| | - General Henry Obering, the head of the Pentagon's Missile Defense Agency welcomes what he cast as epochal progress toward putting a high-energy laser aboard a modified Boeing 747 to attack ballistic missiles that could be fired by North Korea and Iran. (Reuters via ABC News Australia)
- Cuban television shows images of convalescing leader Fidel Castro walking and reading the day's newspapers showing that he is recovering from his emergency surgery in July. (Reuters), (BBC)
- The Russian political parties Rodina, the Russian Party of Life and the Russian Pensioners' Party merge to form a new leftist party, Fair Russia, effectively making Sergey Mironov the new leader of the opposition in the Russian legislature. (ITAR-TASS), (IHT)
- Prime Minister of Iraq Nouri al-Maliki tells the U.S. ambassador that he is Washington's friend but "not America's man in Iraq." (CBS News)
- At least 42 people are killed in a bus crash in Nepal. (BBC)
- Violence breaks out during street protests in Bangladesh, causing the deaths of at least 9 people, as confusion continues over who will take over governing the country from former Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia. (Reuters)
- The genome of the honeybee Apis mellifera has been fully sequenced and analyzed. (Nature)
- German newspaper Bild publishes photos allegedly showing Bundeswehr troops posing with human remains in Afghanistan while on peacekeeping duties there. (Reuters)
- NATO apologizes for the deaths of Afghan civilians in an air raid on Tuesday, October 24, in Kandahar province, blaming Taliban insurgents for using the villagers as cover. (BBC)
- Voting begins on a new Serbian constitution that would make Kosovo officially a part of Serbia; voter turnout on day one was low. (BBC)
- Joseph Kabila and Jean-Pierre Bemba face-off in the presidential run-off election in Democratic Republic of the Congo. (BBC)
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