* Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on Tuesday blamed the opposition's presidential candidate, Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, for the post-election violence unleashed across the nation.
* Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on Tuesday called on the international community to avoid taking an interventionist stance regarding the presidential elections in Venezuela.
* Venezuelan authorities have arrested 749 people for participating in violent riots following Sunday's presidential elections, Attorney General Tarek William Saab said Tuesday.
* Venezuelan Foreign Affairs Minister Yvan Gil on Tuesday announced that the Venezuelan government has decided to sever diplomatic relations with Peru.
* Three independent experts of the United Nations (UN) urged the United States to remove Cuba from the U.S. Department of State list of State Sponsors of Terrorism (SSOT) in Geneva on Tuesday.
* An executive meeting of China's State Council has called for solid work to sustain the country's economic recovery, ensure and improve people's livelihoods, and guarantee that the country's annual economic and social development goals are met.
* Indonesia raised the minimum age limit for purchasing cigarettes to 21 from 18 as part of a series of changes to health regulations intended to curb the deadly habit in a country with one of the world's highest smoking rates.
* The Philippines and United States navies conducted on Wednesday a joint maritime exercise in the East Sea/South China Sea, the Philippine armed forces said.
* Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh was assassinated early on Wednesday morning in Iran, the Palestinian militant group and Tehran said, drawing threats of revenge on Israel in a region already shaken by the war in Gaza and a deepening conflict in Lebanon.
* Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei on Wednesday vowed to avenge Hamas Politburo Chief Ismail Haniyeh's death in the Iranian territory.
* An Israeli government spokesman declined to comment on the death of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh, who was assassinated in the early hours of Wednesday.
* China is highly concerned about the death of Hamas Politburo Chief Ismail Haniyeh, and firmly opposes and condemns the assassination, foreign ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said on Wednesday.
* U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Wednesday the United States was not involved in or made aware of the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh.
* German Foreign Minsiter Annalena Baerbock on Wednesday called for restraint to avoid further escalation of the conflict in the Middle East following the assassination of Hamas Leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran.
* Countries in the Middle East on Wednesday strongly condemned the alleged Israeli attack earlier in the day that killed Hamas Politburo Chief Ismail Haniyeh in the Iranian capital of Tehran.
* Qatar's Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, who is also foreign minister, spoke by phone to U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and discussed continuing work towards a ceasefire in Gaza, Qatar's foreign ministry said on Wednesday.
* Qatar and Egypt, which have acted as mediators in ceasefire negotiations between Israel and Hamas, suggested on Wednesday that the killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh could jeopardise efforts to secure a truce in Gaza.
* Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will visit Turkey on August 14-15, the Turkish presidency said on Wednesday.
* UN Humanitarians said on Tuesday that 90 percent of the Gaza population is displaced, some many times, and that 250,000 people, or 11 percent, were displaced in the last week alone.
* The head of the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Wednesday that polio had been detected in Gaza and warned that children in the war-ravaged enclave would soon be infected by the disease if preventative measures were not quickly taken.
* Sudan's paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) said it was not involved in a drone strike on an eastern military base during a visit by the head of the army on Wednesday.
* China's state council said on Wednesday it expects the urbanisation rate of its permanent population will increase to close to 70% in next five years, according to state media. At the end of 2023, state figures showed that 66.16% of the resident population lived in urban areas.
* The Asian Development Bank (ADB) said Wednesday that it has approved two policy-based loans totaling 400 million USD to support Uzbekistan's initiatives to enhance its financial markets and develop a sustainable, market-led power sector.
* The US’s Federal Reserve is expected to leave interest rates unchanged at the end of a two-day policy meeting on Wednesday, but also indicate that a reduction in borrowing costs could come as soon as September.
* Japan's central bank on Wednesday decided to raise its short-term interest rates to 0.25 percent from the range of zero and 0.1 percent, local media reported.
* The Russian government has decided to extend its ban on gasoline exports from August to October, local media reported Wednesday, citing Russian Deputy Energy Minister Pavel Sorokin.
* Singapore's total employment grew by 11,300 in the second quarter of this year, compared with the growth of 4,700 in the previous quarter, according to the Ministry of Manpower Wednesday.
* Inflation in the Netherlands rose to 3.7 percent in July, marking the highest level in a year, Statistics Netherlands (CBS) said on Wednesday.
* Saudi Arabia's budget deficit was 15.341 billion riyals ($4.09 billion) in the second quarter of 2024, the finance ministry said on Wednesday.
* Headline inflation, as measured by the year-on-year change in the Colombo Consumer Price Index has increased to 2.4 percent in July from 1.7 percent in June, Sri Lanka's Department of Census and Statistics said on Wednesday.
* Operations at the Bratislava Airport in the Slovak capital were resumed at around noon after an evacuation earlier on Wednesday over a bomb alert.
* Malaysia's total population in 2024 is estimated at 34.1 million, marking a growth of 1.9 percent as compared to 33.4 million in 2023, the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM) said Wednesday.
* The death toll in Tuesday's multiple landslides in India's southern state of Kerala crossed the 150-mark on Wednesday, even as nearly 100 others were still missing, confirmed an official of the local revenue department to Xinhua over phone.
* Many parts of Laos have been affected by flooding and landslides, with farmland, residences and other property damaged following several days of rainfall.
* More than 209,000 people from over 50,000 households in Myanmar have been displaced as floods have hit the country since the end of June this year, the state-run Myanmar Radio and Television (MRTV) reported on Wednesday.
* India received 9% more rainfall than average in July as the monsoon covered the entire country ahead of schedule, delivering heavy rain in central and southern states, weather department data showed on Wednesday.
* Traffic on the LGV (high-speed rail line) South-East, which connects French cities Paris and Lyon, was disrupted on Wednesday due to storms, according to the official website of the French National Railway Company (SNCF). An estimated 80,000 travelers have been affected by this incident.
* Storms and air currents can influence the climate outcomes of La Nina and El Nino events, research from Australia's national science agency has found.
