Chinese President Xi Jingping has issued a new statement ahead of a key party meeting this coming weekend.

Speaking while on an inpection tour in Hunan, Xi Jinping is calling for more reforms to help build an innovation-driven economy.

Xi Jinping says encouraging innovation is the "fundamental approach" to breaking up the bottlenecks restricting the growth of the Chinese economy.

The Chinese president is also calling on local governments to find a balance between economic growth and structural reforms.

The upcoming CPC plenary session this weekend in Beijing is expected to include discussions on a slew of major reform policies.

 

UN, Russia, U.S. meeting fails to set date on Syria peace talks

Officials from the UN, US and Russia have failed to set a date for the so-called Geneva II meeting on Syria.

UN-Arab League envoy Lakhdar Brahimi has been meeting with Russian and US officials in Switzerland to assess the likelyhood of getting a meeting together.

Brahimi says the group will meet again on November 25th for another prepatory meeting, suggesting a November gathering is now unlikely.

The US and Russia had tentatively planned to hold a meeting among international stakeholders, the Syrian Government and Syrian opposition to try to hammer out a political solution to bring the Syrian conflict to an end.

However, divisions among the Syrian opposition in exile have been holding up the process.

 

China's top nuclear envoy to visit North Korea

China's top nuclear negotiator is headed back to North Korea to try to push for the resumption of six-party talks.

Korean Peninsula affairs chief Wu Dawei is due to sit down with North Korean officials on the potential denuclearization of the region.

The Chinese foreign ministry says Wu Dawei's trip to North Korea comes at a time of reduced tensions on the Korean Peninsula.

The 6-party talks, which involve the two Koreas, the US, Japan, Russia and China, have been mothballed since 2008.

 

Kerry in Israel to advance peace talks with Palestinians

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is in Israel in a bid to try to advance the peace talks with the Palestinians. 

Kerry is due to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

This is Kerry's 8th visit to the region since taking office.

Speaking to reporters ahead of his time in Israel, Kerry says he believes there is an ability to move the peace negotiations forward.

But he cautions all sides need to be calm and committed to a "quiet" process.

This is Kerry's 8th visit to the region since taking office.

His shuttle-diplomacy finally managed to get the Israeli and Palestinians talking again earlier this year after 3-years.

 

South Korean president starts three-day visit in Britain

South Korean President Park Geun-Hye has begun a three-day visit to Britain.

Park has been greeted by the Queen and British Prime Minister David Cameron, among others.

She's due to hold official talks with Cameron later on this Wednesday.

This is the South Korean President's first official visit to the UK since taking office.

She's being put up at Buckingham Palace.

 

NSA spies on Japan for military, economic, foreign policy reasons

The Japanese government has so-far offered only a muted response to word it too may be on the list of countries being spied on by the US National Security Agency.

Japan's Defense Minister says he's only heard through media reports that Japan is on a list of "friendly" countries the NSA has been covertly gathering information from.

Itsunori Onodera says his government doesn't want to believe this kind of report.

A new report from the New York Times this week has suggested Japan has been under surveilence by the NSA since at least 2007.

 

Ireland to hold referendum on same-sex marriage in 2015

The Irish government has announced it plans to hold a referendum on whether to legalize same-sex marriage in the country.

The Irish government says it hopes to hold a vote on whether to ammend the country's consitution to allow same-sex unions in the first half of 2015.

Ireland's Justice Minister says his department will be working with the country's Attorney General over the course of the next year to determine the specifics of the proposed referendum.

Polling at the end of last year in Ireland, a predominantly Catholic country, has found that close to three-quarters of those asked say they would vote 'yes' to extending civil marriage rights to same-sex couples.

 

China's Hao Ping elected president of UNESCO's governing body

China's vice minister of education has been elected the President of the UNESCO General Conference.

The election makes Hao Ping the first representative from China to be elected to chair the supreme governing body of UNESCO.

The 54-year-old is the former head of Beijing Foreign Studies University and vice-President of Peking University.

 

Beijing, Zhangjiakou co-bid for 2022 Winter Olympics

Authorities in Beijing and the city of Zhangjiakou in Hebei have announced plans to launch a joint bid for the 2022 Winter Olympic Games.

The Chinese Olympic Committee says the bid will see Beijing host the ice events.

Zhangjiakou would host the alpine events.

Zhangjiakou is about 200 kilometers northwest of Beijing.

An intercity railway is being planned to connect the two cities.

It's expected to cut the journey down to just 40-minutes.