* Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko suggested on Thursday that talks aimed at resolving the conflict between Russia and Ukraine could start by autumn, the Russian state news agency TASS reported.
* U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen arrived in Beijing on Thursday to begin a four-day visit expected to focus on recalibrating ties between the world's two largest economies.
* Western ideas that Russia is ready to use weapons of mass destruction in Ukraine are false, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Thursday.
* South Korea is coordinating with Japan to hold a meeting between their leaders on the sidelines of a NATO summit in Lithuania next week, a South Korean presidential official said on Thursday.
* Part of the grain deal on Russian exports has not been fulfilled, which gives no grounds for extending the agreement at the moment, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Wednesday.
* Hungary's cooperation with Russia will continue in sectors not subject to European Union (EU) sanctions, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said on Wednesday.
* During their meeting in Athens on Wednesday, the presidents of Greece and Malta urged member states of the European Union (EU) to demonstrate stronger solidarity on migration.
* Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare will visit China July 9-15, the Chinese foreign ministry said on Thursday.
* Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told reporters on Thursday that Moscow would respond with utmost harshness to any Ukrainian attack on the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.
* Energy and oil ministers from the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) on Wednesday expressed support for the latest production cuts by Saudi Arabia, Russia, and Algeria.
* Iran's foreign minister Hossein Amirabdollahian met with the Sudanese foreign minister for the first time since diplomatic relations between the two countries were severed seven years ago, the official IRNA news agency reported on Thursday.
* Iranian Oil Minister Javad Owji and Saudi Arabia counterpart Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman met on the sidelines of the OPEC conference in Vienna on Wednesday, the official IRNA news agency reported on Thursday.
* An official of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) on Wednesday urged Lebanon and Israel to remain calm after the Lebanese army stopped an Israeli bulldozer from breaching the Blue Line earlier in the day.
* The International Organization for Migration (IOM) said on Wednesday that the number of migrants entering Yemen through the Gulf of Aden has exceeded 77,000 so far this year, up from the yearly figure of 73,000 in 2022.
* Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry and his German counterpart Annalena Baerbock discussed on Wednesday ways to strengthen bilateral relations and coordination on issues of common concern, especially the situation in Sudan.
* The International Organization for Migration (IOM) said Wednesday that some 60,046 people have fled the conflict in Sudan into neighboring Ethiopia.
* The UN humanitarian agency said Wednesday it has provided 43 million USD to address the impact of food insecurity and drought in Somalia.
* British police said on Thursday they were responding to a serious collision at a primary school in Wimbledon, south London, and several people were being treated at the scene.
* India's federal government is planning to build strong fences along highways in the country to prevent cattle from crossing the road and thus causing deadly accidents, officials said Thursday.
* Cambodia had reported 4,668 dengue fever cases in the first half of 2023, a sharp increase of 62.7 percent from 2,869 cases over the same period last year, a health official said on Thursday.
* Turkey's largest city of Istanbul is facing a shortage of water resources due to a severe drought that has hit the country since last year, the municipal authorities said Thursday.
* Pakistan's Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Ahsan Iqbal said that his country has been making efforts to increase foreign direct investment (FDI) as it plays a key role in driving economic growth and development.
* Kuwait will invest more than $300 billion in the energy sector by 2040, Kuwait's oil minister Saad Al Barrak told UAE's state news agency (WAM) on Thursday.
* Nigeria's average daily petrol consumption has fallen by 28% since President Bola Tinubu scrapped a popular but costly subsidy on the fuel at the end of May, data from the industry regulator shows.
* At least 26 people were killed and about 20 injured Wednesday after a bus coming from Mexico City plunged off a cliff on a highway in the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca, local authorities confirmed.
* The death toll from an overnight gas cylinder leak in a South African shantytown rose to 17 on Thursday, as one local official blamed the accident on an illegal mining operation that went wrong.
