The International Monetary Fund says the global economy is "recovering faster than expected", raising its forecast for global growth to 3.1% for 2010, up from 2.5%. (IMF Survey online)
Rainstorms in Messina and other parts of Sicily sweep at least 18 people away to their deaths, wounding 40, causing 20 to disappear and surrounding the city with mud and rainwater. A state of emergency is declared by the Italian government. (ANSA)(RTÉ)(Al Jazeera)(Xinhua)
CzechPresidentVáclav Klaus declines to say how he would proceed in ratification of the Lisbon Treaty after the second referendum is approved by Irish voters. (The Irish Times)
William Hague says Blair as EU president would be the worst option for Britain, saying "most people would be extremely annoyed" and that his appointment would "underline the lack of accountability and democracy that is our objection to the Lisbon treaty". (The Times)
Typhoon Parma hits the Philippines, with early reports indicating at least four deaths as trees are uprooted and roofs torn off houses. (Philippine Inquirer)(Reuters)
The death toll in
sudden extreme spells of rain and mud showers in Messina and other parts of Sicily as the injured total reaches at least eighty. (BBC)
Greek legislative election: Voters go to polls for a snap election. (BBC)(Al Jazeera)
Socialists win national elections in Greece, defeating a center-right government crippled by corruption scandals and a growing economic crisis. (NY Times)
Prime Minister-elect and
George Papandreou promises to support the green economy and to deploy a stimulus package, as PM and New Democracy leader Kostas Karamanlis concedes defeat. (BBC)(CBC)
Ambassadors from Ireland and Uganda, along with the Sudanese minister overseeing negotiations, visit Al-Fashir in a renewed effort to win the freedom of aid workers Sharon Cummins and Hilda Kawuki, kidnapped since 3 July. (RTÉ)
Kaczyński's twin brother and political ally, Jaroslaw, denies this. (Xinhua)
In addition, Alexander Szczyglo, the president's head of security, tells the TVN24 television channel that President Kaczyński will sign the Lisbon treaty on October 11. (Al Jazeera)
Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner says the Lisbon Treaty will not be changed to meet the demands of Klaus, accusing him of "inventing difficulties" and saying he has no doubt this behaviour will continue. (RTÉ)(Reuters India)
British Royal Family in the 19th and early 20th centuries. (BBC)
Only the Czech government could make such a request, but Czech Prime minister Jan Fischer says that President Klaus had not given the cabinet any information about his latest demands.(BBC News)
Wallace Souza, the former Brazilian state legislator and host of Canal Livre who faces accusations of drug trafficking and murder, surrenders to police after being a fugitive for four days. (CNN)
A suspected suicide car-bomber kills 49 people in the Pakistani city of Peshawar in an attack that the government said underscored the need for an all-out offensive against the Pakistani Taliban. (Reuters)
Two people die after being overcome by sweat and about 19 others are hospitalised at a spiritual retreat in Arizona, USA. (BBC)
North Korea fires five short range missiles into the Sea of Japan, after issuing a "no sail zone" for waters off its east and west coasts until October 20. (Yonhap)(BBC)(Xinhua)
The Philippines deploys soldiers and gunboats to surround the strongholds of suspected militants and pressure them to release an abducted Irish priest. (CBC)
North and South Korea agree to hold talks on flood control and family reunions, after North Korea fired several short range missiles earlier this week. (Joongang Daily)(Yonhap)(BBC)
Iraq's Human Rights Ministry announces at least 85,000 Iraqis have been killed by bombs, murders and fighting between 2004 and 2008. (Associated Press)(Al Jazeera)
A worldwide media circus surrounds an incident in which a six-year-old boy is alleged to be flying in a homemade hot-air balloon; the boy was later found safe at home. (CNN)
At least seven people are killed and at least ten are injured in an explosion at a mosque, police station and passenger bus in Peshawar, Pakistan. (Xinhua)(RTÉ)(BBC)
A Rwandan doctor working in a French hospital is suspended after a nurse locates an InternetInterpol arrest warrant, accusing him of a 1994 "genocide, war crimes". (Reuters)
Iranian state television says Britain was directly involved in the attack and intended it as a distraction from problems it faces in Afghanistan. (Reuters)
The Pakistani charge d'affaires is summoned after Iran says it has evidence the attack had been launched from Pakistani soil. (Press TV)
China pledges to rescue the crew aboard the Chinese ship De Xin Hai after it is hijacked by Somali pirates in the Indian Ocean. The pirates threaten to kill the crew if there is any attempt to rescue them. (Xinhua)(CNN)(The Guardian)
Nearly 100,000 Italian women sign a petition after Silvio Berlusconi says a female politician is "more beautiful than intelligent" on live television. (BBC)(Reuters)
Roman Catholic bishops issue a 12-page document urging what they call corrupt political leaders on the continent to repent their sins or resign and criticising multinational companies who exploit and destroy the earth. (BBC)(Reuters)(CBC)
Society of St. Pius X, says that the Vatican is considering the possibility of converting the Lefebvrist group into a personal prelature. (Pakistan Christian TV)
GDP contracts by 0.4% between July and September, meaning that the United Kingdom has been contracting for 6 successive quarters for the first time since records were kept in 1955. (BBC)(RTÉ)
Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) launches its first human rights body, the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR). (Thai News Agency)(Associated Press)
South Waziristan, birthplace of Pakistani Taliban leader Hakimullah Mehsud and also the hometown of the Taliban's master trainer of suicide bombers, Qari Hussain, after a week of fierce fighting with the Taliban. (BBC)
At least 10 patients from thirty-four operated on partially lose their sight after free cataract operations in Nellore, Andhra Pradesh. (BBC)
A crater found in northern Latvia, believed at first to be a meteorite strike, is revealed to be a hoax perpetrated by telecom operator Tele2. (Fox News)
Australian authorities offer a Aus$1 million reward in their search for a man suspected of ordering the murder of a vampire. (BBC)
A police officer in Liverpool, England is hospitalised in a life threatening condition after undergoing a homophobic attack by a gang of twenty youths. (Sky News)(BBC)
The autonomous Aceh province in Indonesia is to ban women from wearing tight trousers under a new law, while a law authorising the stoning to death of adulterers and the whipping of homosexuals will be reviewed. (Jakarta Globe)(Straits Times)(Reuters South Africa)
The Lebanese army says it has found and deactivated four 107-mm rockets in the garden of a partly built house a day after a rocket fired from Houla hit the northern Israeli border town of Kiryat Shmona. This is the fifth time rocket attacks have been used to try to break the cease-fire. (Reuters)
Burmese authorities arrest 50 people – including journalists, students and political activists, in a security crackdown, according to a Thailand based human rights group. (Reuters)
A video of the kidnapped Irish priest Father Michael Sinnott is released by his captors in the Philippines. The kidnappers want a $2 million (€1.36 million) ransom. It is the first evidence that Sinnott is still alive since his abduction on 11 October. (RTÉ)
