* Iraq’s parliament on Thursday elected Kurdish politician Abdul Latif Rashid as president, who immediately named Mohammed Shia al-Sudani prime minister-designate, ending a year of deadlock after a national election in October last year.
* Sweden's parliament will hold a vote on Monday on the proposed formation of a minority government led by Moderates party leader Ulf Kristersson, parliament's speaker Andreas Norlen told a news conference on Friday.
* Russia needs permission for its vessels to conduct investigations into Nord Stream pipelines incidents in the Baltic Sea, Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said on Friday.
* The European Commission on Wednesday recommended that Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) be granted European Union (EU) candidate status on the understanding that further reforms are taken, the commission said in a press release.
* Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi said on Thursday that foreign powers' interference in the West Asia region only adds to the existing problems, official news agency IRNA reported.
* Haiti is facing a humanitarian catastrophe as it struggles with malnutrition, gang violence, inflation, and a cholera outbreak, the World Food Programme (WFP) said on Friday.
* Pakistan's Minister for Commerce Syed Naveed Qamar said the South Asian country's government is committed to deepening political, diplomatic, and trade relations with all its neighboring countries.
* Ukraine has considered expanding the range of goods for exports via its seaports and stands ready to discuss the issue with Türkiye, the government-run Ukrinform news agency reported Thursday.
* China stocks clocked their biggest gains in five-and-a-half months on Friday, after a dramatic rebound on Wall Street overnight and China's central bank chief promised stronger support for the real economy.
* The US Labor Department reported Thursday that the country's consumer inflation in September surged 8.2 percent from a year ago, with core inflation soaring to four-decade high, cementing another big rate hike by the Federal Reserve.
* Japanese Finance Minister Suzuki Shunichi reiterated the government's readiness to take "appropriate action" against excessive currency volatility in the wake of the yen's fall to 32-year lows driven by red hot US inflation data.
* Singapore's Ministry of Trade and Industry announced on Friday that based on advance estimates, the country's gross domestic product (GDP) grew by 4.4 percent year on year in the third quarter of 2022, easing slightly from the 4.5 percent growth in the previous quarter.
* Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan has ordered the energy ministry to work on building a gas hub in Turkey following talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin on the issue, NTV and other news channels reported on Friday.
* Britain's trade department minister Greg Hands said on Friday there were "absolutely no plans to change anything" when asked about the government's mini-budget.
* Spanish Finance Minister Nadia Calvino welcomed news on Friday that Spain's inflation rate had dropped below 9%, and said she hoped the trend would continue.
* Russia's Gazprom will ship 42.4 million cubic metres of gas to Europe via Ukraine on Friday, unchanged from recent days, it said on Friday.
* Republic of Korea's automotive export logged a double-digit growth last month due to robust demand for eco-friendly vehicles, government data showed Friday.
* Saudi Arabia pushed other OPEC+ nations into an output cut last week, the White House claimed on Thursday, part of an escalating war of words between the two countries.
* The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) on Friday tightened its policy stand by re-centering the mid-point of the Singapore Dollar Nominal Effective Exchange Rate (S$NEER) policy band up to its prevailing level, leaving the slope and width of the policy band unchanged.
* Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo warned a cap on electricity prices called for by the opposition could lead to power being sold in other markets and blackouts in Belgium.
* A laboratory of India's Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) has developed a new single-step hydrogen-free desulphurization process to remove sulphur from crude oil, according to a statement issued by the Ministry of Science and Technology on Thursday.
* Driven by soaring energy prices, Germany's annual inflation rate accelerated to 10 percent in September, the highest level on record, the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) said on Thursday.
* The inflation rate in Portugal accelerated to 9.3 percent in September, the highest since October 1992, the National Statistics Institute said Thursday.
* Africa's airline industry could return to profit at the end of 2024, although the southern African region is lagging compared to the rest of the continent, a senior IATA official said on Friday.
* A representative for France's FNME trade union said on Friday that maintenance work at nine nuclear reactors split between five sites has been delayed due to a strike over wages.
* UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Thursday he will soon launch a plan for universal early-warning coverage for climate disasters.
* UN Special Envoy for Yemen Hans Grundberg said Thursday that the renewal of a truce agreement that has just expired remains possible and called for the engagement of the parties.
* The Sri Lankan government is to donate COVID-19 vaccines worth 40 million USD to Myanmar, Minister of Health Keheliya Rambukwella told journalists in Colombo on Friday.
* Residents of multiple communities in the Australian state of Victoria received evacuation warnings on Friday due to flood emergencies.
* As many as 4,500 health workers died in Brazil after contracting COVID-19 while working to save lives during the pandemic, a global federation representing public service workers said Thursday.
* An earthquake with a magnitude of 6.4 jolted 151 km ESE of Kokopo, Papua New Guinea at 22:20:20 GMT on Thursday, the US Geological Survey said. The epicenter, with a depth of 71.292 km, was initially determined to be at 4.7937 degrees south latitude and 153.5574 degrees east longitude.
* A total of 1,746 cases of lumpy skin disease in cattle have been reported in Mongolia so far this year, and 1,255 of them have been slaughtered, local media reported on Thursday.
