Pockets of Taliban fighters held out overnight against Afghan government forces in the northern city of Kunduz, a police official said on October 4, a day after the militants pushed deep into the city center.

About 6,055 migrants were rescued on October 3 as they tried to reach Europe on about 40 boats, one of the highest numbers in a single day, Italy's coast guard said.

The United States broke off talks with Russia on October 3 on implementing a ceasefire agreement in Syria and accused Moscow of not living up to its commitments under the Sept. 9 deal to halt fighting and ensure aid reached besieged communities.

A bomb killed at least 20 people at a Kurdish wedding in the northeast Syrian city of Hasaka on October 3, a Kurdish militia and a monitoring group said, while state media said the casualties had risen to at least 30 dead.

More than 50 people were killed in a stampede in Ethiopia's Oromiya region that was triggered when police used teargas and shot in the air on October 2 to disperse anti-government protesters at a religious festival.

Syrian government and allied forces have advanced toward Aleppo, pursuing their week-old offensive to take the rebel-held part of the city after dozens of overnight air strikes.

Almost all Hungarians who voted in October 2's referendum rejected the European Union's migrant quotas but turnout was too low to make the poll valid, frustrating Prime Minister Viktor Orban's hopes of a clear victory with which to challenge Brussels.

Colombians narrowly rejected a peace deal with Marxist guerrillas in a referendum on October 2, plunging the nation into uncertainty and dashing President Juan Manuel Santos' painstakingly negotiated plan to end the 52-year war.

Iran has kept to a nuclear deal it agreed with six world powers last year limiting its stockpiles of substances that could be used to make atomic weapons, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) told French daily Le Monde.

Russian warplanes and their Syrian government allies battered rebel-held areas in and around Aleppo on October 1, and rebels and aid workers accused them of destroying one of the city's main hospitals and killing at least two patients.