Timor Leste's accession to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations follows a 14-year wait and though its membership is not expected to be transformative, it represents a symbolic victory for its President Jose Ramos-Horta and Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao, the heroes of its struggle for independence.

The new global legal framework aims to strengthen international cooperation to fight digital crimes, from child pornography to transnational cyberscams and money laundering.

The confrontation, which resulted in dozens of deaths, among them civilians, began two weeks ago following explosions in central Kabul, which the Taliban government blamed on its Pakistani neighbor, launching a retaliatory offensive at the border.

Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul said he had asked for the ceasefire ceremony to be held on Sunday morning, after which he would return to Thailand.

The palace said she had been hospitalized since 2019 due to several illnesses and developed a bloodstream infection on Oct. 17 before passing away late on Friday.

The zoo announced last month the pair would be leaving at the end of November due to Huan Huan's kidney ailment, making the return trip the last opportunity for them to be able to make the journey.

After signing a trade deal with Indonesia in September, Canada is now targeting agreements with the Philippines, Malaysia, South Korea and Japan.

Israeli lawmakers on Wednesday advanced two bills paving the way for West Bank annexation, leading to condemnation Thursday from US Vice President JD Vance, who was in Israel at the time and who echoed Trump's comments.

He expressed optimism for a durable end to the two-year Gaza war as he met Israeli, US and other Western forces monitoring the ceasefire from inside a vast converted warehouse in southern Israel.

As President Prabowo Subianto heads to the ASEAN and APEC summits, expectations are high for Indonesia to build a more significant presence in the Asia-Pacific region. 

Rubio, who was touring a US-led multinational centre in Israel aimed at coordinating a ceasefire in Gaza, said that a sustained end to the war would encourage more countries to join the so-called Abraham Accords, under which a number of Arab countries normalised ties with Israel in 2020.

Mohamad Hasan also said the Association of Southeast Asian Nations bloc could not stop a general election in Myanmar set for December but its foreign ministers want the contest to be fair and inclusive.

Xi will deliver a speech at APEC and hold bilateral meetings with other leaders, including South Korean President Lee Jae Myung, Guo Jiakun, a spokesperson for the ministry,said at a press briefing on Friday. 

Trump said Wednesday he was making a "big trip" to Malaysia, Japan and South Korea, his first visit to the region since he returned to the White House in a blaze of tariffs and geopolitical brinkmanship.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations will press for trade multilateralism and deeper ties with new partners, while managing the fallout from Trump's global tariff offensive at its annual meeting in Malaysia's capital.

The completion of the wrecking work came as the White House released a list of donors to the ballroom including Apple, Google and Meta.

Timor Leste, Southeast Asia's poorest nation with 1.4 million people and slightly bigger than Qatar, applied to join the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations in 2011 and was granted observer status in 2022.

"I'm about to turn 80 years old, but you can be sure I have the same energy I had when I was 30. And I will run for a fourth term in Brazil," Lula said at a joint press conference with his Indonesian counterpart Prabowo Subianto in Jakarta.

Trump is expected in South Korea on Wednesday for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Forum.

The two presidents acknowledged that Indonesia and Brazil, which share a commitment to championing developing nations, must step up cooperation across all sectors to reinforce each others’ positions in the global arena, highlighting the increasing trend toward protectionism and unilateralism.

The ceremony in the Sistine Chapel, broadcast live by the Vatican's official news service, came during a state visit by the 76-year-old monarch and his wife Queen Camilla.

Sprawling compounds where internet fraudsters target people with romance and business cons have thrived along Myanmar's loosely governed border during its civil war, sparked by a 2021 coup.

President Prabowo made the statement during a bilateral meeting with Lula at the State Palace in Central Jakarta on Thursday morning.

The US and India have been negotiating for months to thrash out a trade deal, but talks have been complicated by the South Asian nation's Russian oil imports, which prompted Washington to impose a punitive 25 percent tariff on Indian goods in August, raising total levies to 50 percent.

Jakarta and Johannesburg share a long history of joint struggle against injustice, the leaders said, asserting that even stronger cooperation is needed to navigate today’s uncertain geopolitical and geoeconomic landscape. 

US President Donald Trump is scheduled to visit Japan for three days from Monday for his first in-person talks with Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi.

"The initiative calls for a prohibition on the development of superintelligence until the technology is reliably safe and controllable, and has public buy-in," according to an open letter published by the Future of Life Institute, a US-based NGO that campaigns against the dangers of AI.