* Bangladesh will implement a nine-day special security plan for the 13th general election slated for February next year, Bangladesh's Home Affairs Adviser Md Jahangir Alam Chowdhury said on Saturday.
* Russian President Vladimir Putin and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday held a telephone conversation to discuss the situation in the Middle East.
* The Philippines and the Republic of Korea (ROK) strengthened their partnership through a new joint memorandum for the implementation of the ROK's seasonal workers program, the Philippine Department of Agriculture (DA) said Sunday.
* The U.S. administration has agreed to lower its tariffs on imported Swiss products to 15 percent from 39 percent, the White House said in a statement on Friday. After months of negotiations, the United States and Switzerland, joined by Liechtenstein, reached a framework trade agreement, noted the White House.
* Croatian President Zoran Milanovic emphasized the energy cooperation between Croatia and Hungary on Saturday, saying that space is open for continued bilateral energy cooperation. He made the statement after visiting Hungary on Friday, where he held talks with his Hungarian counterpart, Tamas Sulyok, and Prime Minister Viktor Orban.
* German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius on Friday announced that Germany will contribute an additional 150 million euros (174.3 million USD) to the Prioritized Ukraine Requirements List (PURL), a NATO framework that enables allied countries to finance U.S. weapons for Ukraine.
* Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan have agreed to raise bilateral trade turnover to 10 billion USD by 2030, the presidents of both countries confirmed during a meeting in Tashkent on Saturday. The agreement was reached in talks between Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev and Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, the Uzbek president's press service said in a statement.
* Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on Saturday called for a permanent vigil and mobilization in the country's eastern region in response to the announcement of joint military exercises by the United States and Trinidad and Tobago in the Caribbean.
* Three Russia-made Il-114-300 jets are expected to be delivered in 2026, Russia's Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Gennady Abramenkov said Friday. According to him, air carriers expect the aircraft to operate on routes in Russia's Far East, Siberia, and northern regions, where airports have limited infrastructure and face harsh weather conditions.
* Croatian and Turkish investigators carried out a joint investigation on Saturday and visited the site where the Turkish Air Tractor went down in the town of Krivi Put in the western part of the country two days ago.
* Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has reaffirmed her government's commitment to moving forward with migration and asylum-processing centers in Albania, according to a Friday report by Italy's ANSA news agency.
* The Egyptian Red Crescent (ERC) said Sunday it has dispatched a large shipment of winter relief supplies to the rain-hit Gaza Strip, including more than 106,000 blankets, nearly 40,000 pieces of winter clothing, over 1,350 mattresses and about 4,450 tents.
* The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) confirmed on Sunday in a statement that it has opened fire at two UN peacekeepers in southern Lebanon, citing misclassification "due to poor weather conditions."
* Iran's Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi said on Sunday that Western governments have renewed calls to resume talks on Tehran's nuclear program after "failing" to achieve their objectives through recent military action, Iran's state news agency IRNA reported.
* Israel on Sunday reaffirmed its opposition to the creation of a Palestinian state, a day before the United Nations Security Council is scheduled to vote on a U.S.-backed resolution supporting the so-called 20-point Gaza peace plan. Hamas later condemned the remarks, saying they revealed Israel's "expansionist tendencies."
* Sri Lanka earned around 2.66 billion USD from tourism in the first ten months of 2025, the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) said in its latest report. Tourism earnings for October 2025 reached 186.1 million dollars, according to the bank.
* Afghanistan has exported nearly 22,000 tons of pomegranates from the southern region of Kandahar so far this year, Provincial Director of Agriculture Aimal Hakimi said Sunday, adding that the main markets for Kandahar's pomegranates are Malaysia, Russia, Pakistan and Uzbekistan.
* Fitch Ratings upgraded Greece's long-term credit rating to BBB from BBB-, citing accelerated debt reduction, strong fiscal performance, and resilient economic growth, the Greek official news agency AMNA reported Saturday.
* South Africa is under multiple severe weather alerts as a powerful cut-off low-pressure system brings heavy rain, thunderstorms, and flooding risk across key regions, the South African Weather Service (SAWS) said on Saturday.
* China's national observatory on Sunday issued a blue alert for a cold wave as freezing air is expected to sweep across vast parts of the country in the coming days.
* Three more people died of dengue fever in Pakistan's southern Sindh province, bringing the total fatalities this year to 36, the provincial health department said Saturday.
* A volcano on Sakurajima in Kagoshima Prefecture, southwestern Japan, erupted early Sunday morning, with plumes rising up to 4,400 meters above the summit crater, the country's weather agency said.
* Bird flu has been detected at an egg farm in the northern village of Drogeham, prompting the culling of all 117,000 birds on-site, the Dutch government said on Friday night.
