Astronauts may need to take the unprecedented step of temporarily abandoning the International Space Station if last week's Russian launch accident prevents new crews from flying there this fall.

Japan's Finance Minister Yoshihiko Noda is set to become prime minister after winning a party vote on August 29, taking on responsibility for rebuilding after the quake, tsunami and nuclear disasters.

A suicide bomber posing as a beggar detonated his explosives inside a major Baghdad Sunni mosque on August 28, killing at least 24 people, including an Iraqi lawmaker, just as they finished evening prayers, hospital and local officials said.

Activists say Syrian security forces have surrounded a town in central Syria that has become a hotbed of dissent against President Bashar Assad's regime.

Taiwan has deployed 35,000 troops to prepare for a huge storm bearing down on the south-east of the island.

Japan's ruling Democratic Party started on August 29 an election of the party's president, who is expected to become the country's third prime minister in two years.

A suicide bomber killed at least 28 people and wounded at least 30 more after blowing himself up inside a Sunni mosque in the Iraqi capital Baghdad on August 28.

Libyan rebel forces were converging on Muammar Gaddafi's hometown of Sirte on August 29, hoping to deliver the coup de grace of their revolution but uncertain if the fallen strongman was holed up there.

Veteran politician and banker Tony Tan was declared the winner of Singapore's presidential election on August 28 after a recount gave him a razor-thin victory that exposed sharp divisions in the electorate.

Super-typhoon Nanmadol has killed at least seven people and left flattened bridges and blocked roads in its wake as it slowly moved away from the Philippines, officials said.