* South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol met with China's Premier Li Qiang on the sidelines of an ASEAN summit in the Indonesian capital of Jakarta on Thursday.
* Japanese Prime Minister Kishida Fumio said on Wednesday he explained Japan's stance on the release of treated radioactive water from the Fukushima nuclear plant to Chinese Premier Li Qiang on the sidelines of a regional meeting in Indonesia.
* Australia and China have made progress in returning to "unimpeded trade" and more is needed, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Thursday as he met Chinese Premier Li Qiang at a regional summit in Indonesia.
* Indonesia has asked the United States to begin talks on a trade deal for critical minerals so that exports from the Southeast Asian country can be covered under the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act, an Indonesian ministry said on Thursday.
* U.S. Department of State announced 1 billion USD in new aid for Ukraine on Wednesday while Secretary of State Antony Blinken made a surprise visit to Kiev to show support.
* Russia said on Thursday it was working with both Armenia and Azerbaijan in its role as a security guarantor in the south Caucasus, after Armenia said Azerbaijan was concentrating forces near the border between the two countries.
* China is willing to work with Italy to improve trade and investment ties, a spokesperson at the commerce ministry said on Thursday, following a recent visit by the Italian foreign minister to Beijing.
* Bangladesh will seek completion of the nuclear plant Moscow is building in the South Asian country during the Russian foreign minister’s first-ever visit to Dhaka, government officials said.
* NATO has no indication that drone debris found on Romanian territory was caused by a deliberate Russian attack on Romania, its chief said on Thursday.
* At least one Palestinian and an Israeli soldier were wounded on Thursday during clashes that erupted in the central West Bank city of Bethlehem, Palestinian and Israeli sources said.
* The Deputy President of the Libyan Presidency Council Abdullah Allafi on Wednesday discussed the country's political crisis when meeting with Italian Ambassador to Libya Gianluca Alberini in Tripoli.
* Singapore launched a research facility on Thursday to find long-term solutions to protect it from the rise in sea levels from climate change that could put the country's low-lying land at risk of inundation.
* As a new virus variant has been detected in many countries, Cuban resident Raymond Perez has fortified himself with more robust COVID-19 preventive measures.
* Libya on Wednesday started to deport 270 illegal migrants intercepted in the country en route to Europe.
* The American Petroleum Institute (API) on Wednesday reported a decrease of 5.521 million barrels of crude oil in U.S. inventories for the week ending Sept. 1. Analysts had expected a drop of 1.429 million barrels for the week.
* A port strike at British Columbia marine terminals significantly affected Canada's imports and exports in July, Statistics Canada said Wednesday.
* Inflation in India was likely to have eased in August from a 15-month high in July, led by cooling vegetable prices, but held above the upper end of the Reserve Bank of India's 2%-6% target for a second month, a Reuters poll found.
* Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has postponed an annual economic speech scheduled for this weekend and will instead visit areas hit by torrential rain that has flooded homes and destroyed key infrastructure, the government said on Thursday.
* The Philippines' gross international reserves (GIR) level settled at 99.8 billion USD as of the end of August from 100 billion dollars in July, the Philippine central bank said Thursday.
* An earthquake with a magnitude of 6.5 jolted Near Coast of Central Chile at 2348 GMT on Wednesday, said the GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences.
* Typhoon Haikui, the 11th typhoon of this year, forced 294,100 residents to temporarily evacuate in east China's Fujian Province, authorities said.
