August has been the deadliest month for US troops in the nearly 10-year war in Afghanistan, according to an unofficial tally.

Minutes of the Federal Reserve's latest Open Policy Committee meeting show the highest level of dissent among its members for 19 years.

The acting director of the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) and the US attorney in Arizona resign over a failed sting operation in Mexico.

Bolivia's Supreme Court convicts five senior military officers and two ex-ministers over the killings of 64 people during protests in 2003.

Israel says it is training Jewish settlers in the West Bank to repel violent protest ahead of a Palestinian bid for statehood at the UN.

At least seven people die and 15 are injured in two suicide attacks in Grozny, the capital of the troubled Russian region of Chechnya, reports say.

An 86-year-old US man who was impaled through the eye with pruning shears in a freak gardening accident should make a full recovery, doctors say.

The New Zealand Press Association is closing, ending 131 years of supplying news to the country's print media.