Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said in a televised interview broadcast on September 4 that he was "alright", after he took ill two weeks ago during a national day rally speech.

Turkish-backed rebels on September 4 cleared Islamic State from Turkey's Syrian border, securing a 90 km (55 miles) corridor and marking a substantial gain in Ankara's plan to drive out Sunni militants and stop the advance of Syrian Kurdish fighters.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will hold talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping on September 5, the Japanese government said, the first such meeting in more than a year as Asia's two largest countries are locked in a territorial dispute.

At least 38 people were killed and 28 were injured in Afghanistan after a fuel tanker collided with a passenger bus, causing a massive explosion, local officials said on September 4.

Turkey and its rebel allies opened a new line of attack in northern Syria on September 3, as Turkish tanks rolled across the border and Syrian fighters swept in from the west to take villages held by Islamic State.

China and the United States ratified the Paris agreement to cut climate-warming emissions on September 3, marking a major step toward the enactment of the pact as early as the end of the year and setting the stage for other countries to follow suit.

US President Barack Obama on September 3 pressed his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping on territorial disputes in the South China Sea, urging Beijing to uphold its legal obligations and stressing the United States' commitments to its regional allies.

Russia's President Vladimir Putin and Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe agreed on September 2 to draw up proposals this year to end a row over a group of disputed islands that has bedevilled relations between their countries for over 70 years.

Uzbek President Islam Karimov has died aged 78 after suffering a stroke, leaving no obvious successor to take over the Central Asian nation.

An explosion at a packed night market in the home city of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte killed at least 12 people on September 2 and wounded dozens more, officials said, but the cause of the blast was not immediately clear.