Talking points

Afghan President Hamid Karzai pays a four-day state visit to China, where he will attend the opening ceremony of the Euro-Asia Economic Forum 2013 in Xian. China's envoy to the UN Liu Jieyi said last week that Afghanistan has entered a critical stage in its peace-building and reconstruction, and that China will continue to contribute to the country's transition. Karzai skipped a trip to New York for the UN General Assembly meeting in favour of China.

Novelist William Boyd will launch his new official James Bond book in London. Solo, published by Random House, is set in West Africa in 1969 and follows 45-year-old Bond on a freelance mission that takes him across the continent and to Europe and North America - via a multitude of drinks and two different women. Boyd is the third author in recent years to write a fresh addition to the Bond series. More than 100 million Bond books have been sold and the films have grossed more than US$6 billion around the world, with more than half the world's population having seen a Bond film.