Wildfires raged in southwestern France and Spain on Saturday, forcing thousands of people to be evacuated from their homes as blistering summer temperatures put authorities on alert in parts of Europe.   

The ruling Cambodian People's Party (CPP) on Saturday held an extraordinary conference of its Central Committee on Saturday to set out an action plan for 2023, the year in which the country's next general elections will be held.

* IMF chief Kristalina Georgieva on Saturday warned officials from the Group of 20 major economies to take urgent action to combat inflation, warning that the "exceptionally uncertain" global economic outlook could turn worse if higher prices persisted.

* China's crude oil output saw steady expansion, rising 4 percent year on year in the first six months, official data showed. The output totaled 102.88 million tonnes from January to June, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.

* Indonesia has scrapped its export levy for all palm oil products until Aug. 31 in a fresh attempt to boost exports and ease high inventories, finance ministry officials said on Saturday, adding the move would not disrupt government revenues.

* A statement was announced Saturday following the "Jeddah Summit for Security and Development," emphasizing the importance to take the required measures to protect the security and stability in the Middle East, the Saudi Press Agency reported.

* US President Joe Biden said on Saturday the United States would remain an active, engaged partner in the Middle East and urged leaders gathered at an Arab summit to see human rights as a powerful force of economic and social change.

* Sri Lanka's parliament was informed of on Saturday Gotabaya Rajapaksa's resignation from presidency as his resignation letter was read to the legislators. Speaker of Parliament Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena convened the parliament to announce that the seat of the president has become vacant.

* North Macedonia's parliament on Saturday voted to approve the conclusions on French proposal presented by the ruling majority on the negotiating framework for opening the European Union (EU) accession talks.

* Sudanese authorities have declared an overnight curfew in two towns in southeastern Blue Nile state, close to the border with Ethiopia, after several days of tribal clashes in which they said 31 people were killed.

* Saudi Arabia's foreign minister said a US-Arab summit on Saturday did not discuss oil and that OPEC+ would continue to assess market conditions and do what is necessary.

* Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi discussed food security and disruptions to energy supplies with US President Joe Biden as they met for the first time on Saturday on the sidelines of an Arab summit in Jeddah, the Egyptian presidency said.

* Iran has imposed sanctions on 61 more Americans, including former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, for backing an Iranian dissident group, Tehran said on Saturday as months of talks to revive a 2015 nuclear deal remained at an impasse.

* The World Bank on Saturday approved 200 million USD in financing to increase Pakistan's agricultural resilience and support the country's eastern Punjab province in transforming the agricultural sector.

* Israel decided on Saturday to cancel a recently increased quota of work permits for Palestinian laborers from Gaza in response to rocket attacks earlier in the day.

* Sri Lanka's economy is likely to contract by more than 6% this year as political instability and social unrest affect discussions on financial relief with the IMF, the country's central bank governor told The Wall Street Journal in an interview.

* Ethiopia's Ministry of Trade and Regional Integration (MoTRI) disclosed the country has earned 4.12 billion USD export revenues during the just concluded Ethiopian 2021/2022 fiscal year, which ended on July 7.

* The United Arab Emirates on Sunday launched a 3 billion UAE dirham ($816.84 million) fund to support its space programme and a new initiative to develop radar satellites, the Gulf country's president Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan said on Twitter.

* China's national observatory on Sunday continued to issue a yellow alert for high temperatures as intense heat waves linger in many regions of the country.

* Mainland China reported 691 new COVID-19 cases on Saturday, of which 154 were symptomatic and 537 were asymptomatic, the National Health Commission said on Sunday. That compares with 547 new cases a day earlier - 129 symptomatic and 418 asymptomatic infections, which China counts separately.

* Malaysia reported 5,047 new COVID-19 infections, as of midnight Saturday, bringing the national total to 4,619,045, according to the health ministry. There are three new imported cases, with 5,044 cases being local transmissions, data released on the ministry's website showed.

* New Zealand reported 6,223 new community cases of COVID-19 on Sunday, said the Ministry of Health in a statement. The ministry also reported 733 current hospitalizations including 16 cases in ICU or HDU, and 22 deaths from COVID-19 on Sunday.

* Italy's Ministry of Health reported nearly 90,000 new coronavirus infections Saturday, bringing the country's total number of officially diagnosed cases to 20.08 million since January 2020.

* Uzbekistan has tightened sanitary-medical controls at its border crossings amid a reported cholera outbreak in neighboring Afghanistan, Uzbek public health authorities said Saturday.

Xinhua/Reuters/VNA