US officials have confirmed they intend to sell US$60 billion of arms to Saudi Arabia, including helicopters and jets.

Pakistani media reported at least 12 people dead in a target killing that took place in the evening on October 19 in Pakistan's largest industrial city of Karachi.

At least 10 people have been killed in the Philippines by a typhoon which hit the northern of the country on October 18.

Striking public sector workers disrupted travel across France on October 19 and sporadic violence flared at protest marches as opponents of President Nicolas Sarkozy's pension reform made a last-ditch attempt to stop it.

Three suicide bombers launched an attack on the Chechen parliament on October 19, killing at least three people.

An UN convoy carrying the UN's top envoy to Iraq has been hit by a roadside bomb, officials say.

The United Kingdom will cut its armed forces by 17,000 people - about 10 percent of its uniformed manpower - in the next five years, Prime Minister David Cameron announced on October 19.

The Fifth Plenary Session of the 17th Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee ended on October 18 in Beijing after four days of sitting, according to Xinhua News Agency.

Iranian leaders on October 18 urged for the quick formation of the Iraqi government, saying that will serve the interests of the Iraqi people and enable them to enjoy stability, security, unity and prosperity after years of hardship.

Several cars were torched and hundreds of young people were arrested in the French capital Paris and Lyon in the south, after chaos emerged during demonstrations of secondary school students, who joined the unions' strike against pension reforms.