* President of Madagascar Michael Randrianirina appointed Herintsalama Rajaonarivelo as prime minister on Monday. This appointment comes three days after Randrianirina was officially sworn in as Madagascar's head of state on Friday.
* The Lao government has officially launched the country's fifth population and housing census, with data collection set to begin on Nov. 3, to gather accurate, up-to-date information to support policymaking and national development.
* Law enforcement authorities from China, Laos, Myanmar and Thailand on Tuesday launched their 158th joint Mekong River patrol mission to combat cross-border crime.
* The Republic of Korea's foreign ministry said Tuesday that it will continue cooperation with Japan under Tokyo's newly elected prime minister. Seoul's foreign ministry said in a statement that the government will closely communicate with Japan's new Cabinet and continue cooperation to maintain the positive momentum in relations between the two countries.
* U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright said Monday that approximately 1,400 employees with the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) have received furlough notices across the country as the federal government shutdown approached its third week.
* NATO is rapidly mobilizing resources for a war with Russia, said Sergei Naryshkin, director of Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service. Speaking at a meeting of the Commonwealth of Independent States held in Uzbekistan's Samarkand, Naryshkin said European states are expanding their defence industries, conducting regular mobilization exercises and increasing what he described as "propaganda" of a potential Russian threat.
* Russia on Tuesday dismissed reports of a postponed meeting between its Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, saying it is premature to talk about the schedule. Russian deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said that the issue of a meeting between Lavrov and Rubio was not raised in concrete terms during their phone conversation on Monday.
* Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced that his country is preparing a contract with the United States to purchase 25 Patriot air defense systems, the Interfax-Ukraine news agency reported Monday. Zelensky emphasized that Ukraine needs several of these systems urgently, while additional units will be required in the longer term as a security guarantee.
* Leaders of nine Mediterranean and Southern European Union (MED9) member states on Monday called for increased EU investments to help countries prepare for the challenges posed by climate change.
* The Cypriot government will seek stronger United Nations efforts to resume talks on Cyprus reunification following the election of a new Turkish Cypriot leader, government spokesman Konstantinos Letymbiotis said Monday.
* Bangladesh's Election Commission (EC) has announced it will deploy up to 100,000 Bangladesh Army personnel to provide security for the country's general elections slated for early next year. Akhtar Ahmed, the commission's senior secretary, made the announcement Monday, saying "between 90,000 and 100,000 army personnel will be deployed for the 13th national parliamentary elections."
* Hungary will use all political and legal means to block the European Union's (EU) proposed REPowerEU plan aimed at banning Russian energy imports, Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Peter Szijjarto said Monday in Luxembourg.
* Bulgaria's President Rumen Radev and his visiting Hungarian counterpart, Tamas Sulyok, stressed the two countries' mutual reliance, particularly in energy cooperation, during their meeting on Monday.
* Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda and Polish President Karol Nawrocki on Monday highlighted the strategic importance of the Via Baltica motorway for military mobility as they inaugurated an upgraded 12-kilometer section near the Polish border.
* Russia aims to increase the volume of non-resource, non-energy exports by 66 percent over six years compared to the 2023 level, Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin said Tuesday.
* European Union (EU) countries on Monday agreed their position on rules to gradually phase out imports of Russian natural gas, marking a key step in the bloc's efforts to end reliance on Moscow's fossil fuels under its REPowerEU strategy.
* Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Hassan Mahmoud Rashad, the head of Egypt's General Intelligence Service, met on Tuesday to discuss the Gaza ceasefire.
* Gaza's health authorities said Tuesday that they received the bodies of 15 Palestinians from Israel via the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), bringing the total received since the ceasefire to 165.
* The Hamas-run media office said Tuesday that only 980 trucks of humanitarian aid have entered the Gaza Strip since the ceasefire took effect on Oct. 10, far short of the 6,600 expected.
* Iran's Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Monday exchanged views on the situations in Gaza and Yemen.
* A senior Iranian security official said on Monday that Iran's cooperation agreement with the UN nuclear watchdog, reached in Cairo in September, has become void after France, Britain, and Germany triggered the "snapback" mechanism reinstating UN sanctions on Tehran.
* Protests broke out Tuesday in Cameroon's capital, Yaounde, as angry crowds accused authorities of fraud in the Oct. 12 presidential election. In several neighborhoods, demonstrators carried placards denouncing "electoral fraud" and a "stolen victory." Police and gendarmes deployed across the city dispersed the protesters with tear gas after brief clashes.
* Amazon's cloud services were recovering on Monday after going offline for hours, disrupting services for some popular websites and apps globally.
* More than 500 firearms and firearms parts have been seized and 45 people arrested by police in the Australian state of New South Wales (NSW) during a week-long operation targeting illicit guns.
* Cambodia has recorded 5.1 million international air passengers in the first nine months of 2025, a year-on-year increase of 14 percent, a report said on Tuesday.
* Pakistan has successfully concluded its fourth nationwide anti-polio campaign of 2025, vaccinating more than 43.9 million children under the age of five, the National Emergency Operations Centre (NEOC) said on Monday. The immunization drive was conducted from Oct. 13 to 19, covering all provinces and regions of the country, the NEOC said in a statement.
* The three major ports in Haikou, capital of south China's island province of Hainan, will suspend operations from Monday evening, as typhoon Fengshen, the 24th typhoon of the year, was upgraded to a severe tropical storm earlier in the afternoon.
* Australia has recorded its worst flu season on record, with more than 410,000 laboratory-confirmed cases reported so far in 2025, peak body data showed on Monday. The tally has surpassed last year's record of 365,000 cases, according to the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP), Australia's leading general practice organization.
