* The UN General Assembly on Wednesday elected 18 members to the 47-member Human Rights Council for the 2025-2027 term. The 18 countries were elected by a secret ballot, and they will serve three-year terms beginning on Jan. 1, 2025, replacing members whose terms of office are set to expire on Dec. 31, 2024.
* Chinese Premier Li Qiang said in Vientiane on Thursday that the market has become the scarcest resource in the current economic development, and market resources are the most prominent advantage of China and ASEAN amid rising global uncertainties and instability.
* Representatives from Laos and Thailand have convened in Lao capital Vientiane to seek ways to boost bilateral economic and trade cooperation, setting a goal to double bilateral trade volume.
* South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Ishiba Shigeru were scheduled to hold their first summit on Thursday in Laos, Yoon's office said, as the neighbours seek to deepen security and economic ties.
* Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said on Wednesday that the European Union (EU) needs to change if the bloc wants to be able to face its challenges. Orban, whose country currently holds the rotating EU Council presidency, made the remarks at a European Parliament session in Strasbourg, France.
* Talks on the defense capabilities of EU member states were held between Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda and President-elect of the European Council Antonio Costa in Vilnius on Wednesday.
* Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy will travel to Paris to meet France's President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday as he looks to firm up Western support after suggesting that there could be an opportunity to end the war in the coming months.
* Senior officials on Wednesday called for accelerated efforts to eliminate trade barriers and build robust regional value chains to drive Africa's economic integration during the second edition of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Business Forum held in the Rwandan capital of Kigali.
* In recent days, Israeli authorities once again ordered more than 400,000 people who remain north of Wadi Gaza in the Gaza Strip to move south, while at the same time tightening access restrictions and expanding military operations in the north, UN humanitarians said on Wednesday.
* U.S. President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had a call on Wednesday amid tensions with Iran, while Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant promised an Israeli strike against Iran will be "lethal, precise and surprising."
* The expanding geographical sweep of the conflict in the Middle East to Lebanon is having catastrophic consequences for the region, the Kremlin said on Thursday.
* Israel's military said it had eliminated a Hezbollah member in Syria who relayed intelligence against Israel in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, while Syrian media reported on Thursday that Israeli airstrikes hit targets in Syria.
* Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi is visiting Eritrea on Thursday to discuss bilateral relations and efforts to strengthen stability and security in the Horn of Africa, Egyptian presidency spokesperson said.
* The Cypriot government has approved an urgent dispatch of medicine and other consumables for Lebanon, government spokesman Konstantinos Letymbiotis said on Wednesday.
* The New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) on Thursday announced details of its Court of Inquiry (COI) into the sinking of a navy ship near the southern coast of Upolu in Samoa.
* Cambodia exported products worth 19.83 billion USD in the first nine months of 2024, up 17 percent from 16.94 billion dollars over the same period last year, said a report from the General Department of Customs and Excise released on Thursday.
* Egypt is facing extraordinary economic strain from external factors, particularly the ongoing regional conflicts, Egyptian Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly said in a press conference in Cairo on Wednesday.
* The Philippine central bank said Thursday that foreign direct investment (FDI) into the Philippines rose 5.5 percent year-on-year in July 2024 to reach 820 million USD. The latest figure brought the January to July 2024 FDI net inflows to 5.3 billion dollars, a 7.5 percent increase from the same period in 2023.
* Malaysia's unemployment rate fell to 3.2 percent in August from 3.3 percent in the previous month, registering 558,500 unemployed persons, official data showed Thursday.
* Fitch Ratings announced on Wednesday that they may upgrade Sri Lanka's Long-Term Foreign-Currency Issuer Default Rating (IDR) from Restricted Default (RD) status once the country completes a commercial debt restructuring.
* Malaysia's natural rubber production decreased by 5.2 percent to 35,979 tons in August from 37,960 tons in July, official data showed Thursday.
* Mongolia's inflation rate, as measured by the consumer price index, stood at 6.7 percent in September, according to data released by the National Statistics Office on Thursday.
* Japan's weather bureau said on Thursday there were neither signs of El Nino nor La Nina phenomena at this moment, but it is approaching characteristics of La Nina.
