* Balendra Shah, Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) senior leader, defeated the chairman of the Communist Party of Nepal (UML) and former Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli with a margin of around 50,000 votes in Nepal's parliamentary election, the Election Commission said on Saturday. While Shah, former mayor of Kathmandu Metropolitan City, secured 68,348 votes, Oli managed to get only 18,734 votes.
* The escalating crisis in the Middle East has become "a major humanitarian emergency," a senior official of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said at a regular press briefing on Friday.
* UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Tom Fletcher on Friday warned that civilians are facing consequences across the Middle East amid rapidly escalating crises.
* Azerbaijan's Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov announced on Friday that over 50 countries have requested Azerbaijan's assistance to evacuate more than 2,500 of their citizens from Iran due to escalating military tensions in the Middle East, according to the Report News Agency.
* U.S. President Donald Trump will alone decide when Iran has effectively delivered the "unconditional surrender" Washington demands, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Friday.
* U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday the White House is seeking a new Iranian leader who can "treat the United States and Israel well" and he is not concerned whether the Middle Eastern country becomes a democracy.
* The U.S. State Department said Friday that nearly 24,000 U.S. citizens have returned to the United States from the Middle East since the U.S.-Israel military strikes launched against Iran on Feb. 28.
* A senior Iranian official said Saturday that Iran has not and will not attack those regional countries that do not put their airspace, land and facilities at the disposal of the "enemies."
* The Israel Defense Forces said Friday it struck more than 400 targets across western Iran over the course of the day, including ballistic missile launchers and drone storage facilities.
* Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) hit an oil tanker in the Strait of Hormuz on Saturday morning, the official news agency IRNA reported.
* The Israeli air force on Friday struck Ali Asghar Hijazi, the acting head of Iran's Supreme Leader's office, in Tehran, Israel's state-owned Kan TV News reported.
* Iran said on Friday that it has no plan to close the Strait of Hormuz and denied reports claiming that the country has fully blocked the strategic waterway.
* At least 1,332 Iranian civilians, including women and children, have been killed in U.S.-Israeli airstrikes and thousands more injured, Iran's UN ambassador Amir Saeid Iravani said Friday.
* The Islamic Resistance in Iraq, an umbrella body for Iraq's pro-Iranian militias, announced on Saturday morning that its fighters carried out 23 operations against "enemy bases" in Iraq and the region over the past 24 hours.
* The death toll from Israeli airstrikes and clashes in the eastern Lebanese village of Nabi Chit rose to 41, with 40 others injured, Lebanon's authorities said Saturday.
* Twenty-six people were killed and an unspecified number wounded early Saturday during clashes in eastern Lebanon, following Hezbollah's claim that it repelled an attempted Israeli commando landing.
* The Iraqi Civil Aviation Authority (ICAA) on Saturday announced a 72-hour extension of the closure of the country's airspace amid ongoing regional tensions.
* The death toll from Israeli attacks in Lebanon since early Monday has risen to 217 people, with 798 others wounded, the Lebanese Health Ministry said on Friday.
* The U.S. State Department said Friday that it has approved a possible Foreign Military Sale to Israel of munitions and related support services, including 12,000 aerial bombs.
* Russian President Vladimir Putin held a phone conversation with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian on Friday, urging an immediate end to hostilities in the Middle East, the Kremlin said.
* Malaysia has recently held phone conversations with several Middle Eastern leaders, calling for peaceful approaches and restraint to ease rising tensions in the region.
* The air defense systems of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) intercepted 9 ballistic missiles and 109 drones on Friday, the Ministry of Defense said.
* The Bahrain Defense Force announced on Friday that it has destroyed 78 missiles and 143 drones targeting the kingdom since the start of the attacks from Iran.
* A Royal New Zealand Air Force C-130J Hercules aircraft departed from Auckland on Saturday for the Middle East to assist New Zealand citizens stranded amid ongoing conflicts in the region, according to the country's Defence Force.
* Western and Central Europe countries are facing an energy collapse resulting from the crisis in the Middle East and the disruption of energy supply chains, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said.
* Cambodia's Ministry of Commerce on Friday called on people to avoid stockpiling fuel, saying that storing fuel without technical standards could pose fire risks.
* Kuwait's major national oil company the Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC) announced Saturday a precautionary cut in crude oil production and refining.
* Azerbaijan has ordered the evacuation of its embassy in Tehran and its general consulate in the northwestern city of Tabriz, citing safety concerns amid escalating regional tensions, said Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov on Friday.
* Three foreign nationals of Pakistan, Nepal and Bangladesh have been killed and 112 residents of multiple nationalities have suffered minor injuries in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) amid the recent escalating regional tensions, the UAE's Defense Ministry said Saturday.
* Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said Friday that the government is prepared to intervene in fuel and electricity prices amid rising global energy uncertainties.
* The Croatian government has evacuated 485 Croatian citizens from the Middle East by Friday afternoon, the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs said in a statement.
* U.S. President Donald Trump threatened Friday that Cuba is going to "fall pretty soon," but his administration will focus on the ongoing war with Iran "right now."
* Mexico will continue to coordinate with the United States on immigration and security issues in the wake of Kristi Noem's recent dismissal as U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said Friday.
* Ongoing military confrontations along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border have triggered significant internal displacement, with an estimated 118,000 people forced from their homes amid the recent escalation in hostilities, according to recent reports from a UN refugee agency.
* Pakistani security forces killed 15 terrorists in two intelligence-based operations in the southwest Balochistan province, the military said on Saturday.
* The Icelandic government plans to hold a referendum on whether the country should resume talks on membership in the European Union (EU), the government said on Friday.
* Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said Friday that Hungary will suspend the transit of vital goods to Ukraine unless Kiev resumes oil delivery.
* Indonesia will begin enforcing new online safety rules for users under 16 on social media platforms, Minister of Communications and Digital Affairs Meutya Hafid said on Friday.
* The gross domestic product (GDP) growth target set by the draft outline of China's 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-2030) has fully reflected a distinct orientation toward high-quality development by embedding quantitative requirements within a qualitative framework, an official said Saturday.
* Russia's central bank said Friday it has extended restrictions on foreign currency cash withdrawals for another six months until Sept. 9, 2026. In a statement, the Bank of Russia said the decision preserves existing limits on individual withdrawals.
* Myanmar exported more than 2.5 million tons of rice and broken rice in the first 11 months of the current fiscal year 2025-2026, according to the Myanmar Rice Federation on Friday.
* Malaysia's approved investments rose 11 percent year on year to the highest level of 426.7 billion ringgit (108.03 billion USD) in 2025, the Malaysian Investment Development Authority said Friday.
* Accumulated inflation in Venezuela in the first two months of 2026 stood at 51.9 percent, the Central Bank of Venezuela said Friday.
* U.S. credit rating agency Fitch Ratings kept Portugal's sovereign credit rating unchanged at "A" but revised its outlook from stable to positive, citing expectations of a steady decline in public debt and prudent fiscal policy.
* Fitch Ratings maintained France's Long-Term Foreign-Currency Issuer Default Rating (IDR) at "A+" with a stable outlook, the agency said on Friday.
* Brent crude oil, the international benchmark, topped 90 USD per barrel during Friday's session, the first time since April 2024, trading data showed.
* An earthquake with a magnitude of 6.7 jolted 181 km SE of Kirakira, Solomon Islands at 1427 GMT on Friday, the U.S. Geological Survey said. The epicenter, with a depth of 10.0 km, was initially determined to be at 11.70 degrees south latitude and 163.01 degrees east longitude.
