More than 30 killed in suicide bombing in central Syria
Firefighters are working to try to extinguish the reminants of fires created following a massive suicide bombing in the Syrian city of Hama.
A truck, loaded with one and a half tons of explosives, ripped through a military checkpoint at the outskirts of Hama.
The massive blast has left over 30 people dead.
The blast comes just a day after a similiar blast at a military checkpoint in the suburbs of Damascus which left 16 dead.
The suicide bombings come as the international community prepares to meet in Geneva for a new set of talks in just over a month.
39 killed, 51 wounded in bombing attacks in Iraq's capital
A series of bombings have ripped through the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, leaving at least 39 dead.
Over 50 others have been wounded in the blasts.
The deadliest blast took place in southwestern Baghdad, leaving 37 dead and over 40 others hurt.
The bomb blew up outside a cafe in a mostly Shiite neighborhood.
Two others have been killed in a roadside bombing in western Baghdad.
Iraq is being gripped in the worst sectarian violence since the height of the insurgency against coalition forces in late 2007.
Juncker's CSV party leads early general elections in Luxembourg, but loses seats
Exit polling is suggesting the center-right party of veteran Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker is going to maintain is hold on power in Luxembourg.
With around 80-percent of the vote tallied, Juncker's Christian Social People's Party has garnered around one-third of the vote.
This has given his party 23 of the 60 seats in Luxembourg's parliament.
Juncker's CSV Party held 26 seats heading into the vote.
Libyan PM accuses congressmen for his abduction
Libyan Prime Minister Ali Zeidan is accusing a pair of congressmen of plotting his abduction earlier this month.
Zeidan is pointing the finger at Mohamed al-Kilani and Mustafa al-Triki.
He says the two congressmen met with him the day before his short-lived abduction.
Zeidan says the men blamed him for the violence taking place in their home city of Zawiya.
Zawiya was a key city for the rebels during the uprising which eventually toppled former Libyan strongman Muammar Gaddafi.
Warring factions in the city are now engaged in battles with forces in the neighboring village of Warshfana.
Warshfana is home to forces said to be loyal to the former Gaddafi regieme.
Ali Zeidan was taken from his hotel in Tripoli and held by gunmen for about 6-hours earlier this month before eventually being released.
China-Myanmar gas pipeline in full operation
A gas pipeline running from Myanmar into China has gone into full operation, with the last section here in China now finished.
The over 25-hundred kilometer long trunk line is expected to pump 12 billion cubic meters of natural gas from Myanmar into China per year.
It's expected this could help cut coal consumption in China by over 30 million tones annually.
Construction on the China-Myanmar gas pipeline started about 3 years ago.
No casualties in Hunan ancient building fire
A fire has done damage to an ancient building complex in Hunan.
The fire broke out in the Hongjiang Ancient Town last night.
It burned for around 2-hours before crews managed to put it out.
The narrow lanes in the complex restricted firefighters access to the area.
The Hongjiang Ancient Town is a national cultural heritage site.
It includes around 300 ancient structures built in both the Ming and Qing Dynasties.
The extent of the damage has not been made clear.
No injuries have been reported.
It's unclear how the fire broke out.
7 confirmed dead in China's flooded colliery
Authorities have now confirmed 7 miners trapped in a flooded mine earlier this month are dead.
The 7 drowned after their coal mine flooded ten days earlier in Huishui County, which lies just south of the provincial capital, Guiyang.
26 workers inside the mine at the time of the flooding managed to escape.
The Party secretary and the head of the county's work safety division have been fired in the wake of the flooding.
The mine is properly licenced.
The cause of the flooding remains unclear.
Expanded property tax trials predicted
China is likely to expand its property tax trials amid recent hikes in home prices in many cities.
The Beijing-based Securities Daily says the expectations for upgrading the real estate market control are increasing and a long-term mechanism will be gradually rolled out.
The report points to the expansion of property tax trials as one of the most likely approaches for the government to adopt.
Foreign visitors to China down 5 pct Jan.-Sept.
Foreign visitor arrivals in the Chinese mainland totalled over 19 million in the first nine months of this year, down five percent year on year, according to new data from the National Tourism Administration.
Foreign visitor arrivals from Asian nations totalled 11.8 million during the period and declined the most on a year-on-year basis, down nearly 6 percent, with arrivals from Japan down 23 percent.
Arrivals from North and South America, Europe and Oceania also dropped. However, foreign tourist arrivals from the United Kingdom and France rose 2.7 percent and 1.5 percent, respectively.
In contrast with other continents, Africa's outbound tourist arrivals in China rose more than 3.7 percent and amounted to 400,700 during the same period.
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