* Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said Friday that Brazil is working to become a full member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), according to the presidential office. Speaking in Jakarta during his official visit to Indonesia, Lula expressed hopes for stronger ties with ASEAN.
* Moldovan President Maia Sandu on Friday nominated Alexandru Munteanu, a finance and investment professional, as the candidate for prime minister. In a decree, Sandu expressed hope that Munteanu would form a government capable of gaining parliamentary confidence and addressing key national priorities, including maintaining peace, advancing Moldova's European Union (EU) accession efforts, strengthening the economy, and improving living standards.
* Voters in Cote d'Ivoire began casting their ballots on Saturday in the 2025 presidential election. At the Groupe Scolaire Plateau de Port-Bouet 2 voting center in Abidjan, many voters arrived before 8:00 a.m. (0800 GMT), the official start time, under the watch of police officers and gendarmes.
* The Chinese and U.S. delegations convened on Saturday morning for talks on economic and trade issues. The two sides will hold consultations on important issues in China-U.S. economic and trade ties in accordance with the important consensus reached by the heads of state of the two countries during their phone calls this year, a spokesperson for China's Ministry of Commerce said in a statement on Thursday.
* The Trump administration on Friday imposed sanctions on Colombian President Gustavo Petro amid deteriorating bilateral relations, accusing Petro of allowing drug cartels to "flourish," according to a statement from the U.S. Department of the Treasury.
* The U.S. military is sending the Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group and embarked carrier air wing to the U.S. Southern Command area of responsibility, Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell announced on social media Friday.
* European leaders and NATO's chief vowed Friday to step up sanctions on Russia and accelerate the delivery of long-range strike and air defense weapons to Ukraine following a "Coalition of the Willing" meeting in London.
* Venezuela's armed forces will not accept any government subservient to the United States, Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino Lopez said Friday during a visit to a military hospital in the capital Caracas. He urged Venezuelans to remember that some opposition leaders have previously called for foreign intervention and sanctions against the country.
* Yemen's Houthis have detained seven more UN aid workers in the capital Sanaa, taking them from their homes, a Houthi source told Xinhua on Friday.
* Palestinian factions, including Hamas and Fatah, announced an agreement on Friday to establish a temporary, independent body of technocrats to administer the Gaza Strip in the aftermath of the Gaza conflict.
* The Israel Defense Forces said in a statement that it struck and killed a senior Hezbollah commander in southern Lebanon on Friday.
* 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.
* China's central bank announced Friday that it will conduct a 900-billion-yuan (about 127 billion USD) one-year medium-term lending facility (MLF) operation on Monday to maintain ample liquidity in the country's banking system. The People's Bank of China said the MLF operation will be conducted via a fixed-quantity, interest rate-bidding and multiple price-bidding method.
* Uzbekistan's central bank said Friday that the country's real gross domestic product (GDP) growth is projected at 5.5 percent to 6.5 percent in 2026.
* Sri Lanka's apparel exports recorded a modest year-on-year increase in September, supported by stronger sales to the European Union (EU) and other markets, the Joint Apparel Association Forum said on Friday. Exports in September totaled 403.01 million USD, up 1.58 percent from a year earlier.
* Severe flooding affected more than 960,000 people in six states in South Sudan and displaced some 335,000 people, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said Friday.
