thanks for joining us here on nhk world. i'm james tengan in tokyo. this is "newsline". delegates from north and south korea have failed to reach an agreement on a joint project that benefits both of their economies. they have been trying to strike a deal, but their negotiations missed the mark. spokespersons for the south korean unification ministry say

delegates asked north korean representatives to prevent another suspension of operations. they say they were told south korea was to blame for the closure of the site. both have agreed to hold more discussions on wednesday. the kaesong industrial complex is located on the north side of the border. it's been closed since authorities from pyongyang withdrew workers in april. analysts say a settlement is unlikely at this point because negotiators remain far apart. japanese trade representatives are getting ready to dive into a negotiations for a massive free trade zone. the talks are underway in malaysia. japan will be allowed to join the discussion towards the end of the 11 day meeting. delegates from the u.s., australia, new zealand and seven other countries have gathered. the negotiations will focus on 21 trade sectors.

>> it's a huge benefit to all tpp members. japan is very important country in the region. >> participants said they almost concluded discussions in some areas, including electronic communications. but conflicting interests are slowing progress on tariff, intellectual property and the environment. some delegates have a message for japan and other participants. >> don't hold up the conclusions of the negotiation. for anybody, for everybody, it's just that japan is now part of it, so nobody should be holding it up. >> japan delegates are planning to work to maintain tariffs on some farm products to safeguard their agriculture industry. the japanese want to eliminate tariffs on manufactured products. they may encounter strong opposition from the united states.

negotiators want to conclude the tpp talks by the end of the year. >> chinese authorities say top government and communist party leaders deliberately engineered the country's economic slow down. new statistics show growth in the world's second largest economy has slowed for the second straight quarter. >> translator: the ruling party and the government have been focusing on improving the quality of economic growth. we are achieving stable growth through important structural reforms. >> the latest figures from the national bureau of statistics show gross domestic product from april through june grew from a year earlier. gdp was 7.7%. bureau spokesperson says reforms by president xi jinping's administration have triggered

unavoidable short-term repercussions for growth. he argues that slowdown will be to china's advantage. leaders expect investment and consumption will grow and there is much more room for development in the inland parts of the country. he says government officials expect to reach their target of 7.5% growth in 2013. u.s. diplomats have been careful not to take sides in the latest political upheaval in egypt. still they're concerned by what they've seen since military leaders overthrew president mohamed morsi two weeks ago. and now a senior u.s. diplomat is headed to cairo to push for a return to civilian rule. deputy secretary of state william burns is set to meet with leaders of the interim government. interim president adly mansour is bid si putting people in

place to run the government. the former head of the international atomic agency has been sworn in as vice president. the u.s. government provides annual aid to egypt of about $1.5 billion, but government officials are required by law to suspend aid to any country whose leader is ousted in a military coup. u.s. officials have refrained from calling what happened in egypt a coup, still they're calling for the release of morsi who's thought to be in military custody. demonstrators have taken to streets across the u.s. after a trial that reignited debates about race. a white hispanic man named george zimmerman was accused with the shooting of an unarmed black teenager named trayvon martin. the jury acquitted zimmerman of all charges. zimmerman spotted martin in his neighborhood in february of last year and thought he looked suspicious. the two got into a fight and then zimmerman shot martin with a pistol. defense lawyers argued he acted in self-defense.

protesters claim the verdict was biased. some point out that police initially declined to arrest zimmerman. officers said that based on florida's self-defense laws they didn't have enough probable cause to detain him. president barack obama issued a statement he called martin's death a tragedy. obama acknowledged that passions may be running high, but he says the united states is a nation of laws, and he says a jury has spoken. he said americans could honor trayvon martin by asking themselves how they can prevent future tragedies. united nations peace keepers are reeling after an attack in darfur. militants killed peacekeepers in the war-torn region of sudan. the african union and the united nations jointly deploy 16,000 peacekeepers in darfur. officials were on patrol when

rebels staged an ambush. militants have targeted peacekeepers over again, but this is the highest loss of life in the five years of the mission. u.n. secretary general ban ki-moon released a statement expressing his outrage urging the sudanese government to bring perpetrators to justice. u.n. officials do not expect much cooperation from sudan's president. the international criminal court has indicted him for war crimes over the fighting in darfur. the region has been gripped by violence since 2003 when anti-government separatists took up arms against the government. on a lighter note, festival goers in japan are getting into the spirit of summer. some are celebrating in unusual ways. teams of men carried floats through the streets as part of an old tradition.

the first group arrived at the shrine just before the dawn, the men were carrying an elaborate float that weighed roughly one ton. the festival is said to date back to the 13th century. legend said that a buddhist priest sprinkled holy water around the district to dispel an epidemic. it is held every year to keep disease away. and for us here in tokyo, mostly cloudy is the forecast with a current temperature reading of about 26 degrees celsius. for other selected cities around the world, here is the extended

forecast. for more news and special

reports, just log onto our website. i'm james tengan in tokyo. thanks for watching.