* The ball is not in Russia's court when it comes to resuming dialogue with Ukraine, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in Moscow on Friday.
* The Kremlin on Thursday called U.S. claims on alleged Russia's plan to develop nuclear capabilities in space a "ploy" used by the White House to push Congress to approve more funding.
* Canada and Czech Republic signed a defence cooperation memorandum of understanding (MOU), Canada's National Defence said on Thursday.
* Moldova is "cautiously optimistic" that it can begin formal talks to join the European Union before the bloc's parliamentary elections in June, its foreign minister said on Friday.
* The NATO military alliance will continue to ensure its members security in the coming decades and everything must be done to keep it stable, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said.
* U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will travel next week to Brazil and Argentina, where he is set to meet with both countries' leaders to discuss "bilateral and global issues," the State Department said on Friday.
* Ukraine and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) will create a joint training, analytical and educational center in Poland, the Interfax-Ukraine news agency reported Thursday, citing NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg.
* Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian and his Saudi counterpart Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud on Friday held a phone conversation, during which they vowed to expand bilateral cooperation and jointly slammed Israel over the situation in the Gaza Strip.
* Israel will coordinate with Egypt on Palestinian refugees and will find a way to not harm Egypt's interests, Israel's foreign minister Israel Katz said on Friday.
* Greek Foreign Minister George Gerapetritis called for an immediate and lasting cessation of hostilities in Gaza during a meeting with his Palestinian counterpart Riyad al-Maliki in Athens on Thursday.
* Australia, Canada and New Zealand have called for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza.
* The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday it was trying to get access to biggest functioning hospital in Gaza, the Nasser Hospital, following an Israeli raid on the facility.
* Yemen's Houthi group on Thursday claimed responsibility for attacking a British ship in the Gulf of Aden with several missiles.
* Senegal's Constitutional Council announced on Thursday that it had canceled the decree postponing the presidential election, which was decided on Feb. 3 by President Macky Sall.
* Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud on Thursday vowed to intensify military action against al-Shabab militants in the southern state of Jubaland after a hiatus caused by flooding.
* Clara Ana Coutinho de Sousa, World Bank (WB) country director for the Sahel countries including Mali, Burkina Faso, Chad and Niger, on Thursday announced the commitment of her institution to resume its activities with Niger, which were suspended since the coup on July 26, 2023.
* Nearly 100 million children and youth aged 5 to 19 across Africa are not socially integrated simply because they are out of school, African Union (AU) Commissioner for Education, Science, Technology and Innovation Mohammed Belhocine said Thursday.
* A UN-backed study released on Thursday estimates that Ukraine's recovery and reconstruction efforts in the aftermath of the crisis will cost 486 billion USD over the next decade, marking an increase from the 411 billion dollars projected a year ago.
* NASA will launch a new mission to survey ultraviolet light across the entire sky with an aim to learn how galaxies and stars evolve, the agency said on Thursday.
* The Malaysian Central Bank announced Friday that Malaysia's economy eased to 3.7 percent in 2023 from 8.7 percent in 2022, amid global trade challenges.
* Singapore is cautiously optimistic about 2024 and expects higher gross domestic product (GDP) growth at 1 percent to 3 percent, Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong said on Friday.
* Myanmar earned over 7.82 billion USD from the manufactured goods export from April. 1 to Feb. 9 of the current fiscal year 2023-24, according to the Ministry of Commerce on Friday.
* The Republic of Korea's employment grew last month on a rapid increase in elderly jobs, statistical office data showed Friday. The number of employed people aged 15 or higher gained 380,000 from a year earlier to 27,743,000 in January, marked the fastest growth in 10 months since March last year.
* Italy's public debt reached 2.86 trillion euros (3.08 trillion USD) at the end of 2023, an increase of 105 billion euros compared to the level a year ago, the Bank of Italy said on Thursday.
* Argentina registered a year-on-year inflation rate of 254.2 percent in January, the highest in 32 years, according to data released Wednesday by the National Institute of Statistics and Censuses (INDEC).
* Sri Lanka's inflation is anticipated to gradually stabilize at the targeted level of 5 percent over the medium term, following a short-lived acceleration of inflation in the near term on account of recent tax adjustments and supply-side disruptions, the central bank has said.
* The Mongolian government on Friday decided to provide 21.5 billion Mongolian Tugriks (6.3 million USD) to help provinces and nomadic herders affected by the extreme wintry weather.
