World News Update, What you need to know

Twelve Pacific rim countries have sealed the deal on creating the world's largest free-trade area, delivering President Barack Obama a major policy triumph.

ELSEWHERE:

LONDON - A string of Chris Cairns's teammates and former Australian captain Ricky Ponting will take the stand as the former New Zealand cricketing great faces a perjury trial in London.

LONDON - A NSW judge is set to make British legal history when he sits in a London court to hear evidence from witnesses in an Australian civil case.

TRIPOLI - The bodies of 85 migrants have been found washed up on the coast of Libya, a major departure point for the sea crossing to Europe, the Red Crescent says.

STOCKHOLM - Three scientists have earned the 2015 Nobel Prize for Medicine for unlocking revolutionary treatments for malaria and roundworm, helping to roll back two parasitic diseases that blight millions of lives.

CHICAGO - British energy giant BP will pay a record $US20.8 billion ($A29.48 billion) to settle government claims for damages stemming from the deadly 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill, US Attorney General Loretta Lynch says.

WASHINGTON - Afghan forces who said they were under Taliban fire asked for the US air strike that killed 22 people at a hospital in Kunduz, the US commander in Afghanistan claims.