Talking points
Our editors will be looking ahead today to these developing stories ...
Pakistan's new prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, heads to China on his first foreign tour, with one eye on high-impact Chinese-backed infrastructure projects as an answer to his country's economic malaise and energy crisis. During his five-day visit, Sharif is due to meet President Xi Jinping , Premier Li Keqiang , and financial and corporate leaders. He will also visit major industrial centres and special economic zones.
German Chancellor Dr Angela Merkel hosts EU talks on reducing sky-high youth unemployment less than three months before Germany goes to the polls. Merkel has come under fire for championing public spending cuts and thereby helping create a "lost generation". Days after EU leaders approved up to €8 billion (HK$81 billion) for initiatives to help get the region's 5.6 million jobless under 25-year-olds into work, Merkel will gather leaders and labour ministers in Berlin to come up with concrete plans.
A Tokyo court hands down its ruling on three former executives at Olympus who pleaded guilty to a cover-up of massive investment losses at the Japanese camera and medical-equipment maker. The scandal was revealed in 2011, when the company's top executive, Michael Woolford, turned whistle-blower, only to be fired for exposing the US$1.7 billion accounting fraud.
A 17-strong team of Hong Kong athletes lines up in the Indian city of Pune for the Asian athletics championships. The men's 4x100 metres relay team, who captured Hong Kong's first ever silver medal at the last Asian championships in Kobe, Japan, two years ago, are aiming to go one better, with Japan considered their biggest competitors.
A deadline expires for foreigners working illegally in Saudi Arabia to leave the kingdom or register with the authorities ahead of a promised massive crackdown on immigration offences. Some 1.5 million illegal workers have come forward since a three-month amnesty was announced in April, of whom some 200,000 have departed. Others have been rushing to the exits to avoid running the risk of being expelled and blacklisted.
The 150th anniversary of one of the most famous speeches in history is marked in the United States. Abraham Lincoln spoke for a matter of minutes to mark the end of the battle of Gettysburg in the American civil war. But the 10 sentences he spoke still have a huge influence on American culture and have inspired political leaders from around the world, including the father of modern China, Sun Yat-sen.
