* Malta's parliament unanimously approved Myriam Spiteri Debono as the country's new president on Wednesday. Spiteri Debono, 71, is to replace outgoing President George Vella whose five-year term in office ends on April 4. Spiteri Debono will be Malta's 11th president.
* Indonesia's parliament on Thursday passed into law a bill on Jakarta's special status amid a plan to move the capital to the country's Borneo island, house speaker Puan Maharani said.
* Russian President Vladimir Putin warned on Wednesday that if F-16 fighters given to Ukraine are used from third-party territories, they'll be legitimate targets for Russia, no matter where they are.
* The armed forces of Russia and Myanmar are planning more than 50 joint military cooperation activities this year, Russian state news agency RIA Novosti reported on Thursday, citing the Russian Defence Ministry.
* Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said he had arrived in New Delhi on Thursday to advance Kyiv's vision of the path to peace in Ukraine and to strengthen ties with India.
* The governments of Poland and Ukraine meet in Warsaw on Thursday for talks they hope will help defuse a row over grain imports that has caused mass protests by farmers, but a top Polish official said a breakthrough was unlikely.
* Colombia ordered the expulsion of Argentine diplomats from their embassy in the Andean nation, Colombia's foreign ministry said on Wednesday, citing "denigrating" comments by Argentine President Javier Milei about Colombian President Gustavo Petro.
* A diplomat working at the Russian Embassy in Latvia was declared persona non grata, the Latvian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Wednesday.
* The United States and Britain imposed sanctions on a fund-raising network aligned with the Palestinian group Hamas that carried out an Oct. 7 attack on Israel, the U.S. Treasury Department said on Wednesday.
* Brazil launched the "Tonelero" submarine on Wednesday, the third one it has built through a partnership with France under the Submarine Development Program (ProSub).
* Libyan Interior Minister Emad al-Tarabelsi on Wednesday issued a decision to form a joint security force to secure the border with Tunisia.
* Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati and his Italian counterpart Giorgia Meloni on Wednesday welcomed the adoption of the UN Security Council resolution that demanded an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, calling for its full implementation.
* The heavy bombardment against Gaza by Israel has resulted in "direct hits" on 212 schools within the enclave, according to analysis partnered with the United Nations released on Wednesday.
* At least 32,552 Palestinians have been killed and 74,980 injured in Israel's military offensive in the Gaza Strip since Oct. 7, the Palestinian enclave's health ministry said on Thursday.
* Haiti's Transitional Council issued its first statement Wednesday, aiming to restore public order and protect people's lives and property, local media reported.
* Lebanon's Hezbollah said it launched dozens of rockets at Kiryat Shmona, an Israeli town over the border, early on Wednesday in response to deadly Israeli strikes on the village of Hebbariyeh in southern Lebanon a day earlier.
* The death toll from Friday's terrorist attack has risen to 143 after gunmen stormed a concert hall in suburban Moscow, according to a list published by Russia's Ministry of Emergency Situations Wednesday.
* China will lift anti-dumping and anti-subsidy tariffs on Australian wine from March 29, the Chinese commerce ministry said on Thursday, ending three years of punitive levies and offering long-awaited relief to Australian wine producers.
* Ambassadors from European Union countries reached a revised deal on Wednesday to extend tariff-free food imports from Ukraine - with restrictions - after some states complained the original agreement risked destabilising the bloc's agricultural markets.
* Ireland agreed on Wednesday to sign up to new EU rules designed to share out the cost and work of hosting migrants and also launched a fresh bid to overhaul how it accommodates arrivals following protests around the country.
* Myanmar earned over 3.51 billion USD from agricultural exports in over 11 months of the current 2023-24 fiscal year, according to the Ministry of Commerce on Thursday.
* Thailand exported 2.5 million tons of rice in the first quarter of 2024, an increase of about 500,000 tons from a year earlier, government spokesperson Chai Wacharonke said on Wednesday.
* Germany's leading economic research institutions on Wednesday slashed their 2024 economic growth forecast for the country down to 0.1 percent - a sharp decrease from the 1.3 percent growth projected in the fall of 2023.
* Mexico's economic growth could moderately slow down in 2025 due to reduced expansion in the United States and normalization in some subsectors in the service industry after the COVID-19 pandemic, the Finance Ministry said Wednesday.
* Net foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows into Bangladesh during July-January period of 2023-24 fiscal year (July 2023-June 2024) fell by 9.81 percent, compared with the same period of the previous 2022-2023 fiscal year, showed the recently published central bank data.
* Iran on Wednesday extended a contract with Iraq for exporting gas to its western neighbor for a five-year period, Iran's official news agency IRNA reported.
* Malta had the highest rate of immigrants in the European Union (EU) in 2022, according to data published by Eurostat on Wednesday. The data revealed that 5.1 million people immigrated to the EU from non-EU countries, while one million emigrated from the EU to destinations outside the EU in the year under review.
* Canada's population touched a record high of 40.77 million in 2023, largely driven by temporary immigration, Statistics Canada said on Wednesday. The country added 1.27 million people in 2023, up 3.2% from the previous year - marking the highest growth since 1957.
* The collapse of Baltimore's Francis Scott Key Bridge is likely to lead to a multi-billion dollar insurance loss, the chairperson of commercial insurance market Lloyd's of London SOLYD.UL said on Thursday.
* The New Zealand government is expending its drought support to more parts of the country, as dry weather conditions persist, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay said on Thursday.
* Russia's Ebeko volcano spewed ash to a height of 3,000 meters into the atmosphere, a Russian research institute said Wednesday.
