Trainloads of migrants arrived in Austria and Germany from Hungary on August 31 as European Union asylum rules collapsed under the strain of a wave of migration unprecedented in the EU.

An air strike by warplanes from a Saudi-led coalition, which said it targeted a bomb-making factory, killed 36 civilians working at a bottling plant in the northern Yemeni province of Hajjah on August 30, residents said.

European Union ministers were summoned on August 30 to meet in two weeks' time to seek urgent solutions to a migration crisis unprecedented in the bloc's history, as the mounting death toll on land and sea forced governments to respond.

Thousands gathered for a second day of protests on August 30 to demand the resignation of Prime Minister Najib Razak over a multi-million-dollar financial scandal, their spirits lifted by unexpected support from Malaysia's longest-serving leader.

Police probing Thailand's deadliest bombing widened their search for more suspects on August 30 after a foreigner was arrested and stacks of fake passports and bomb-making materials found during a raid on a Bangkok apartment block.

Three young children suffering from dehydration and close to death have been rescued from a van crammed with 26 refugees from Syria, Afghanistan and Bangladesh, Austrian police said on August 29 .

Thai police said they arrested a foreigner on August 29 who matched the description of a man who left a bag at the site of a Bangkok blast that killed 20 people nearly two weeks ago.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi on August 28 ordered security forces to ease access to Baghdad's fortified Green Zone and main streets, in an apparent bid to improve daily life for ordinary Iraqis as fresh protests erupted across the country.

Austria said on August 28, 71 refugees, including a baby girl, were found dead in an abandoned freezer truck, while Libya recovered the bodies of 105 migrants washed ashore after their overcrowded boat sank on its way to Europe. Almost 100 more were missing and feared dead.

Former Greek premier Alexis Tsipras urged supporters on August 29 to give him a fresh mandate to complete the country's political transformation, as polls showed his leftist Syriza party's lead slipping ahead of elections next month.