* Sri Lankan President Anura Kumara Dissanayake's leftist coalition won a thumping victory in a snap general election, gaining power to push through his plans to fight poverty and graft in the island nation recovering from a financial meltdown.
* The Kremlin said on Friday that Russia had a special strategic partnership with China and that Moscow intends to develop its relationship with Beijing in all areas. A visit to China by Russian Security Council Secretary Sergei Shoigu this week aimed to deepen the partnership, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
* German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke on the phone for an hour on Friday afternoon, a German government source said on Friday. Scholz and Putin last spoke directly in December 2022, the government said.
* The Chinese and Singaporean militaries will hold the Exercise Cooperation-2024 joint army training in central China's Henan Province in late November, a Chinese defense spokesperson said on Friday.
* Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos Jr directed authorities on Friday to stock up on food and other supplies in advance as Typhoon Man-yi threatened to hit the capital region.
* Nepal started to export electricity to Bangladesh on Friday, marking the first time for the Himalayan country to do so to a third country other than India.
* Belarus is willing to resume cooperation with the European Union (EU) at the border regarding illegal migration, said Foreign Minister Maxim Ryzhenkov here at an international conference on Friday.
* The head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog visited two Iranian nuclear sites on Friday as part of a visit to Iran, ahead of an expected European diplomatic push over Tehran's atomic activities before Donald Trump's return to the White House.
* The leader of Spain's Valencia region defended his handling of catastrophic floods that killed more than 200 people, saying on Friday he did everything possible in the face of a "monstrous avalanche of water that exceeded all weather forecasts".
* Iran backs any decision taken by Lebanon in talks to secure a ceasefire with Israel, a senior Iranian official said on Friday, signalling Tehran wants to see an end to a conflict that has dealt heavy blows to its Lebanese ally Hezbollah.
* The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) said on Thursday that a patrol near the village of Qalaouiyah was fired upon by two or three unidentified individuals, with roughly 30 shots directed at the peacekeepers.
* Israel carried out attacks on the Mazzeh suburb of Damascus on Friday, Syrian state news agency SANA said, a day after a wave of deadly strikes on what Israel said were militant targets in the Syrian capital.
* Some 43,764 Palestinians have been killed and 103,490 injured in Israel's military offensive on Gaza since Oct. 7, 2023, the Gaza health ministry said in a statement on Friday.
* Russian gas producer Gazprom GAZP.MM said it would send 42.4 million cubic metres of gas to Europe via Ukraine on Friday, the same volume as on Thursday.
* Japan's economy grew an annualized 0.9 percent in July-September from the prior period, expanding for the second straight quarter, government data showed Friday.
* South Korea's finance ministry saw a modest economic recovery Friday, despite lingering uncertainties at home and abroad.
* Russia's GDP rose by 4.2 percent in the first nine months of 2024 despite the ongoing sanctions pressure, Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin said Thursday.
* The German economy is expected to significantly underperform the eurozone average until at least 2026, according to the European Commission's Autumn Forecast released on Friday.
* Ukraine has harvested some 71.4 million tons of crops from this year's yield as of mid-November, the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food said on Friday. Since the start of the 2024 harvest season, Ukrainian farmers have gathered 52.1 million tons of grain and 19.3 million tons of oilseeds.
* Indonesia's trade surplus fell to 2.48 billion USD in October from 3.26 billion dollars in the previous month, according to Statistics Indonesia (BPS) on Friday.
* Personal remittances from overseas Filipinos reached 3.34 billion USD in September 2024, 3.3 percent higher than the 3.23 billion dollars recorded in September 2023, the Philippine central bank said Friday.
* Australia's unemployment rate remained steady at 4.1 percent in October for the third consecutive month. According to the latest data released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, the official unemployment rate was 4.1 percent in October.
* The Fiji economy is now forecast to grow by 3.8 percent this year, an upward revision from the 2.8 percent projected in June. The upgrade in economic growth reflects notable improvements in several partial indicators from the middle of the year.
* Turkey could see a relative economic recovery starting in the second half of 2025, said Turkish Finance Minister Mehmet Simsek on Friday, citing easing inflationary pressures and improving global economic conditions.
* Singapore Airlines (SIA) transported more than 2.24 million passengers in October, up 12.9 percent year-on-year, according to its latest operating statistics. The cargo loads of SIA Group increased 20.2 percent year-on-year last month on the back of higher peak season shipments and freighter charters.
* The World Food Programme (WFP), an international organization within the UN that provides food assistance worldwide, on Thursday urged safe passage for food aid to Sudan's North Darfur and South Kordofan states.
* Three months after the declaration of mpox as a public health emergency of continental security, the spread of the virus is not slowing as the number of cases reported so far this year surpassed 53,000, the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) has warned.
* An earthquake of a 6.5 magnitude struck Indonesia's Papua province on Friday, the geophysics agency said, adding there was no tsunami potential. The agency said the quake's epicentre was at a depth of 10 km (6.21 miles).
