Reuters

Exit polls on Monday suggested Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni had narrowly lost a referendum on her flagship reform of the judicial system, dealing a potential blow to the ruling coalition ahead of next year's general election.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz's conservatives face their second electoral test this month on Sunday when they hope to unseat the centre-left Social Democrats, their coalition partner at the national level, in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate.

A cross-border drone attack from Sudan killed 17 people in Chad including mourners attending a funeral service, the Chadian government and local sources said on Thursday, and the country's president vowed to retaliate for any further attacks.

Venezuela's acting President Delcy Rodriguez said on Wednesday that General Gustavo Gonzalez Lopez will take over as defense minister from General Vladimir Padrino, a long-time powerbroker

Pakistan and Afghanistan said they were pausing their military operations against each other on Wednesday for the Islamic festival of Eid-al-Fitr, a surprise move two days after a drug rehab centre in Kabul was hit in the deadliest strike in months.

Iran's huge Pars gas field was hit on Wednesday in the first reported strikes on Iranian energy infrastructure in the Gulf during the U.S.-Israeli war, a major escalation that prompted Tehran to warn its neighbours to evacuate their energy installations.

Russia has so far been the only winner from the war in the Middle East as energy prices soar and attention for its war against Ukraine has faded, EU Council President Antonio Costa said on Tuesday.

Iran and the United States have differing views over the scope and mechanism to lift sanctions on Tehran in exchange for curbs on its nuclear programme, a senior Iranian official told Reuters on Sunday, adding that new talks were planned in early March.

Malaysian long-haul budget carrier AirAsia X announced plans on Wednesday to resume flights between Kuala Lumpur and London, this time routing the service through a new hub in Bahrain.

Italy formally protested on Saturday the release on bail of the owner of a Swiss bar engulfed in a deadly New Year's Day fire and recalled its ambassador to Switzerland, as the court's decision came under criticism in both countries. 

Requests to relocate abroad by Israelis working at multinational companies operating in Israel rose in the past year in reaction to Israel's two-year war against Palestinian terrorist group Hamas, a report showed on Monday.

Myanmar heads to the polls on Sunday as it battles a civil war that has ravaged parts of the country as well as one of Asia's worst humanitarian crises.