Chinese President Xi Jinping has arrived in Bishkek for his state visit to Kyrgyzstan.

The president will also attend a Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit.

Upon his arrival, Xi Jingping hailed bilateral ties between China and Kyrgyzstan.

The Chinese President says biliteral ties have a strong basis and broad prospect for their advancement.

Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambaev said earlier that he hoped the Chinese president's visit would push forward mutual cooperation.

He also pledged to lift bilateral ties to a strategic partnership level. 

Kyrgyzstan is the last stop of Xi Jinping's Central Asian tour since assuming the presidency in March.

 

China needs reforms for economic development: Premier

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang has urged future reforms to achieve sustainable and healthy economic development.

Li Keqiang made the remarks ahead of the Summer Davos Forum, which will kick off later today in Dalian city.

Noting that the Chinese government has attached greater importance to economic restructuring in recent years, Premier Li Keqiang said China would unwaveringly stick to a "green path" for development.

Li Keqiang also reiterated China would keep promoting the market-oriented interest rate, as well as to diversify its capital market and widen financing channels to allow more direct financing. 

This year's Summer Davos is scheduled to run through Wednesday till Friday . 

Organised by the World Economic Forum, the event is themed as "meeting the innovation imperative" this year.

Premier Li Keqiang is set to attend the opening ceremony and will deliver a keynote speech.

 

Syria to declare chemical weapons and sign arms ban

Syria's foreign minister says his country is ready to declare its chemical weapons stockpile and sign a chemical weapons convention.

Meanwhile Russian President VLadimir Putin is mounting more pressure on the US to give up its strike plan.

Putin says placing the Syrian chemical weapons under international control makes sense only if the U.S. rejects the use of force. 

Meantime, US president Barack Obama is supporting a French resolution to the UN security Council.

The resolution would demand Syria put its chemical weapons under international control and destroyed.

The Obama administration has subsequently delayed a Senate vote on the president's request.

Obama has also decided to send Secretary of State John Kerry to Geneva.

Kerry is supposed to meet Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Vavrov to further discuss Russia's proposal.

Earlier, China and Iran welcomed Russia's proposal.

The Chinese government reiterated its position on a political solution to the Syrian crisis.

It also confirmed that it's currently receiving a delegation from a Syrian opposition group in Beijing.

 

India court finds all 4 adult suspects in Delhi gang rape guilty of all charges

A court in New Delhi has found 4 men guilty of the rape and murder of a college student in the Indian capital last year.

The men attacked the woman and her boyfriend on a moving bus in December, brutally assaulting her before leaving her on the side of the road.

She later died of internal injuries from the assault in hospital days later.

Sentencing is set to get underway on Wednesday.

 

Protests spread to Ankara and Istanbul following the death of a demonstrator

Police in Turkey have arrested a number of demonstrators in the southern province of Hatay.

It follows violent clashes which broke out following the controversial death of a demonstrator.

Ahmet Atakan died in the early hours of Tuesday at a demonstration against Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan's handling of nationwide protests this summer. 

The cause of his death was in dispute, with witnesses saying he suffered a blunt trauma to the head, while police said he fell from a rooftop.

Protests now have spread from Hatay to the Turkish capital Ankara and Istanbul.

Anti-government demonstrations have largely cooled since early July though tensions remain high in the southern province of Hatay, which borders war-torn Syria.

 

China's economic indexes in August released

National Bureau of Statistics is reporting industrial production expanded 10.4 percent in August on an annualized basis.

It marks a 9.7 percent advance compared to July's reading.

Meanwhile, retail sales rose 13.4 in August from a year ago.

That also registers a slight expansion from the reading in the first seven months.

Urban fixed-asset investment is up more than 20 percent through August.

The central regions here in China saw the largest increase in investment, up nearly 24 percent year on year.

 

China's auto sales up 10.28 pct in August

Auto sales here in China hit 1.65 million units in August, increasing nearly 10.3 percent year on year.

That also represents a 8.7 percent increase compared to that of July.

The China Association of Automobile Manufacturers or CAAM reports growth of output has surpassed sales by increasing nearly 12 percent on an annualized basis in August.

Sales totaled 14 million units over the first eight months of this year.

 

More than half of China's floating population was born in 1980s: government report

A new report from the National Health and Family Planning Commission suggests more than half of this country's so-called floating population was born in the 1980's. 

The new stats suggest the average age of migrant workers here in China last year was 28.

The same study has also found an increasing number of migrant workers are hoping to permanently relocate to where they're working. 

China's floating population reached 236 million last year.

This is one-sixth of the country's overall population.