* The member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) pledged to toughen their stance against transnational crime, with closer cooperation being emphasized during the 24th ASEAN Senior Officials Meeting on Transnational Crime (SOMTC).
* The North Atlantic Council decided to appoint outgoing Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte as the next secretary general of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), NATO said in a statement Wednesday.
* Thailand held the final round of voting for the Senate election in the capital Bangkok on Wednesday, after the five-year term of outgoing senators ended in May.
* Iranian presidential candidate Alireza Zakani on Thursday pulled out of the country's presidential race, becoming the second nominee to announce his withdrawal ahead of the election scheduled for Friday.
* Laos' Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment has launched a national strategy on climate change towards 2030 and a booklet about climate change, aiming to build climate change resilience.
* China hopes Finland will adhere to the principle of free trade and play a constructive role in the European Union, China's commerce ministry said on Thursday in a statement.
* Japanese authorities will take necessary actions on currencies, Finance Minister Suzuki Shunichi said on Thursday, signalling readiness to intervene in the exchange-rate market after the yen's slide to a fresh 38-year low against the dollar.
* Commerce and trade ministers from the United States, Japan and South Korea vowed on Wednesday to cooperate on strategic issues including artificial intelligence (AI) safety, export controls, clean energy and semiconductor supply chains.
* The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) successfully conducted on Wednesday the separation and guidance control test of individual mobile warheads, the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said Thursday.
* Russia on Wednesday warned South Korea of its potential supplies of lethal weapons to Ukraine, saying it will "lead to a deterioration of bilateral relations."
* The Russian Strategic Missile Forces are conducting planned exercises involving the Yars mobile ground-based missile systems in the Irkutsk region of southeastern Siberia, local media reported on Wednesday.
* The European Union (EU) and Ukraine signed security agreements during a European Council summit in Brussels on Thursday.
* Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky signed a decree to enforce a decision of the National Security and Defense Council (NSDC) on the creation of new forces in charge of drone warfare, the General Staff of the Ukrainian army said on Wednesday.
* The UN Security Council issued a press statement on Wednesday condemning "in the strongest terms" the terrorist attack in Russia's Dagestan on Sunday.
* Israel stormed a neighbourhood in Gaza City on Thursday, ordering Palestinians to move south as the tanks rolled in and bombing the southern city of Rafah in what it says are the final stages of an operation against Hamas militants there.
* Defense Minister Yoav Gallant warned during a visit to Washington that Israel's military is capable of taking Lebanon "back to the Stone Age" in any war with Hezbollah militants but insisted his government prefers a diplomatic solution on the Israel-Lebanon border.
* At least 37,765 Palestinians have been killed and 86,429 wounded in Israel's military offensive on Gaza since Oct.7, the Gaza health ministry said in a statement on Thursday.
* France is extremely concerned by the gravity of the situation in Lebanon, said the French foreign ministry on Thursday, adding that it called on parties to exercise restraint.
* Satellite images showing much of the Lebanese village of Aita al-Shaab in ruins after months of Israeli air strikes offer a glimpse of the scale of damage in one of Hezbollah's main bastions in south Lebanon.
* Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia' al-Sudani and the commander of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) mission in Iraq discussed on Thursday cooperation between the two sides after the end of the U.S.-led coalition mission in Iraq.
* Tunisia sent on Thursday a plane loaded with 14 tons of humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip, the Tunis Afrique Presse (TAP) reported.
* The United Arab Emirates has instructed mosque preachers across the country to limit the duration of Friday sermons and prayers to a maximum 10 minutes as searing heat continues to engulf the region, the state news agency said on Thursday.
* There is a realistic chance of famine in 14 areas across Sudan if the war that began in April last year escalates, a global monitor said on Thursday, in a sharply worsening hunger crisis that the World Food Programme called the world's largest.
* The attorney general's office of Bolivia has accused former general commander of the Army Juan Jose Zuniga of terrorism and armed rebellion, following a failed coup against President Luis Arce on Wednesday, according to media reports.
* Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said he anticipated a "smooth" transition to the incoming administration with no risk of a currency devaluation that typically occurred during previous handovers.
* The First UN Tourism Regional Forum on Gastronomy Tourism for Asia and the Pacific kicked off on Wednesday in the central Philippine city of Lapu-Lapu.
* Oil-exporting countries and some partners on Tuesday called for more international cooperation on sustainable and equitable development at a Development Forum in Vienna.
* Nepal-China border trade more than doubled during the first 11 months of the current fiscal year, according to the latest data released by Nepal's Department of Customs.
* The Philippine government's economic team on Thursday revised the 2024 inflation target range to 3 to 4 percent from an earlier 2 to 4 percent forecast.
* Foreign investment into Malaysia recorded net inflows of 40.4 billion ringgit (8.58 billion USD) in 2023 while investment abroad registered 40.6 billion ringgit (8.62 billion dollars), official data showed Wednesday.
* The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has projected the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth for Bangladesh at 6.6 percent for the upcoming fiscal 2024-25.
* The International Monetary Fund said on Wednesday it was closely monitoring the situation in Kenya, where police this week fired on demonstrators seeking to storm the legislature to protest tax hikes with several left dead in clashes.
* Irish Prime Minister Simon Harris said a hoax bomb threat made to his home on Wednesday night is "utterly unacceptable" and that the intimidation of politicians and their families cannot be allowed to continue.
* The U.S. Treasury and the U.S. Agency for International Development are calling leaders of multilateral development banks into an urgent meeting on extreme heat and its devastating impact on developing countries, according to Treasury officials.
* Indonesian President Joko Widodo has warned that the country will face heatwaves and drought over the next four months, potentially leading to a food crisis.
* Turkey's Istanbul received nearly 7 million foreign visitors in the first five months of this year, setting a new record for foreign arrivals, according to data released by the Culture and Tourism Ministry on Wednesday.
