The Philippine Government strongly protests China’s construction and operation of two lighthouses on artificial islands in the East Sea, the country’s Department of Foreign Affairs said on October 19. 

Iran's nuclear negotiator Abbas Araqchi said on October 19 he expected a deal with six world powers on shrinking Tehran's atomic program in exchange for sanctions relief to be implemented by year-end.

At least two people were killed and five other wounded in a bombing in Saiburi district, Pattani, southern Thailand, on October 19.

China’s construction on islands in disputed East Sea areas is “unwarranted provocation”, Malaysian armed forces chief Zulkefli Mohd Zin said at a security forum in Beijing on October 18. 

Many Egyptian voters shunned the first phase of a parliamentary election on October 18 that President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has hailed as a milestone on the road to democracy but his critics have branded as a sham.

The United States approved conditional sanctions waivers for Iran on October 18, though it cautioned they would not take effect until Tehran has curbed its nuclear program as required under a historic nuclear deal reached in Vienna on July 14.

Eight bodies have been recovered from a rubber boat carrying migrants trying to cross the Mediterranean, the Italian navy said in a Tweet on October 18.

A Palestinian gunman went on a shooting rampage at the central bus station in the southern Israeli city of Beersheba on October 18, killing a soldier and wounding 11 other people, police said.

A Vietnamese Party delegation joined representatives from political parties from 14 ASEAN member states and partners at an ASEAN conference on women’s participation in politics held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on October 17. 

Israel and the United States have resumed talks on future defense aid that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu suspended in protest at the Iran nuclear deal, the Israeli ambassador to Washington said on October 18.