Talking points
Our editors will be looking ahead today to these developing stories ...
Dutch air crash investigators release a preliminary report into the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 over eastern Ukraine in July, killing all 298 passengers and crew. It is widely thought to have been shot down by Ukrainian separatists who were fighting regular Ukrainian forces. The Boeing jet was on its way from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur. Most of those on board were Dutch nationals. The downing followed the mysterious disappearance of Flight MH370 in March.
The European Union Chamber of Commerce in China issues its annual position paper on business conditions in the country. It earlier expressed concern about Chinese anti-monopoly investigations into the activities of foreign firms. The American Chamber expressed similar views in its annual survey released last week. Sixty per cent of respondents said they now felt "less welcome" in China - compared to 41 per cent last year.
Radical Muslim cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri is to be sentenced in a New York court for supporting terrorism. He was found guilty in May of facilitating the kidnapping of 16 tourists in Yemen in 1998, attempting to set up a terrorist training camp in the US state of Oregon and supporting jihad in Afghanistan. The former imam of the Finsbury Park mosque in London was extradited to the United States in October 2012.
Ministers from the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) meet in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, to discuss the situation in Iraq and the threat to the region from Islamic State jihadis. The meeting comes one day before US President Barack Obama delivers a speech on how he intends to deal with the threat. US jets have been bombing Islamic State positions in Iraq. The OIC's head, Iyad Madani, has said Islamic State "harms Islam".
An estimated 700 lifeguards are expected to strike today. They are taking advantage of the Mid-Autumn Festival public holiday to mount their second strike over pay and a manpower shortage. They plan to swim along the Tsim Sha Tsui waterfront. Hong Kong and Kowloon Lifeguards' Union vice-chairman Alex Kwok Siu-kit said the number of lifeguards had declined in the last few years, while there were more swimmers.
US tech giant Apple is expected to unveil its iPhone 6 and a new product - the iWatch. The so-called smart watch is said to bring messages and simplified apps to our wrists. The event will be held at the Flint Centre for the Performing Arts in Cupertino, California - the venue for the launch of the original Macintosh computer.
