* General Secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and Chinese President Xi Jinping has urged the country's state-level economic and technological development zones to continuously stimulate innovation vitality and endogenous momentum and promote high-standard opening up for in-depth reform and high-quality development.
* Cambodia has raised 26.3 million USD from charitable people for border infrastructure development as the fundraising campaign will be concluded by month's end, said an official announcement on Sunday.
* Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva was hospitalized in Brasilia after sustaining a bruise to the head in an accident at home on Saturday, thereby canceling his planned trip to Russia to participate in the upcoming BRICS Summit, the president's office announced Sunday.
* President Vladimir Putin told the visiting president of the United Arab Emirates on Sunday that relations between the two states amounted to a "strategic partnership" and thanked him for mediation efforts in exchanging prisoners of war with Ukraine.
* The U.S. military has rushed its advanced anti-missile system to Israel and it is now "in place", U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said.
* U.S. envoy Amos Hochstein will hold talks with Lebanese officials in Beirut on Monday on conditions for a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah, two sources told Reuters, as Israel expanded its air campaign on the group's assets overnight.
* Iran's foreign minister Abbas Araqchi will travel to Bahrain and Kuwait on Monday, ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said at a weekly press conference.
* The Al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, announced on Sunday that they had killed and wounded Israeli soldiers in several operations in the northern Gaza Strip.
* Iran has written to the U.N. nuclear watchdog to complain about Israel's threats against its nuclear sites, foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said on Monday at a weekly news conference.
* The United States is investigating the leak of a pair of highly classified intelligence documents describing Israel's preparations for a retaliatory strike on Iran, House Speaker Mike Johnson said on Sunday.
* Syrian President Bashar al-Assad met with visiting Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi in Syria's capital Damascus on Sunday to discuss a range of issues, with a primary focus on facilitating the return of Syrian refugees.
* Over 230 migrants were rescued from one flimsy boat on Sunday in seas off Spain's Canary Islands, coastguards said. Fourteen women and three children were found in the same boat which contained a total of 231 people, rescuers said.
* Greece has recovered the bodies of two migrants - a man and a woman - who had been missing after a boat sank off the island of Samos in the Aegean Sea, the country's coastguard said on Monday.
* Sudan and South Sudan on Sunday stressed the need to address the obstacles facing the resumption of South Sudan's oil exports via the Sudanese territory.
* Thailand's investment applications between January and September rose 42 percent from a year earlier to a combined 722.52 billion baht (21.62 billion USD), marking a record high in a decade due to a major surge in foreign investments, official data showed on Monday.
* Myanmar's manufacturing sector attracted foreign direct investment of 81.7 million USD in the first half of the current fiscal year 2024-2025, the state-run Global New Light of Myanmar reported on Sunday.
* Egypt has revised its renewable energy target for 2040 down to 40% from a previous goal of 58%, Petroleum Minister Karim Badawi said on Sunday, underscoring that natural gas will remain a key part of the country's energy mix for years.
* The World Health Organization said on Sunday it had certified Egypt as malaria free, marking the elimination of a disease that had been present in the country since ancient times.
* Floods in Bangladesh have destroyed an estimated 1.1 million metric tons of rice, according to data from the agriculture ministry, prompting the country to ramp up imports of the staple grain amid soaring food prices.
* A crude bomb blast took place in New Delhi in the early hours of Sunday morning, though no injuries were reported. Soon after the incident, the whole area was cordoned off, and investigating agencies were probing to ascertain the nature of the bomb.
* Four people including a child were killed after a helicopter carrying them crashed into a radio tower on Sunday night in Houston, the largest city of the U.S. state of Texas, Houston Mayor John Whitmire confirmed.
