* Kuwait's newly appointed Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammad Sabah Al-Salem Al-Sabah completed the formation of his new government on Wednesday, official news agency KUNA reported.
* Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak will hold a meeting with oil companies on Jan. 19 to discuss the oil products market, the Interfax news agency reported on Wednesday.
* The top leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) on Monday raised possibility of constitutional revision to clarify its territorial sphere and envision a war scenario with the Republic of Korea (RoK) as the country redefines the inter-Korean relations, the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported Tuesday.
* Saudi Arabia has not yet officially joined the BRICS bloc of developing countries, the kingdom's minister of commerce said in a panel at the World Economic Forum in Davos on Tuesday.
* Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen agreed on Tuesday to start screening of Ukrainian legislation for compliance with European Union laws.
* Qatar and France have brokered a deal with Israel and Palestinian Islamist group Hamas to deliver urgent medication to some 45 Israeli hostages held by the group in Gaza in return for humanitarian and medical aid for the most vulnerable civilians.
* French President Emmanuel Macron said on Tuesday he would head to Ukraine in February to finalise a bilateral security guarantee deal under which Paris would deliver more sophisticated weaponry, including long-range cruise missiles.
* The Israeli military said on Wednesday its forces eliminated a "terrorist cell" during a precise air strike in the Balata camp in the Israeli-occupied city of Nablus.
* Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy discussed defence cooperation with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Davos on Tuesday.
* Saudi Arabia's foreign minister said on Tuesday that Houthi attacks on commercial ships in the Red Sea are connected to the war in Gaza and there is a need for an immediate ceasefire there.
* A total of 24,448 Palestinians have been killed and 61,504 have been wounded in Israeli strikes on Gaza since Oct. 7, the Gaza health ministry said in a statement on Wednesday.
* Jordan's Prime Minister Bisher al Khasawaneh said on Tuesday that peace with Israel remained a strategic choice but any push to drive Palestinians to the kingdom would pose an "existentialist" threat.
* NATO Military Committee Chairman Dutch Admiral Rob Bauer on Wednesday called on public and private actors in the West to change their mindsets from a focus on efficiency to a focus on effectiveness to live up to an era in which anything can happen at any time.
* The Iranian and Pakistani navies have staged a one-day joint military exercise in the Gulf and Strait of Hormoz, according to a statement published on the Iranian army's public relations website on Tuesday.
* Slovakia's Prime Minister Robert Fico on Tuesday pledged his support for Hungary in various fields in the European Union (EU).
* Spain registered a 35 percent yearly rise in natural gas from Russia in 2023 as the Ukraine crisis was about to enter its third year.
* Norway's government said on Wednesday it will set aside 2 billion Norwegian crowns ($190.48 million) to increase the capacity of the country's defence industry.
* The European Union imposed sanctions on Tuesday on Yahya Sinwar, the political leader of Hamas in Gaza, over the Palestinian militant group's deadly attack on Israel last October.
* The Republic of Korea's money supply has grown for the sixth consecutive month due to robust demand for deposits and securities, central bank data showed Wednesday.
* Cambodia exported 368,048 tonnes of dry rubber in 2023, a slight decrease of 1.3 percent from 372,903 tonnes in a year earlier, said a report from the General Directorate of Rubber on Wednesday.
* The Bank of Thailand (BOT) said on Tuesday that its recent decision to keep the policy rate unchanged was in line with the medium-term outlook, taking economic, inflation, and financial factors into account.
* Myanmar earned over 10.91 billion USD from its exports in over nine months of the 2023-24 fiscal year through March, according to Myanmar's Ministry of Commerce on Wednesday.
* The non-oil domestic exports (NODX) in Singapore decreased by 1.5 percent year-on-year in December, following the 1.0 percent growth in the previous month, according to government agency Enterprise Singapore Wednesday.
* The number of migrants entering Spain irregularly by sea has jumped nearly 300% so far in January from the same period in 2023, with the vast majority arriving in the Canary Islands, official data showed on Tuesday.
* The UN General Assembly on Tuesday adopted a resolution on the convening of a high-level meeting on addressing the existential threats posed by sea-level rise.
* A leading World Health Organization (WHO) official on Tuesday called for vigilance in the face of rising cases of respiratory diseases in Europe.
* Freezing rain in central and southern Germany grounded hundreds of flights and restricted train traffic on Wednesday as the weather service warned of slippery roads and heavy snowfall.
* The Dukono volcano on Halmahera Island in the eastern Indonesian province of North Maluku erupted on Tuesday at around 5.30 p.m. local time, throwing ash up to 1,700 meters above its peak, according to the country's Center for Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation (PVMBG).
