ASEAN plus 3 urge N.Korea to return to nuke talks
The foreign ministers of 13 Asian nations have urged North Korea to return to the six-party denuclearization talks.
Representing the Association of Southeast Asian Nations plus Japan, China and South Korea, the foreign ministers also agreed to implement the recent UN resolution calling for sanctions against North Korea.
Japanese Foreign Minister Hirofumi Nakasone and his Chinese and South Korean counterparts joined ministers of the 10-member ASEAN bloc in Phuket, Thailand, on Wednesday.
Nakasone said North Korea's development of nuclear arms and ballistic missiles pose a threat to regional peace and stability and cannot be tolerated.
He said these problems should be resolved at the six-party talks, but said that it's necessary to implement the punitive UN resolution in order to induce a positive response from North Korea. The 12 other foreign ministers reportedly expressed agreement.
In an expanded 16-nation meeting, including India and Australia, participants shared the view that they should review heavy dependence on exports to the United States in the wake of the global economic crisis.
The foreign ministers agreed to promote joint study on ways to expand domestic demand in Asia. Among the ideas are fostering experts in financial affairs; promoting transportation and other infrastructure projects; and providing government insurance for high-risk financial products to invigorate private-sector investments.
8 dead, 9 missing in Yamaguchi mudslides
Mudslides and swollen rivers caused by Tuesday's torrential rain in Yamaguchi prefecture, western Japan, have left 8 people dead and 9 missing.
Police say 2 bodies were found on Wednesday at a care facility for the elderly, which was struck by a mudslide, in Hofu city. On Tuesday, the bodies of 3 residents of the facility were discovered, and now 2 others remain missing.
About 5 kilometers west of the facility, a mudslide along a main road engulfed nearby homes, killing a woman and leaving 3 people missing. In the same area, a man died after being swept into a river, while a landslide buried homes and left 2 people missing.
In other cities in Yamaguchi Prefecture, a man was found dead and 2 others are missing.
Aegis-class US warship open to public in Yokohama
An Aegis-equipped US destroyer is on view to the public at a civilian port in Yokohama, near Tokyo.
The USS John S. McCain, which is deployed at a US base in Yokosuka, entered Yokohama Port on Tuesday. The US warship is the first to enter the port in about 60 years.
Wednesday's display attracted about 2,000 visitors, many of whom posed for photos with the crew and saw missile launch equipment.
The John S. McCain, which is capable of intercepting ballistic missiles, was deployed to deal with North Korea's missile tests in April. It also tailed the North's cargo ship suspected of carrying banned weapons in June.
A visitor from Fujisawa said he enjoyed the rare chance to board an Aegis-class warship.
Meanwhile, a civic group of about 20 people protested the port call near the wharf.
Solar eclipse observed south of Tokyo
Sky gazers on Ioto island and a passenger ship in the Pacific Ocean, south of Tokyo, were able to view the longest total solar eclipse of the century on Wednesday.
On the island of Ioto, Japan's National Astronomical Observatory and NHK jointly observed the total solar eclipse. At 11:25 AM, the sun was hidden by the moon and the phenomenon, called "black sun", appeared.
Sky gazers also observed a phenomenon called the diamond ring, in which sunlight glows like a ring just before and after the moon blocks the sun. The astronomic show lasted more than 5 minutes.
Amateur astronomers on a passenger ship cruising near the Ogasawara Islands, south of Tokyo, also viewed the eclipse.
They applauded at the sight of a corona glowing around the sun and sunset-like scenery along the horizon.
Unfortunately, those who gathered on Akuseki-jima Island off Kagoshima Prefecture in southern Japan were cursed by bad weather. If the clouds had parted, the total eclipse would have been observed for the longest from any inhabited part of the world this century, lasting more than 6 minutes from 10:53 AM.
But the sun was not seen from the island as well as nearby locations, because of rainy weather.
A partial eclipse was observed elsewhere in Japan.
The eclipse also darkened wide areas of Asia from India and China to Japan. The total eclipse was the first observed in Japan in the 46 years since 1963.
Clinton urges denuclearization by N.Korea
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has renewed a call for North Korea to denuclearize in an irreversible manner.
Clinton arrived in the Thai resort island of Phuket on Wednesday for a meeting of the ASEAN Regional Forum that will be held on Thursday.
She held a series of separate bilateral meetings with foreign ministers of Japan, China, South Korea and Russia.
Later at a news conference, Clinton referred to military cooperation between North Korea and Myanmar and expressed US concern over the transfer of North Korea's nuclear technology.
Clinton said complete and irreversible denuclearization is the only viable option for North Korea and that China, Japan, Russia and South Korea are all in agreement with the United States on this goal.
She said that if North Korea agrees to irreversible denuclearization, the United States as well as its partners in the six-party talks will move forward on a package of incentives and opportunities including normalizing relations.
最終更新：2009年07月23日 08:04
