Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet will take part in the 44th and 45th ASEAN Summit and Related Summits in Vientiane, Laos from October 8 to 11, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a news release on Saturday.

The forthcoming attendance will be made at the invitation of Lao Prime Minister Sonexay Siphandone, the news release said, adding that the summits will be held under the theme 'ASEAN: Enhancing Connectivity and Resilience'.

The summits "will focus on further advancing ASEAN Community building towards the realisation of the ASEAN Community Vision 2025 and enhancing relations with ASEAN's external partners through ASEAN-led mechanisms with an aim to strengthen connectivity and resilience in the region and beyond as well as to address present and emerging challenges effectively", the news release further read.

On the sidelines of the summits, Hun Manet will attend the ASEAN Leaders' Interface with Representatives of the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Assembly (AIPA), ASEAN Leaders' Interface with Representatives of ASEAN Business Advisory Council (ASEAN-BAC), ASEAN Leaders Interface with Representatives of ASEAN Youth; and the second Asia Zero Emission Community (AZEC) Leaders' Meeting, as reported by news agency.

Brasilia, the capital of Brazil, has set a new record for its longest dry spell, with 164 straight days without rain.

The prolonged drought has fueled widespread wildfires and grassland burns, which have surged across various regions of the country since August, the National Institute of Meteorology (Inmet) reported on Friday.

The previous record was set in 1963, just three years after Brasilia's founding, with 163 consecutive rainless days. The city, located in Brazil's central region, is now grappling with the dual threat of extreme heat and low humidity, news agency reported.

Authorities have issued an "orange alert" due to the critically low humidity level of 15 per cent, combined with temperatures exceeding 35 degrees Celsius.

A report from the National Institute for Space Research (INPE) highlighted a 269 per cent increase in wildfires in Brasilia this year compared to previous years.

Two explosions were reported in the city of Palmyra in central Syria after midnight on Saturday, according to a war monitor.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said one blast occurred inside a hangar near Palmyra Military Airport, which was being used as a weapons depot.

The second explosion took place in a two-story building in the city's eastern neighbourhood, about one kilometre from the hangar, news agency reported.

The observatory said the cause of the explosions remains unclear, adding that the area around the hangar is highly secured and contains eight similar storage facilities.

The death toll of a boat accident earlier this week in Niger State in central Nigeria has risen to 42, a local official reported.

According to the official, more bodies were recovered on Friday morning, reports news agency.

Abdullahi Baba-Arah, head of the State Emergency Management Agency, told reporters that at least 17 more bodies had been recovered since Thursday, six of them found early on Friday.

At least 25 bodies were earlier confirmed to have been recovered after the boat carrying more than 300 passengers capsized on Tuesday night, Nigerian President Bola Tinubu's spokesman said on Thursday.

A major fire broke out in a hostel building in Old Montreal Canada, killing at least two people, local media reported.

Montreal police said the fire, which started around 2 a.m. on Friday morning in the building at the corner of Notre-Dame and Bonsecours streets, is suspicious in nature, and the cause remains unknown.

The fire completely destroyed the three-storey, 100-year-old building which housed the hostel called Le 402 on the second and third floors and a restaurant on the main floor, the reports said, news agency reported.

The first case of West Nile fever in Latvia has been detected in a dead bird in the laboratory of the Scientific Institute for Food Safety (BIOR), Animal Health and Environment, local media reported.

West Nile virus was detected in a sample of a Eurasian goshawk on Friday, which was sent for investigation to establish the cause of death, reports.

BIOR said West Nile fever is a mosquito-borne infectious disease that affects birds and horses, and less commonly other animal species. Birds are the most common host of the virus, but humans can also be infected, however, the infection does not spread from person to person.

Gold prices continue to rise amid heightened tension in the Middle East, as the precious metal saw a definitive surge this week. The Iran-Israel conflict has kept buyers position intact even after prices were overbought.

Gold prices experienced a minor increase on Saturday as the cost of 24 carat gold was Rs 7,785.3 per gram in the morning trade, reflecting an increase of Rs 120. The cost of 22 carat gold was Rs 7,138.3 per gm, an increase of Rs 110 from Friday.

According to Narinder Wadhwa, Managing Director at SKI Capital Services Ltd, in times of geopolitical instability, particularly in the Middle East, gold often serves as a safe haven, while crude oil prices react sharply to concerns over supply disruptions.

An exceptional late-season heat wave is scorching parts of US regions with record-breaking temperatures expected to last into the weekend.

"More than 70 record high temperatures are set to fall - mainly in the southwestern US - today through the weekend," said the US National Weather Service (NWS) on Friday.

The heat wave continues over parts of California and the Desert Southwest, news agency reported, quoting NWS.

Forecasters said the sweltering late-season heat wave will bring moderate to extreme heat risks across portions of the US. About 39 million people in the region were under heat alerts earlier this week.

Hockey India, on Friday, announced the return of the Hockey India League after a seven-year hiatus which will feature eight men’s teams and six women’s teams, marking the first standalone women’s league in the country that will run concurrently with the men’s competition.

The league will get underway on December 28 with matches played at two venues — Marang Gomke Jaipal Singh Astroturf Hockey Stadium in Ranchi, Jharkhand and Birsa Munda Hockey Stadium in Rourkela, Odisha. The women’s League will conclude on January 26, 2025 in Ranchi while the men’s final is slated for February 1, 2025 in Rourkela.

Given the worsening humanitarian needs in Lebanon, UN humanitarian coordinator for Lebanon Imran Riza announced an additional $2 million from the Lebanon Humanitarian Fund to address the deteriorating situation in the country, a UN spokesman said.

The new fund, which comes alongside a previous $10 million Central Emergency Response Fund allocated very recently, would bring the total allocation to $12 million so far, said Stephane Dujarric, spokesperson for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Friday, at a daily briefing.

Dujarric said that on the health front, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced on Friday that the first flight with WHO medical supplies, enough to treat tens of thousands of injured people, has arrived in Beirut, Lebanon. More flights are planned for Friday and in the coming days.