* Russia will overcome all obstacles and achieve its goals in development, Vladimir Putin said Tuesday when he was sworn in as Russian president. Putin secured 87.28 percent of the vote in the 2024 Russian presidential election, which took place from March 15 to 17.
* Parliamentary elections and the second round of presidential elections kicked off in North Macedonia on Wednesday.
* The Lao government, in cooperation with a private company, is rolling out a forest carbon credit initiative in an effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from forest destruction and forest degradation.
* Cambodia exported more than 248,000 tonnes of milled rice in the first four months of 2024, earning a total revenue of 170 million USD, the Cambodia Rice Federation said in a news release on Wednesday.
* Thai Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin said on Wednesday that cannabis would be re-listed as a narcotic by end of 2024.
* Chinese President Xi Jinping and Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic on Wednesday signed a joint statement on the building of a China-Serbia community with a shared future in the new era, making Serbia the first European country to build such a community with China.
* China and France can seek harmony in diversity and make new contributions to world peace and development as well as human progress through dialogue and cooperation, Chinese President Xi Jinping said Tuesday.
* Russia said on Wednesday that sending NATO troops into Ukraine would potentially be extremely dangerous, and Moscow was closely watching a Ukrainian petition that called for such an intervention.
* The Ukrainian parliament on Wednesday extended the current martial law and general mobilization of troops for another 90 days, said parliamentarian Yaroslav Zheleznyak.
* Belarus has begun a surprise tactical nuclear weapons inspection at the request of President Alexander Lukashenko, the Belarusian Defense Ministry said Tuesday.
* Hungary will not participate in NATO's long-term plan to aid Ukraine, its foreign minister said on Wednesday, calling the plan a "crazy mission".
* German Chancellor Olaf Scholz stressed Germany's support for a Ukraine peace summit to be held in Switzerland in mid-June during a phone call with President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, a government spokesperson in Berlin said on Wednesday.
* Russian forces have taken over the village of Kyslivka in Ukraine's Kharkiv region and the village of Novokalynove in the Donetsk region, Russia's defence ministry said on Wednesday.
* Britain will expel Russia's defence attache, remove diplomatic status from some properties and limit the length of Russian diplomatic visas in response to what interior minister James Cleverly called Moscow's "malign activity".
* Russia will give an "appropriate response" to Britain's decision to expel the Russian defence attache, the RIA news agency cited Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova as saying on Wednesday.
* Japan, China and South Korea are preparing to hold a three-way summit in Seoul in late May, public broadcaster NHK said on Wednesday, citing government sources. Japanese Prime Minister Kishida Fumio will likely visit South Korea from May 26 and 27, the report said.
* Italy said on Tuesday that planes used by charities to track migrant boats in difficulty would no longer be able to fly from airports on the islands of Sicily, Pantelleria and Lampedusa that are close to the shipping routes.
* Israel sees no sign of a breakthrough in Egyptian-mediated talks on a truce with Hamas that would free some Gaza hostages, but is keeping its delegation of mid-level negotiators in Cairo for now, an Israeli official said on Wednesday.
* Hamas official Osama Hamdan warned on Tuesday in a press conference in Beirut that if Israel's military aggression continues in Rafah, there will be no ceasefire deal.
* President Joe Biden's decision to hold up delivery of high payload munitions to Israel was taken in the context of Israel's plans to carry out an offensive in Rafah that Washington opposes without new civilian safeguards, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said on Wednesday.
* More than 100 staff members of European Union institutions gathered in Brussels on Wednesday in a protest against Israel's war in Gaza. Protesters laid three rolled-up white sheets with red stains on them on the square outside the European Commission's head office in the Belgian capital.
* There is only enough fuel to run health services in the south of Gaza for three more days, the World Health Organization said on Wednesday.
* Israel announced on Wednesday the reopening of the Kerem Shalom crossing, a key entry point for humanitarian aid into Gaza.
* Aid for Gaza was being loaded onto a ship in Cyprus on Wednesday in what was expected to be the first cargo to be delivered using a U.S. pier built to expedite supplies to the besieged enclave.
* At least 34,844 Palestinians were killed and 78,404 injured in Israel's military offensive in Gaza since Oct. 7, Gaza's health ministry said in a statement on Wednesday.
* Sri Lanka's Minister of Foreign Affairs Ali Sabry on Wednesday announced that the government expects to finalize the foreign debt restructuring process by June.
* Eighteen people were killed and 32 wounded on Friday when at least five rockets fell on camps sheltering displaced people around the eastern Congolese city of Goma, the U.N. humanitarian agency OCHA said, updating an earlier death toll of 12.
* Some 1.33 million South Sudanese refugees have spontaneously returned home since the signing of a revitalized peace agreement in October 2018 to March 31, 2024, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said on Wednesday.
* Kenyan public hospital doctors on Wednesday signed a return to work agreement with the government meant to end a strike that started in mid-March, footage broadcast on NTV Kenya television showed.
* AstraZeneca AZN.L said on Tuesday it had initiated the worldwide withdrawal of its COVID-19 vaccine due to a "surplus of available updated vaccines" since the pandemic. The company also said it would proceed to withdraw the vaccine Vaxzevria's marketing authorizations within Europe.
* Sweden's central bank on Wednesday announced a 25-basis point cut of its benchmark interest rate to 3.75 percent amid weak economic activity. This is the first rate cut in eight years.
* Rescuers rushed to evacuate people stranded by devastating floods across the southern Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul on Tuesday, with at least 90 dead, thousands left homeless, and desperate survivors seeking food and basic supplies.
* The number of people who have lost their lives in the devastating floods and landslides triggered by heavy rains in Kenya since March has risen to 238, with 75 others still missing, the government said on Tuesday.
* A storm that hit northern Laos' Bokeo province knocked down electricity poles and affected power supplies in Huayxai and Tonpheung districts.
* Several places in India's western state of Rajasthan are in the grip of extreme heat, officials said Wednesday. According to India's state-run broadcaster All India Radio, in most of the districts, the maximum temperature is being measured above 42 degrees Celsius.
