* Head of Indonesia's National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB) Doni Monardo said on August 3 that Friday (August 2)'s strong earthquake had killed 4 people and damaged around 200 houses in the country's affected areas.
* Chinese tourists made 149 million overseas trips in 2018, with total spending amounting to US$130 billion, according to a report released by the China Tourism Academy. The data marked a year-on-year increase of 14.7 percent and 13 percent, respectively.
* About 600 people were detained on Saturday "for various offenses" while attending an unauthorized demonstration downtown Moscow, Russia's Interior Ministry said. "About 1,500 people took part in an unauthorized rally in the center of Moscow," the ministry's Moscow branch said in a statement, giving no details.
* Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson made a phone call on Saturday (August 3) discussed ways to boost mutual ties in all fields, mainly the economic and investment sectors.
* Libyan coast guards on Saturday rescued 62 illegal immigrants on a rubber boat that broke down at the sea off the country's western coast, said the Libyan anti-illegal immigration department.
* At least 30 Syrian military personnel and pro-government fighters were killed Saturday by an explosion in an air base in central Syria, a war monitor reported. The death toll could likely rise due to the number of critically wounded soldiers.
* Foreign ministers of Iraq, Egypt and Jordan will hold a meeting on Sunday in Baghdad to discuss means of boosting Arab relations, economic cooperation as well supporting stabilization in Iraq, the Iraqi Foreign Ministry said Saturday.
* Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said Saturday that, under current circumstances, the Islamic republic will take another step to scale back from its nuclear commitments subject to 2015 international nuclear deal. Iran preserves the rights to decide whether to remain committed or to keep reducing its obligations, he said.
* Forces of the UN-backed Libyan government on Saturday announced the shooting down of a drone belonging to the rival east-based army near the western city of Misurata.
* More than 1,500 Afghan civilians were either killed or injured as a result of conflict and terrorist attacks in July, the highest number of any month this year, the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan said Saturday.
