Chinese President Xi Jinping has met with visiting Jordanian King Abdullah to discuss bilateral ties.

Xi Jinping has described Jordan as a good friend of China.

King Abdullah says he admires the achievements that have been made here in China.

Abdullah also says he appreciate's China's work in trying to find a political solution to the Syrian conflict.

 

Syria has turned over materials to Russia

Syria has given evidence to Russia, which implicates Syrian rebels were in last months' chemical weapons attack. 

Russia says it will turn the evidence over to the UN Security Council.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad met with visiting Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov on Wednesday.

Ryabkov said that Syria has turned the evidence over to Russia.

 

Several killed in rush hour collision between train and bus

Six people have been killed and 30 others injured in Canada, after a passenger train and double-decker city bus collided on the outskirts of Ottawa during Wednesday's morning rush hour. 

Glen Pilon, a Transportation Safety Board official, says investigators are trying to find the event recorder.

Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson says a reunification center has been set up for families and friends looking for passengers on the bus and train.

The collision comes just months after a runaway freight train crashed and the explosion killed 50 people in Lac-Megantic,Quebec.

 

Search and recovery operations after devastating floods in Colorado

Rescue work in flood hit Colorado is now shifting its focus from emergency airlifts to finding hundreds of people still unaccounted for, after last week's devastating flooding. 

Water is now reported to be receding and flowing east onto the Colorado plains, revealing toppled homes, buckled highways and fields of tangled debris.

Experts say rebuilding efforts will cost hundreds of millions of dollars and could take months, if not years.

Meanwhile, the death toll from two storms ravaging Mexico in recent days has now risen to 57 across seven states.

Authorities say two tropical storms, Ingrid and Manuel, have affected 250 towns nationwide, forcing 39,000 residents to evacuate and causing 100 rivers to overflow.

It is the first time since 1958 that two tropical storms have hit both the country's coasts within 24 hours.

 

Pentagon orders security reviews after shooting

U.S Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel says he has ordered two department-wide security reviews, after a deadly shooting this week in the Navy Yard in Washington. 

During a Pentagon press briefing, Hagel admitted "something went wrong" with security checks at the military facility. 

The reviews come as questions are raised as to how Aaron Alexis, a former Navy reservist with a history of mental health problems, was able to gain security clearance to enter the Navy Yard. 

Alexis used a valid pass on Monday to enter the facility where he killed 12 people, before police shot him dead.

 

U.S. Fed decides to keep bond purchases unchanged

The U.S central bank has decided to keep its bond purchases unchanged, as they fail to see any breakthrough in the economy's recovery.

The Federal Reserve announced it would continue it's 85-billion US dollars per month bond purchasing.

Tight fiscal policy and higher mortgage rates have also been cited as the main reasons.

The statement comes as a surprise to the markets, when most economists had been expecting a scaling back at this month's meeting.

New U.S. private spacecraft launched to ISS

A new privately-owned U.S spaceship carrying food, clothing and other cargo is now on a demonstration mission to the International Space Station. 

The Cygnus spacecraft, built by U.S firm Orbital Sciences Corp, was launched atop the company's Antares rocket from a regional spaceport on Wallops Island off the U.S east coast. 

It is a maiden flight for Cygnus, and the second flight of Antares, which made a successful debut in April. 

If everything all goes to plan, the Virginia-based company will begin regular cargo supply missions later this year.

 

Search for U.S. pilot continues in China

Rescuers are still searching for a missing U.S pilot after a light aircraft crashed into a lake in northeast China's Liaoning Province.

The accident happened Tuesday afternoon, when a Lancier aircraft with pilot David Riggs and a Chinese translator onboard crashed into Caihu Lake in Liaoning's capital city of Shenyang, during a trial flight. 

Rescue forces, including a 11-member team from the Beihai rescue bureau under the Ministry of Communications, were dispatched to the scene immediately after the accident.

The translator was pulled from the water but died later in hospital. 

Riggs remains unaccounted for.

 

China launches emergency response for Usagi

An emergency response has been issued for tropical storm Usagi, which may become one of the strongest typhoons to hit China's southeastern coastal regions in the next few days.

A fourth-level emergency response, the lowest level, has been announced by the State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters. 

Authorities say Usagi will hit the coast near Guangdong Province on Sunday. 

IT is the 19th tropical storm of the year to hit China.