Reuters

Brazilian presidential front-runner Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has gained steam in the final stretch of the campaign, opinion polls show, and could defeat incumbent Jair Bolsonaro in the first round on Sunday - if his base shows up to vote in full force.

Indonesia said it has granted emergency use approval to an mRNA COVID-19 vaccine developed by a Chinese company, becoming the first country, ahead of even China, to do so.

Heavy gunfire rang out from the main military camp and some residential areas of Burkina Faso's capital on Friday and a large blast was heard near the presidential palace, Reuters reporters said.

Cubans took to the streets on Thursday night to bang pots and protest across several neighborhoods in the capital Havana as the country entered its third day of blackouts following Hurricane Ian.

The Indonesian navy hasn't requested or received money to release detained vessels or ship captains, a senior naval officer said, responding to a Reuters report quoting captains saying they were held by the navy in an extortion scheme.

A missile attack on a convoy of cars in southern Ukraine killed a number of civilians on Friday, hours before President Vladimir Putin was due to proclaim Moscow's rule over lands it has seized in his invasion.

A machete slung across his chest, sugarcane worker Aldemar Moreno guards the entrance to the farm where he has been employed for 23 years, ready to defend it from land occupations by indigenous groups and others that have erupted around Colombia.

South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol called on Friday for more urgency in dealing with turbulent markets as the won currency's fall to a 13-1/2-year low heightened fears of capital flight.

Britain's economy remained below its pre-pandemic peak, according to data published on Friday that left the country further adrift of other Group of Seven nations and underscored the challenge facing new Prime Minister Liz Truss.

This year's Nobel Peace Prize could condemn the war in Ukraine by recognising opponents of Russian President Vladimir Putin, the volunteers who have helped civilians, or Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, who ranks high on bookmakers' lists.

Global M&A shrank for the third consecutive quarter as rising interest rates forced lenders to pull back from financing large deals and the soaring dollar failed to spur U.S.

Rights group Open Stadiums have called on FIFA to throw Iran out of the World Cup finals in Qatar in November because of the country's treatment of women.

The Reserve Bank of India raised its benchmark repo rate by 50 basis points on Friday, the fourth straight increase, as policymakers extended their battle to tame stubbornly high inflation and analysts said further tightening is on the cards.

A leftist former union leader is on track to replace Brazil's right-wing president and tear up the most important fiscal rule in the world's 10th largest economy, but foreign investors are largely unfazed.

The navies of South Korea, the United States and Japan staged trilateral anti-submarine exercises for the first time in five years on Friday, amid tension over North Korea's series of missile tests.

Latvia's parliamentary election on Saturday could widen a growing rift between the country's Latvian majority and its Russian-speaking minority over their place in society, amid widespread national anger over former Soviet master Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.

European Union countries meet on Friday to approve emergency levies on energy firms' windfall profits and launch talks on their next move to tackle Europe's energy crunch - possibly, a gas price cap.

In the weeks after Russia's invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, Claudio Descalzi, CEO of Italian energy major Eni, embarked on a whirlwind of trips to gas suppliers in Africa.

A resurgent Hurricane Ian barreled north on Friday toward a second landfall in South Carolina, a day after carving a path of destruction across central Florida that left rescue crews racing to reach trapped residents along the state's Gulf Coast.

JPMorgan Chase & Co plans to hire about 2,000 engineers worldwide through the end of the year despite a worsening economy, its global chief information officer, Lori Beer, said on Wednesday.

Taiwan's navy took delivery on Friday of a new, domestically made amphibious warfare ship that can be used to land troops and bolster supply lines to vulnerable islands, part of President Tsai Ing-wen's defence self-sufficiency push.

Singapore has unveiled a package of measures for the property market, including tightening lending limits for housing loans in response to a rise in interest rates, as well as new steps to moderate demand.

Sterling rose to a fresh one-week high on Friday, helping to push the U.S.

Asian shares on Friday were headed for the worst month since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, while jitters in currency and bond markets persisted over hawkish talk from central banks, worries about global recession and rising geopolitical risk.

At a ceremony denounced by Ukraine as a "Kremlin freak show", Russian President Vladimir Putin will proclaim the annexation of four Ukrainian regions on Friday, escalating his seven-month war and taking it into an unpredictable new phase.

Japan's factories ramped up output for a third straight month in August, as the manufacturing sector showed resilience amid high material costs and worries about a global economic slowdown.

South Korea's kimchi makers are in serious pain - brought low as a climate change-induced shortage of cabbages sent prices rocketing this year, exacerbating damage inflicted by cheaper offerings from Chinese competitors.

Oil prices were little changed in early trade on Friday but headed for their first weekly gain in five weeks, underpinned by a weaker U.S.

Global stock markets have tumbled, and major currencies have lost ground against the dollar.