* At the invitation of President Lee Jae-myung of the Republic of Korea (ROK), Chinese President Xi Jinping will attend the 32nd APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting in Gyeongju and pay a state visit to the ROK from Oct. 30 to Nov. 1, the Chinese foreign ministry announced on Friday.
* The Cambodian government on Friday approved a draft budget of 40,913 billion riels (about 10.16 billion USD) for the government spending in 2026, up 7.8 percent compared to the 2025 expenditure.
* Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban called on Hungarians to stand with the nation against external interference in Budapest on Thursday, at a rally marking the 69th anniversary of the 1956 revolution.
* New U.S. sanctions on Russian oil companies will not significantly impact Russia's economic health, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday. Putin called the sanctions "an attempt to put pressure on Russia" and "unfriendly," adding that they do not strengthen Russia-U.S. relations.
* U.S. President Donald Trump said on Thursday that all trade negotiations with Canada were terminated because a "FAKE" Canadian advertisement was designed to influence the U.S. Supreme Court's decision.
* EU leaders failed on Thursday to agree on a plan to use frozen Russian assets to finance new loans for Ukraine, after divisions resurfaced at a European Council summit.
* Lithuania's Armed Forces said on Thursday that a Russian fighter jet and a refueling aircraft briefly violated the country's airspace near the southwestern town of Kybartai, which borders Russia's Kaliningrad exclave.
* Ukraine's state-run energy company Ukrenergo on Thursday imposed rolling power outages nationwide after recent Russian missile and drone strikes on energy infrastructure. Electricity restrictions will be in place from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. in 12 regions, the company said in a statement on Telegram. The measures will affect households, businesses and industrial users.
* The World Health Organization (WHO) in the Western Pacific region has raised alarm about the "sharp increases" in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) cases in the Philippines, Fiji, and Papua New Guinea in recent years, "with implications for national and regional security."
* Indonesia's Ministry of Public Works is accelerating the completion of 15 dams under construction this fiscal year as part of the government's efforts to strengthen food security.
* Despite a ceasefire in Gaza and an increase in aid, hunger and disease persist, putting children's lives at risk as the flow of aid remains only a fraction of what is needed, the World Health Organization (WHO) said Thursday.
* Delegations from Hamas and Fatah are currently meeting in Cairo to discuss arrangements for the post-war phase in the Gaza Strip, Egyptian TV channel Al-Qahera News reported Thursday.
* Egypt's intelligence chief Hassan Mahmoud Rashad met Thursday with Palestinian Vice President Hussein al-Sheikh in Cairo to discuss efforts to end the crisis in the Gaza Strip and stabilize the ongoing ceasefire in the enclave, Egypt's Al-Qahera News TV reported.
* Online scams have caused nearly 28 million euros (32.48 million USD) in losses to people in Slovenia so far this year, as authorities warn of increasingly sophisticated fraud schemes, according to police data released on Thursday.
* The Russian Central Bank cut its key interest rate by 0.5 percentage point to 16.5 percent annually on Friday.
* Uzbekistan's Central Bank said Friday it will maintain the policy rate at 14 percent to further curb inflation.
* Singapore's manufacturing output rose 16.1 percent year-on-year in September, according to data released Friday by the Economic Development Board. On a seasonally adjusted month-on-month basis, overall output jumped 26.3 percent.
* China aims to raise the average life expectancy of its people to around 80 years through efforts in the five-year period from 2026 to 2030, said the country's top health official on Friday. By the end of 2024, the average life expectancy of the Chinese has reached 79 years -- an extraordinary achievement among developing countries, said Lei Haichao, head of the National Health Commission.
* Sri Lanka's inflation is projected to settle at the Central Bank's 5 percent target next year, and the economy is expected to continue on a stable recovery path, Governor Nandalal Weerasinghe told the media in a press briefing on the Financial Stability Review 2025 held on Thursday.
* Sudan is facing one of the world's most severe emergencies, with more than 30 million people in need of humanitarian assistance, including over 9.6 million internally displaced people and nearly 15 million children, four UN agencies said Thursday.
* At least four people were killed and 12 others injured in an explosion at a train station in the northern Ukrainian town of Ovruch on Friday, the National Police reported. The explosion occurred at 10:50 a.m. local time (GMT 0750) during the passenger document check, when a man took out an explosive device that detonated moments later.
* The death toll from ongoing cholera outbreaks across Africa has surpassed 6,700 so far this year, the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) said Thursday.
* Mount Kanlaon volcano in central Philippines erupted on Friday evening, the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology said. The volcano remained at alert level 2, preventing people from entering the 4-kilometer permanent danger zone.
* Over 21,000 Sri Lankans have been affected by the current heavy rains, the Disaster Management Center (DMC) said on Friday.
* At least 20 people were killed and many others suffered burn injuries early Friday when a private bus carrying them caught fire after colliding with a motorcycle in the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, officials said.
* At least 14 migrants died after a rubber boat sank off Türkiye's southwestern Mugla province in the Aegean Sea on Friday, the Mugla Governor's Office said in a statement.
