CAIRO -- The Panamanian-flagged and Japanese-owned ship Ever Given on Friday crossed the Suez Canal for the first time since it blocked the waterway for six days in March, the Suez Canal Authority (SCA) said in a statement.

"The 400-metre, 220,000-ton container ship that was docked at the UK port of Felixstowe, has returned to Port Said on Thursday night," the statement. (Egypt-Canal-Ever Given)

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KUALA LUMPUR -- Malaysia's King Sultan Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah has appointed former deputy prime minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob as new prime minister of the country, the national palace said on Friday.

In a statement, the national palace said Ismail Sabri has received the backing of 114 out of the 220 parliament members in the lower house of parliament, a simple majority to form the government, hence Sultan Abdullah agreed to appoint him as the prime minister in accordance with the Malaysian constitution.

Ismail Sabri is scheduled to be sworn in on Saturday, the statement added. (Malaysia-New PM)

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SEOUL -- A U.S. nuclear envoy will visit South Korea on Saturday to discuss the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue with his South Korean counterpart, Seoul's foreign ministry said Friday.

Sung Kim, U.S. special representative for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is scheduled to make a four-day trip to South Korea from Saturday to Tuesday. (South Korea-U.S. Nuke Envoy)

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MADRID -- An unidentified person from southern Spain has been admitted to hospital with a brain disease caused by the West Nile virus, said local health authorities Thursday.

The person, from the small town of Coria del Rio close to Seville, capital and largest city of the Spanish autonomous community of Andalusia, was diagnosed with meningoencephalitis. (Spain-Health)