From Washington, this is VOA news. I'm David DeForest reporting.

Media reports say Syrian troops have seized a neighborhood in central Aleppo from rebel forces.

After capturing the neighborhood, government forces continued to fight rebel troops near a famous citadel in the city.

A rebel official said Syrian and Russian warplanes and artillery pounded a number of areas in and around the city as ground forces gathered.

The Syrian army's offensive aims at regaining control of Aleppo, which would be a major victory for the government of President Bashar al-Assad.

The Indian government announced Tuesday Prime Minister Narendra Modi will not attend a regional summit meeting due to be held in Islamabad in November. The Indian Foreign Ministry cited increasing border attacks from Pakistan is the reason.

Mr. Modi had announced that he will mount a global campaign to diplomatically isolate Pakistan in the wake of a recent terrorist attack in Kashmir that killed 18 Indian soldiers.

The British government says it will oppose the formation of a European Union military force.

Defense Minister Michael Fallon said Tuesday that an EU army or even an EU army headquarters would undermine the NATO alliance. He made his remarks during an EU meeting in Bratislava.

EU members are trying to hammer out a new plan for military cooperation between the 28-member states.

Former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says he will not run in next year's presidential election because the country's supreme leader says his candidacy would increase divisions in the nation.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei [has said] has a final say in all matters of state. He was quoted as saying Ahmadinejad's candidacy would polarize society.

This is VOA news.

New data released Tuesday by the International Organization for Migration shows the number of refugees and migrants arriving in Europe has fallen this year but the data also show that migration to Europe has grown more steadily. [This year,] I should say "more deadly."

This year, more than 300,000 migrants and refugees entered Europe by sea, a drop of more than 40 percent from the same period last year.

Refugee deaths rose, however, with migrant fatalities up nearly 20 percent.

Egyptian salvage workers Tuesday pulled the bodies of dozens of migrants from the hold of a sunken fishing boat in the Mediterranean Sea. That raises the death toll from the September 21 sinking to 200.

Survivors have said 450 to 600 migrants were packed aboard the trawler when it capsized off the port of Rosetta as it headed for Europe.

Authorities say most of the victims were Egyptians from the Nile Delta region, many of them teenagers.

French President Francois Hollande vowed Tuesday to support Libya's fragile unity government, whose prime minister is visiting Paris. Lisa Bryant has more.

President Hollande saluted the push by Libyan forces to liberate the city of Sirte from Islamic State control, but he warned the fight against radical groups in the North African country is far from over.

Speaking to reporters alongside Libyan Prime Minister Fayez Serraj, Hollande said terrorist groups are still operating in Libya, and they must be hunted down and neutralized. The French president said Libya must not follow the example of Syria.

Lisa Bryant, Paris.

U.S. presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump headed back to the campaign trail Tuesday, a day after their contentious first debate.

Trump told supporters he thinks he won. "It was a fascinating period of time and I think we did very well. We won virtually every poll, every poll, except for CNN. And nobody watches CNN."

Speaking at a campaign rally in North Carolina Tuesday, Democrat Clinton criticized Trump's remarks during the debate about not paying taxes.

"and when I confronted him with the reasons why he won't release his tax returns and I got to that point where I said, 'Well, maybe he's paid zero,' he said that makes him smart. Now, if not paying taxes makes him smart, what does that make all the rest of us?" :Hillary Clinton.

Analysts largely agree that Clinton won the debate and that the victory could give her a national poll boost six weeks ahead of the November 8 election.

On Wall Street today, U.S. stock indexes were up.

In Washington, I'm David DeForest.

That's the latest world news from VOA.