Australia

Finland will resume funding to the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees UNRWA, Foreign Trade and Development Minister Ville Tavio announced on Friday.

Japan is expected to discuss cooperating on technology with the AUKUS defense grouping at a summit in Washington next month, according to comments from a high-ranking U.S. diplomat published in Japanese media on Friday.

Finland remained the world's happiest country for a seventh straight year in an annual U.N. sponsored World Happiness Report published on March 20.

And Nordic countries kept their places among the 10 most cheerful, with Denmark, Iceland and Sweden trailing Finland.

Compared to the previous year, Türkiye has climbed eight places in the list and is now ranked 98th.

BELGRADE - National Bank of Serbia (NBS) Governor Jorgovanka Tabakovic met on Wednesday with a delegation of international investors visiting the Western Balkans.

The meeting was organised by the Bank of America (BOA).

China's top diplomat capped his trip to Australia Thursday with one of the most controversial meetings on his agenda, hosting outspoken ex-prime minister Paul Keating at the Chinese consulate in Sydney.

China and Australia claimed to have stabilised long-strained relations after talks in Canberra on Wednesday, despite tensions over a high-profile prisoner, trade and China's crackdowns in Hong Kong and elsewhere remaining evident.

Southeast Asian and Australian leaders on Wednesday warned against actions that "endanger peace" in the South China Sea, following fresh confrontations between Beijing and the Philippines in contested waters.

Simmering tensions in the trade corridor threatened to boil over this week, when Chinese boats in the Spratly Islands were accused of hounding Philippines vessels.

Turkish Airlines has launched scheduled flights to Australia's Melbourne and hopes to start flights to Sydney by the end of the year.

The first plane on route to Melbourne departed from Istanbul Airport on March 1 with 349 passengers, including Ahmet Bolat, chairman of Turkish Airlines, and a group of journalists. 

Athens has developed into a booming 12-month tourism destination, and its biggest market is the US, a new survey is showing.

American and British forces carried out a fresh wave of strikes Saturday against 18 Huthi targets in Yemen, following weeks of unrelenting attacks on Red Sea shipping by the Iran-backed rebels.