* China firmly supports the building of the ASEAN Community, as well as ASEAN's central position in regional cooperation and its greater role in international affairs, Chinese Premier Li Qiang said in Vientiane, Laos, on Wednesday.
* Austrian President Alexander Van der Bellen said on Wednesday he was asking the leaders of the three parties that received the most votes in the country's parliamentary election last week to hold talks with each other on possible governing coalitions.
* Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Wednesday held phone talks with Japan's newly appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs Iwaya Takeshi. Iwaya said the new Japanese cabinet is willing to comprehensively promote the strategic relationship of mutual benefit between Japan and China and is committed to building a constructive and stable bilateral relationship.
* The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) will completely cut off roads and railways connected to South Korea beginning Wednesday amid the precarious situation on the Korean Peninsula, the General Staff of the Korean People's Army (KPA) was quoted by the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) as saying.
* A Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson on Wednesday called on all parties to work together to uphold peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula and advance the political settlement process of the Korean Peninsula issue.
* Lebanon is "on the verge of an all-out war," but there is still time to stop, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Tuesday. Speaking to reporters at the UN headquarters in New York, Guterres said the Middle East "is a powder keg with many parties holding the match."
* Finland's President Alexander Stubb will go on a state visit to China from Oct. 28-31 for meetings with Chinese President Xi Jinping and other senior government officials, the Finnish government said on Wednesday.
* U.S. President Joe Biden has postponed a planned trip overseas that will bring him to Germany and Angola later this week and will instead focus on the preparations for the expected landing of Hurricane Milton in Florida.
* Russia views fellow Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) nations as strategic partners and is committed to strengthening cooperation, the Kremlin reported Tuesday, citing President Vladimir Putin during a meeting of the CIS Heads of State Council in a narrow format.
* China and the European Union (EU) will continue to hold consultations regarding the EU's anti-subsidy investigation into Chinese electric vehicles (EVs), after the representatives of EU Member States last Friday voted to pass the draft final ruling on the case.
* Ukraine is set to receive a new loan of 35 billion euros (about 38.4 billion USD) from the European Union (EU) by the end of this year, the government-run Ukrinform news agency reported Tuesday, citing a senior EU official.
* Russia's Defence Minister Andrei Belousov and prime minister of Burkina Faso, Apollinaire J. Kyelem de Tambela, discussed in Moscow expanding military ties, the Russian defence ministry said on Tuesday.
* Sri Lankan cabinet approved an agreement to facilitate legally valid trade activities with Russia through transparent, predictable customs procedures, a statement from the government's information department on Tuesday.
* Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy signed a long-term cooperation deal with Croatia on Wednesday ahead of a Ukraine-South East Europe summit in Dubrovnik where he plans to discuss international efforts to bring peace closer.
* France will hold an international ministerial conference over the crisis in Lebanon on Oct 24 that will focus on the domestic political situation and humanitarian aid amid an escalation between Israel and Hezbollah, the foreign ministry said.
* Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez on Wednesday announced measures to make it easier for immigrants to settle in Spain, championing migration and its economic benefits even as other European governments have tightened their borders against newcomers.
* Latvian law enforcement authorities conducted a large-scale operation on Tuesday, apprehending 46 migrants and their two traffickers in a dramatic pursuit.
* French riot police will go to the southern town of Cavaillon, near Avignon, after the Cavaillon police station was attacked following an anti drug-trafficking operation, said French interior minister Bruno Retailleau on Wednesday.
* Early voting for Lithuania's parliamentary elections began on Tuesday and will continue for three days. According to Lithuania's Central Electoral Commission (VRK), polling stations in all 60 municipalities are open between 7 a.m. and 8 p.m. (0400-1700 GMT) from Tuesday to Thursday.
* Representatives from the Palestinian National Liberation Movement (Fatah) and the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) began talks on Wednesday in Cairo aimed at addressing internal issues in Palestine, high-ranking officials told Egypt's Al-Qahera News TV.
* The escalation of violence and destruction along the Lebanon-Israel border will neither solve the core issues nor bring security to any relevant parties in the long run, United Nations officials said Tuesday.
* Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi will discuss bilateral issues and efforts to secure a ceasefire in Lebanon and Gaza on his visit to Saudi Arabia Wednesday, a senior Iranian official said.
* British Foreign Secretary David Lammy will this week meet with leaders in Bahrain and Jordan as part of Western diplomatic efforts to prevent further escalation in the Middle East.
* More than 42,010 Palestinians have been killed and 97,720 injured in Israel's military offensive on Gaza since Oct. 7, 2023, the Gaza health ministry said in a statement on Wednesday.
* At least 60 people were killed in Israeli military strikes on Gaza on Wednesday, Palestinian medics said on Wednesday, as Israeli forces pressed on with a raid in the enclave's north where a U.N. aid official said hunger is spreading again.
* Nearly 2,000 Turkish citizens and family members prepared to leave Beirut on two Turkish navy landing ships on Wednesday, evacuating from Lebanon over fears for their safety as Israel expanded its operations against Hezbollah militants.
* Kuwait's defence ministry said on Wednesday that an F-18 jet had crashed and its pilot was killed while carrying out a training exercise in the north of the country.
* The Bank of Israel kept interest rates unchanged on Wednesday for the sixth straight meeting, staying cautious as Israel's year-long war with Hamas in Gaza and fighting with Hezbollah in Lebanon accelerates inflation and weakens economic activity.
* India's central bank announced Wednesday that it has kept the repo rate unchanged at 6.5 percent. Repo rate is the rate at which the central bank lends money to commercial banks in the event of a shortfall of funds.
* Remittances sent by overseas Pakistani workers increased by 29 percent in September on a year-on-year basis, the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) said on Wednesday.
* The New Zealand central bank reduced monetary restraint by cutting its Official Cash Rate (OCR) by 50 basis points to 4.75 percent, the lowest in 18 months.
* Chile's Consumer Price Index (CPI) edged up 0.1 percent in September, falling slightly short of market expectations and bringing the year-to-date increase to 3.5 percent, the National Statistics Institute (INE) said Tuesday.
* Mongolia will raise the monthly minimum wage by 20 percent to 792,000 Mongolian tugriks (approximately 234 USD) starting next year, according to the Ministry of Family, Labor, and Social Protection on Wednesday.
* About 350 international flights cross Afghanistan's airspace daily, the spokesman for the Ministry of Transport and Civil Aviation said.
* NASA and SpaceX are targeting no earlier than Sunday, Oct. 13, for the undocking of the eighth crew rotation mission from the International Space Station (ISS), NASA said on Tuesday.
* Australia and New Zealand are bracing for the arrival of a destructive bird flu strain by tightening biosecurity at farms, testing shore birds for disease, vaccinating vulnerable species and war-gaming response plans.
* The Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) has urged countries to refrain from implementing travel bans or movement restrictions targeting African countries amid ongoing outbreaks of mpox and Marburg virus disease.
* The past month was the second-warmest September on record globally and in Europe, the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) said on Tuesday.
