* South Africa's ruling African National Congress (ANC) said Wednesday that it has started engagements with major political parties in the country to form a national unity government after losing an outright majority of seats in the National Assembly in the just-concluded general elections.
* Peru's President Dina Boluarte will travel to China this month to meet with her Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping and leaders from mining, technology and transportation firms after the Andean nation's Congress on Wednesday granted permission for the trip.
* The Kremlin said on Thursday that Western nations which supply Ukraine with weapons to directly strike Russian territory will definitely face consequences after President Vladimir Putin said he was considering arming the West's enemies in retaliation.
* Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday that the development of Russia-China relations, based on profound common interests, is conducive to world stability.
* Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico said here Wednesday that he did not believe last month's assassination attempt against him was carried out by a lone madman.
* Ukraine's labor force decreased by 12 percent to 15.2 million people since the start of the conflict with Russia, the Interfax-Ukraine news agency reported on Wednesday, citing a recent report.
* Despite Western sanctions, Russia must be integrated in the global economy with countries that are prepared to work with it, central bank Governor Elvira Nabiullina said at Russia's flagship annual economic forum in St Petersburg on Thursday.
* Germany will tighten its rules so that the glorification of terrorist offences can be sufficient grounds for deportation, Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Thursday, after a series of attacks prompted calls for a stricter migration policy.
* Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas expressed appreciation for the people of Slovenia and its parliament after the European country recognized the statehood of Palestine, the Palestinian official news agency WAFA reported on Wednesday.
* Saudi Arabia on Wednesday hosted World Environment Day 2024 under the theme "Our land, Our future," with focuses on land preservation and drought resilience. Led by the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), World Environment Day is celebrated annually by over 150 nations worldwide.
* The United Arab Emirates has been committed to OPEC+, consumers and the market despite some media reports suggesting otherwise, energy minister Suhail Al Mazrouei told a panel in Russia's St. Petersburg on Thursday.
* Argentina's government plans to lay off 50,000 civil servants as part of a belt-tightening drive launched in December, Argentine President Javier Milei said Wednesday.
* Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry held phone talks with Iran's Acting Foreign Minister Ali Bagheri Kani on Wednesday, discussing the normalization of bilateral relations as well as the ongoing Israeli deadly offensive on the Palestinian Gaza Strip.
* Secretary-General of the League of Arab States (AL) Ahmed Aboul-Gheit on Wednesday called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and a broad operation to assist the people of the enclave who are living "on the brink of famine."
* Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said on Wednesday that any negotiations with Hamas would be conducted "only under fire."
* Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa said on Wednesday that his government is ready to operate the Rafah border crossing after the Israeli army withdraws.
* Somalia and the UN agencies wrapped up a three-day meeting on Wednesday in Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia, committing to building resilient livelihoods and transforming agrifood systems.
* The United Nations and its partners warned on Wednesday that millions of people in Southern Africa could be pushed into acute hunger during the next lean season, from October to February.
* The Sudanese paramilitary Rapid Support Forces attacked a village in Gezira State on Wednesday, killing at least 100 people, according to local activists.
* The U.N. World Food Programme (WFP) is expanding its emergency response in Sudan to an additional five million people by the end of 2024 to avert famine, the organisation said on Thursday, bringing the total to 10 million this year.
* More than 36,654 Palestinians have been killed and 83,309 have been wounded in Israel's military offensive in Gaza since Oct. 7, the Gaza health ministry said in a statement on Thursday.
* Turkish police have detained 72 suspects in nationwide raids over the past four days for alleged links to a coup attempt in 2016, Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said on Thursday.
* Yemen's Houthi group on Wednesday said it has launched missile and drone attacks against three ships transiting the Red Sea and Arabian Sea, the group's military spokesman said in a statement.
* An estimated 2 million children in the Philippines are suffering from severe food poverty, being unable to get enough healthy food, according to a new UNICEF report released on Thursday.
* The European Central Bank is all but certain to cut interest rates from record highs on Thursday and acknowledge it has made progress in its battle against high inflation, while also stressing the fight is not yet over given sticky services prices.
* Global investment in clean energy technology and infrastructure is set to hit $2 trillion this year, twice the amount going into fossil fuels, an International Energy Agency report showed.
* The ascender of China's Chang'e-6 probe successfully rendezvoused and docked with the probe's orbiter-returner combination in lunar orbit, and the lunar samples were transferred safely from the ascender to the returner on Thursday, the China National Space Administration announced.
* A person with prior health complications who had contracted bird flu died in Mexico in April and the source of exposure to the virus was unknown, the World Health Organization said on Wednesday. WHO said the current risk of bird flu virus to the general population is low.
* Advisers to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday unanimously voted in favor of recommending that COVID-19 vaccines for 2024-25 should target a strain within the lineage of the JN.1 variant that has been dominant this year.
* Severe drought and frost have affected at least 39 municipalities in Bolivia, destroying crops and forcing 13,000 families to leave their homes, a senior official said Wednesday.
* Indonesia's Mount Ibu volcano erupted again on Thursday, firing red bright lava and rocks into the night sky and triggering a spectacular display of volcanic lightning, the country's volcanology agency PVMBG said.
