The Sri Lankan central bank has decided to allow exporters to purchase diesel from main oil companies in the country using USD.
Cambodia decided on Thursday to reduce a quarantine period for unvaccinated or not fully vaccinated travelers from 14 days to seven days, Health Minister Mam Bunheng said in a statement.
* UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has asked both the Russian and Ukrainian leaders to receive him to discuss steps to bring about peace following Russia's special military operation in its neighbor.
* A freight train departed Thursday morning from Dunhuang City, northwest China's Gansu Province for Thailand's Bangkok, marking the opening of Gansu's first international freight train that runs via the China-Laos Railway.
* India, the world's third biggest oil importer and consumer, is looking at boosting oil purchases from Brazil, oil minister Hardeep Singh Puri said on Thursday after a meeting with Brazilian Energy Minister Bento Albuquerque.
* Turkey's Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said he will visit Israel on May 24 amid increasing efforts between the regional rivals to mend ties, four years after they expelled ambassadors.
* The Russia-Ukraine war has pushed up food prices and hit the poorest the hardest, World Bank Group President David Malpass said Wednesday, warning that the food insecurity crisis will last for months and probably into next year.
* The global tourism industry is expected to create almost 126 million jobs worldwide within 10 years, the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) said in a report released on Thursday in the Philippine capital.
* British Prime Minister Boris Johnson indicated he was ready to offer more visas to India in return for this year clinching a free-trade deal that could boost annual bilateral trade by billions of pounds.
* Pakistan foreign currency reserves with the central bank remained stable at 10.88 billion USD and total liquid reserves, including commercial banks, stood at 17 billion USD, the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) said on Thursday.
* The price caps imposed by the Hungarian government on fuel, foodstuffs and energy bills have helped curb inflation by more than 4 percentage points, Prime Minister Viktor Orban's chief of staff said on Thursday.
* Five people were killed and 65 others injured as a blast ripped through a mosque in Mazar-i-Sharif city, the capital of Afghanistan's northern Balkh province on Thursday, a local television channel reported.
* New Zealand's Consumers Price Index (CPI) increased 6.9 percent in the March 2022 quarter compared with the March 2021 quarter, the largest movement since a 7.6-percent annual increase in the year to the June 1990 quarter, the country's statistics department Stats NZ said on Thursday.
* The minimum wage in Greece will be increased by 7.5 percent to 713 euros (774 USD) monthly from 663 euros as of May 1, as part of measures to help the society to cope with the energy crisis and the effect of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis announced on Wednesday.
* East China's Shanghai metropolis reported 2,634 confirmed locally transmitted COVID-19 cases and 15,861 local asymptomatic carriers on Wednesday, the municipal health commission said Thursday.
* Quarantine hotel rooms for people travelling to the UK between April 2021 and March 2022 cost 757 million pounds (987.73 million USD), with taxpayers footing about half the bill, the National Audit Office said.
* The Sri Lankan Health Ministry on Thursday reversed a decision made earlier to relax the face mask mandate in the South Asian country.
* A wind-driven Arizona wildfire almost tripled in area on Wednesday after burning dozens of structures and forcing thousands to flee their homes in a drought-hit rural area.
Xinhua/Reuters/VNA
