* US and Chinese defence ministers met on Friday for their first in-person talks since the start of President Joe Biden's administration, trying to ensure that broader tensions between the two countries do not spill over into military misunderstandings or miscommunication, officials said.
* The credit rating agency Fitch Ratings on Friday revised the outlook on India's Long-Term Foreign-Currency Issuer Default Rating to stable from negative, while retaining the "BBB-" rating.
* Japan's business community issued a joint statement seeking further relaxation of border controls, as the country begins a gradual easing of COVID-19 travel restrictions.
* Russia will contribute to the normalization of the relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Thursday.
* Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Thursday signed two separate decrees imposing sanctions on Russian President Vladimir Putin and more than 200 Russian officials, the presidential press service reported.
* Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador reiterated his call on Thursday to modify the policy of regional exclusion, as the ninth Summit of the Americas takes place this week in the United States, amid the exclusion of Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela.
* Sweden will look to make constructive progress in talks with Turkey on Ankara's objections over the Nordic country's application to join the NATO defensive alliance, Foreign Minister Ann Linde said on Friday.
* British Prime Minister Boris Johnson's government will present legislation to parliament on Monday to unilaterally revise the post-Brexit trade arrangements for Northern Ireland.
* An International Monetary Fund (IMF) delegation will visit Sri Lanka on June 20 for talks as the country looks for a loan programme from the lender to deal with its worst economic crisis in seven decades, the prime minister's office said on Friday.
* Iran has told the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that it is removing 27 surveillance cameras from its nuclear facilities, the agency said Thursday, warning the move could deal "a fatal blow" to chances of reviving the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.
* The European Commission on Friday approved a 400-million-euro ($424 million) Portuguese recapitalisation scheme for companies impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, similar to other measures adopted by governments across the European Union.
* Norway's petroleum output could be reduced if workers go on strike on Sunday, the Norwegian Oil and Gas Association (NOG) said on Friday.
* China's commercial hub of Shanghai will lock down millions of people for mass COVID-19 testing this weekend - just 10 days after lifting its gruelling two-month lockdown.
* India's COVID-19 tally rose to 43,205,106 on Friday, as 7,584 new cases were registered during the past 24 hours across the country, showed the health ministry's latest data.
* Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Britain was out of sync with the other OECD countries' growth cycles because the country emerged out of the pandemic first and had a faster recovery.
* Diabetes may increase the risk of long COVID, new analyses of seven previous studies have suggested.
* The leaders of Australia and New Zealand vowed on Friday to take their ties to "a new level" through greater collaboration on climate change and regional security.
* Australian doctors and infectious disease experts have called for federal and local governments to renew focus on coronavirus ahead of an expected winter surge.
* A gunman opened fire on his co-workers at a manufacturing facility in northern Maryland on Thursday, killing at least three people and critically wounding a fourth before being taken into custody after a shootout with police.
