* The Slovenian government on Thursday approved a decision to recognise an independent Palestinian state, Prime Minister Robert Golob said, following in the steps of Spain, Ireland and Norway.
* Iran on Thursday started registration of candidates for an early election next month following the death of President Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash, Iranian Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi told state TV.
* The British parliament dissolved on Thursday in anticipation of the general election scheduled for July 4. The dissolution marks the conclusion of all parliamentary activities in both the House of Commons and the House of Lords.
* Venezuela's National Electoral Council (CNE) on Tuesday revoked an invitation to an EU mission to observe the South American country's July 28 presidential elections. The CNE said on Wednesday that the EU "aims to interfere" in the body's decisions.
* Jose Alfredo Cabrera Barrientos, mayoral candidate for the municipality of Coyuca de Benitez, was assassinated Wednesday afternoon at the closing of his political campaign in the southern Mexican state of Guerrero, local media reported.
* The 2024 Artificial Intelligence (AI) for Good Global Summit began on Thursday in the Swiss capital of Geneva. The summit is co-convened with the government of Switzerland and organized by the International Telecommunication Union -- a specialized agency of the United Nations -- in partnership with 40 UN agencies.
* China will in October host the International Association for the Protection of Intellectual Property (AIPPI) World Congress for the first time since the association was formed 127 years ago.
* Slovakia's Prime Minister Robert Fico is recovering from gunshots and his condition is satisfactory, the Government Office said on Wednesday.
* U.S. President Joe Biden will travel to Normandy and Paris from June 5-9 to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the Allied landings in Normandy during World War Two, the White House said on Thursday.
* Russia fired 11 cruise missiles, eight surface-to-air missiles and 32 Shahed combat drones at targets in Ukraine early Thursday, the Ukrainian Air Force said in a Telegram post. According to the post, the attack targeted military facilities and critical infrastructure across the country.
* NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg on Thursday said the "time has come" for members of the military alliance to re-consider some of the restrictions attached to the use of weapons they supplied to Ukraine in support of the country's fight against Russia.
* Hungary's Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Peter Szijjarto, who is visiting Belarus, said in Minsk on Wednesday that Hungary will not send troops to Ukraine, he is "horrified" by the idea of sending troops to Ukraine within the EU.
* Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has signed the document to suspend the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE), the National Legal Internet Portal reported on Wednesday.
* Ukraine is in talks with its European neighbours to increase the amount of electricity it can import to 2 gigawatts from the current 1.7 GW to cover power shortages caused by Russian air strikes, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said on Friday.
* Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez held a meeting on Gaza with a delegation of the Ministerial Committee commissioned by the Joint Arab-Islamic Extraordinary Summit in Madrid on Wednesday, one day after Spain's official recognition of Palestinian statehood.
* The Council of the European Union on Thursday gave the final approval of the EU-Kenya Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA).
* Israel has not given a response to France on Paris' proposals to reduce tensions between Israel and Lebanon's Iran-backed Hezbollah, France's foreign ministry spokesperson said on Thursday.
* Communication services have been cut off in Rafah in Southern Gaza due to 'the ongoing aggression', Palestinian telecommunications company Jawa said in a statement on Thursday.
* Two separate attacks involving sound grenades struck branches of American and British companies in Baghdad overnight Thursday, according to a statement from the Iraqi military's Security Media Cell.
* Finland's national statistics office announced on Thursday that the country's greenhouse gas emissions decreased significantly by 11 percent year-on-year in 2023.
* Google will invest 9.4 billion ringgit (2 billion USD) to establish its first data center and Google Cloud region in Malaysia, the tech company said on Thursday.
* The Philippines' debt soared to 15.02 trillion pesos (roughly 256.6 billion USD) as of end-April, a 0.61 percent increase from end-March, the Philippines' Bureau of Treasury said on Thursday.
* Myanmar earned 775 million USD from agricultural exports in over one month of the current 2024-25 fiscal year, according to the country's Ministry of Commerce on Thursday.
* Thailand's industrial output rose for the first time in 19 months in April due to higher exports, tourism expansion and last year's low comparative base, official data showed on Thursday.
* Unemployment in Brazil stood at 7.5 percent of the economically active population between February and April, marking a 10-year low for the period, the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) said Wednesday.
* Africa's average economic growth in 2023 fell to an estimated 3.1 percent, down from 4.1 percent of the previous year, as successive shocks weakened post-pandemic gains, the African Development Bank (AfDB) said in a report released on Thursday.
* The Israeli Energy Ministry announced on Thursday a reduction in fuel prices, marking the country's first such decrease since last March. Unleaded 95-octane gasoline will now cost 7.52 shekels (equivalent to 2.03 USD), down from the previous price of 7.90 shekels.
* Twenty-seven percent of Afghans remain in food crisis or emergency, an organization under the United Nations said on Wednesday. The Food and Agriculture Organization said it has distributed wheat seeds to at least 9 million Afghans since this year.
* At least 21 people were killed and 40 others injured, some of them critically, after a passenger bus on Thursday skidded off the road and fell into a deep gorge in Indian-controlled Kashmir, officials said.
* Mungeshpur area in the Indian capital on Wednesday recorded its highest-ever temperature at 52.3 degrees Celsius. According to the India Meteorological Department (IMD), the weather station at Mungeshpur recorded a temperature of 52.3 degrees Celsius at around 2:30 p.m. local time.
* Australia is expected to experience warmer than usual weather conditions in the upcoming winter this year, authorities reported on Thursday. In its latest long-range forecast, the Australian Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) said that temperatures during days and nights are very likely to be higher than average across the country from June to August.
* A volcano south of Iceland's capital Reykjavik spewed smoke and lava for a second day on Thursday although at a significantly slower pace, authorities said.
