* The elections for regional assemblies and one-third of the Senate seats began in the Czech Republic on Friday afternoon. Over 8,200 candidates are running for the 675 regional council seats and 169 registered candidates are vying for 27 seats in the 81-seat Senate, the upper house of the Czech Parliament.
* Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday held talks with Malaysia's King Sultan Ibrahim Sultan Iskandar in Beijing, pledging to work with Malaysia to bring the building of a China-Malaysia community with a shared future to a new level.
* Russia and China started naval exercises in the Sea of Japan on Saturday, Russian news agencies cited Russia's Pacific Fleet as saying.
* Chinese Ambassador to India Xu Feihong has voiced hope for positive measures from India in resuming direct flights between the two countries.
* UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres spoke to Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on Friday morning by phone, discussing the political situation in Venezuela, a UN spokesman said.
* The U.S. House of Representatives on Friday unanimously approved a bill that aims to enhance Secret Service protection for the presidential nominees and their respective vice presidential candidates, days after the second assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump.
* Russia's air defenses intercepted and destroyed 101 Ukrainian drones over the past night, the Russian Defense Ministry said Saturday.
* The European Union (EU) will provide Ukraine with a new loan of up to 35 billion euros (about 39 billion USD), European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Friday.
* The development of Hungarian-Russian economic cooperation is in Hungary's national interest, the country's Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Peter Szijjarto said in Budapest on Friday.
* Russia will complete its investigation into the "terrorist attacks" on the Nord Stream pipelines to ensure that the truth about the incident is made public, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said on Friday.
* Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala on Friday met with visiting South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol on deepening economic relations and developing scientific and technical cooperation.
* A top United Nations official on Friday urged all countries with influence over Israel and Lebanese militant group Hezbollah "to leverage it now" to avoid an escalation of Middle East violence that she warned could dwarf the devastation seen so far.
* Cyprus's president called for restraint over escalating tensions in the Middle East in separate telephone conversations with the Lebanese and Israeli prime ministers on Saturday, his spokesperson said in a statement.
* At least 31 people died in an Israeli airstrike on a Beirut suburb on Friday, the Lebanese health ministry said on Saturday, including three children and seven women, in the deadliest strike in a year of conflict between Hezbollah and Israel.
* At least 16 Hezbollah militants were eliminated in an Israeli strike in Beirut on Friday, an Israeli military spokesperson said on Saturday.
* Lebanon's Hezbollah on Friday night mourned the acting commander of its Elite Radwan Force, Ibrahim Akil, who was killed earlier in the day by an Israeli airstrike on Beirut's southern suburbs.
* Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said on Saturday that Israel is committing "shameless crimes" against children, not combatants.
* Israel's military offensive in the Gaza Strip has killed at least 41,391 Palestinians and wounded 95,760 since Oct. 7, the Palestinian enclave's health ministry said on Saturday.
* Mahdi al-Mashat, Head of Yemen's Houthi supreme political council, on Friday said his group is ready for peace with the Yemeni government and the Saudi-led coalition.
* Russian cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub have set a new record for the longest single mission aboard the International Space Station (ISS), Russia's state space corporation Roscosmos said in a statement on Friday.
* Microsoft and Constellation Energy announced a groundbreaking deal Friday to reopen the partially-melted-down Three Mile Island nuclear plant, with the tech giant purchasing all the power for 20 years after restart.
* The Bank of Japan (BOJ) decided to keep its key interest rate unchanged at around 0.25 percent on Friday, as its chief said the central bank still has time to assess when it needs to raise borrowing costs further.
* Cambodia's trade with the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) countries reached 22.92 billion USD in the first eight months of 2024, up 17.2 percent from 19.55 billion dollars over the same period last year, said the latest report from the General Department of Customs and Excise on Saturday.
* The Philippines' overall balance of payments (BOP) posted a surplus of 88 million USD in August this year, a reversal from a deficit of 57 million dollars in August last year, the country's central bank said.
* Malaysia's domestic tourism rose 23.8 percent year on year in the second quarter by recording 68.4 million domestic visitors, official data showed Friday.
* The Afghan caretaker government's Ministry of Mines and Petroleum announced on Saturday that the country extracts 1,300 tonnes of crude oil in northern Sari Pul province daily.
* The Canadian federal government Friday announced new funding for the eradication of polio worldwide. According to a news release issued by Global Affairs Canada, a total of 151 million Canadian dollars (111 million USD) was earmarked to support the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI), bringing Canada's historical contribution to over 1 billion Canadian dollars (737 million USD) since 2000.
* The 5 billion euro (5.6 billion USD) fund pledged by the European Union (EU) for Poland may not cover all the losses caused by recent heavy flooding, Polish Finance Minister Andrzej Domanski said on Friday.
* The United Nations humanitarian agency said it has scaled up its response to the devastating flooding that has affected more than 735,000 people in South Sudan.
* The weather bureau of Laos has issued a warning urging residents to prepare for potential flooding as rainstorms are forecast to sweep through some regions in the country.
* Record rainfall on Saturday hit central Japan's Noto region, which was devastated by a major earthquake in January, prompting evacuation orders for tens of thousands of residents and causing a power outage for more than 5,000 households.
* Flooding has displaced 7,780 people in several states in Malaysia as of 2 p.m. local time on Friday. The worst affected was Kedah state, with 6,588 people being housed in 38 flood relief centers, according to the country's social welfare department.
* Many parts of Japan recorded the highest-ever temperatures for September on Friday, as areas from eastern to western Japan experienced levels of heat that were dangerous and unusual for this time of the year.
* Malta experienced its second driest year on record between September 2023 and August 2024, the Meteorological Office reported on Friday.
* The World Health Organization (WHO) on Friday announced that it has ramped up mpox surveillance efforts in South Sudan as the number of cases continues to rise across Africa.
* The total number of mpox cases in Africa has risen to 29,152, including 6,105 confirmed cases and 738 deaths, since the start of 2024, according to the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC).
* The death toll from Peru's forest fires increased to 18, the National Institute of Civil Defense (Indeci) said Friday.
