* At the invitation of President Xi Jinping, President of the State of Palestine Mahmoud Abbas will pay a state visit to China from June 13 to 16, Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Hua Chunying announced Friday.
* Russia will start deploying tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus after special storage facilities are ready on July 7-8, President Vladimir Putin said on Friday, Moscow's first move of such bombs outside Russia since the collapse of the Soviet Union.
* Japanese Prime Minister Kishida Fumio told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Friday that Japan will offer emergency humanitarian aid worth about $5 million after the bursting of the Nova Kakhovka dam, a Japanese government spokesperson said.
* Russia's foreign ministry said on Friday that it had summoned the Japanese ambassador over Tokyo's decision to supply military equipment to Ukraine.
* UN political chief Rosemary DiCarlo said Thursday that enhanced collaboration with the Arab League could potentially pacify conflicts in the Middle East region.
* Belgium will supply Ukraine with 105mm artillery rounds worth 32.4 million euros ($35 million), a spokesperson for Belgium's defence ministry said on Friday.
* The Sudanese government has declared that the UN envoy to the country Volker Perthes not welcome anymore.
* Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank were not an obstacle to peace with the Palestinians in an interview published Friday, testing ties between Washington and its main Middle East ally.
* Algerian Army Chief of Staff Said Chengriha on Thursday met with visiting Director of the Russian Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation Dmitry Shugaev to discuss bilateral military and technical cooperation.
* Japan's upper house of parliament on Friday passed a contentious bill to amend an immigration and refugee law allowing for authorities to deport foreign nationals who apply for refugee status multiple times.
* The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) said on Friday it was suspending food aid in Ethiopia due to the widespread theft of donations, a day after the United States announced it was doing the same.
* Intercommunal fighting in a camp housing displaced people in the northern part of South Sudan has killed 13 people, the U.N. mission running the camp said on Friday.
* The Philippine authorities on Friday evacuated people from the 6 km radius danger zone around the erupting Mayon Volcano in Albay province, approximately 500 km southeast of the capital Manila.
* A senior official from the African Union (AU) said Thursday that the continental body was on course with its plans to introduce a single African currency.
* Pakistan's government is seen targeting a fiscal deficit of 7.7% of GDP for the 2023-24 fiscal year, a source told Reuters on Friday ahead of the finance minister's budget speech, much wider than the current year's original estimate of 4.9%.
* The German government does not plan to extend a levy on electricity companies' windfall profits beyond the end of this month, according to a document seen by Reuters on Friday.
* Organised crime could face tougher EU rules on illegal profits, including those gained by breaking sanctions, as member states look to harmonise relevant laws under a draft directive agreed on Friday.
* Ukraine's gross domestic product fell by 10.5% in the first quarter of the year compared with the same period a year ago, the economy ministry said on Friday.
* Malaysia's unemployment rate in April stood at 3.5 percent, while the number of unemployed persons reduced further to 586,900 from 588,700 in the previous month, official data showed Friday.
* The Philippine government on Friday narrowed average inflation targets for 2023 to 5 to 6 percent from the previous assumption range of 5 to 7 percent due to consistent slowdown in inflation over the past four months.
* Pakistan's real gross domestic product (GDP) grew 0.29 percent in fiscal year 2022-2023 (July 2022-June 2023) despite challenges from devastating floods, macroeconomic imbalance, and global slowdown dampening economic growth, Pakistan Economic Survey 2022-23 said Thursday.
* Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on Thursday hailed here the current strength of the Mexican peso against the dollar and declining inflation, saying it was partly due to policies to contain prices.
* The International Monetary Fund (IMF) released its yearly assessment of Norway's economy and economic policies on Thursday, praising the Nordic country's robust economic performance.
* The General Authority of the Suez Canal Economic Zone (SCZone) in Egypt said on Thursday that the zone has attracted 2.5 billion USD of foreign investment from July 2022 to May 2023.
* The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared the end of Marburg virus disease outbreak in Equatorial Guinea.
