* U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will travel to China next week for long-delayed talks aimed at stabilizing tense relations, and a U.S. official said he is expected to be there on June 18.
* Colombia's government and the left-wing ELN guerrilla group declared a bilateral ceasefire on Friday, as a third cycle of peace talks closed in Havana.
* Ukraine has launched a counteroffensive but has failed to accomplish its goals, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday.
* Russia will officially pull out of the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE) on Nov. 7 this year, the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Friday.
* More than 5,800 people, including 243 children, have been evacuated from the flooded areas of the Kherson region after the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant dam collapsed, a local official said on Friday.
* Iran has denied a media claim of it "nearing an interim nuclear deal" with the United States, saying such a deal neither exists nor is on the agenda, the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported on Friday.
* U.S. President Joe Biden will hold his first campaign event next week in the swing state of Pennsylvania, according to a statement released by the White House.
* Former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced on Friday he is stepping down as a Member of Parliament (MP) with immediate effect. His resignation will trigger a by-election in his west London seat of Uxbridge and South Ruislip.
* The leaders of Italy, the Netherlands and of the European Commission should announce an EU aid package when they visit Tunisia on Sunday, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said on Friday.
* Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has held a phone call with his newly appointed Turkish counterpart Hakan Fidan, Russia's Foreign Ministry said on Friday. The ministers discussed energy cooperation as well as international issues.
* Lao government officials, businesses and tour operators are engaged in discussions and preparations to launch the Visit Laos Year 2024 campaign to attract more visitors and boost its tourism sector.
* The European Commission is working on plans to speed up investment in capturing and storing carbon dioxide emissions, it said on Friday, as the bloc prepares to slash its net greenhouse gas emissions to zero by 2050.
* The United Nations announced on Friday that a unit of 60 Tanzanian military personnel deployed in the Central African Republic is to be repatriated, following serious allegations of sexual exploitation and abuse against these peacekeepers.
* A peacekeeper from the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) was killed in an attack that also left seven others seriously injured in northern Mali, the UN mission said in a statement on Friday.
* Ghanaian President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo on Friday said in Accra that the country aimed to reduce carbon emissions by about 64 million tonnes by 2030.
* Italian special forces boarded a Turkish cargo vessel on Friday after the crew detected a group of unidentified people onboard, some of them armed, Rome's defence ministry said on Friday, adding the operation was still under way.
* Al Shabaab militants claimed responsibility for an attack on an upmarket restaurant in the Somali capital of Mogadishu on Friday that left at least seven people injured.
