President Barack Obama on Wednesday scaled down a long-planned trip to Asia, as a U.S. government shutdown entered a second day with no end in sight to the funding row in Congress that triggered it.

• October 2, 2013

Tajikistan's parliament ratified a deal with Russia on Tuesday to extend by three decades Moscow's military presence in the volatile Central Asian nation, which may face new security threats after NATO troops leave neighbouring Afghanistan.

• October 1, 2013

Turkey's PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan has announced major political reforms, including new Kurdish rights and a reversal of the headscarf ban.

• September 30, 2013

China opened a new free trade zone in Shanghai on Sunday in what has been hailed as potentially the boldest reform move in decades, unveiling fresh details of plans to liberalize regulations governing finance, investment and trade in the zone.

• September 29, 2013

The European Central Bank's (ECB) plan to test the health of the euro zone's largest lenders without the means to plug any holes it uncovers risks foiling what some see as the bloc's final chance to put its financial crisis behind it.

• September 29, 2013

Ending weeks of diplomatic deadlock, the United States and Russia agreed on Thursday on a U.N. Security Council draft resolution that would demand Syria give up its chemical arms, but does not threaten military force if it fails to comply.

• September 29, 2013

Optimism about the euro zone's economy brightened for the fifth month running and hit a 2-year high in September, adding to evidence that a recovery is underway.

• September 27, 2013

China has formally announced detailed plans for a new free-trade zone (FTZ) in Shanghai, touted as the country's biggest potential economic reform since Deng Xiaoping used a similar zone in Shenzhen to pry open a closed economy to trade in 1978.

• September 27, 2013