* Russia's incumbent President Vladimir Putin won the presidential election with 87.28 percent of votes, final data from the Russian Central Election Commission (CEC) showed on Thursday. According to CEC Chair Ella Pamfilova, 76,277,708 voters cast their ballots for Putin and the voter turnout finally stood at 77.49 percent.
* Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa said Wednesday night he has named Luis Montenegro as new prime minister, official media reported.
* Leo Varadkar announced on Wednesday he was stepping down as Ireland's prime minister in a surprise move, saying the country's coalition government would stand a better chance of reelection under another leader.
* China is willing to work with Australia to consolidate and expand cooperation in sectors such as energy, mining, agricultural products and dairy products, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Thursday.
* The Kremlin said on Thursday that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had an open invitation to visit Russia and that a meeting with President Vladimir Putin would take place, though details were still to be worked out.
* Australia and the United Kingdom on Thursday signed a new defence and security cooperation agreement that makes it easier for their defence forces to operate together in each other's countries.
* Russia will take retaliatory measures in accordance with its own interests and use every legal mechanism at its disposal if the European Union uses profits from frozen Russian assets to buy arms for Ukraine, the Kremlin said on Thursday.
* The Netherlands is providing Ukraine with 350 million euros for F-16 fighter jet ammunition and advanced reconnaissance drones, Dutch Defence Minister Kajsa Ollongren announced in Kyiv on Wednesday.
* At least 13 people were injured on Thursday in Russia's missile attack on the Ukrainian capital, the Kiev City Military Administration (KCMA) said in a statement.
* China is fully confident that it will be able to meet the high standards of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), He Yadong, a commerce ministry spokesperson, told a regular press conference on Thursday.
* The New Zealand parliament on Thursday overwhelmingly voted to ratify a bill seeking to implement New Zealand's obligations under the New Zealand and European Union Free Trade Agreement (NZ-EU FTA).
* Authorities in Botswana have announced that trading under preferential terms of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Agreement is to commence next month.
* Nuclear power is absolutely needed to reach worldwide climate goals, the head of the International Energy Agency (IEA) Fatih Birol said on Thursday.
* U.S. President Joe Biden announced Thursday that $6 billion in student loans would be canceled for 78,000 borrowers, bringing his administration's total student debt cancellation to nearly $150 billion.
* Australia will begin enforcing tougher visa rules for foreign students this week as official data showed migration hit another record high, which is likely to further exacerbate an already tight rental market.
* Officials from 36 countries and U.N. agencies gathered in Cyprus on Thursday to discuss how to expedite aid to besieged Palestinians in Gaza via a sea route launched last week.
* U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Thursday said he met with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and the kingdom's Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan to discuss the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and efforts to increase aid to Palestinians.
* UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is deeply alarmed by the Israeli military operation inside Gaza's Al-Shifa Hospital, said a spokeswoman on Wednesday.
* Israel's army said on Wednesday that it has killed about 90 Palestinians and arrested 600 others in a raid at al-Shifa Hospital in northern Gaza. Israel has been conducting the attack on the hospital for three days.
* Philippe Lazzarini, Commissioner-General of the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, warned on Wednesday that siege, hunger, and diseases will soon become the main killer in Gaza.
* Saudi Arabia's King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center signed on Wednesday a memorandum of financial support of 40 million USD with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).
* More than 31,988 Palestinians have been killed and 74,188 injured in Israel's military offensive on Gaza since Oct. 7, the Gaza health ministry said on Thursday.
* Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh on Wednesday welcomed the Canadian government's decision to halt arms exports to Israel amid the ongoing war in the Gaza Strip.
* The United States on Wednesday pledged about $47 million in new humanitarian assistance for the emergency response in Sudan and neighboring countries, including Chad and South Sudan, the U.S. State Department said in a statement.
* The U.S. military and coalition forces destroyed an unmanned aerial vehicle and an unmanned surface vessel launched by Yemen's Houthi in the Red Sea on Wednesday, the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) said in a statement.
* Turkey proposed to set up a "joint operation centre" with Iraq in order to fight the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), and Baghdad responded "positively" in a meeting last week, a Turkish defence ministry official said on Thursday.
* Suspected gang members were killed during an attack on the Petion-Ville neighborhood on the southern outskirts of Haiti's capital, as a clash with police and locals pointed to a resurgence of vigilante justice while the state remains absent.
* A suicide bombing in front of a bank killed at least three people and injured 12 others in Afghanistan's Kandahar city on Thursday, local police said.
* International Monetary Fund Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva warned on Thursday that central banks face growing political pressure to cut interest rates during a major election year but policymakers need to maintain their independence.
* China's fiscal revenue fell 2.3 percent year on year in the January-February period, but rose 2.5 percent after adjusting on comparable basis, official data showed Thursday.
* Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said on Wednesday recent high inflation readings had not changed the underlying "story" of slowly easing price pressures in the U.S. as the central bank stayed on track for three interest rate cuts this year and affirmed that solid economic growth will continue.
* The Bank of Japan is likely to hike the interest rate in either July or October, though an October hike is considered more likely, as it would give the BOJ around half a year to evaluate the impact, Nikkei newspaper reported on Thursday.
* The Republic of Korea's export rose in double digits in the first 20 days of this month owing to solid demand for locally-made semiconductors, customs office data showed Thursday.
* The International Monetary Fund and Sri Lanka have reached a staff-level agreement on economic policies to conclude the second review of the four-year bailout programme, the global lender said on Thursday.
* New Zealand's economy had the second consecutive quarter of contraction in the fourth quarter of 2023, which met the technical definition of a recession.
* Norway's central bank kept its benchmark interest rate unchanged at 4.50% on Thursday, as unanimously expected by analysts, and signalled that it only plans a single rate cut this year.
* Cambodia attracted 988,574 international tourists in the first two months of 2024, an increase of 18 percent from 837,446 in the same period last year, said a Ministry of Tourism's report released on Thursday.
* The El Nino dry spell and ensuring drought have caused over 1.75 billion pesos (roughly 31 million USD) in damage to Philippine agriculture, a senior government official said Wednesday.
* Evacuations have been ordered from a remote region of Australia's Northern Territory (NT) amid warnings of a "one-in-a-hundred-year" flood.
