Philippine President Benigno Aquino arrives Monday in the United States on a five-day visit to seek investments and promote his government's anti-corruption efforts.

Mr. Aquino plans to speak in New York Tuesday to the Open Government Partnership — an international initiative to promote greater transparency and accountability in government. He is also expected to attend the World Bank and International Monetary Fund conferences in Washington.

Among other activities, Mr. Aquino will meet with business leaders to seek investments and receive an honorary degree at New York's Fordham University.

Mr. Aquino will address the Open Government Partnership at the invitation of U.S. President Barack Obama and Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff. The president had made the fight against his nation's entrenched corruption a hallmark of his administration.

The United States is pressing Pakistan to take action against the Haqqani militants the U.S. blames for an attack on the U.S. embassy in Kabul last week.

U.S. officials say Secretary of State Hillary Clinton delivered the message in a meeting with Pakistani Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar in New York on Sunday.

Officials say the three-and-a-half-hour meeting began and ended with discussions about counterterrorism.

Sunday's meeting came a day after the U.S. ambassador to Islamabad cited evidence linking the Taliban-allied Haqqani network to the Pakistani government.

Militants frequently cross the porous Afghan-Pakistani border.

China on Monday announced the successful launch of a communications satellite, a move that brings it closer to launching a test module for its own space station.

The official Xinhua news agency said a Long March-3B rocket fired the satellite into space shortly after midnight from a launch site in Sichuan province. Xinhua said the satellite will provide high-quality voice communication, broadcast and data transmission services for users across China.

It was China's first successful launch since a Long March rocket misfired on August 18, prompting officials to postpone the scheduled launch of the space station test module, named Tiangong-1 or “Heavenly Palace.” Monday's successful satellite launch suggests that problems with the rocket have been resolved.

Xinhua said the Zhongxing-1A satellite launched Monday was designed and manufactured by the China Academy of Space Technology. It was the 138th flight by the Long March series of launch vehicles.

Libyan revolutionary fighters met strong resistance Sunday in two of former leader Moammar Gadhafi's remaining strongholds, as National Transitional Council leaders delayed announcing a new government.

NTC volunteer fighters fled in chaos from the heavily fortified desert town of Bani Walid when pro-Gadhafi troops attacked their positions with mortars and sniper fire.

Regular, trained provisional authority troops had pulled away from Bani Walid after failing to take the town in earlier fighting. Volunteers who chose to remain at the front line took heavy fire Sunday.

In Sirte, revolutionary forces also have encountered fierce resistance. Most NTC fighters besieging that city are in experienced, battle-hardened brigades from Misrata.

On Sunday, they deployed long-range artillery, tanks, mobile rocket launchers and mortars around Mr. Gadhafi's hometown, attempting to pound loyalist forces into submission. Pro-Gadhafi fighters responded with their own heavy fire, inflicting numerous casualties among revolutionary forces.

The NTC had planned to reveal new Cabinet positions on Sunday. But interim Prime Minister Mahmoud Jibril told reporters last-minute negotiations have delayed the announcement “indefinitely.”

The former rebels' executive committee was dissolved last month. Talks about new appointments broke down when Mr. Jibril's proposals did not receive full backing.

NTC officials also disagreed about whether it is necessary to form a transitional government before declaring Libya fully “liberated” from pro-Gadhafi forces. Provisional authority plans for a new constitution and elections could unfold once that declaration is made.

The deposed leader's spokesman, Moussa Ibrahim, said pro-Gadhafi fighters have won several battles lately and have the ability to continue “for months.”

Ibrahim also said loyalist forces have captured what he called a number of French, British and Qatari “mercenaries.” He said the group will be shown on television at a later time, but he did not give more details. It was not possible to immediately verify Ibrahim's claims.

The United Nations Secretary General has met with Burma's Foreign Minister on the sidelines of the General Assembly meeting in New York.

Ban Ki-moon told Wunna Maung Lwin Sunday that he recognized the significance of recent developments in the country but that the Burmese Government should step up its reform efforts. He also reiterated the UN's commitment to help the country address its political and developmental challenges.

Burma's pro-military government on Thursday lifted a long-standing ban on several prominent news web sites, including the Voice of America, Reuters news agency and the British Broadcasting Corporation. It also for the first time allowed the public to celebrate the United Nations'-designated “International Day of Democracy.”

Mr. Ban reiterated his call for the early release of political prisoners still held by Burma. There are currently more than 2,100 political prisoners in jails across the country, including monks, students, elected members of parliament and lawyers.

Recent overtures by the new government toward the country's pro-democracy opposition and a host of Western governments have stirred widespread speculation about democratic reform in Burma, which has been ruled by military generals since the early 1960s.

Since taking office earlier this year, the new government has called for peace with armed ethnic separatists and met with several foreign delegations. President Thein Sein met with pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi for the first time in August, and both parties later described the meeting as friendly.

The World Health Organization says developing nations can prevent and treat millions of cases of cancer, diabetes, lung disease and heart disease for as little as $1.20 per person per year.

The United Nations agency says in a new report that non-communicable diseases are the world's top cause of death and that 80 percent of those deaths come in poorer countries. The report says the cost of treating such illnesses is the one of the leading threats to global economic growth and development.

But WHO says measures such as establishing smoke-free offices and public places, campaigns on cutting salt and fat from the diet, and raising taxes on cigarettes and alcohol are affordable steps governments can take to prevent millions of deaths.

The UN holds a high-level two-day meeting beginning Monday in New York on tackling non-communicable diseases.

NATO said Sunday that four of its service members died in separate attacks in southern Afghanistan, while a joint NATO-Afghan patrol killed more than 10 insurgents in a raid on a narcotics laboratory in southern Helmand province.

NATO said roadside bombings killed three of its troops Sunday, while the fourth died in an insurgent attack Saturday. It did not disclose the nationality of the service members.

The narcotics raid took place in the Baghran district of Helmand province. The alliance described the laboratory as one of the biggest heroin-producing facilities to be destroyed in Afghanistan in the past five years. It contained more than 5 tons of chemicals used in processing heroin, more than 16,000 liters of morphine solution, 15 kilograms of wet opium and four kilograms of pure heroin.

The Afghan Interior Ministry said government forces and their NATO allies killed 49 insurgents and detained 25 others in a series of battles across Afghanistan since Saturday. It said two Afghan policemen also were killed in the fighting.

In eastern Logar province Sunday, a rocket struck a school, killing a boy and wounding 10 other students. It was not clear who fired the rocket.

Greek officials are to hold a crucial conference call Monday with officials from the European Union and International Monetary Fund, who are demanding to know how Greece will reform its economy.

Prime Minister George Papandreou canceled Sunday's planned trip to the United Nations in New York to chair a Cabinet meeting ahead of Monday's telephone call.

Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos said after the meeting that the country must meet its budget targets and make strategic decisions to avoid default. But he did not announce any new measures.

Greece must satisfy EU and IMF demands for economic reforms and spending cuts if it is to get another vital installment of last year's $159 billion bailout.

Greece could completely run out of money by next month if it does not get the loan installment, threatening financial havoc throughout the EU.

Top diplomats from the United States and Europe have begun a last-ditch international push to avert a looming showdown at the United Nations over Palestinian statehood that could crush already dim Mideast peace prospects.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton held talks Sunday as part of an increasingly desperate effort to bring Israel and the Palestinians back to direct negotiations. Clinton said she and Ashton met to discuss “the way forward,” but she declined to reveal if mediators are making progress.

Senior envoys from the Mideast Quartet – the U.S., EU, U.N. and Russia – also met in New York Sunday.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has said he will seek full U.N. membership for an independent Palestinian state later this week – despite strong U.S. and Israeli opposition to unilateral moves on the statehood issue.

The U.S. says it will veto such an application in the Security Council. But former British Prime Minister Tony Blair – who serves as a Quartet envoy – said Sunday that a deal could still be reached.

Mr. Blair told ABC news that mediators will be looking for a way that allows Palestinians' “legitimate aspirations” to be recognized while renewing talks with Israel. He said direct Palestinian-Israeli negotiations are “the only thing that will produce a state.”

Mr. Abbas said in Ramallah Friday that U.N. membership is a legitimate right for Palestinian people. But, in talks with his Cabinet Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu predicted the Palestinians' U.N. statehood bid will fail.

Even with a loss in the Security Council, the Palestinians are expected to take their case to the 193-member General Assembly, where a simple majority could grant a more symbolic recognition. The Palestinians currently hold observer status at the United Nations.

U.S.-mediated peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians stalled a year ago, after an Israeli moratorium on West Bank settlement construction expired. Palestinians oppose construction on land they want as part of a future state.

Mr. Abbas has said a Palestinian state must have the borders in place before Israel took control of the West Bank and Gaza Strip in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.

American envoys have been shuttling between Israeli and Palestinian leaders in an attempt to revive direct talks and forestall the Palestinian statehood bid.

U.S. President Barack Obama is expected to meet with Mr. Netanyahu when both are at the U.N. General Assembly this week.