u.s. president barack obama and executive leaders failed to reach an agreement to stop an implementation of budget cuts totalling $85 billion. obama calls the cuts arbitrary and says they will hurt the economy. the president couldn't get republicans to agree to a

measure that would allow tax increases mainly on the wealthy with some cuts expenditures. >> in the coming days and coming weeks, i'm going to keep on reaching out to them, both individually and as groups of senators or members of the house and say to them, let's fix this. not just for a month or two but for years to come. >> the budget cuts were supposed to take effect at the beginning of the year. but obama and congressional leaders agreed to postpone them when they reached a compromise to prevent the so-called fiscal cliff crisis. the $85 billion in cuts started taking effect march 1st. they're split roughly evenly between defense and domestic programs. officials say the impact might not be immediately felt, but they warn airport security lines could get longer and education and social welfare services could be affected. they still need to pass a budget

bill for 2013. they need to act before the end of the month to prevent a partial government shutdown. lawmakers in japan are struggling with their own economic problems. officials at the finance ministry says the national debt will reach nearly $12 million at the end of march next year. that debt will be more than twice japan's gross domestic product. it will work out to more than $94,000 per citizen. still, prime minister shinzo abe is increasing public spending as part of his plan to revitalize the economy. he wants lawmakers to pass a draft budget bill of about $1 trillion and he wants to issue bonds worth more than $600 billion to cover a shortfall in revenue. government officials are trying to come up with ways to get the deficit down. they plan to show their proposals this summer. icy relations between japan and china appear to be having a lasting impact on japan's

biggest automaker. managers at toyota say chinese people are buying fuel for their new cars. toyota managers say their sales in china last month were down more than 45% on the year. they said the drop was unusually big because chinese people took holidays nfor the lunar new yea. they got a bigger picture comparing the sales in january and february with their sales in the same period last year. they say the number of cars they sold was down more than 13%. analysts say that drop shows chinese people are still angry about japan's handling of a dispute over islands in the east china sea. space experts from japan and the united states are preparing to work closer together. they're set to talk about developing joint programs designed to benefit national security and protect the planet from outer space threats. prime minister abe and president obama agreed last month --

rather, last week, their countries need more in-depth discussions on promoting space development over a wide range of areas. the first meeting of experts will happen as early as mid-march in tokyo. representatives of japan's space agency jaxa will attend the discussions along with foreign, defense and security officials from both nations. they will be talking about china's enhanced ability to destroy satellites as well as north korea's missile capabilities. south korean government officials say authorities in pyongyang have developed a missile that can reach the u.s. west coast. the discussions will also explore ways to strengthen space monitoring. last month's meteor crash in russia highlighted the risks posed by so-called near earth objects.

japanese police have spent the past few weeks questioning a computer hacker who they suspect posted a murder threat. now they're getting ready to rearrest him. they think he also e-mailed a threat to blow up a passenger jet. police arrested this man last month. they suspected he posted a message warning of a mass murder at a comic book event. now police suspect he e-mailed a threat to blow up an airlines passenger jet en route to new york. that threat forced the pilot to turn back to tokyo. police also plan to rearrest him for posting a message on an osaka city website threatening to carry out an indiscriminate murder. he said police arrested him by mistake. two sailors are getting acquainted with life on jail.

they were on trial for injuring and raping a japanese woman on the island of okinawa. both pled guilty. police arrested christopher browning and petty officer third class sky ler dozierwalker last october. they suspected the men had raped a woman in a parking lot. the sailors went on trial in the city of naha. they gave browning 7 years and dozierwalker 9 years. their attorneys said they deeply regretted what they did. the prosecution said the sailors had treated the woman inhumanely. he said it was impossible to imagine her pain and said they acted more viciously than defendants in any similar case. japan's crowded tablet market will be getting more crowded soon. microsoft has announced that it will start sending its original

new tablet, surface, in japan beginning march 19. microsoft has been marketing mainly software and surface is drawing attention as a tablet developed by microsoft itself. the product was rolled out in the united states last october. surface's o.s. is noted with the latest windows version for tablets. it has a 10-inch panel screen and uses a detachable keyboard which also serves as the cover. in japan, apple's ipad accounts were around 60% of the tablet market. tablets carrying google and android are also selling well because of low prices. microsoft plans to keep the prices of the surface models lower than comparative ipads in japan's competitive market. air pollution in china in recent weeks has been getting worse by the day. it's now posing a health threat. to alleviate concerns, a service has been launched in shanghai

that allows people to check air quality realtime. there is a new word that people in china have been hearing a lot of recently -- -- pm2.5. they're fine pollutants found in diesel gas and smoke. can be accessed on cell phones or pc's. she nfz people about the air quality outside their homes. when pollution levels are high, her hair changes color and her expressions also change. the chinese government is taking air pollution more seriously because of the growing number of complaints by anxious citizens. coming up, our three-day world weather forecast.

that wraps up this edition of "newsline."