Typhoon Ketsana ravaged the Philippines on 26 September, then moved on to hit Vietnam and Cambodia in the days that followed. Severe flooding and winds of more than 150 kilometres an hour have forced hundreds of thousands of people out of their homes and claimed nearly 300 lives.

Iran's right to develop nuclear technology will not be discussed, the head of the country's atomic energy body, Ali Akbar Salehi, has said. Iranian officials were due to meet representatives from the five UN Security Council seat-holders plus Germany on 1 October to discuss access for IAEA inspectors to Iran's second uranium enrichment plant, whose existence was revealed on 21 September.

Two Iranian long-range missiles were test-fired on 28 September, according to state media. Each has a range of up to 2,000km. A foreign ministry spokesman, Hassan Qashqavi, said they were fired as part of an annual military drill commemorating the country's war with Iraq.

Barack Obama met Anders Fogh Rasmussen, Nato secretary general, on 29 September to discuss the war in Afghanistan. The US administration is debating future tactics in the country, including whether or not to increase troop numbers.

In Germany's federal election, Angela Merkel's CDU/CSU has been re-elected, and a centre-right alliance with her favoured partner, the FDP, seems likely. Talks will start on Monday 5 October. Despite the win, this is the CDU/CSU's worst result since 1949. Low voter turnout led to a relatively broad spread of votes among smaller parties.

The film director Roman Polanski has been held in Switzerland since 26 September on a US arrest warrant over his conviction, 30 years ago, for having unlawful sex with a 13-year-old girl. The arrest has attracted huge controversy.

Guinean troops fired at protesters during a rally of 50,000 against the country's leader, Moussa Dadis Camara, who seized power in a bloodless coup last December. Reports indicate that 157 were killed and 1,200 wounded. The rally was sparked by indications that Camara will reverse a previous pledge not to run in January's presidential election.

India's new nuclear energy plan is to increase production twelvefold by 2050. The proportion of its energy from nuclear power would then rise from 3 per cent to 6 per cent. At present, 50 per cent of India's energy comes from coal; it is the world's fourth-largest producer of carbon emissions.

An EU report on 2008's Georgia-Russia war has been published. It aims to reduce tensions and lay blame for the war on both sides. The EU has stepped up its patrols in Georgia.

A tsunami in the South Pacific, caused by an earthquake of magnitude 8.3 under the ocean, has hit the islands of Samoa and American Samoa. Several villages have been wiped out and more than two dozen people killed.

The Czech president, Václav Klaus, is refusing to sign the Lisbon Treaty until the country's constitutional court decides if the bill creates the legal foundations for a European superstate, and thus undermines Czech sovereignty. Ratification may be delayed: Ireland votes on the treaty on 2 October.

Severe drought in East Africa may leave 20 million in need of food aid, the UN World Food Programme has announced, affecting Kenya, Somalia, Eritrea, Djibouti and Ethiopia. Five years of drought have created the worst humanitarian crisis in the region in a decade, Oxfam reports.

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