MOSCOW -- Russia has declared five diplomats working at the Swedish Embassy in Moscow persona non grata in a tit-for-tat-move, the Russian Foreign Ministry said Thursday.

The ambassador of Sweden Malena Mard was summoned to the ministry, and was notified that Moscow had decided to expel five Swedish diplomats, including three employees working at the defense attache office at the Swedish Embassy in Moscow, the ministry said. (Russia-Sweden-Diplomacy)

- - - -

TOKYO -- A woman and two police officers were killed on Thursday in a stabbing and shooting incident involving a man armed with a hunting rifle in Japan's central prefecture of Nagano, local media reported.

The male suspect, after fleeing the scene, has holed up in a nearby building which is possibly the residence of a local assembly speaker, where multiple gunshots were heard at night, according to local media outlets. (Japan-Stabbing-Shooting)

- - - -

SEOUL -- The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) on Thursday denounced the establishment of a trilateral information-sharing mechanism among the United States, Japan and South Korea on the margins of the Group of Seven (G7) Summit in Japan's Hiroshima.

Leaders of the three countries recently reaffirmed the real-time sharing of a (DPRK) missile alert information, a mechanism they were committed to setting up last November, proving that "the project of establishing a tripartite information sharing system is being pushed forward at the final stage," the DPRK's official Korean Central News Agency said in a commentary. (DPRK-U.S.-Ties)

- - - -

GENEVA -- The World Health Organization (WHO) approved a draft decision on Wednesday calling on Israel to ensure adequate health care for those residing in the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem, and the occupied Syrian Golan.

The 76th World Health Assembly delegates passed the resolution with 76 votes in favor, 13 against and 35 abstaining. (WHO-Palestine-Resolution)