A blast caused by a fire at a weapons storage depot in eastern Baghdad on September 2 set off rockets that hit neighboring districts, killing at least four residents and injuring 14 others.

The leaders of Germany, France and Italy will discuss the migrant crisis with Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan on the sidelines of a meeting of the G20 countries in China next week, Chancellor Angela Merkel said on September 1.

Companies building a multi-billion dollar bridge to link the Russian mainland with annexed Crimea were targeted by the United States in an updated sanctions blacklist on September 1.

Kurdish Peshmerga forces retook a swath of northern Iraq late last month from Islamic State and days later American forces appeared in the area, the latest sign of increasing US military activity in the country.

Brazil's Senate ousted President Dilma Rousseff on August 31, ending an impeachment process that polarized Latin America's biggest country amid a massive corruption scandal and brutal economic crisis.

The first scheduled commercial passenger flight from the United States to Cuba in more than half a century landed on August 31, opening another chapter in the Obama administration's efforts to improve ties and increase trade and travel with the former Cold War foe.

Turkey wants to clear Islamic State from a 90-km (56-mile) stretch of territory on the Syrian side of its border, a week after it launched an incursion that has strained ties with the United States.

Prime Minister Theresa May and her top ministers on August 31 agreed Britain would seek a unique relationship with the European Union, involving controls on immigration as well as a good trade deal.

Islamic State said on August 30 one of its most prominent and longest-serving leaders was killed in what appeared to be an American air strike in Syria, depriving the militant group of the man in charge of directing attacks overseas.

Confirmed cases of Zika virus in Singapore rose to 82 on August 30, as the United States joined a growing list of countries warning pregnant women or those trying to get pregnant to avoid travel to the city-state.