Talking points

Our editors will be looking ahead today to these developing stories ...

Rohingya on agenda as Thein Sein visits Dhaka

Myanmese President Thein Sein starts a three-day visit to Dhaka, during which he is expected to meet Bangladeshi President Zillur Rahman and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wajed (both pictured). The leaders are expected to discuss the Rohingya, a Muslim ethnic minority whose members live on both sides of the border but who are welcome in neither country. Thein Sein has said the 'only solution' to the 800,000 Rohingya living in Myanmar is to put them in UNHCR refugee camps. Some 300,000 Rohingya live on the Bangladesh side of the border.

C.Y. and team keep up the charm offensive

Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying and his cabinet continue their push to court the public by paying a third round of visits to local districts tomorrow. Leung's team has held similar exercises over the past two weeks - some of which have descended into chaos as they were tailed by protesters. Leung is expected to be questioned about the row over illegal structures found at his house on The Peak and the resignation of his development secretary, Mak Chai-kwong, who was arrested in the midst of a housing allowance scandal.

Frozen aid on Mursi's mind as he hosts Clinton

US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton visits Egypt 'to express the United States' support for Egypt's democratic transition and economic development'. This will be the first meeting of newly elected President Mohammed Mursi (centre, with Egypt's military leaders) with a Western leader since his election, and his government will be seeking to persuade the US to release economic assistance. The aid has been frozen in response to an earlier clampdown by Egypt's interim military leaders on pro-democracy groups.

Taiwan celebrates its democracy moment

Taiwan tomorrow commemorates the lifting of martial law 25 years ago, widely regarded as a watershed in its democratic development. Taiwan had been under martial law after Chiang Kai-shek's Kuomintang took refuge following its defeat in the 1949 civil war, until Chiang's son and successor Chiang Ching-kuo lifted it in 1987. A photo exhibition on human rights at the National 228 Memorial Museum is part of the commemorations.

A feast of arms as France marks Bastille Day

French President Francois Hollande (left) and his government celebrate their first Bastille Day in power. Hollande will not dare resurrect the traditional July 14 garden party to honour distinguished citizens, which was cancelled by Nicolas Sarkozy in 2010 to symbolise belt-tightening. But he has decided to keep the military parade with jet overflights, an extraordinarily costly affair, and to restore a nationally televised presidential interview on the French national day.

Next space station crew due to blast off

A Russian Soyuz rocket is scheduled to lift off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan to take cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko, US astronaut Sunita 'Suni' Williams and Akihiko Hoshide of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency to the International Space Station.