1. Italy Rescuers Toil Through the Night Seeking Quake Survivors as Death Toll Hits 159
Rescue teams worked through the night to try to find survivors under the rubble that remained of central Italian towns flattened by an earthquake that hit in the early hours, killing at least 159 people.
2. Afghan Forces Kill Two Gunmen to End American University Attack
Afghan security forces killed two gunmen who attacked the American University in Kabul, police said, ending an assault on the compound that killed at least one person and sent students fleeing in panic.
3. Brexit Leader Nigel Farage Lends Trump Support
Nigel Farage, a leader of Britain’s vote to leave the European Union, lent his support to Republican presidential nominee, saying Donald Trump represents the same type of anti-establishment movement that he masterminded.
4. Turkish Tanks Roll into Syria, Pushing ISIS out of Key Border Town
Syrian rebels backed by Turkish special forces, tanks and warplanes entered one of ISIS’s last strongholds on Turkish-Syrian border, in Turkey’s first major US-backed incursion into its southern neighbour.
5. N Korea’s Kim Declares Missile Launch From Sub ‘Greatest Success’
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un supervised a test-fire of a submarine-launched ballistic missile and declared it “the greatest success” that puts the country in the “front rank” of nuclear military powers, official media reports said.
6. Iran Vessels Make ‘High Speed Intercept’ of US Ship: US Official
Four of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps vessels “harassed” a US warship near the Strait of Hormuz, a US defence official said, amid Washington’s concerns about Iran’s posture in the Gulf and in the Syrian civil war.
7. Colombia, FARC Sign Final Deal to End Five Decades of Bloodshed
Colombia’s government and leftist FARC rebels signed a final peace deal to end a 50-year guerrilla war, one of the world’s longest conflicts which took the resource-rich country to the brink of collapse.
8. Kerry Tackles Yemen, Syrian Conflicts in Saudi Arabia Talks
US Secretary of State John Kerry held talks with Saudi Arabia’s powerful deputy crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, on ways to end Yemen’s conflict and resume peace talks between the warring sides.
9. Without Aid, 49,000 Children Will Die This Year in Northeast Nigeria: UN
Nearly half a million children around Lake Chad have faced “severe acute malnutrition” due to drought and a seven-year insurgency by Islamist militant group Boko Haram in northeastern Nigeria, UNICEF said.