Death toll from SW China mudslides rises to 23; 69 still missing
The death toll from mudslides in a remote mountain village in southwest China's Yunnan Province has risen to 23, as 69 others remain missing as of Saturday.
Local authorities the chances of survival for the missing people are slim as the mudslides occurred more than 72 hours ago.
As rescue work continued into the fourth day, rescuers found 11 bodies Saturday, two of which were recovered from the mudslide debris and nine from a nearby river.
Persistent heavy rainfalls and bad road conditions hampered the rescue work, as excavators could not be transported to the site.
Separately, in northeast China's Liaoning Province, four people are dead, one is missing and more than 64,000 others were forced to evacuate their homes Saturday after the swollen Yalu River, which marks the border with North Korea flooded Dandong City.
China has suffered from a string of rain-triggered disasters recently as the country battles its worst floods in at least a decade.
In the northwestern province of Gansu, at least 1,434 people were killed and another 331 are reported missing after mudslides hit Zhouqu County nearly two weeks ago.

Chinese premier calls for further reform, ideological emancipation
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao has called for adherence to the reform and opening-up policy and rejection of regression and stagnation while making a study tour in Shenzhen, the country's first special economic zone (SEZ), over the past two day.
He said Regression and stagnation will not only end the achievements of the three-decade old reform and opening-up drive and the rare opportunity of development, but also suffocate the vitality of China's socialist cause with her own characteristics, and furthermore, doing so is against the will of the people.
The premier said China's development and changes over the past over 30 years have relied on reform and opening-up, adding that the realization of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation will rely on reforming and opening-up.

Chinese vice premier urges implementation of affordable housing construction plan
Chinese Vice Premier Li Keqiang has called for more favorable policies to encourage the construction of affordable housing.
He made the remarks at a meeting on affordable housing held in Changzhou city of east China's Jiangsu Province on.
The vice premier reiterated that China would complete construction of 5.8 million units of affordable housing, including low-rent housing, public rental housing and resettlement housing for relocated residents from redeveloped urban shanty towns.
He reaffirmed the policy that regulates the housing market and resolutely cracks down on speculative property investment and other unreasonable market demands.

Two dead, 23 injured in coal mine blast in NW China's Xinjiang
A gas blast at a coal mine has killed Two people and left another missing in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.
23 others have been injured in the blast.
Local authorities say the accident occurred Friday evening in Hami City after a team attempted to extinguish an underground fire at the mine.

Abbas would withdraw from talks if settlement resumed
A Palestinian official says President Mahmoud Abbas would withdraw from peace talks with Israel if it resumed Jewish settlement activities in the occupied West Bank.
During a meeting for the Executive Committee of Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in Ramallah Saturday night, Abbas pledged to withdraw immediately if Israel announced new plans to build settlements.
The PLO accepted an international invitation to resume direct negotiations with Israel on Sept. 2 in Washington. In that month, a 10-month Israeli freeze of settlement construction in the West Bank ends. It also marks the end of the four-month proximity discussions that are taking place through the United States.

Iran starts to load fuel to reactor at Bushehr power plant
Iran and Russia started on Saturday to load fuel rods to a reactor at the Bushehr power plant, the first nuclear power plant in Iran.
Sergei Kiriyenko, head of Russian state nuclear energy corporation, and chief of Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Ali-Akbar Salehi attended a ceremony to initiate the transfer of fuel to the plant in southern Iran.
The fuel-loading operation by Iranian and Russian engineers was carried out under the supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
At a joint press conference after the start-up ceremony, Salehi said the start up is a "direct lesson" to those who wanted to hinder Iran's progress by imposing sanctions.

Polls closed in Australia
Australian election officials began counting votes as polls closed on Saturday.
The elections will decide the composition of the 150-seat lower house and half the 76-seat Senate.
With 70 percent of the vote counted, the result was too close to call, with the ruling Labor party slightly leading Coalition.