The chairman of the Afghan High Peace Council, Burhanuddin Rabbani, who is also former president of Afghanistan, has been killed with several other people in a bomb attack in Kabul.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has offered to hold direct talks with Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas at the UN General Assembly.

President Mahmoud Abbas told the United Nations' top official on September 20 he would seek full UN membership for a Palestinian state, a move the US and Israel warn could deal a devastating blow to hopes for resuming peace negotiations.

Security forces in Yemen have killed more than 50 people in two days of violence against anti-government protesters, activists say, in the country's bloodiest clashes for months.

Standard & Poor's Ratings Services cut Italy's sovereign credit rating late Monday, saying the nation's weakening economic growth and political uncertainty have dented its financial stability.

The death toll from a magnitude 6.9 earthquake - and its aftershocks - along the border of India and Nepal climbed to 21 on September 19, officials said.

EU finance ministers broke no new ground in dealing with the euro zone debt crisis in discussions over the weekend, instead absorbing some ideas and rejecting others and taking stock of progress on agreed steps.

President Barack Obama is to unveil plans to cut the US deficit by US$3 trillion over the next decade.

Libya's interim leaders failed to agree a new cabinet on September 18 and the forces that seized power from Muammar Gaddafi remained bogged down in fighting with troops loyal to the former ruler.

At least 16 people have been killed and dozens injured in Nepal and northern India after a 6.8-magnitude earthquake struck the region.