* Carlos Vila Nova was sworn in on Thursday as president of Sao Tome and Principe for a second five-year term. The inauguration ceremony was held at the country's National Assembly and attended by heads of state and senior government officials from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Gabon, Portugal, Mozambique and other countries.
* UN humanitarians said Thursday that the world body and its partners continue bringing supplies into Gaza every day despite ongoing restrictions, insecurity and funding shortfalls.
* Cambodia exported 792,212 tons of milled rice in the first eight months of 2026, marking a significant 67.5 percent rise from the 472,803 tons shipped during the same period last year, the Cambodia Rice Federation (CRF) said on Thursday.
* Indonesia and Malaysia have agreed to strengthen trade and investment cooperation via the Joint Trade and Investment Committee ministerial meeting.
* New Zealand and Australia have accelerated work toward a more ambitious single economic market, following the annual Closer Economic Relations Trade Ministers' Meeting in Auckland on Friday.
* Speaking at the plenary session of the 11th Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok on Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin unveiled a new development strategy for the Far East, positioning the region as a strategic gateway for cooperation with Asia-Pacific nations.
* Russia will close Goethe-Institut branches in Moscow, St. Petersburg and Yekaterinburg in response to the German authorities' closure of the Russian House in Berlin, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Thursday.
* German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul on Thursday expressed regret over Moscow's plan to close Goethe-Institut branches in Russia, calling the move "unjustified" and saying it would further damage bilateral relations.
* Russian authorities said Thursday that Ukrainian forces launched hundreds of drone and artillery attacks on the Belgorod and Moscow regions, killing one civilian and injuring 21 others.
* Border police in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) prevented 96 people from illegally crossing the state border on a single day, officials said on Thursday.
* Nine crew members aboard a Turkish tanker have been detained following its collision with another Turkish-flagged vessel off Istanbul on Wednesday that led to the cargo ship sinking with its 10-member crew missing, local authorities said on Thursday.
* The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said Friday that it carried out strikes in the northern Gaza Strip overnight in response to fire targeting Israeli troops operating east of the Yellow Line.
* Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday that toppling Iran's government is now a central Israeli objective and "within reach," as regional tensions escalate.
* At least 25 people were killed and several others wounded on Thursday as heavy fighting between Yemen's government forces and the Houthis raged in southwestern Taiz province, a government military official told Xinhua.
* Germany's leading economic institutes raised their forecasts for the country's 2026 growth remarkably on Thursday, citing stronger exports and higher government spending. Meanwhile, they also warned structural weaknesses could still weigh on the recovery in Europe's largest economy.
* Singapore's tax revenue rose 9.4 percent to 97.3 billion Singapore dollars (76.8 billion USD) in financial year 2025/26, driven by stronger economic activity and consumer spending, the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore said on Friday.
* Slovakia's state budget deficit stood at 3.675 billion euros (4.26 billion USD) at the end of August, down by 629.3 million euros (731.1 million dollars), or 14.6 percent, from the same period last year, according to data released late Wednesday by the Slovak Finance Ministry.
* Malaysia's natural gas production rose 19.1 percent year on year to 763.5 billion cubic feet in the second quarter of 2026, rebounding from a 2.1 percent contraction in the previous quarter, according to official data on Thursday.
* Egypt's economy grew by 5.1 percent in the 2025/2026 fiscal year ending in June, up from 4.4 percent the previous fiscal year and exceeding international institutions' projections, the Egyptian government said Thursday.
* Foreign tourists spent approximately 1.55 billion manats (about 914 million USD) in Azerbaijan in January-July, down 18.3 percent from a year earlier, according to the latest update of the State Statistics Committee.
* Volkswagen approved a transformation plan Thursday that will cut another 50,000 jobs and halve its model portfolio by 2035.
* El Nino is set to intensify into a very strong event in the coming months, bringing risks of floods, drought and extreme heat, said the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) on Thursday.
* Belgium recorded nearly 3,000 excess deaths during three periods of high temperatures this summer, according to data released Thursday by the national public health institute, Sciensano.
* Indonesia has dispersed 8,000 kg of sodium chloride into the cloud through weather modification operations to help combat forest and land fires in Jambi province on Sumatra island, the National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB) said Friday.
* New Zealand recorded its third-warmest winter on record in 2026, with a nationwide average temperature of 9.7 degrees Celsius, Earth Sciences New Zealand said Friday.
* Slovenia experienced its hottest summer on record in 2026, with temperatures from early July through the end of August averaging 2.8 degrees Celsius above the 1991-2020 average, the Slovenian Environment Agency (ARSO) said on Thursday.
* About 40 people were killed early Thursday after inhaling suspected toxic chemical fumes from a petroleum product in Nigeria's oil-rich Rivers State, local authorities said.
* Nine people in the Netherlands have been infected with West Nile virus, including one who died, the country's health authority said Thursday.
* Authorities on Friday reported the first confirmed case of the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu in Sydney, Australia.
