* Counting of votes for the next Indian president began in the capital New Delhi on Thursday. The voting took place on July 18 when the elected representatives cast their votes to elect the country's 15th president.
* Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi handed in his resignation to President Sergio Mattarella on Thursday after his unity government fell apart, plunging the country into political turmoil and hitting financial markets.
* Veteran politician Ranil Wickremesinghe was sworn in as Sri Lanka's new president on Thursday, a day after winning a vote in parliament and urging the island nation to come together to find a way out of its worst economic crisis in decades.
* Cambodia's economy is projected to grow by 5.3 percent this year, up from 3 percent in 2021, Chea Chanto, governor of the National Bank of Cambodia (NBC), said here on Thursday.
* The Philippine economy is forecast to grow faster than initially expected in 2022, following the relaxation of COVID-19 mobility restrictions, the expansion of the COVID-19 vaccination program, and a rebound in investment and household consumption, according to an Asian Development Bank (ADB) report released on Thursday.
* The Asian Development Bank (ADB) on Thursday lowered its economic growth forecast for Malaysia to 5.8 percent for 2022 and 5.1 percent for 2023, from 6 percent and 5.4 percent respectively. The bank said in its July report that increased uncertainty and weaker global growth are dampening Malaysia's prospects.
* Indonesian authorities are preparing transportation infrastructures in the Indonesia-Timor-Leste border area to strengthen connectivity and commodity distribution, according to a Ministry of Transportation statement released Thursday.
* Russia resumed pumping gas via its biggest pipeline to Europe on Thursday after a 10-day outage, the operator said, allaying Europe's immediate winter supply fears after President Vladimir Putin had warned that flows could be cut further or stopped.
* Stock markets eased on Thursday as a resumption of Russian gas supplies to Europe lifted the euro ahead of the European Central Bank's anticipated first interest rate hike in over a decade to quell inflation.
* Talks between Turkey, Russia, Ukraine and the United Nations on resuming Ukrainian grain exports through the Black Sea are going well so far, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Thursday, adding he was hopeful about reaching a deal.
* While global concerns over food insecurity grow, Istanbul is preparing to host a second round of talks in anticipation of a solid outcome regarding the safe transport of Ukrainian grain to international markets.
* Serbia and Egypt agreed on Wednesday to establish a strategic partnership and expand bilateral cooperation in diverse areas, especially in grain and cereal trade.
* Argentine Foreign Minister Santiago Cafiero on Wednesday called for unity and a global outlook for the Southern Common Market (Mercosur), during the 60th ordinary meeting of the bloc made up of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay.
* South African President Cyril Ramaphosa on Wednesday urged stakeholders to examine areas where transformation has been slow and implementation has been weak as the country reflected on progress in transforming racialized economy.
* The Irish government achieved a fiscal surplus of close to 300 million euros (about 305 million USD) in the first quarter (Q1) of this year, said the country's Central Statistics Office (CSO) on Wednesday.
* Hungary will scrap caps on gas and power prices for higher-usage households from Aug. 1, the government said in a decree on Thursday, which means many Hungarians will pay much more for the extra energy they consume.
* The Spanish government will not order consumers to limit their gas consumption, Energy Minister Teresa Ribera said on Thursday, after Spain said it would oppose a European Union proposal to cut gas usage.
* South African inflation surged to a 13-year high in June, data showed on Wednesday, moving further away from the central bank's target the day before an interest rate announcement.
* The Biden administration is planning to remove Nicaragua from the list of countries eligible for low-tariff shipments of sugar to the United States, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday.
* Uzbekistan's President Shavkat Mirziyoyev on Wednesday signed a decree to lift a state of emergency in the autonomous republic of Karakalpakstan, where at least 18 people were killed when security forces broke up protests earlier this month.
* New Zealand said late on Wednesday it had increased measures to prevent foot and mouth disease (FMD) from getting into the country after the disease was recently found in the Indonesian tourist resort of Bali.
* Two massive wildfires raging in southwestern France over the past week have evacuated at least 36,000 people from home and burned 20,600 hectares of land, French news channel BFMTV reported on Wednesday.
* Spain's Ministry of Health reported on Wednesday that 679 people had lost their lives in the first eight days (July 10-17) of the second heatwave that hit the country this summer.
* Mainland China reported 943 new coronavirus cases for July 20, of which 200 were symptomatic and 743 were asymptomatic, the National Health Commission said on Thursday.
* Europe is engulfed by a new COVID-19 wave as the number of new infections has tripled in six weeks, the Stockholm-based European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) said on Wednesday.
* Australia reported one of its highest daily death tolls from the novel coronavirus on Thursday while hospital admissions hovered near record levels, as authorities struggle to get ahead of highly contagious Omicron variants.
* Malta has reported the highest number of COVID-19 deaths and the highest positivity rate in Europe, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) said on Wednesday.
