African Union Chairman and Senegal President Macky Sall plans to attend an upcoming G20 summit in Bali, two government officials said on Friday, as Africa looks to hold wealthier nations to account for their climate pledges.

The country is the last major economy welded to a strategy of stamping out Covid flare-ups as they occur, through a combination of snap lockdowns, mass testing and lengthy quarantines.

The meeting with Biden, which the White House said would take place on Monday, will be the pair's first face-to-face meeting since Biden became president.

The half-island nation will also be granted observer status at high-level ASEAN meetings, the bloc said after regional leaders met in Phnom Penh for a summit.

"The president believes it is critical to build a floor for the relationship and ensure that there are rules of the road that bound our competition," the official told reporters in a call on the meeting. 

Members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) have blamed Myanmar's military rulers for failing to implement the peace plan agreed jointly last year, which includes ending hostilities and allowing access for a special envoy and aid. 

Jakarta had its human rights records examined at the United Nations Human Rights Council’s (UN HRC) 41st Universal Periodic Review (UPR) session at the UN headquarters in Geneva on Wednesday.

The United States should work together with China to avoid misunderstandings and misjudgments, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesman said on Thursday, when asked about reports of the meeting.

Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control last week imposed sanctions on the stranded tanker, Young Yong, for its part in an international oil smuggling network that Washington said supports Hezbollah and Iran's Quds Force. 

Indonesia's presidency of the G20 this year and its preparations for the Nov. 15-16 summit on the island of Bali have been overshadowed by Russia's invasion of Ukraine and the resulting global food and energy crisis. 

Her comments come ahead of several summits in the region that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is to attend, including the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in Cambodia, the Group of 20 top economies (G20) in Indonesia, and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) in Thailand.

Leaders from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) will meet in Phnom Penh from Friday, kicking off a diplomatic blitz in the region that also takes in next week's G20 in Bali and an APEC summit in Bangkok.

Biden plans to discuss human rights in Egypt, where he will travel for the United Nations COP27 climate summit, and in Cambodia, where he will attend a meeting of ASEAN, senior administration officials said Tuesday.

Jokowi, who is this year's chair of the bloc of major economies, said Putin during a phone conversation last week had not ruled out attending the summit in Bali, and would join if possible. 

Now, Anwar, 75, is hitting the national campaign trail again, trying to convince Malaysians to vote for him in the Nov. 19 election as he looks to finally fulfil his long-held dream of becoming prime minister. 

Activists are increasing pressure on Indonesia to shift ASEAN's approach to the Myanmar crisis as the country gears up to assume the regional bloc's chairmanship next year.

The warning came after a spate of North Korean weapons tests last week -- including an intercontinental ballistic missile -- as the United States and South Korea conducted their biggest-ever air force exercise.

Here are some key takeaways from the UN analysis:

Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob called for elections 10 months ahead of schedule, with the graft-tainted ruling party of jailed ex-leader Najib Razak seeking to cement its political comeback four years after it was dramatically voted out.

No single party or coalition will likely win a simple majority in the 222-seat parliament, with polls showing three major coalitions, including the Barisan Nasional or National Front coalition led by Prime Minister Ismail Sabri's United Malays National Organization, in a close race.

It comes a day after North Korea conducted a failed intercontinental ballistic missile test and follows a decision by Seoul and Washington to extend through Saturday their largest-ever joint air drills, a military exercise that has infuriated Pyongyang.

The meeting would be held alongside an international conference set to take place in Southeast Asia, the Sankei said, citing multiple government sources.

Scholz is the first G7 leader to visit China since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, which has seen the world's number two economy close its borders and Xi largely eschew in-person diplomacy.

In early October, supervisors suddenly warned him that 3,000 colleagues had been taken into quarantine after someone tested positive for Covid-19 at the factory.

Beaten-down Chinese stocks had soared this week on speculation that Beijing would ease its "dynamic zero-COVID" policy, despite the rising case numbers and reiterations of a stance that makes China an extreme outlier nearly three years into the pandemic.

Levels of the most dangerous particles -- PM2.5, so tiny they can enter the bloodstream -- were 588 per cubic metre early on Thursday morning, according to monitoring firm IQAir.

He noted the infection wave driven by the XBB sub-variant is clearly waning, and that Singapore had managed to deal with the wave with practically no restrictions, with indoor masking requirements and vaccination-differentiated safe management measures having been lifted.

"The proposed sale will improve Australia's capability to meet current and future threats by providing the Royal Australian Air Force with replacements for its aging cargo fleet, guaranteeing a reliable airlift capability," the Pentagon said in a statement.

Pakistan had been struggling with a balance of payments crisis even before devastating floods hit the country this summer, causing it an estimated $30 billion or more in losses.

One short range ballistic missile crossed the Northern Limit Line, the de facto maritime border between the two countries, prompting a rare warning for residents on the island of Ulleungdo to seek shelter in bunkers.