Talking points

China's most advanced marine patrol vessel, the Haixun 31, arrives in Hawaii for the start of an unprecedented five-day visit to the United States. The helicopter-equipped vessel will be involved in joint exercises with the US Coast Guard intended to improve co-ordination in future search-and-rescue missions and on environmental protection issues affecting the world's oceans.

A separatist party is on course to win Quebec's election today but is not thought likely to push through a referendum on splitting the province from Canada. Led by Pauline Marois, the Parti Quebecois took the lead in the last leg of the campaign, according to opinion polls, while the ruling Liberals fell behind the upstart Coalition Avenir Quebec. But support for independence is low, with only one-third of Quebec's six million voters keen to revisit the question of national identity after twice rejecting independence in 1980 and 1995.