* Russia's foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Wednesday that Germany's decision to supply tanks to Ukraine confirmed what she said was a "pre-planned war" against Moscow.
* German government decides to supply its Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine on Wednesday and green-lighted requests by other countries to do so.
* Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and his visiting Finnish counterpart Sauli Niinisto discussed security issues during their meeting in Kiev on Tuesday.
* India has invited Pakistan's foreign minister to a meeting of the Shanghai Co-operation Organisation (SCO) that it is hosting in May, Indian media reported on Wednesday, signalling a possible thaw in relations between the nuclear-armed rivals.
* Sweden suffered a major setback in its bid for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) membership as Türkiye, a NATO member, has said it will not support it.
* Türkiye has postponed a trilateral meeting with Sweden and Finland on their NATO bids following the burning of a copy of the Quran in Sweden, the state-run TRT network reported on Tuesday.
* Turkish Foreign Ministry announced on Tuesday it has summoned the Dutch ambassador to Ankara to protest against "the vile act" of a far-right Dutch politician to tear pages out of the Quran.
* Slovak lawmakers approved a change in the constitution on Wednesday which allows the parliament to shorten its term, paving the way for an early election in September.
* Bangladesh's Chief Election Commissioner Kazi Habibul Awal announced on Wednesday that the country's presidential election will be held on Feb. 19.
* King Abdullah II of Jordan on Tuesday stressed the need to maintain calm and cease all acts of violence to pave the way for the Middle East peace process.
* India and Egypt will seek to deepen military cooperation, including between their defence industries, India's foreign secretary said on Wednesday.
* Chinese Vice Premier Sun Chunlan on Thursday reiterated the dire necessity of treating COVID-19 patients with all-out efforts.
* The Lao government considers tourism as its top priority in revitalizing the economy and the country is preparing to welcome an influx of foreign visitors in 2023, a senior official has said.
* Malaysia seeks to explore trade and investment opportunities as Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim caps off his official visit to neighboring Brunei on Wednesday.
* Flooding in parts of Malaysia has resulted in the displacement of more than 5,000 people in three states as of Wednesday evening, according to government data.
* The Spanish Congress (lower chamber of the Parliament) on Tuesday passed a new package of measures aimed at boosting the economy and alleviating the effects of the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict on the economy.
* The US economy continued to weaken in January, with the rate of decline "among the steepest seen since the global financial crisis," said US financial information and analytics provider S&P Global in a press release published Tuesday.
* The German government has revised up its economic forecast with Europe's largest economy now expected to narrowly avoid recession this year as inflation eases, according to its annual economic report published on Wednesday.
* Africa must produce more food instead of relying on imports and aid, Senegalese President Macky Sall told leaders gathered in the West African nation's capital for a summit on Wednesday.
* The U.N. aid chief said on Wednesday the humanitarian community was speaking with Taliban officials to try and gain further exemptions and written guidelines to allow some female aid workers to operate despite a ban on women NGO staff.
* Record level of energy from renewable sources has driven demand for electricity from Australia's grid to an all-time low.
* The outflow of profits and dividends on foreign investment in Pakistan dropped 75.6 percent during the first half of the current fiscal year starting from July 2022, the State Bank of Pakistan has said.
* Australia has recorded its biggest annual inflation rise in more than 30 years. The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) on Wednesday updated the consumer price index (CPI) for the final quarter of 2022, revealing prices rose by an average of 1.9 percent between September and December and by 7.8 percent over 12 months.
* Russia should increase the number of satellites in orbit from about 200 now to at least 1,000 by 2030, said Yury Borisov, director general of Russia's state space corporation Roscosmos, on Tuesday.
* The Swedish government on Tuesday announced an "international information campaign," which it expects to discourage refugees from coming to the country.
* The revenues of Lebanon's Beirut port saw a rapid recovery in late 2022, more than two years after the blasts that decimated the port and the city, local media reported on Tuesday.
* The World Health Organization (WHO) on Monday issued an urgent call for countries to crack down on substandard medical products, after more than 300 children died in multiple countries due to contaminated cough syrups.
* Two people died and nine were missing after a cargo ship sank off southwestern Japan early on Wednesday amid fierce winter winds, the coast guard said, as it continued to search for survivors.
* At least eight people died after a boat crammed with scores of African migrants capsized off the Libyan coast, the local Red Crescent organisation said on Wednesday, adding that nearly 100 others had been rescued.
* Bulgaria will begin culling about 25,000 quails and destroy quail eggs on an industrial farm near the capital Sofia after detecting a highly infectious strain of bird flu, the food safety authorities said on Wednesday.
