* International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director-General Rafael Grossi and some members of his delegation left the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant (NPP) in southern Ukraine on Thursday, the country's state-run nuclear energy operator Energoatom said.
* Iran has given answers to the US responses to its viewpoints on the EU's draft of a potential nuclear agreement, the Iranian Foreign Ministry said on Friday.
* Israel believes Western powers can reach a better nuclear deal with Iran, a senior Israeli lawmaker said on Friday, as attempts to revive a 2015 pact seemed near finalising.
* China's astronauts Chen Dong and Liu Yang have completed their extravehicular activities (EVAs) and returned to the space station lab module Wentian, the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) said on early hours of Friday.
* The number of births recorded in Japan between January and June 2022 fell to 384,942, a decrease of 5 percent year-on-year, according to the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare.
* Russian energy giant Gazprom GAZP.MM is poised to restart gas supplies via the Nord Stream 1 pipeline to Germany on schedule on Saturday after a three-day halt for maintenance, two sources familiar with Gazprom's plans said on Friday.
* OPEC+ is likely to keep oil output quotas unchanged for October at a meeting on Monday, three OPEC+ sources said, although some sources would not rule out a production cut to bolster prices that have slid from sky-high levels hit earlier this year.
* Three western Balkan states agreed to form a joint commission to help each other cope with the threat of energy and food shortages this winter due to ongoing crises amid the conflict in Ukraine, Serbia, Albania and North Macedonia said on Friday.
* Poland's ruling party leader said on Thursday that his country would seek 6.2 trillion zloty (1.31 trillion USD) in compensation from Germany for the destruction caused by the Nazis during the Second World War.
* The energy tariff shield introduced by the French government has helped to put the brakes on inflation in the country, the National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies (INSEE) reported on Thursday.
* Sri Lanka's parliament on Friday passed an interim budget with 120 votes for, five votes against and 43 abstentions.
* Spain's tourism sector continues to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, with the Spanish Statistical Office (INE) confirming on Thursday that the country welcomed 39.3 million international tourists in the first seven months of this year.
* Energy saving measures for individuals, companies and the public sector took effect in Germany on Thursday in response to soaring gas prices across Europe.
* Initial jobless claims in the United States last week dropped to 232,000, hitting a two-month low amid continued labor market tightness, the US Labor Department reported on Thursday.
* Mainland China reported 2,038 new coronavirus cases for Sept. 1, of which 373 were symptomatic and 1,665 were asymptomatic, the National Health Commission said on Friday.
* Russia recorded 50,952 new COVID-19 infections over the last 24 hours, the government's coronavirus task force said on Friday, the highest daily tally in almost six months.
* The Japanese government on Friday agreed to move forward with plans to introduce new legislation to comprehensively deal with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and future outbreaks of infectious diseases.
* The White House said Americans have increased requests for at-home COVID-19 tests as the federal government prepares to stop providing free tests on Friday.
* Denmark is preparing to go through the coming winter without any coronavirus restrictions even with an expected rise in infections, its health minister said.
* Canada authorized Moderna's bivalent COVID-19 shots for adults on Thursday, in the country's first approval of a vaccine adapted for the highly contagious Omicron variant of the coronavirus.
* Australia increased its intake of permanent migrants to 195,000 this financial year, up by 35,000, in a bid to help businesses and industries battling widespread staff shortages and reduce reliance on short-term workers. The COVID-19 pandemic closed the country's borders for nearly two years.
* A total of 18 people have been confirmed dead and 23 others were injured as a blast ripped through a mosque in Herat city, capital of Afghanistan's western Herat province on Friday, a local official said.
