Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi declared the heavily fortified Green Zone in central Baghdad open to all citizens on October 4, part of a reform drive prompted by protests demanding greater transparency and openness.

Pacific trade ministers are optimistic of closing a sweeping Pacific Rim trade deal after progress on October 2 on hurdles involving autos, dairy products and intellectual property protections for expensive biologic drugs.

Indonesian authorities on Saturday resumed searching for an Aviastar airline Twin Otter turboprop aircraft with 10 people on board that went missing on Friday during a flight on Sulawesi island.

A gunman opened fire at a community college in southwest Oregon on October 1, killing nine people and wounding seven others before police shot him to death, authorities said, in the latest mass killing to rock an American campus.

A US military transport plane crashed at an airfield in Afghanistan shortly after midnight on October 2, killing all 11 people on board, the US military said, adding there were no reports of enemy fire at the time.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu used his annual United Nations address on October 1 to launch an all-out assault on the historic nuclear deal with Iran, warning that his country would never let the Islamic Republic join the atomic weapons club.

Russia launched air strikes in Syria on September 30 in its biggest Middle East intervention in decades, plunging the four-year-old civil war into a volatile new phase as President Vladimir Putin moved forcefully to stake out influence in the unstable region.

Afghan officials said government troops had recaptured much of the strategic northern city of Kunduz from Taliban insurgents early on October 1, three days after losing control of the provincial capital in an embarrassing defeat for Kabul and its US allies.

A series of package bombs exploded on September 30 in the southwest China city of Liuzhou, killing at least seven people and injuring 51, state media said.

Ending weeks of infighting, the US Congress on September 30 voted to avert a government shutdown just hours before a midnight deadline, passing a stop-gap measure to extend funding for federal agencies until December 11.