* Chinese and Belarusian armed forces are set to conduct a joint army training in mid-July near Brest, Belarus, announced the Ministry of National Defense on Sunday.
* Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger have announced the creation of the Confederation of the Alliance of Sahel States during the institution's first summit held in Niamey on Saturday, marking a significant step toward establishing an economic-military bloc and moving away from regional and Western countries following a series of coups.
* The Cameroonian government on Saturday submitted to parliament a draft bill aimed at extending the mandate for the country's lawmakers for a year.
* Turkey will extend an invitation to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad "any time" for possible talks to restore relations between the two neighbours, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Sunday.
* Hungary has cancelled a foreign ministers meeting with Germany scheduled for Monday in Budapest due to technical, not political, reasons, its Foreign Ministry said on Saturday.
* Britain wants a balanced position on the war in the Middle East and will use diplomatic efforts to ensure a ceasefire is reached and hostages held by Palestinian militant group Hamas are released, its new foreign minister David Lammy told Reuters.
* Egypt's state-affiliated Al Qahera News TV said on Saturday that the country will host Israeli and U.S. delegations to discuss "outstanding issues" in a possible Gaza ceasefire agreement.
* Iraq is ready to cooperate with other countries in combating terrorism, Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia' al-Sudani said on Saturday.
* Rival Sudanese political factions formally attended reconciliation talks in Cairo on Saturday, the first since a conflict in the country began almost 15 months ago, but admitted there was little prospect of quickly ending the war.
* Jordan announced on Saturday that a new humanitarian aid convoy, comprising 50 trucks, had entered northern Gaza.
* Hamas is waiting for a response from Israel on its ceasefire proposal, two officials from the militant Islamist group said on Sunday, five days after it accepted a key part of a U.S. plan aimed at ending the nine-month-old war in Gaza.
* An Israeli airstrike in Gaza City killed the Hamas-appointed deputy minister of labour in the Palestinian enclave, Hamas media reported on Sunday.
* At least 38,153 Palestinians have been killed and 87,828 injured in Israel's military offensive on Gaza since Oct. 7, Gaza's health ministry said on Sunday.
* Israel's army said on Saturday it killed a key operative in Hezbollah's Aerial Defence Unit in eastern Lebanon, accusing him of carrying out numerous attacks against Israelis.
* The latest round of prisoner exchange negotiations between the Yemeni government and the Houthi group concluded Saturday in Muscat, Oman, without reaching a comprehensive agreement, according to officials from both sides.
* The EU naval mission protecting ships crossing the Red Sea said its frigate Psara had destroyed two unmanned aerial vehicles in the Gulf of Aden on Sunday.
* China's top economic planner said on Sunday that it has allocated 200 million yuan (about 28.05 million USD) from the central budget to aid disaster relief and restoration in flood-stricken Hunan and Jiangxi provinces.
* Bangladesh's inflation cooled slightly in June but still hovered around the double-digit mark as consumer prices persistently stayed high. Bangladesh's inflation decreased to 9.72 percent in June from 9.89 percent in May, according to the latest data from the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS).
* At least 15 more people have been killed in landslides and floods in Nepal in the past two days, police said on Sunday.
* Japan is facing an unprecedented heatwave, with temperatures nearing 40 degrees Celsius in areas from Tokai to Kanto regions on Sunday.
