* South African National Assembly Speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula resigned Wednesday amid investigations into corruption allegations against her.
* Relations between Russia and NATO have slid to the level of direct confrontation as the U.S.-led military bloc is already involved in the conflict in Ukraine and continues to expand towards Russia's borders, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Thursday.
* Russia has managed to thwart the economic blockade from the West, Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin said Wednesday, noting a significant rise in trade with friendly states.
* Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and his Finnish counterpart Alexander Stubb signed a security agreement between the two countries, Zelensky's press service reported Wednesday.
* Venezuela has hailed a majority vote by a session of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) that rejects imposing unilateral sanctions, Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yvan Gil said Wednesday.
* Cyprus called on the European Union (EU) on Wednesday to provide "practical assistance" as the eastern Mediterranean island is grappling with an influx of Syrian migrants.
* More than 33,037 Palestinians have been killed and 75,668 have been injured in Israeli military offensive on Gaza since Oct. 7, the Gaza health ministry said in a statement on Thursday.
* King Abdullah II of Jordan and United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Wednesday underlined the need to protect workers in humanitarian and relief organizations in the Gaza Strip.
* Israel's military halted leave for all combat units on Thursday, it said in a statement, amid concerns of a possible escalation in violence after the killing of Iranian generals in Damascus this week drew threats of retaliation.
* Head of the Hamas Political Bureau Ismail Haniyeh affirmed on Wednesday the movement's commitment to its demands for a ceasefire in Gaza.
* The Houthi group in Yemen hosted on Wednesday an online conference that brought leaders from Iran, Hezbollah, Hamas, and other groups of the "axis of resistance" to discuss the situation in Gaza and the region.
* Israel's military announced Wednesday that it was reinforcing its aerial defense system with reserve soldiers amid escalating tensions between Israel and Iran.
* Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia' al-Sudani held a phone conversation with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi on Wednesday on the Israeli deadly strike on Iran's consulate in Syria.
* Israeli missiles struck military targets in the countryside of Quneitra and Daraa provinces in southern Syria after midnight Thursday, in response to missiles launched from multiple locations towards the occupied Syrian Golan Heights.
* Suspected Sunni Muslim militants killed at least five Iranian security forces in two separate "terrorist" attacks on Iran's Revolutionary Guards headquarters in the country's southeastern province of Sistan-Baluchestan, state media reported on Thursday.
* Somalia sent back Ethiopian ambassador on Thursday, and closed two consulates in the semi autonomous region of Puntland and another in breakaway region Somaliland due to rising tensions over a port deal, two Somali officials said.
* Health facilities in Port-au-Prince metropolitan areas continue to be impacted by the ongoing violence, further restricting access to life-saving care for people in and around the Haitian capital, said UN humanitarians on Wednesday.
* Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Wednesday at a Ramadan fast-breaking dinner in Ankara that Turkey is determined to implement the medium-term economic program and 12th development plan.
* Indonesia will manage its 2024 fiscal deficit so that it does not exceed 2.8% of GDP, but it will be wider than the previous estimate of 2.29% due to rising social assistance and fertiliser subsidies, a senior minister said on Thursday.
* The Philippine Statistics Authority on Thursday revised down the country's 2023 gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate to 5.5 percent from 5.6 percent. The revision was made after the statistics agency modified GDP growth rate in the fourth quarter last year to 5.5 percent from 5.6 percent.
* Bangladesh's exports in the first nine months of the current fiscal year (July 2023-June 2024) grew by 4.39 percent to 43.55 billion USD.
* Albania's gross domestic product (GDP) increased by 3.44 percent in 2023, down 1.42 percent from 2022, the National Institute of Statistics (INSTAT) said on Tuesday.
* Turkey’s annual inflation rate hit 68.5 percent in March, up from 67.1 percent in February, official data showed Wednesday.
* The Afghan caretaker government has approved 24 projects worth 11 billion afghanis (155.5 million USD), according to the National Procurement Commission.
* Switzerland's population grew last year at its fastest rate in 60 years, pushed by record immigration including thousands of people from war-torn Ukraine, preliminary figures from the Federal Statistics Office showed on Thursday.
* The United Nations on Wednesday pledged to assist Zimbabwe in mobilizing resources to address the El Nino-induced drought crisis.
* The number of people injured in a 7.2 magnitude earthquake in eastern Taiwan (China) climbed past 1,000 on Thursday though the death toll remained steady at nine, with 42 workers on their way to a hotel in a central park still missing.
* An earthquake of magnitude 6 struck off the east coast of Honshu, Japan on Thursday, the European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre said. The quake was at a depth of 32 km (19.88 miles), EMSC said.
* Sweltering weather has forced 3,954 schools across the Philippines to implement alternative delivery modes of learning to protect the students from the high heat index, the government said Wednesday.
