Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has claimed victory in parliamentary polls after exit polls gave a clear lead to his Civic Platform party.

The Polish parliamentary elections kicked off on October 9 morning as voters began to cast their ballots at 7:00 am (0500 GMT), the State Electoral Commission (PKW) said.

The northern Italian city of Milan is banning all traffic from its streets for 10 hours on Sunday in an attempt to reduce smog.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel met with French President Nicolas Sarkozy on October 9 to discuss how to use the euro zone's financial firepower to counter a sovereign debt crisis threatening the global economy.

New Zealand has begun a clean-up effort to remove an oil slick created by a cargo ship that struck a reef off the country's North Island.

The first meeting of ASEAN-India Ministers of Agriculture took place in Jakarta, Indonesia, on October 8.

Anti-government protests across Syria - one propelled by the funeral of an assassinated Kurdish opposition leader - turned deadly again on October 8 as security forces cracked down, activist groups said.

Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh has said that he will step down from power within the “coming days”.

At least 35 people were killed and 18 others injured in an expressway crash in north China's port city of Tianjin on October 7, police said.

ASEAN member states and the three nations of Japan, China and the Republic of Korea (RoK) have approved the ASEAN Plus Three Emergency Rice Reserve (APTERR) programme.