Talking Points
Our editors will be looking ahead today to these developing stories ...
Lakhdar Brahimi, the UN-Arab League peace envoy for Syria, visits China, but the Foreign Ministry has given few details of who he will meet on the two-day trip. China, with Russia, has blocked UN Security Council motions calling for intervention in Syria's civil war. Brahimi's trip comes as a mainland newspaper reports an overseas Uygur separatist group has sent members to Syria to fight beside al-Qaeda militants against the Damascus regime.
Air China releases third-quarter results, with analysts expecting the operating figures will surprise the market on the upside, given robust summer traffic and the appreciating yuan. Trading in the Beijing-based carrier resumed last week after being suspended in Hong Kong on October 9 pending an announcement on a planned share sale to Air China Group. The share issue was scrapped last week, with the company now expected to tap the bond market to fund new aircraft.
The space shuttle Endeavour begins its new mission - to inspire a future generation of explorers - as it goes on display at the California Science Centre in Los Angeles. The Endeavour spent some 299 days in orbit and completed its final mission last year as the shuttle programme was wound down. Spectacular images of the gargantuan space vehicle being slowly moved through the Californian city sparked extra interest in the shuttle exhibit.
Former Central Policy Unit head Lau Siu-kai launches his book, , at Commercial Press in Tsim Sha Tsui. In the book, written in Chinese, Lau analyses the difficulties facing successive governments since the handover. Lau, who stepped down as the government's top adviser in June, writes that both Tung Chee-hwa and Donald Tsang Yam-kuen did not respond positively to Beijing's calls for them to groom "patriotic forces" in Hong Kong.
The world's top soccer players will look to follow in the footsteps of such legends as Johan Cruyff and Franz Beckenbauer when the shortlist is released for the World Player of the Year award, better known as the Ballon d'Or. One player almost certain to be on the list is Barcelona's Argentinian genius Lionel Messi, who has won the award in each of the past three years.
Halloween will prove anything but frightful for the lucky winner or winners of the Mark 6 lottery. The Jockey Club-organised draw offers a HK$40 million jackpot for the Halloween snowball. Tickets remain on sale until 9.15pm. It's the latest in a string of big-money jackpots, with a single winner claiming more than HK$71 million last week and 2.5 tickets sharing more than HK$120 million last month.
