* Canada expects to finalise a free trade agreement with ASEAN following the launch of the Canada-ASEAN strategic partnership, its prime minister, Justin Trudeau said on Wednesday.
* The 78th session of the UN General Assembly was declared open on Tuesday by new General Assembly President Dennis Francis.
* South Africa has got "significant benefits" from the BRICS, President Cyril Ramaphosa said Tuesday. He made the remarks during a question and answer session in the South African parliament Tuesday afternoon in Cape Town, the legislative capital of the country.
* The Kremlin on Wednesday said that Russian President Vladimir Putin had spoken by phone with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, and that recent agreements on supply cuts had ensured stability on global energy markets.
* Iran and China have "good capacities" for environmental cooperation, especially in combating dust and sand storms, said Ali Salajegheh, Iran's vice president and head of the Department of Environment (DoE).
* Russia expressed concern on Wednesday about plans for a U.S.-Armenian military exercise in Armenia next week, saying it would be watching closely.
* Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he believed a "good result" on the revival of the Black Sea grain deal would be achieved soon.
* New Zealand on Wednesday welcomed the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) panel's ruling in favor of New Zealand in its dispute against Canada over dairy quota.
* UN humanitarians said on Tuesday they allocated 125 million USD for underfunded relief operations in 14 countries worldwide.
* Climate change is having a measurable impact on air quality and therefore human health, meaning the two must be tackled together and not in isolation, a report released by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) on Wednesday showed.
* International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach announced the IOC commissions for 2023 on Tuesday, emphasizing its commitment to gender equality and introducing a new Esports Commission.
* African leaders on Wednesday proposed new global taxes and reforms to international financial institutions to help fund climate change action in a declaration that will form the basis of their negotiating position at November's COP28 summit.
* European Union lawmakers will push for far greater recycling of waste in a new EU law to ensure the bloc has raw materials such as lithium, nickel and cobalt required for its green transition.
* Budget requests by Japanese government agencies for fiscal 2024, starting next April, hit a record high of 114.39 trillion yen (about 779 billion USD), the Finance Ministry said Tuesday.
* India's palm oil imports are set to jump 26% to a record high in the 2022/23 year ending on Oct. 31, as a recovery in consumption and competitive prices prompt refiners to increase purchases, the country's top palm oil buyer told Reuters on Wednesday.
* Chile's central bank on Wednesday lowered the top end of its estimate for the country's economic performance in 2023, saying it now forecasts gross domestic product (GDP) to show no growth in the most optimistic scenario.
* Thailand's stock investor confidence jumped to a seven-month high in August, boosted by clarification over a new government formation, a survey showed on Wednesday.
* Myanmar earned over 1.28 billion USD from agricultural exports in the first nearly five months (from April 1 to Aug. 25) of the 2023-24 fiscal year, according to data released by the Ministry of Commerce on Tuesday.
* Ukraine's gross domestic product grew by 2.2% year-on-year in the first seven months of 2023, the economy ministry said on Wednesday.
* Australia's economy grew by 0.4 percent in the second quarter of 2023 on the back of rising services exports, official statistics showed.
* The International Monetary Fund (IMF) projects Saudi Arabia to swing to a fiscal deficit of 1.2% of GDP in 2023, from a surplus of 2.5% in 2022, it said in its latest assessment report on Wednesday.
* Saudi Arabia's Energy Ministry announced on Tuesday the kingdom will extend its voluntary oil production cut of one million barrels per day for another three months until the end of the year.
* Intense rain from the remnants of Typhoon Haikui hit southeast China on Wednesday, bringing floods that forced some cities to suspend subway services, shut schools and move tens of thousands of people to safety.
* The death toll rose to 22 from an extratropical cyclone in the southern Brazilian states of Rio Grande do Sul and Santa Catarina, authorities said Tuesday.
* At least five people were killed after heavy rains triggered flash floods in northwest Turkey, state broadcaster TRT Haber said on Wednesday.
