Indonesia on Sunday confirmed 11,585 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the total tally to 5,890,495, the country's health ministry said.   

A coalition led by Malaysian Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob on Saturday scored a landslide victory in a state election seen as a key test for national polls, after voting reforms that saw a large influx of young and first-time voters.

* Ukraine is working with Israel and Turkey as mediators to finalise a location and framework for peace negotiations with Russia, Ukrainian presidential adviser and negotiator Mykhailo Podolyak said on Sunday.

* Qatar's foreign minister called on all parties to "exercise restraint" and to avoid further escalation over Ukraine in a phone call with his Ukrainian counterpart, a Qatari foreign ministry statement said on Sunday.

* Iran has suspended talks with regional rival Saudi Arabia, a website affiliated to Iran's top security body reported on Sunday, without giving a reason for the decision which comes as a fifth round of negotiations was due to start this week.

* Iraq will host another round of talks between regional foes Iran and Saudi Arabia on Wednesday, the foreign ministry in Baghdad said on Saturday, without giving further details.

* Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has called for more dams to be built to boost the country's flood resilience on Sunday, acknowledging the role of climate change in flooding that has hit Australia's northeast.

* Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Sunday that talks with the Taliban on operating the Kabul airport were still underway, a day after he met acting Afghan Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi in southern Turkey.

* Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama announced on Saturday a set of measures to cope with the rising prices due to the global energy crisis and the conflict in Ukraine.

* A dozen ballistic missiles struck Iraq's northern Kurdish regional capital of Erbil in the early hours of Sunday, Kurdish authorities said, with a US official blaming Iran for the attack which also targeted the US consulate's new building.

* Nearly 60 elephants enjoyed a huge fruit banquet at a Thai botanical park on Sunday as the Southeast Asian country marked its annual Elephant Day.

* The Chinese mainland on Saturday reported 1,807 locally transmitted COVID-19 cases, the National Health Commission said Sunday.

* France is to start offering a fourth COVID-19 vaccination shot to people over 80 years old who had their previous booster dose more than three months ago, French Prime Minister Jean Castex told daily Le Parisien in an interview published on Saturday.

* India's COVID-19 tally rose to 42,990,991 on Sunday as 3,116 new cases were registered during the past 24 hours across the country, showed the federal health ministry's latest data. Besides, 47 deaths from the pandemic since Saturday morning took the total death toll to 515,850.

* Brazil had 45,020 new cases of the novel coronavirus reported in the past 24 hours, and 389 deaths from COVID-19, the health ministry said on Saturday.

* Italy reported 53,825 COVID-19 related cases on Saturday, against 53,127 the day before, the health ministry said, while the number of deaths fell to 133 from 156.

Xinhua/Reuters/VNA