* Japan would like to arrange a visit by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to Russia in September, its chief government spokesman said on Monday. Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told a news conference that leaders from Japan and Russia would need to talk directly because there were "issues between the two nations."
* The Republic of Korea (RoK) Defense Ministry said Monday that it was reviewing whether to maintain a military intelligence-sharing pact with Japan amid an escalating trade row.
* The Mexican government plans to take legal action in the name of the Mexican victims of a mass shooting in El Paso, Texas over the weekend, a senior official said on Sunday (August 4).
* The RoK's defense ministry said Monday that the country made no discussion, review or plan on the deployment of the US mid-range missiles on its soil.
* The aviation force of the Russian Defense Ministry has managed to extinguish forest fires on an area of 753,000 hectares in the Krasnoyark and Irkutsk regions in Russia's Siberia in the last four days, the ministry said Sunday.
* The Iraqi leaders on Sunday met with Egyptian and Jordanian foreign ministers after the two attended a tripartite meeting with their Iraqi counterpart in Baghdad.
* Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi and his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron on Sunday discussed regional issues of mutual concern, particularly the situation in Libya, over phone.
* Foreign ministers of Iraq, Egypt and Jordan held a meeting on Sunday in Baghdad aimed at boosting Arab relations and seeking to ease tension in the Middle East region.
* Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) has captured an Iraqi oil tanker for carrying "smuggled" fuel in the Gulf, official IRNA news agency reported on Sunday. Based on the video was availed to IRNA on Sunday, the vessel, carrying 700,000 liters of "smuggled" fuel to the customers in neighboring Arab states, belonged to Iraq.
* Argentine President Mauricio Macri said on August 3 that farming and agricultural exports play a key role in the national economy. During the inauguration of the 133rd Palermo Rural Exhibition in Buenos Aires, Macri said that export is at the center of the country's activities and that farmers are "the main protagonists of this economic recovery."
* Yemen's Houthi rebels launched drone attacks on several locations in Saudi Arabia on Monday, the group's al-Masirah TV said. The targets included the airports of Abha and Najran, and the King Khalid airbase in Saudi Arabia, according to al-Masirah TV.
* A total of 1,253 army officers and soldiers graduated from an Afghan military training center and were commissioned to the country's army on Monday, according to a military source.
* The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) on Sunday warned that domestic violent extremists could be inspired by recent mass shootings in the U.S. states of Texas and Ohio.
* Turkey's Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu called on all parties in the eastern Mediterranean to cooperate with Turkey to solve problems in the area. Turkey has sent two drilling ships to explore for gas in the waters off the divided island of Cyprus, prompting accusations from Greece that it is undermining security in the region.
* Iran will leave its 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Monday, if Tehran's interests were not protected by other parties to the pact.
* Nineteen people died and 30 were injured in an explosion resulting from a car crash in central Cairo, Egypt's health ministry said on Monday. There was no official statement indicating that the explosion was an attack.
* A 5.2-magnitude earthquake hit Choram region of Iran's western Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad Province early Monday, Iran's Seismological Center reported. Iran's Red Crescent Society has dispatched teams of evaluators to the region. Also, rescue operators are at the site of the earthquake to help affected people.
