* Chinese President Xi Jinping's just-concluded state visits to France, Serbia and Hungary have consolidated China's relations with the three European countries and relaunched China-EU cooperation, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said.
* Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday signed a decree, re-appointing Mikhail Mishustin as the Prime Minister, according to the Kremlin press office.
* Poland's Prime Minister Donald Tusk on Friday announced a partial government reshuffle, after accepting the resignations of four ministers who will be running in the upcoming European Parliament elections.
* Kuwait's Emir Sheikh Mishal Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah on Friday ordered the dissolution of the National Assembly and suspended certain constitutional provisions for up to four years, the country's state television reported.
* April 2024 marks the warmest April on record, according to new data released by NASA on Friday. April this year was 1.32 degrees Celsius (2.38 degrees Fahrenheit) warmer than the average April during the baseline period between 1951 and 1980 for NASA's temperature record.
* The administration of U.S. President Joe Biden said in a report Friday that it is "reasonable to assess" that U.S. weapons supplied to Israel may have been used in violation of international humanitarian law (IHL).
* Indian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Randir Jaiswal on Friday confirmed that all Indian troops previously stationed across three platforms in the Maldives have been redeployed back to India and replaced by technical civilian personnel.
* Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said on Saturday that Poland is starting work on further strengthening the entire eastern border, as the country faces what he called a growing "hybrid war" in illegal migration from Belarus.
* Oleksandr Pavliuk, commander of the Ukrainian Ground Forces, said the country will face a "critical phase of war" in the next two months, the Interfax-Ukraine news agency reported Friday.
* The United States on Friday announced an additional package of weapons and equipment for Ukraine worth 400 million USD.
* Washington said it was trying to keep Israel and the Hamas engaged "if only virtually" in Gaza truce efforts as a U.N. agency warned that humanitarian aid stocks in the devastated enclave have hit "the bottom of the barrel."
* Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong said on Saturday the country's support for a Palestinian bid to become a full United Nations member was part of building momentum to secure peace in the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.
* The UN Security Council on Friday called for investigators to be allowed unimpeded access to mass graves in Gaza.
* South Africa asked the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on Friday to stop Israel's military offensive in Gaza's southern city of Rafah.
* Israel called on Saturday for Palestinians in more areas of Gaza's southern city of Rafah to evacuate and head to what it calls an expanded humanitarian area in Al-Mawasi, in a further indication that the military is pressing ahead with its plans for a ground attack on Rafah.
* Protesters resumed their demonstrations in Amsterdam on Friday, marking the 5th day of pro-Palestine demonstrations in the Dutch capital.
* Governments around the world agreed to extend for another two weeks the talks over a landmark agreement on handling future pandemics, the World Health Organization (WHO) said Friday.
* Host to 500,000 refugees from neighboring Sudan, Chad needs food security and nutrition aid for one-third of its own 18 million population, UN humanitarians said on Friday.
* At least 34,971 Palestinians have been killed and 78,641 others wounded in Israel's military offensive on Gaza since Oct. 7, the Gaza health ministry said on Saturday.
* Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Friday directed the trade authorities to take urgent measures to enhance the competitiveness of the country's exports, the Prime Minister's office said.
* Foreign direct investment (FDI) that flowed into the Philippines grew year-on-year by 29.3 percent in February to reach 1.4 billion USD, the country's central bank said Friday.
* Canada's unemployment rate was unchanged at 6.1 percent in April, while the employment rate held steady at 61.4 percent, following six consecutive monthly declines, Statistics Canada said Friday.
* The death toll from heavy rains in Brazil's Rio Grande do Sul state has climbed to 136, local civil defense said on Saturday, up from 126 in the previous day, while another 125 people remain unaccounted for.
* More than 330 were killed as rainstorms and flash floods hit major parts of the provinces of Baghlan, Takhar, Badakhshan and Ghor of Afghanistan, according to the Afghanistan office of the World Food Programme and local Afghan officials.
* At least 267 people have been killed by flooding and landslides caused by heavy rains in Kenya since mid-March, the government said on Friday.
* An evacuation alert has been issued for Fort McMurray, Alberta, as an out-of-control fire rages southwest of the major Canadian oil town, making it among the first actions ahead of the wildfire season.
