China's Ministry of Education is calling for an urgent nationwide inspection of school buses.

The announcement comes after a severely overloaded school bus collided with a truck in Gansu, killing 20, includuing 18 pre-schoolers.

The bus, designed to carry 9, was carrying 64 when the accident happened.

The emergency notice issued by the central authorities calls for a safety review of all the school buses across the country.

Any of them found to be at risk are to be pulled off the road.

 

 

Shenzhou-8 departs from in-orbit lab, ready for return

 

Shenzhou-8 is now getting ready to return to earth.

The unmanned spacecraft has now decoupled from the Tiangong-1 prototype space lab, and is due to return to earth later tonight. 

As part of its time in space, Shenzhou-8 has successfully docked twice with Tiangong-1. 

The experiments are critical to help establish a manned Chinese space station by 2020.

 

 

China central bank to fine-tune policies, keep prices stable

 

The People's Bank of China now says it will continue to maintain its current prudent monetary policies.

But at the same time, the central bank also says its going to make its policies more "targeted and flexible".

The PBOC now says it preset or fine tune the policies according to changes in the domestic and global economy.

The central bank's decision comes amid growing speculation about how the authorities plan to move the economy forward, given that GDP growth in the third quarter expanded at the slowest pace in two years.

However, the PBOC report also warns that the future trend of consumer prices remains unclear, saying the foundation for stable price levels is still not solid.

 

 

Lucas Papademos government wins confidence vote

 

Greece's new coalition government has won its first confidence vote by a wide margin.

255 of the 300-member parliament have voted to support the unity government of Lucas Papademos.

The vote should now pave the way for the Papademos-government to radify the new eurozone bailout for Greece.

The radification is being viewed as critical to keeping the country from defaulting.

"The European mechanisms that were created for the financial support and to deal with the crisis do not have the firepower. And its operational flexibility is also required to avert the spreading of the crisis."

Papademos is trying to build up support to try to secure its new 130 billion euro bailout deal.

However, he is facing a number of key challenges.

Opposition leader Antonis Samaras has been refusing to provide the written guarantee demanded by the EU to meet the terms of the bailout.

 

 

Monti, cabinet ministers sworn in as Italy's crisis-saving gov't

 

Italy's new government has now been sworn in.

New Prime Minister Mario Monti and his new cabinet are now set to begin their daunting task of trying to stave off Italy's heavy debt-driven financial crisis.

Monti and his team, which is composed of experts in their respective fields who are not politicians, were sworn in after the new Italian prime minister publicly unveiled his cabinet. 

The new government is expected to face a confidence vote in both chambers of parliament on Thursday and Friday.

 

 

Arab League to send observers to Syria within three days

 

The Arab League now says that it will send in observers, should Syria decide to implement the peace plan that it's put forward.

The proposal for observers is now in the hands of the Syrian government.

The latest move by the Arab League comes following Syria's move to release nearly 18-hundred detainees.

The release of prisoners is part of a set of committments the Syrian government agreed to, to try to end the violence in the country.

Other steps would also include removing the Syrian military from urban areas and setting up talks with the opposition.

 

 

White House shooting suspect arrested: report

 

A man is now under arrest in connection with a shooting at the White House in the US Capital.

The suspect has been arrested in Pennsylvania in connection with Friday's shooting.

Two bullets were fired at the White House Friday evening.

One of the bullets managed to hit a window, which is made of bullet-proof glass.

The Secret Service says the 21-year old suspect has a record of arrests in a number of other states.

 

 

U.S. seeks more cooperation opportunities with China: Obama

 

U.S. President Barack Obama says that the U.S. sees future in the Asia-Pacific region and wants more cooperation opportunities with China. 

When addressing Australia's Parliament in Canberra, Obama says Asia is critical to achieving his highest priority: creating jobs and opportunity for the American people.

Obama has also reaffirmed that the US is not increasing its military presence in Australia due to the threat from the rising China.

 

 

China proposes tighter air quality index from 2016

 

China's environment watchdog says PM 2.5, a new and tighter air quality index, is going to be implemented nationwide in 2016.

The move comes amid mounting public criticism of the current air pollution monitoring standards.

The current standard being used only calculates particles 10-micrometers or higher.

A recent spate of high-pollution in Beijing has prompted a lot of discussion about the air-quality standards, given that there is a wide disparity in what the local government reports, compared to the standards used by others, including the US embassy.