* Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa plans to step down from the presidency on July 13 the speaker of the country's parliament said on Saturday, just hours after protesters stormed into the presidential house to protest over a financial crisis.
* Four further candidates have joined the increasingly crowded field of Conservatives vying to succeed Boris Johnson as British prime minister, as the committee overseeing the contest looks to speed up the process of whittling down the numbers.
* Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy dismissed several of Kyiv's senior envoys abroad on Saturday, including the outspoken ambassador to Germany.
* Iran's foreign ministry said on Saturday that plans by the United States and Israel for a joint defence pact with Arab states to counter the threat of Iranian drones and missiles would only increase regional tensions.
* Ukraine will receive 1.7 billion USD in grant aid from international donors, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said Saturday on Telegram.
* Brazil has been coping well with the economic challenges caused by inflation, and the current problems faced by the population "are fleeting," President Jair Bolsonaro said on Saturday, defending his government's economic measures.
* Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa announced on Saturday that the government had spent 1.682 billion euros (1.713 billion USD) this year on measures to contain inflation.
* The International Monetary Fund (IMF) said it is hoping for a resolution to Sri Lanka's political turmoil that will allow a resumption of talks for a bailout package after a violent day of protests.
* Hundreds of thousands of pilgrims threw pebbles on giant columns symbolising Satan on Saturday, part of the haj pilgrimage that has drawn to a close as Muslims around the world celebrated the first day of Eid al-Adha feast.
* Gunmen opened fire on people sitting in a tavern in South Africa's biggest township of Soweto in the early hours of Sunday, killing 14 and wounding another nine, police said.
* China reported 420 new COVID-19 infections on July 9, down from 455 a day earlier, according to data published by the National Health Commission on Sunday.
* India reported as many as 18,257 new COVID-19 cases during the past 24 hours, bringing the total tally to 43,622,651, data released by the health ministry showed on Sunday.
* Malaysia reported 2,799 new COVID-19 infections as of midnight Saturday, bringing the national total to 4,592,710, according to the health ministry.
* The Australian government said on Sunday that eligibility for "potentially lifesaving" COVID-19 antiviral treatments will be widened from Monday.
* Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi said on Saturday that passengers can only gain entry to Iran upon submission of negative COVID-19 test results and full compliance with Iranian health protocols, citing the recent increase in infections.
* New Zealand reported its first monkeypox case on Saturday, the Ministry of Health said in a statement.
