Despite mounting pressures, including the repeated U.S. veto threats, Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas has formally presented the application letter to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in a bid to seek the UN recognition of Palestine as a full member state. 

The meeting between Ban and Abbas took place on the sidelines of the general debate of the 66th General Assembly session. 

The United Nations Security Council will have consultations Monday afternoon on the application of Palestine for UN membership.

 

China's top legislator starts Kazakhstan visit 

China's top legislator Wu Bangguo is in Almaty to start a five-day official goodwill visit to Kazakhstan, the first visit to the Central Asian country by a top Chinese lawmaker.

Wu Bangguo arrived in Almaty, the country's biggest city, after concluding his visit to Russia, Belarus and Uzbekistan. Kazakhstan is the last leg of his four-nation Eurasian tour.

 

Chinese FM attends BRICS foreign ministers' meeting 

Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi attended a meeting of foreign ministers from Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS) and met respectively with his Russian and Nigerian counterparts in New York.

The foreign ministers of the five BRICS countries agreed to further enhance practical cooperation and improve coordination in international affairs. 

They also exchanged views on the issues of Libya, Syria, the Palestine-Israel conflict, the international financial system reform, climate change, sustainable development and anti-terrorism.

 

NASA says defunct satellite falls back to Earth 

The U.S. space agency NASA says a decommissioned U.S. satellite fell back to Earth but its precise re-entry time and location remained unknown.

The NASA stresses the risk to public safety or property is extremely small.

The UARS satellite, launched in 1991 from a space shuttle, was the first multi-instrumented satellite to observe numerous chemical constituents of the atmosphere with a goal of better understanding atmospheric photochemistry and transport.

 

First Chinese cargo flight lands in St. Louis, U.S. 

The first cargo flight from China which departed from Shanghai has landed in Missouri state's St. Louis Lambert International Airport, marking the establishment of a link between China's financial hub and the U.S. heartlands.

Both American and Chinese notables including Chinese Consul General to Chicago Yang Guoqiang and St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay attended the welcoming ceremony and expressed their confidence that the two countries would both benefit from the new aviation connection. 

China Cargo, the airline managing the trans-Pacific aviation route, currently plans to run weekly flights between Shanghai and St. Louis, with officials seeking to boost the frequency to three shipments a week before the U.S. holiday season.

 

China promotes use of agricultural machinery for autumn production 

China's ministry of Agriculture says as the nation's grain production is heavily reliant on autumn crops, agricultural authorities should coordinate their efforts to maximize mechanical advantages in production of crops harvested during this season.

It says areas of corn crops harvested by machines will reach 9.6 million hectares) this autumn, accounting for 31 percent of the crop's total, while 69 percent of rice crops will be reaped by machines.

The ministry urges local authorities to send technicians to help the use of agricultural machines and promote technologies for agricultural mechanization.

 

China finds over 170,000 violations in campaign to regulate use of government cars 

Over 170,000 cars purchased and used by government officials have been deemed to be unnecessary or "too luxurious" for official use under a campaign to regulate the use of government cars.

He Guoqiang, the top anti-graft official of the Communist Party of China (CPC) has told an anti-corruption conference in Beijing that the next stage of the campaign will consist of correcting the violations and intensifying daily supervision.

China launched a campaign in May to regulate the use of public funds for government vehicles in order to reduce unnecessary public spending. 

Another campaign targeted at corruption in the construction industry resulted in 38,000 reports of violations and over 19,000 investigations.

 

Pension insurance to cover all Chinese senior citizens by 2015

China's State Council, the country's Cabinet, says all of China's senior citizens living in rural and urban areas will be covered by pension insurance by 2015, according to a plan for senior citizens' development in the 12th Five-Year Plan period.

The plan says China's population aged sixty and over will increase to 221 million by 2015, which will raise their proportion of the entire population to 16 percent.

Besides pension insurance, the government will also improve elderly care services across the country.

Community medical centers will create health records for those aged 65 and older in the next five years