* Speaking at a ministerial preparatory meeting on Tuesday ahead of COP31 (Pre-COP31) in Nadi (Fiji), Murat Kurum, president-designate of the 31st Conference of the Parties (COP31) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, called on the international community to accelerate climate action and curb the rise in global temperatures.
* Haiti's Provisional Electoral Council has extended the deadline for candidate registration to Oct. 31 and postponed the start of campaigning for presidential and legislative elections scheduled for December, local media reported Tuesday.
* Europe is "obsessed" with militarizing the European Union (EU) to transform the economic bloc into a military-political one, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday. Russia remains on guard and closely monitors the situation after France tested a new nuclear missile, he said.
* Russian forces carried out multiple overnight strikes on Ukrainian military-industrial enterprises in several regions, including Flamingo missile facilities, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Wednesday.
* U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Wednesday announced a new security cooperation memorandum with Greece, covering counterterrorism and information-sharing between the two countries' law enforcement authorities.
* Mexico will continue coordinated "mirror" operations with the United States along their shared border in Tamaulipas state to avoid incidents following a reported shooting involving U.S. Coast Guard personnel in the area, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said Tuesday.
* Some 256,000 people took to the streets across France on Tuesday, including 56,000 in Paris, in solidarity with high school students who have been blocking their schools since mid-September to demand more funding for education, according to a tally by the French Ministry of the Interior.
* Republic of Korea's homegrown space rocket, Nuri, successfully blasted off on Wednesday but failed to deploy one of its 15 onboard satellites into orbit, the aerospace authorities confirmed, correcting an earlier announcement that all payloads were delivered.
* Pakistan on Tuesday successfully test-fired an extended version of the indigenously developed Fatah-4 ground-launched cruise missile, the country's military said.
* Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet said on Wednesday that the government has injected nearly 500 million USD in subsidies to cushion the domestic impact of soaring global fuel prices driven by ongoing conflicts in the Middle East.
* Myanmar exported 971,662 tonnes of rice and broken rice in the first six months of the current fiscal year 2026-27, which began in April, according to the Myanmar Rice Federation on Wednesday. The country earned about 338 million USD from exports of rice and broken rice during the period, the federation said.
* Indonesia plans to expand sugarcane plantations and develop other feedstock sources to support its planned gasoline blend containing 20 percent bioethanol, known as the E20 program, Zulkifli Hasan, the country's coordinating minister for food affairs, said Tuesday.
* The Israeli government has declined permits for Palestinian Central Elections Commission (CEC) teams to enter Gaza and East Jerusalem to monitor preparations for legislative elections, the Palestinian News and Information Agency (WAFA) reported Tuesday.
* Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani met visiting Iranian Interior Minister Eskandar Momeni on Tuesday and discussed the latest regional developments and efforts to de-escalate tensions.
* Qatar said Tuesday that negotiations and exchanges of messages among parties to the regional conflict are continuing through Doha and its regional partners.
* A senior Iranian military advisor has said the country will soon close the routes created by "violators" in the Strait of Hormuz.
* The Israeli military said Wednesday that it has struck about 100,000 targets across the Middle East since October 2023 and expanded its reserve forces by 36 percent, outlining the scale of its operations on the conflict's third anniversary.
* Yemen's Houthi group said Wednesday that it launched ballistic missiles targeting Saudi military supplies at a camp near Aden International Airport, hours after the Yemeni government accused the group of attacking the civilian airport and forcing a passenger flight to divert.
* The Saudi-led coalition intercepted and destroyed a ballistic missile launched by Yemen's Houthi group toward the southwestern Saudi city of Khamis Mushait, the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported early Wednesday.
* International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said on Wednesday that even if the conflict in the Gulf were to end soon, high energy prices would likely persist for some time.
* India's central bank, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), raised the repo rate by 25 basis points to 5.5 percent, as a result of which house loans, personal loans and car loans' equated monthly installments (EMIs) were expected to go up in the days ahead.
* The Portuguese economy is projected to grow by 2.3 percent in 2026, accelerating from previous estimates, the Bank of Portugal said Wednesday in its latest economic bulletin.
* Singapore's central bank on Wednesday issued guidelines setting out supervisory expectations for financial institutions to manage risks arising from the use of artificial intelligence (AI), while allowing firms to tailor their approaches according to their risk profiles.
* The Philippines' unemployment rate fell to 5.3 percent in August from 6 percent in July, according to the country's statistics authority on Wednesday. The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said about 2.77 million Filipinos were unemployed in August, down from 3.14 million in July.
* Hungary's consumer price index (CPI) rose by 1.6 percent year-on-year in September, accelerating from 1.3 percent in August, according to data released Wednesday by the Hungarian Central Statistical Office (KSH).
* Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet on Wednesday expressed concern over a recent surge in electronic cigarette or vape use, ordering authorities to strictly enforce the country's existing import bans on these products.
* Singapore will incorporate COVID-19 vaccination into its national childhood and adult immunization schedules from Oct. 12, as the virus continues to circulate and pose a risk of severe disease, particularly among older and medically vulnerable people, the Ministry of Health said on Wednesday.
* Thailand's flood-related death toll has risen to 60 as of 6 a.m. Wednesday, the Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation reported. Flooding still persists in Bangkok and 27 other provinces, with some 1.15 million households currently affected, it added.
* More than 1,000 confirmed measles cases have been reported in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania in 2026, with five deaths and 198 hospitalizations, making it the largest state measles outbreak in more than three decades, according to state health officials.
