China and Indonesia to lift bilateral ties
The Chinese and Indonesian governments have agreed to increase their bilateral relationship to a comprehensive strategic partnership.
The agreement has been made during talks between Chinese President Xi Jinping and his Indonesian counterpart Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.
Xi Jinping is now in Jakarta for an official state visit to Indonesia.
His time in Indonesia is the first stop of his maiden tour to Southeast Asia since taking office in March.
Apart from holding meetings with Indonesian state and business leaders, Xi Jinping is also set to make a speech to lawmakers, outlining his government's policies toward Indonesia and the rest of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN.
CRI will bring you live coverage of this speech starting at 11am today.
Xi Jinping is also set to attend an informal economic leaders' meeting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation in the Indonesian resort of Bali before moving on for another state visit in neighboring Malaysia.
Obama cancels Philippine, Malaysia visits amid gov't shutdown
It's been confirmed U.S President Barack Obama has canceled stops in the Philippines and Malaysia in his upcoming trip to Asia.
Instead, Obama has spoken by phone with the leaders of the two countries.
the American President was scheduled to visit Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei and the Philippines as well as attend an APEC forum.
His visit would have been the first by a U.S president to Malaysia in almost half a century.
Meanwhile, Obama has been meeting with US Congressional lawmakers to try to find a solution to the current US Federal Government shutdown.
U.S government went into partial shutdown on Monday after lawmakers were unable to come up with a new federal budget.
It has left around 700-thousand U.S federal government employees off-the-job without pay.
UN Security Council calls on Syria to facilitate humanitarian access
The UN Security Council has issued a new call for all parties in Syria to take "immediate steps" to open up the country to humanitarian access.
Well-over 4-million people in Syria are said to be internally-displaced.
Over 2-million others have either fled the country or are waiting for refugee status in other countries in the region.
It's under this context that the UN Security Council has voted unanimously to call on all sides in the conflict to let humanitarian aide flow into the respective regions they control.
The resolution also specifically calls for an increase of international and non-government humanitarian organizations access to Syria.
The over 2.5-year long conflict has already left over 100-thousand people dead and has left the immediate region in one of the worst humanitarian situations in the world in recent years.
Russian embassy in Tripoli attacked
The Russian embassy in Libya has come under attack by unknown militants.
Reports from the ground say the embassy in Tripoli was hit by gunfire from an unknown number of militants.
Initial reports have also suggested the attackers stripped down the Russian flag from the embassy compound before eventually being fought off.
There have been no reports of injuries to any Russian embassy staff.
It's believed the Russian ambassdor was not inside at the time.
Some are suggesting the assault on the Russian embassy could be retribution for the killing of a Libyan military officer, allegedly by a Russian woman earlier this week.
Insurgents increase attacks on Pakistani forces in quake-hit areas
The Pakistani military says insurgents are increasing their attacks on military forces trying to carry out relief efforts the recent earthquake hit area in the southwest of the country.
In one of the latest attacks, a bomb blast has gone off, leaving two soliders dead and several others wounded.
Around 2-thousand soliders are involved in the relief efforts in the remote area around the epicenter of the quake, which is in the restive province of Balochistan.
The 7.6-magnitude quake itself hit late last month, leaving over 350 people dead.
It also toppled around 20-thousand homes in the rugged mountainous region around the epicenter.
Pakistani authorities are pleading with insurgents to put their attacks on-hold, noting the relief efforts can only work if Pakistani military personnel are involved.
U.S. private sector adds fewer jobs in September
A new survey is suggesting private companies in the US added fewer jobs in September than projected.
The joint report by ADP and Moody's is suggesting private US companies employed around 166-thousand workers last month.
Economists had been projecting that figure to come in around 180-thousand.
The analysis is suggesting this could be a sign of the labor market beginning to sputter a bit.
Private firms in the US back in June added 190-thousand jobs.
The US Labor Department had been scheduled to release its September jobs report this coming Friday.
However, it's believed the current shutdown of the US Federal Government may delay the release of that report.
Britain's Tesco, China's CRE sign supermarket joint venture agreement
British retail giant Tesco has officially signed an agreement with China Resources Enterprise to create a joint retail venture in China.
Tesco says the two companies have entered into a definitive agreement to combine their Chinese retail operations.
The joint venture will create a business with sales of around 16 billion U.S dollars.
Tesco will have a 20-percent stake, while CRE will control the rest.
Tesco entered the Chinese market in 2004.
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