* Chinese President Xi Jinping has called for efforts to promote enterprise innovation and foster more small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that are specialized and innovative.
* Representatives from Russia and China discussed expanding bilateral economic and trade cooperation at a forum held in Vladivostok this week.
* Cuban Minister of Foreign Affairs Bruno Rodriguez on Wednesday criticized the US government's double standard on human rights.
* Western countries have failed to achieve their main goal of undermining Russia's financial stability with "unprecedented sanctions," Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin said Thursday.
* The US decision to continue imposing additional tariffs on Chinese goods amid mounting inflation is bound to inflict more losses on US enterprises and consumers, China's Ministry of Commerce said Thursday.
* Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Thursday he wanted grain from Russia to be exported too, and its president Vladimir Putin was right about grains exported from Ukraine under a U.N.-backed deal going to wealthy countries, not poor ones.
* The National Parliament of Solomon Islands passed on Thursday a bill which will allow the Pacific Island country to defer its national general election from 2023 to 2024.
* European Union countries were poring over a range of proposals from Brussels ahead of emergency talks on Friday aimed at finding bloc-wide measures to cut rocketing energy costs before winter.
* Iran's Foreign Ministry on Thursday rejected and condemned the US and Britain's accusations against Iran regarding an alleged cyberattack on Albania as "baseless."
* Malaysian central bank on Thursday raised the overnight policy rate (OPR) by 25 basis points to 2.50 percent.
* The Republic of Korea's high inflation would last longer than expected amid growing expectations for high inflation, a central bank report said Thursday.
* The unemployment rate in the Philippines dipped to 5.2 percent in July, with 2.6 million of the Filipino labor force jobless, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said on Thursday.
* Hungary will have enough energy this winter, Prime Minister Viktor Orban said in Budapest on Thursday, as his government announced tough measures designed to reduce energy consumption.
* EU countries and Britain granted 227.97 billion euros (228 billion USD) in state aid in 2020 to support companies hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, with Poland and Greece topping the list, the European Commission said on Thursday.
* Denmark is not in an energy supply crisis yet but looking at a winter when Denmark and Europe both risk running out of energy, Dan Jorgensen, the country's minister for climate, energy and utilities, told a press conference in Copenhagen on Thursday.
* France registered a record 129.8-billion-euro (129 billion USD) trade deficit in the rolling 12 months to July, the country's Directorate-General of Customs and Indirect Taxes said here on Thursday.
* Chile's economy will grow between 1.75 percent and 2.25 percent in 2022, and it will expand below its potential for several more quarters, given global inflationary pressure, the Central Bank of Chile projected Wednesday.
* The European Commission approved on Wednesday the Netherlands 4.7 billion euro (4.68 billion USD) plan to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic and transform the economy to become greener and more digitalised in coming years.
* Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser on Thursday declared a public emergency over buses of migrants sent by Republican governors from the US-Mexico border states of Texas and Arizona.
* Severe, long-lasting heatwaves and more frequent wildfires could lead to even worse air quality, an additional "climate penalty" for hundreds of millions of people, World Meteorological Organization (WMO) warned on Wednesday.
* A total of 86 people have been killed, and 35 remain missing after a 6.8-magnitude earthquake jolted Luding County in southwest China's Sichuan Province on Monday, local authorities said Thursday.
* Pakistan's government on Thursday approved 3 billion rupees (13.36 million USD) in funds for providing assistance to flood-affected people in the South Asian country.
* Bangladesh has witnessed a significant spike in dengue cases in September, with 1,770 cases and 10 deaths registered so far, the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) said on Thursday.
