* Hungarian parliament on Thursday elected Katalin Novak as the country's first female president for a five-year term, winning over economist Peter Rona in a vote split along party lines.
* Russian President Vladimir Putin and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz held a phone conversation on Wednesday to explore political and diplomatic efforts towards a possible settlement of the Ukraine crisis.
* The Ukrainian state-run energy company Ukrenergo said Wednesday that the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in northern Ukraine has been disconnected from the power grid.
* Russia will no longer participate in the Council of Europe, the country's foreign ministry said Thursday.
* Italy's and China's foreign ministers agreed that coordination of international community is the only way to reach a diplomatic solution to the Ukrainian crisis, the Italian foreign minister said in a statement on Thursday.
* Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Thursday he did not believe that Russia's standoff with the West over Ukraine would lead to nuclear war.
* Asian shares surged, tracking Wall Street's gains as planned diplomatic talks between Russia and Ukraine buoyed sentiment, although analysts warned the rally could be susceptible to a sharp reversal as risks remain.
* Iran will not back down from any of its red lines in talks in Vienna on reviving the 2015 nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi said on Thursday.
* UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Wednesday said in his statement on two years of COVID-19 that the vaccine distribution is "scandalously unequal" because rich-country health is prioritized over the poor.
* The Chinese mainland on Wednesday saw over 5 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine administered, with the total number reaching nearly 3.175 billion, the National Health Commission said on Thursday.
* Austria is suspending its COVID-19 vaccine mandate, its ministers for health and constitutional affairs said on Wednesday, six days before fines for breaches were due to start being imposed.
* Ontario, Canada's most populous province, said on Wednesday it would end masking requirements for most indoor spaces later this month, and scrap virtually all COVID-19-related public health measures by end-April.
* Mexico reported 244 more deaths from COVID-19 on Wednesday, bringing the total death toll since the pandemic began to 320,410, according to health ministry data. The country also reported 8,165 new confirmed cases of the virus, bringing the total to 5,583,773.
* Britain plans to spend 4 billion pounds (5.3 billion USD) on the shipbuilding sector including investment in zero-emission vessels.
* COVID-19 cases were rising among the over-55s in England, a study found, with increased social contact, waning of booster protection and a more contagious subvariant of Omicron possibly driving an increase in hospitalisations.
