* India's federal government Wednesday said it has issued an advisory to all states, urging them to maintain law and order during the upcoming Hindu festival Hanuman Jayanti.
* French President Emmanuel Macron told China's President Xi Jinping on Thursday that he knows he can count on China to reason with Russia and bring everyone back to the negotiating table. Macron made the remarks during a state visit to Beijing while meeting with Xi.
* Relations between Russia and the United States are experiencing "a deep crisis," Russian President Vladimir Putin said Wednesday.
* Iran and Saudi Arabia will restore diplomatic relations within the two-month period stipulated in an agreement facilitated by China in March, a joint statement signed by the two countries on Thursday showed.
* China's foreign ministry said on Thursday that Chinese and European Union relations have resumed swiftly and comprehensively, ahead of EU chief Ursula von der Leyen's meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping later in the day.
* Cambodia and China have successfully concluded the fifth edition of joint military exercise "Golden Dragon 2023" at the Royal Gendarmerie Training Center in Kampong Chhnang.
* Relations between Sweden and Hungary are at a low point, Prime Minister Viktor Orban's chief of staff said on Thursday, calling on Stockholm to take steps to boost confidence as it seeks Hungary's backing for NATO membership.
* Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez and his Italian counterpart Giorgia Meloni met in Rome on Wednesday for talks that covered migration, energy supply and the European Union's (EU) rules on public debt.
* Israeli police raided East Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa Mosque compound for a second consecutive day, triggering clashes and more rocket launches from Gaza towards southern Israel, Israeli and Palestinian sources said on Thursday.
* UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was shocked and appalled by Israeli violence in Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem early Wednesday, said his spokesman.
* UN envoy in Libya Abdoulaye Bathily on Wednesday said he discussed ways to hold Libya's national elections as soon as possible with the Libyan army commander and parliamentary speaker on Tuesday.
* Sustainable industrial transformations are needed to close the widening development gap between countries, meet climate targets and achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), said a UN report released on Wednesday.
* Sima Bahous, UN undersecretary-general and executive director of UN Women, on Wednesday condemned the Taliban's decision to ban Afghan women from working with the United Nations in Afghanistan.
* Cindy McCain on Wednesday took over as the new executive director of the United Nations (UN) World Food Programme (WFP), stressing the need to strengthen global cooperation in the face of an unparalleled food crisis.
* Turkish airspace is closed for flights to and from Iraq's Sulaymaniyah airport for three months due to the activities of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in the region, Türkiye's Foreign Ministry spokesperson said on Wednesday.
* The Ghanaian government beefed up security in the northern city of Bawku in the Upper East Region after unknown gunmen killed an immigration officer and wounded two others on Tuesday, said an official Wednesday.
* Tunisian President Kais Saied said on Thursday when asked about a possible deal with the International Monetary Fund that international lenders' dictats are unacceptable and that previous subsidy cuts led to deadly protests.
* Laos recorded an inflation rate of 40.97 percent in March, the first drop from the previous month since August 2021, according to the Lao Statistics Bureau.
* The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Thursday announced it has kept the repo rate unchanged at 6.5 percent. Repo rate, or policy repo rate, is the rate at which the central bank lends money to commercial banks in the event of a shortfall of funds.
* Ukraine needs about 14.1 billion USD this year to implement rapid recovery in conflict-affected areas, the Finance Ministry said Wednesday.
* The World Bank on Wednesday projected economic growth in sub-Saharan Africa to slow to 3.1 percent in 2023 from 3.6 percent in 2022.
* Russia's Gazprom GAZP.MM said it will ship 41 million cubic metres of gas to Europe via Ukraine on Thursday.
