* Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono on January 12 started his five-day visit to Russia, during which he will hold consultations on a peace treaty with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov.
* Iran's Foreign Ministry summoned Polish charge d'affaires to voice Tehran's protest at the European country's decision to host a conference that the US is going to hold against Iran next month, Tasnim news agency reported on January 13.
* Kuwait will host the third Kuwait-US Strategic Dialogue Session on January 15 with an aim of further cementing relations and cooperation between the two countries, the Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) said on January 12. The strategic dialogue will set a roadmap for cooperation between Kuwait and the US for the next 25 years in different fields, KUNA said.
* Jordan on January 12 called for international efforts to end the stalemate in the peace process between Israelis and Palestinians, state-run Petra news agency reported.
* The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) announced on January 13 morning that it has found another cross-border tunnel allegedly dug by the Hezbollah militant organization. The tunnel reaches a few tens of meters into Israel and stems 800 meters into Lebanon, the army said.
* Venezuela "clearly, passionately" follows the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations (UN) 2030 agenda, President Nicolas Maduro said on January 12.
* US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo held a telephone conversation on January 12 with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu on Syria issue, according to a statement issued by the State Department.
* Secretary General of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) Saeb Erekat slammed Washington's call for a conference over Middle East peace in the Polish capital Warsaw.
* Mongolia's National Agency for Meteorology and Environmental Monitoring on January 13 issued a cold weather warning.
* Chief of Yemen's military intelligence agency Brigadier General Saleh Tamah injured in a Houthi drone strike against an army parade died of his wounds on January 13, a government official told Xinhua.
* The death toll in Sudan's protests has risen to 24, said Amer Mohamed Ibrahim, head of a Sudanese government fact-finding committee in charge of investigating the recent protests in Sudan on January 12.
* The European Union (EU) said it has deployed a high-level election observation mission to monitor next month's general elections in Nigeria.
* A new powerful explosion hit the the state-owned oil refinery in Yemen's southern port city of Aden on January 12 evening, injuring at least 15 workers, a security official told Xinhua.
