Chileans will vote for a new president on Sunday. The polls open at 8 a.m. (1100 GMT) and are scheduled to close at 6 p.m. Results are expected shortly thereafter.   

The coalition of Malaysian Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob on Saturday scored a crucial win in a state election ahead of national polls that could be called by next year.

* China downgraded its diplomatic ties with Lithuania on Sunday, expressing strong dissatisfaction with the Baltic State for allowing Taiwan to open a de facto embassy there. Lithuania's Foreign Ministry expressed "regret" over China's decision in a statement on Sunday.

* Venezuelans head to the polls on Sunday in local and regional elections which over 3,000 state governors, mayors and city councils will be chosen. European Union election observers will be present at around 1,000 of the 14,400 voting centers, the first such European mission since 2006.

* Germany's next cabinet is taking shape as coalition negotiations near a deal, with chancellor-in-waiting Olaf Scholz determined to deliver on his campaign pledge to have as many women as men in his team, sources said on Saturday.

* Bahrain's central bank governor, Rasheed Mohammed al-Maraj, said in an interview published on Sunday he expects real gross domestic product to grow 3.1 percent in 2021.

* US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Saturday his country was investing in Africa without imposing unsustainable levels of debt, as he witnessed the signing of contracts worth more than 1 billion USD in Senegal's capital Dakar.

* Migrants from 12 countries were among 600 people found hidden in the back of two trucks in eastern Mexico on Friday, most of them from neighboring Guatemala, the government's National Migration Institute (INM) said on Saturday.

* Five police officers were injured in the Netherlands and at least 28 people detained across three provinces as violent protests against COVID-19 restrictions continued for a second night into Sunday.

* A Palestinian gunman killed one person and wounded three others in Jerusalem's Old City on Sunday before being shot dead by Israeli police, a police spokesperson said.

* Brazil has had 8,833 new cases of the novel coronavirus reported in the past 24 hours, and 217 deaths from COVID-19, the health ministry said on Saturday, as vaccination reduces contagion and fatalities to levels not seen since the first weeks of the pandemic last year.

* Mexico's health ministry reported 3,306 new cases of coronavirus infections and 227 additional fatalities on Saturday, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 3,862,137 and the death toll from the pandemic to 292,372.

* Italy reported 49 coronavirus-related deaths on Saturday against 48 the day before, the health ministry said, while the daily tally of new infections rose to 11,555 from 10,544.

* France is sending police special forces to restore order in the French overseas territory of Guadeloupe hit by rioting and looting amid protests against COVID-19 protocols, French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said on Saturday.

Reuters