
* Nearly 64 million people in the Horn of Africa region will need emergency aid in 2024, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) warned late Thursday.
* The Security Council on Friday adopted a resolution to renew the mandate of the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) for a year. Resolution 2727, which won the unanimous support of the 15-member council, decides to extend UNAMA's mandate till March 17, 2025.
* The International Monetary Fund's executive board on Friday approved a $1.3 billion, 30-month lending arrangement for Ivory Coast, the world's top coca grower, under its Resilience and Sustainability Facility, the global lender said in a statement.
* Personal remittances from overseas Filipinos reached 3.15 billion USD in January, recording a year-on-year 2.7 percent increase, the Philippine central bank has said.
* Indonesia's trade balance surplus dropped to 0.87 billion USD in February, Statistics Indonesia (BPS) announced on Friday.
* Finland's economy is expected to remain in recession throughout 2024, with signs of recovery emerging only towards the end of the year, the Bank of Finland said in its interim forecast published on Friday.
* The Bolivian government reaffirmed on Friday its commitment to biofuels and its plan to progressively reduce diesel and gasoline subsidies in the South American country.
* The GDP growth rate of Sri Lanka for the year 2023 was estimated as a 2.3 percent negative growth rate, the Department of Census and Statistics (DCS) said in a statement on Friday.
* Iran's oil and gas sector grew by more than 16 percent between March 21 and Dec. 21, 2023, the first nine months of the current Iranian calendar year, the country's central bank chief said.
* Syrian refugees have imposed a direct cost of 1.5 billion USD and an indirect cost of 3 billion dollars yearly on Lebanon, incurring a total cost of 58 billion dollars in 13 years, said Lebanese Social Affairs Minister Hector Hajjar on Friday.
* Angola's diamond export increased by 12 percent in 2023 compared to the previous year, a senior official said Friday.
