Reuters World News Summary

(1835 GMT Tuesday) for around nine minutes, the country's Geological Agency said in a statement. Explainer-China's Communist Party holds a plenum on its next five-year plan. What does it mean? The elite Central Committee of China's ruling Communist Party will hold a closed-door meeting from Monday to Thursday to discuss, among other things, the country's 15th five-year development plan.

Following is a summary of current world news briefs.

Exclusive-Assad government secretly moved mass grave to cover up killings, Reuters investigation finds

The Assad government carried out a two-year clandestine operation to truck thousands of bodies from one of Syria's largest known mass graves to a secret location more than an hour away in the remote desert, a Reuters investigation has found. The conspiracy by President Bashar al-Assad's military to excavate the mass grave in Qutayfah and create an enormous second mass grave in the desert outside the town of Dhumair has not been previously reported.

Trump targets China cooking oil trade - but sales were already tanking

U.S. President Donald Trump said he was considering terminating some trade ties with China, singling out cooking oil, which traders and analysts said would have little impact as such shipments had already plummeted from China over the past year. "I believe that China purposefully not buying our Soybeans, and causing difficulty for our Soybean Farmers, is an Economically Hostile Act. We are considering terminating business with China having to do with Cooking Oil, and other elements of Trade, as retribution," Trump wrote on social media on Tuesday.

Indonesia's Mount Lewotobi Laki-laki erupts, spewing ash 10 km into the sky

Indonesia's Mount Lewotobi Laki-laki erupted on Wednesday, shooting volcanic ash 10 km (6.2 miles) into the sky, the country's volcanology agency said, forcing authorities to raise the alert system to its highest level. Located in East Nusa Tenggara province, the volcano erupted on Wednesday at 1:35 a.m. (1835 GMT Tuesday) for around nine minutes, the country's Geological Agency said in a statement.

Explainer-China's Communist Party holds a plenum on its next five-year plan. What does it mean?

The elite Central Committee of China's ruling Communist Party will hold a closed-door meeting from Monday to Thursday to discuss, among other things, the country's 15th five-year development plan. The meeting, known as a plenum, is the fourth since the 2022 Party Congress. Here is what it all means:

Earthquake of magnitude 5.5 strikes near coast of central Chile, GFZ says

An earthquake of magnitude 5.5 struck near the coast of central Chile on Wednesday, the German Research Center for Geosciences (GFZ) said. The quake was at a depth of 44 km (27 miles), GFZ said.

Kyrgyzstan GDP up 10% in Jan-Sept year-on-year as Ukraine war reroutes supply chains

Kyrgyzstan's economy grew by 10% year-on-year in the first nine months of 2025, with gross domestic product (GDP) reaching around $13.7 billion, the state statistics committee said on Wednesday. According to official data, growth was driven by construction, industry, trade and mining. The construction sector expanded by almost 30%, while wholesale and retail trade rose by 11%. Public debt rose to $8.4 billion as of July 31, up $1.9 billion from a year earlier.

Russia says it hopes bloodshed will be avoided in Madagascar

Russia said on Wednesday that it was closely watching events in Madagascar and hoped that bloodshed would be avoided after the military took power following weeks of youth-led protests. Demonstrations first erupted in Madagascar on September 25 over water and power shortages and quickly escalated into an uprising over broader grievances, including corruption, bad governance and a lack of basic services.

Kenya's veteran opposition leader Raila Odinga dies at 80

Kenya's veteran opposition leader Raila Odinga, who was imprisoned multiple times while fighting one-party autocracy and ran five times unsuccessfully for president, died aged 80 on Wednesday in India. Odinga had been receiving medical treatment abroad and suffered a cardiac arrest, according to the hospital in the city of Kochi where he died.

Bangladesh official blames locked door, toxic gas for deaths in factory fire

Toxic gas and a locked door that barred access to a roof were responsible for most of the deaths in a devastating fire in a Bangladesh garment factory and an adjoining chemical warehouse, a fire official said on Wednesday. The tragedy, which killed 16 and critically injured several more, spotlights Bangladesh's poor record on industrial safety, despite improvements following incidents in 2012 and 2013 that drew global attention to unsafe working conditions.

'Made in Argentina' factories shutter, creating more challenges for Milei

For decades, Lumilagro rode to prosperity on the popularity of its signature steel or glass thermoses Argentines use to carry hot water to make mate, the locally ubiquitous herbal tea. But now, faced with cheaper imports, rising production costs, and declining sales, the over 80-year-old family business has been forced to scale back, its commercial manager Carlos Bender told Reuters. He said it now imports most of the thermoses it offers, at prices up to 30% lower than the cost of producing locally.

Syria's Sharaa tells Putin at Kremlin meeting he will respect all past deals with Moscow

Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa told Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday he would honour all past deals struck between his country and Moscow, a pledge suggesting Moscow's two main military bases in Syria are safe. Sharaa, who once headed the Syrian branch of al Qaeda and who toppled predecessor Bashar al-Assad, a close Russian ally, late last year, was speaking at the start of Kremlin talks with Putin, his first visit to Russia since coming to power.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)