* A royal decree was issued on Tuesday to reappoint Sheikh Ahmad Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah as Kuwait's prime minister, reported the Kuwait News Agency (KUNA).
* Russia is concerned about the recent calls to move U.S. nuclear bombs in Europe closer to the borders of Russia and Belarus, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said on Tuesday.
* New Zealand is negotiating a new type of partnership with NATO, which will likely cover areas of common interest including the international rules based order, climate change and cyber security, the country's foreign minister said on Wednesday.
* Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said Monday he has expressed concern over additional demands made by the European Union regarding its trade agreement with the Southern Common Market (Mercosur).
* Deputy foreign ministers from Russia, Syria, Turkey and Iran will meet in the capital of Kazakhstan, Astana, on June 21, Russia's RIA Novosti news agency said on Wednesday.
* Bahrain, which cut diplomatic ties with Iran in 2016 a day after Saudi Arabia did so because of attacks on the Saudi embassy in Tehran, is likely to resume them "sometime soon," the top U.S. diplomat for the Middle East said on Tuesday.
* Deepening political splits in Lebanon are expected to thwart an attempt to choose a new president on Wednesday, with the powerful Shi'ite group Hezbollah mobilising against a bid by the main Christian parties to elect a senior IMF official.
* Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a law on Tuesday denouncing the 2003 treaty between Russia and Ukraine on cooperating in using the Sea of Azov and the Kerch Strait.
* Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi arrived here in the Nicaraguan capital Tuesday for an official visit, during which a series of cooperation agreements are expected to be signed for closer bilateral ties.
* Saudi Arabian Foreign Ministry announced on Tuesday that it would co-chair a high-level international conference on humanitarian response to the conflict in Sudan.
* The Syrian army said that a fresh Israeli missile attack was launched after midnight Wednesday against Syrian military sites in the capital Damascus, seriously injuring a soldier.
* At least nine people have been killed in the latest clashes between members of rival ethnic groups in India's northeastern state of Manipur, police said on Wednesday, as security forces pressed on with a hunt for illegal weapons.
* An alleged Islamic State (IS) leader in Southeast Asia was killed in a clash with Philippine troops and police in the southern Philippines on Wednesday, the military said.
* A total of 531 Afghan refugees have returned from Pakistan over the past two days, Afghanistan's Ministry for Refugees and Repatriation said in a statement Wednesday. More than 2.5 million registered Afghan refugees reportedly have been living in neighboring Pakistan and about the same number in Iran.
* Argentina's president and the chief of the European Union signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on Tuesday to boost cooperation on sustainable raw materials during an event in Buenos Aires, in a push for more clean energy tie-ups.
* Russia is considering withdrawing from the grain export deal as most of the Ukrainian grain, instead of going to the developing countries as agreed, is being sold to the wealthy European Union nations, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday.
* The Biden administration hopes to buy back at least 12 million barrels of oil for the Strategic Petroleum Reserve this year, including six million already announced, a source familiar with the matter said on Tuesday.
* French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire will take a more stringent approach to public finances, he told the Financial Times ahead of a June 19 conference expected to unveil large cuts in public expenditures.
* Chancellor Olaf Scholz's government is set to unveil Germany's first National Security Strategy on Wednesday which aims to provide an overview of the country's foreign policy and ensure a cohesive cross-ministry approach to security.
* British economic output grew by 0.2% month-on-month in April, figures from the Office for National Statistics showed on Wednesday.
* At least 103 people were killed and many others missing after a boat capsized on Monday in the country's central state of Kwara, police said on Tuesday.
