* Northwest China's Shaanxi Province on Wednesday launched its first freight train to the Laotian capital Vientiane, traveling via the China-Laos Railway.
* Moscow would not refuse a meeting between Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and his Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba but any talks between them would need to be substantive, RIA news agency cited the Russian foreign ministry as saying on Thursday.
* Russia and Ukraine will resume their peace talks online on April 1, a senior Ukrainian official said on Wednesday after the latest round of negotiations had ended in Turkey.
* US President Joe Biden and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Wednesday discussed additional US aid, sanctions and Kyiv's peace talks with Russia in an hour-long call, the two sides said.
* Russia plans to increase its export quotas for nitrogen and complex fertilisers, its economy ministry said in a statement on Thursday.
* The European Commission will do "whatever it takes" to rebuild Europe's industry for manufacturing solar energy equipment, the EU's energy commissioner said on Thursday, as part of the bloc's plans to quickly cut reliance on Russian gas.
* The head of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) on Wednesday called on global leaders to uphold multilateralism to ensure "unhindered, stable and secure" energy flow to the global market.
* The Greek gas grid operator will review its plans on additional cargoes of liquefied natural gas that Greece might need if Russia halts gas supplies to the country, the energy ministry said on Wednesday.
* A possible gas pipeline project between Turkey and Israel is not possible in the short-term and building an alternative system to cut Russian dependence will not happen quickly, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Thursday.
* The United States continues to violate a United Nations resolution that enshrines a 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers, despite its claims of wanting to revive the pact, foreign ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said on Thursday.
* Tunisian President Kais Saied late on Wednesday issued a decree dissolving parliament, which has been suspended since last year, after it defied him by voting to repeal decrees that he used to assume near total power.
* Asian stocks eased after this week's global rally, following Wall Street's overnight stumble, while oil dropped sharply as the United States weighed a massive draw from its reserves to rein in surging fuel prices.
* Japanese factories posted their first rise in output in three months in February as resilience in global demand led to a rebound in car production, a welcome sign for policymakers hoping to keep the country's fragile economic recovery on track.
* Britain’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions rose by 4.7% in 2021 compared with 2020 levels, as the economy recovered following the coronavirus pandemic, government data showed on Thursday.
* Sri Lanka is turning off its street lights to save electricity, a minister said on Thursday, as its worst economic crisis in decades brought more power cuts and gloom to its main stock market, triggering a halt in trade as prices slid.
* A tsunami warning issued for Fiji, New Caledonia and Vanuatu after an earthquake struck the Tadine, New Caledonia regionon Thursday, has been lifted, according to the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center (PTWC).
* The United Nations is seeking 4.4 billion USD for Afghanistan at an international virtual event on Thursday in the largest humanitarian appeal launched for a single country even as concerns mount over Taliban rule.
* The entire coast of Australia's most populous state was told to brace for high waves and powerful winds on Thursday as a low pressure system that left entire towns flooded moved offshore.
* As the COVID-19 pandemic enters its third year, 23 countries - home to around 405 million schoolchildren - are yet to fully reopen schools, with many schoolchildren at risk of dropping out, said the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) on Wednesday.
* Shanghai will launch a nucleic acid testing campaign in areas west of the Huangpu River starting Friday amid the second phase of the city's closed-off management, an official told a press conference on Thursday.
* There has been no agreement on the terms of a COVID-19 vaccine intellectual property deal among four key World Trade Organization members, US Trade Representative Katherine Tai said, amid growing questions about the effort's future.
* Belgium has reported a new outbreak of highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza, commonly called bird flu, on a poultry farm, just as it was hoping to regain the status of being free from the disease.
* The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Wednesday removed its COVID-19 notice against cruise travel.
* The European Union's drug regulator has started reviewing Sanofi and its British partner GlaxoSmithKline's application seeking conditional authorisation for their COVID-19 vaccine, the agency said on Wednesday.
* Much of Canada is facing a fresh COVID-19 wave just as authorities ease measures meant to curb the spread of the virus, emboldened by a brief drop in cases and relatively high vaccination rates.
* Children ages 5 to 11 who received the Pfizer PFE.N/BioNTech 22UAy.DE COVID-19 vaccine were 68% less likely to be hospitalized during the Omicron wave in the United States than unvaccinated children, a study showed.
* Ghana will start producing its own COVID-19 vaccines by January 2024, President Nana Akufo-Addo said on Wednesday.
