* The French government is raising its terror alert warning to its highest level following the shootings on Moscow, Prime Minister Gabriel Attal said on Sunday after a meeting with senior security and defence officials with President Emmanuel Macron.
* Russia will target those behind a deadly shooting at a concert hall near Moscow wherever they are from and whoever they are, Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chairman of Russia's Security Council, said on Sunday.
* Russian authorities put the number of dead in Friday's mass shooting at a concert call on the edge of Moscow at 137 people, including three children, up from earlier estimate of 133, the Investigation Committee said on Sunday.
* The Islamic State still poses a threat in Iraq and the U.S.-led military coalition's work with Iraq to fully defeat the group is not done, United States Ambassador to Iraq Alina Romanowski told Reuters in an interview.
* The prime minister of Netherlands, Mark Rutte, will visit China March 26-27, a spokesperson for the Chinese foreign ministry said on Monday at a regular press briefing.
* Simon Harris is set to become Ireland's new prime minister, or Taoiseach, after he was confirmed on Sunday as the new leader of the governing Fine Gael party.
* Chad's Constitutional Council on Sunday cleared 10 candidates for this year's long-awaited presidential election, including interim President Mahamat Idriss Deby and the country's recently-appointed prime minister.
* Bulgarian Foreign Minister Mariya Gabriel, of the GERB party, said on Sunday no agreement had been reached on forming a new government with the We Continue the Change (PP) party.
* The U.S. and Japan are planning the biggest upgrade to their security alliance since the two countries signed a mutual defense treaty in 1960, the Financial Times reported on Sunday.
* Serbia will never surrender its province of Kosovo and Metohija nor join the NATO alliance, said Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic in Prokuplje on Sunday at a commemoration event marking the 25th anniversary of NATO bombing of Yugoslavia.
* Ecuador's youngest mayor, Brigitte Garcia, was shot dead inside a vehicle Sunday, according to the National Police. The mayor of San Vicente, a city in western Ecuador's Manabi province, was found dead along with Jairo Loor, an advisor and director of communication for the local government.
* New Zealand said on Monday it will dispatch defence personnel, helicopters and a naval ship to the Solomon Islands to assist in a national election due next month.
* Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Sunday inaugurated the combined military hardware exhibition on the occasion of the country's Independence Day which falls on March 26.
* Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi and visiting United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Sunday voiced complete rejection of the displacement of Palestinians from their territories and any Israeli military operation in the southernmost Gazan city of Rafah.
* Israel signalled openness on Sunday to allowing the return of Palestinians displaced from the northern Gaza Strip as part of truce talks, an apparent accommodation of a core Hamas demand.
* French President Emmanuel Macron has called again for an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza to enable the large-scale delivery of emergency assistance and the protection of civilians, according to a statement released by the French presidency on Sunday.
* German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock is travelling to the Middle East on Sunday because not enough help is getting to Gaza and the Israeli government must open the border crossings to a lot more aid, she said in a statement.
* Israeli forces besieged two more Gaza hospitals on Sunday, pinning down medical teams under heavy gunfire, the Palestinian Red Crescent said, and Israel said it had captured 480 militants in continued clashes at Gaza's main Al Shifa hospital.
* The Algerian Red Crescent on Sunday began the loading of 150 tonnes of humanitarian aid bound for the Gaza Strip which teeters on the brink of a mass famine.
* Tunisia foiled 30 illegal immigration attempts to cross the Mediterranean to Italy on Sunday, according to a statement by the Tunisian National Guard.
* Russia's Gazprom said that it would ship 42 million cubic metres of gas to Europe via Ukraine on Monday, a volume in line with recent days.
* Australia's government will support a minimum wage increase in line with inflation this year as low-income families continue to grapple with costs of living, although the rise would be smaller as inflation eased.
* Singapore's core inflation, as measured by the consumer price index (CPI), rose to 3.6 percent year-on-year in February from 3.1 percent in January, official data showed Monday.
* At least 23 people have died and more than 5,000 evacuated from their homes due to heavy rains since Friday in southeastern Brazil, the country's Civil Defense said on Sunday.
* Mongolia's National Agency for Meteorology and Environmental Monitoring on Monday issued a warning of strong winds and dust storms.
