welcome to nhk "newsline." chinese president hu jintao is visiting the united states. he and u.s. president barack obama met in washington on wednesday and discussed a wide range of issues including tensions on the korean peninsula. the two leaders held a news conference after the summit. obama praised china for increasing the flexibility of the yuan but urged hu to let the currency rise further.

the president called on china to respect universal human rights including freedom of speech and religion. regarding north korea's nuclear issue, obama called on china to play a more aggressive role. >> north korea's nuclear and ballistic missile program is increasingly a direct threat to the security of the united states and our allies. the international community must continue to state clearly that north korea's uranium enrichment program is in violation of north korea's commitments and international obligations. >> hu said the u.s. and china share common interests and responsibilities on a wide range of international issues, but he added that there's still a gap between their positions, especially on human rights. [ speaking foreign language ]

>> the two leaders issued a joint statement wednesday. the united states and china have agreed on mutual vice presidential visits to promote bilateral ties and establish a strong partnership. vice president joe biden will visit china this yearich xi jin reciprocate. the two countries expressed concerns about north korean's claimed uranium-enrichment program. the u.s. and china agreed on export deals of $45 billion. they include children's purchase of 200 boeing aircraft in the next three years. the two sides signed 70

contracts in which u.s. companies would export auto parts, agricultural products, machinery and chemicals. they also exchanged a memorandum calling for a closer business partnerships to build a high speed railway in the u.s. it also encouraging joint development of wind power systems and energy saving products. observers say the u.s. government's emphasis on close economic ties with china is aimed at easing domestic criticisms. it's perceived china's huge trade surplus came at the cost of american jobs. here is takamoto kijiwaw afa analysis. >> reporter: on several bilateral issues, positions remain apart and they failed to yield measured, tangible results.

on the value of china's currency, president obama called on hu to accelerate the u.n.'s appreciation. china tried to smooth ruffled feather feathers. many analysts say the effect of such moves are limited. at a news conference, their positions on human rights issues highlighted differences. >> we believe that by upholding these universal rights, all nations, including china, will ultimately be more prosperous and successful. >> high colleague asked you a question about human rights which did you not answer. might we get an answer to that question? [ speaking foreign language ]

>> reporter: the two leaders affirmed they will continue talks over these issues, but it is far from clear how far they can narrow their differences. in the united states, congress may step up criticism over the current issue, while in china, protest is expected to grow against what will be seen as u.s. interference with china's domestic affairs. the leaders may want to demonstrate that bilateral relations have been restored, but the future appears rocky. nhk world, washington.

confusion continues in tunisia. the interim government failed to hold its first cabinet meeting on wednesday due to protests over key members of the former administration retaining their posts. the interim government was formed earlier this week. former president zine el abidine ben ali was ousted after 23 years in power after protests over high prices and unemployment. but four ministers from the opposition bloc resigned from the new government to protest ministers from the old administration hold key posts. more demonstrations are being held in tunis. on wednesday, fouad mebazaa and mahmoud ghannouchi. left the governing party to

share their resolve to break with the past administration. ghannouchi is consulting with the opposition parties about convening the meeting on thursday. tunisia's security authorities say they've released political prisoners arrested by the ben ali administration and detained the former president's guards for allegedly assaulting civilians and police officers. the country aims to hold a democratic presidential election within two months, but it's not clear if stability can be achieved under the caretaker government. following the upheaval in tunisia, arab league leaders have agreed to implement emergency economic measures. the leaders met in the egyptian resort of sharm al-sheikh on wednesday. arab league secretary-general amr moussa called for regional cooperation. [ speaking foreign language ]

>> the leaders said they would aim to create 1.8 million jobs a year and attract $80 billion of investment by 2010. at least eight people have been killed and 100 wounded in twin bomb attacks in central iraq on wednesday. now, the blasts follow a suicide attack on tuesday in the northern town of tikrit which killed 65. in wednesday's first attack an ambulance packed with explosives rammed into security agency compound and exploded in the central iraqi city of baqubah. police say at least five people waiting outside to take an employment test were killed and 74 wounded. another suicide bomber detonated a car about an hour later near a group of shia pilgrims on the outskirts of baqubah. the strike killed three people and wounded 15 including the deputy head of diyala province. india's prime minister manmohan singh has reshuffled

his cabinet in an apparent attempt to rebuild public confidence in the government. the reshuffle on wednesday is the first since the current coalition was launched in may 2009. the new lineup was formally inaugurated at the presidential palace in new delhi. singh replaced 21 of the new posts tapping newcomers for three positions including minister for food. the foreign defense and finance ministers retained their positions. india's booming economy initially helped singh's popularity but he's recently come under fire for dragging his feet in dealing with rising food prices caused by a bad harvest. his standing has been further damaged by the resignation of a cabinet member who quit amid a corruption scandal. opposition parties are staging demonstrations in an effort to step up pressure on the government.

china's economy grew 10.3% in 2010, has likely taken over japan as the second economy after the united states. the first double-digit expansion in three years will likely fuel expectations for the emerging nation to pool the global economy toward a full-fejd recovery. this is thanks to strong consumer spending and increased exports. the board of statistics said the gross domesistic product grew 9.8% from the october to december period compared to a year earlier the strong expansion comes as it boosted export demands. china's gdp came out higher than japan's during the six months through september. china's rampant growth is causing concerns about inflation. beijing raised its key interest rates twice since autumn. experts watching to see whether

the chinese government can manage to keep inflation under control without cooling the economy too much. u.s. housing starts fell 4% in december unable to continue the uptrend seen in the previous month. on wednesday the department of commerce said new home construction in the final month of 2010 was about 530,000 units in annualized terms. the worse than expected figure marks as 4.3% decline from november. there was growth in new building permits, an indicator of the outlook for the housing permit. permits were up nearly 17% from november beating market forecasts. despite recent signs of improvement, the sluggish housing market continues to cast a shadow over america's recovery. the tokyo stock exchange has held a seminar for venture companies in an effort to boost their listings on the market. about 100 firms took part in the

seminar in tokyo on wednesday. officials from the exchange briefed them on a plan to ease regulations by march to smooth the way to new listings. against the backdrop of shrinking stock transactions in the country, the number of new listings on japanese markets plunged to just 22 last year. that was only 10% of the number in peak years. many japanese firms are now considering listing their shares on robust markets in other parts of asia exploring opportunities overseas. >> translator: we'll go ahead with removing unnecessary regulations to clear the way for the listing of ventures. japan's leading operator of movie theaters is looking to lower ticket prices next year in a bid to boost visitor numbers. the country's film industry has seen a rise in overall revenue due to a growing number of large cinema complexes, but the average number of commerce per screen hasn't grown much. to expand its customer base, they'll try lowering prices at some of its theaters starting in

march with a view of doing it across japan next year. ticket prices will be cut by $4 to $18. most cinemas have kept the price of a new ticket unchanged for 18 years. industry sources say the move will likely prompt other theaters to follow suit. >> translator: our customers say they're not happy with the current price of tickets amid ongoing deflation. so we decided to lower prices. >> japanese beverage makers are planning to focus on nonalcoholic beer this year to increase their sales. alcohol-free beer was launched in 2009 and sales have grown rapidly since then. some producers could not keep up with the orders they received last year. suntory says it expects to sell 2 1/2 times as many units of its

main nonalcoholic beer this year. asaha brewery has 1 1/2 times as much. sapporo plans to launch a new product in march. it will strengthen the already intense competition. top maker kirin says it will start selling nonalcoholic beer in the united states. here are the latest market figures. japanese appreciate the

taste of sato nishiki cherries. the highest quality is fully ripe and very sweet. but they can only be grown in summer, so they're not available in other seasons until this winter. nhk world has the story. >> reporter: australian olympic swimmer ian thorpe visits a tokyo supermarket. on this day, he promotes sato nishiki cherries. these cherries were grown in australia. >> really? this isn't from japan? it was good. very sweet. >> they were just as good as japanese ones.

>> reporter: these cherries come from tasmania in the southern part of australia. their summer is just starting and the cherry season is at its peak. tim reid grows the cherries. >> they're probably a little bit bigger than we had last year. good. good. >> reporter: he keeps about 20,000 trees on a 20 hectare orchard. reid used to grow apples, but 12 years ago he took a business trip to japan. he noticed that shoppers were willing to pay high prices for sato nishiki cherries. he thought by growing the cherries in australia where the seasons are reversed, he had a good business opportunity.

>> people really looking for something like this for gift giving and to put on a christmas and new year table, yeah. >> reporter: he began with a single cherry sapling he obtained from a major cherry producer in the yamagata prefecture. here he also studied how to grow the cherries. the japanese impressed upon him the importance of covering his trees with netting so protect the fruit from birds and wind. the final product was even better than reid had hoped for. as it happens tasmania's weather is perfect for growing large, sweet cherries. five years ago he began shipping his cherries to japan. he ships by air to get them

there quickly. to make sure the color and taste don't suffer, reid gives careful instructions on temperature control. >> i'd like to see if we can put some dry ice in this lot just to keep them really cold. >> reporter: reid has steadily been increasing sales in japan. this winter he plans to export 80 tons of cherries. eventually he wants to sell in other asian countries that have affluent shoppers. >> they say that we're really close to the quality that comes from japanese producers. that's encouraging to hear people from japan telling me that. we're already trying these into other markets such as singapore, taiwan, hong kong.

>> australia has been suffering from record-breaking amount of rain. but reid's farm located in southern tasmania has not been affected. here is the weather forecast in saki ochi. >> welcome to your world weather update. we take a look at east asia first where we continue to see those active clouds developing in and around the if philippines. the region has been seeing a lot of rain the past few weeks. it's ongoing yet again today. meanwhile, southern china, too, has been dealing with snow rather than rain here. heavy amounts for the past few days. slowly that snow area is working towards coastal regions. and today we're looking at that to really impact the central and parts of the southeastern corner of china. now, as we get closer to the coastline, it does turn over to rain, but still this large area looking to pick up on snow today and even heavy snow for some of these areas and this will likely include shanghai.

could be causing travel disruptions today. northern areas of china as well as the korean peninsula staying dry. as for japan today still looking at more snow to impact this northwestern flank of the country and upper elevations will be looking to pick up an additional 80 centimeters in the next day or snow. lots more snow headed your way. do take precautions against that. tokyo's high is at 9 and it will be quite warm during the daytime. hopefully seeing sunshine here. minus 3 in seoul. 2 expected in shanghai with snow for you. 19 in taipei, then 13 degrees you a croce australia, we've been hearing of the flooding in freensland and victoria. here's a look at the current situation in victoria, north part of the state, looking at widespread flooding. these floodwaters are very, very deep in some places. you can see just about chest high in localized areas. of course, not just the homes

and buildings that have been affected but of course wildlife, too. really affected these kangaroos trying to find a place in all of that wet areas. so still looks like we may continue to see those very high water levels for a while longer. luckily, though, not too much rain headed your way across victoria. a little bit of showers impacting the eastern coastline of australia, but that also looks like it won't be lasting for too long today. over towards north america, meanwhile, wintry precipitation will really spread with this low system that moves in towards the mississippi valley. really spreading along the valley all the way in towards the gulf coast states today. also area of snow spreads in the northwest corner here. as for highs, 5 in vancouver and 7 in seattle. things very chilly in winnipeg, minus 22 for you. minus 6 in chicago. well below zero in toronto on thursday. finally getting a look at europe

here. it's going to turn a little bit more snowy for areas across central europe as well as eastern sections. scattered areas of snow will really spread throughout this wide area even in towards the balkans as well as northern italy. a little further to the south will be mostly rain for you. looking at lower temperatures across continental europe today. 3 only in vienna and 2 in berlin. quite a big drop in temperatures throughout this week. all right. so that's a look at your weather for now. here is your three-day outlook. ♪

once again the headlines at this hour. chinese president hu jintao is visiting the united states. he met with barack obama on wednesday and discussed a wide range of issues including tensions on the korean peninsula. the two leaders held a news conference after the summit. obama praised china for increasing the flexibility of the yuan but urged hu to let the currency rise further. the u.s. president also called on china to respect universal human rights, including freedom of speech and religion. regarding north korea's nuclear issue, obama called on china to play a more aggressive role. >> north korea's nuclear and ballistic missile program is increasingly a direct threat to the security of the united states and our allies. the international community must continue to state clearly that north korea's uranium enrichment program is in violation of north

korea's commitments and international obligations. >> hu said the u.s. and china share common interests and responsibilities on a wide range of international issues, but he added that there's still a gap between their positions, especially on human rights. [ speaking foreign language ] >> the two leaders issued a joint statement wednesday. the united states and china have agreed on mutual vice presidential visits to promote bilateral ties and establish a strong partnership. it says vice president joe biden would visit china this year after vice president xi jinping would res ip kate. the two countries expressed

concern over north korean's uranium enrichment program. it says china will continue to be flexible about its currency exchange. >> the chinese economy grew 10.3% in 2010. has most likely taken over japan as the second largest economy after the united states. the first double-digit expansion in three years will likely fuel expectations for the emerging nation to pool the global economy toward a full-fejd recovery thanks to china's strong consumer spending and increased exports. chinese national bureau of statistics released the figures thursday. it said gross domestic product grew compared to a year earlier. the strong expansion comes as massive stimulus measures boosted domestic demand. exports to our fast-growing emerging economies emerged.

china's rapid growth is causing concerns about inflation. beijing has raised its key interest rate twice since last autumn. experts are watching to see whether the chinese government can manage to keep inflation under control without cooling the economy too much. footage released by a japanese aquarium wednesday shows an indo-pacific bottlenose to nudge a dead dolphin along and carry it on its back. when a ship approached, the dolphin weighed down on the dolphin as if to protect it. they swim in the east china sea. much remains unknown about the species. we'll be back with more news in 30 minutes, i'm gene otani.

-- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com