President Vladimir Putin said on June 17 he accepted the United States was probably still the world's sole superpower and he was ready to work with whoever won the presidency, but didn't want to be told how to live by Americans.

Politicians in Kiev worry that a vote by Britain to leave the European Union would weaken the EU's support for Ukraine and undermine its resolve to stand up to Russia.

The U.S. administration sought on June 17 to contain fallout from a leaked internal memo critical of its Syria policy, but showed no sign it was willing to consider military strikes against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's forces called for in the letter signed by dozens of American diplomats.

President Barack Obama on June 16 met survivors of a massacre at an Orlando gay nightclub and relatives of the 49 people killed and said the United States must act to control gun violence and fight what he called homegrown terrorism.

Air strikes hit rebel-held parts of Aleppo just hours into an announced 48-hour ceasefire and fighting carried on in and around the northern Syrian city, monitors and witnesses said.

Tens of thousands of civilians stranded inside Islamic State-controlled Falluja are at risk of disease outbreaks as Iraqi government forces press their assault to retake the city, World Health Organization (WHO) official Ala Alwan said on June 16.

A British member of parliament was shot dead in the street on June 16, causing deep shock across Britain and the suspension of campaigning for next week's referendum on the country's EU membership.

The NATO alliance agreed on June 15 to hold onto its broad geographic layout of bases in Afghanistan, a move that could make it easier for the United States to keep more troops there as Kabul struggles with a resurgent Taliban threat.

The United Nations will not disclose to a Saudi Arabia-led coalition sensitive sources of information that led the world body to briefly blacklist it for maiming and killing children in Yemen, a UN spokesman said on June 15.

Venezuela and the United States will immediately start talks to ease tensions between the two countries and does not support its ouster from a regional diplomatic bloc, US Secretary of State John Kerry said on June 14 after meeting his counterpart from the OPEC nation.