* New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern on Thursday made a shock announcement that she had "no more in the tank" to lead the country and would step down and not seek re-election.
* Canada will donate 200 Senator Armoured Personnel Carriers to Ukraine as a new package of military assistance, Defence Minister Anita Anand announced Wednesday.
* The Russian Foreign Ministry announced on Thursday that 31 officials, journalists and public figures from New Zealand have been indefinitely barred from entering Russia.
* Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Wednesday that the Ukraine crisis is "the result of preparations by the United States and its satellites for the start of a global hybrid war" against his country.
* The United States and Germany tried on Thursday to resolve a stand-off that has so far prevented the West from sending heavy tanks to Ukraine, as Kyiv pleaded for the weapons help it to turn the tide against Russian forces.
* The national security advisers for the United States, Israel, Bahrain and United Arab Emirates met on Thursday to discuss ways to deepen cooperation in areas including clean energy, emerging technology, regional security, and commercial relations, the countries said in a joint statement.
* Russian President Vladimir Putin held a telephone call with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi on Thursday, Interfax reported, their second conversation in nine days.
* Swedish Defence Minister Pal Jonson plans to travel next week to Ankara at the invitation of his Turkish counterpart Hulusi Akar, Jonson's spokesperson said on Thursday as the Nordic country hopes to nudge Turkey to ratify its bid to join NATO.
* Some Lebanese parliament members on Thursday staged a sit-in protest in the parliament, asking to elect a new president as soon as possible after the parliament failed for the 11th time to elect one.
* The Iranian foreign minister on Thursday lashed out at the European Parliament's new draft resolution to blacklist Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) as a "terrorist organization," official news agency IRNA reported.
* Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry on Thursday highlighted the importance of reviving the Palestinian-Israeli peace process swiftly during a phone call with his newly appointed Israeli counterpart Eli Cohen.
* Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev dissolved the lower house of parliament on Thursday and called a snap election on March 19, his office said. Tokayev has said earlier he would dissolve the chamber, elected in 2021, after overseeing a constitutional reform.
* Russia's Agriculture Ministry said on Thursday that it expected Russia to export 55-60 million tonnes of grain in the 2022/23 season, and that it had no plans to lower the grain export quota, according to the Interfax news agency.
* Senior officials from Libya and Malta on Wednesday vowed to strengthen cooperation on security training programs, joint fight against illegal immigration, and the combat against transnational organized crime and terrorism, the Libyan Interior Ministry said in a statement.
* Cameroon's electoral body Elections Cameroon (Elecam) on Wednesday reassured of increased security following threats by armed separatists to disrupt Senate elections in the two Anglophone regions of the country where an armed separatist conflict is in progress.
* The upcoming 7th Summit of Heads of State and Government of the Community of the Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) will seek to strengthen "unity in diversity" and consolidate the region as a zone of "peace," an Argentine official organizing the event said Wednesday.
* Inflation and the cost of living crisis were among the major issues discussed in Davos at the World Economic Forum (WEF) Annual Meeting 2023, as experts said the former might have passed its peak, while the later would continue in some countries.
* Oil prices dropped on Wednesday as traders focused on recession risks.
* The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits unexpectedly fell last week, suggesting the labor market remains tight despite higher interest rates.
* The Republic of Korea's percentage of jobs in the public sector hit a record high in 2021 owing to the government's efforts to create such jobs amid the COVID-19 pandemic, statistical office data showed Thursday.
* The Philippines' overall balance of payments (BOP) posted a surplus of 612 million USD in December 2022, lower than the 991 million dollars recorded a year earlier, the Philippine central bank said on Thursday.
* The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) on Thursday decided to maintain the overnight policy rate (OPR) at 2.75 percent.
* Indonesia's central bank, Bank Indonesia, announced an increase of 25 basis points in benchmark interest rate to 5.75 percent on Thursday in order to control inflation amid global economic fluctuation.
* Poland will probably see economic growth this year, thereby avoiding a recession, the country's prime minister Mateusz Morawiecki said on Wednesday.
* The Lebanese pound on Thursday hit a new record low of 50,000 pounds per USD, currency exchange dealers told Reuters, marking a loss in value of more than 95% since the country's financial system imploded in 2019.
* Israel's public debt-to-GDP ratio dropped to 60.9 percent in 2022 from 68 percent in 2021, the Israeli Finance Ministry said Wednesday.
* Africa's economic growth will stabilise at 4% over the next two years, and inflation will slow as the continent rebounds from a pandemic-induced slump and external shocks including the Ukraine war, according to the African Development Bank (AfDB).
* Mass graves containing 49 bodies have been discovered in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, the United Nations said on Thursday, attributing the killings to an ethnic militia group.
* A total of 10,500 artifacts for museum collections were unearthed in 249 archaeological digs in Türkiye in 2022, according to data from the Turkish General Directorate of Museums and Cultural Heritage.
* The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness (CEPI) will invest up to $50 million over 10 years to help Senegal's Institut Pasteur expand Africa's ability to produce vaccines at scale, it said on Thursday.
* At least 78 people have died of cold in Afghanistan during the country's worst winter in more than a decade, authorities said on Thursday.
* Malawi's natural disaster death toll for the 2022/23 rainy season has reached 56, the Department of Disaster Management Affairs (DoDMA) announced in a statement Wednesday.
* Most of Italy was in the grip of an Arctic polar vortex on Wednesday, bringing with it the coldest weather so far this winter, with most of the Italian peninsula hit by snow, icy rain, hail, and gale-force winds.
