-- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com hello there. welcome to news line. i'm katharine kobayashi in tokyo. >> the story of the chinese activist remains unclear. he escaped after being under a house arrest. in a telephone interview with the "associated press," chen says the u.s. officials told him if he stays in the embassy, chinese officials would have killed his wife.

but u.s. state department spokesperson mark toner said he denied chen's statement on wednesday. >> this was a decision that he reached with us through interactions with the chinese authorities. he wanted to stay in china. he did not want to seek political asylum. >> a u.s. human rights group said it's skeptical about the u.s. government's explanation. now, china and the united

states are set for high-level talks on thursday. all eyes will be on the impact of the latest diplomatic issue on dialogue of issues including the bilateral trade imbalance and north korea. u.s. officials have been looking to the two-day talks for a chance to push china on pressuring iran and north korea over their nuclear programs. assistant secretary of state curt had been in conference in an effort to strike a deal over chen. washington is insisting it will ensure chen's safety and it was his decision to leave the embassy. but chinese officials are signaling their unhappiness with the entire affair. a foreign ministry spokesperson released a statement on wednesday demanding the americans apologized for what he called totally unacceptable interference in chinese domestic affairs. beijing and washington have found themselves entangled in an

awkward dispute and there are no signsed on how or when it's going to end. >> reporter: civil rights akty shift chen guangcheng lost his sight as a child. he started campaigning for the disabled. he also spoke out against forced abortions under the government's one-child policy. chen was detained by police in 2006 and spent the next four years in prison. his ordeal continued after his release in 2010. the dissident was put under house arrest with his family in the prove vince. closes close to schenn say the dramatic escape happened on april 22nd. he's said to have broken out, climbing over the wall around his house. the socials say he managed to slip past the guards and arrived

in beijing four days later. after escape, chen posted the video message on the internet. it is an appeal to the chinese premi premier. he says his house arrest is illegal and the claims he and hiss family members have been beaten up. >> reporter: on wednesday a chinese foreign ministry spokesperson accused the embassy of being deeply in involved in chen's case. observes say that while the chinese government wants to draw an eye on the issue, public reaction could force it to make a stand against the u.s.

>> that was nhk world's reporter in beijing. the u.n. security council has imped sanctions on three north korean state-owned companies in response to the company's missile launch last mount. the council issued a presidential statement on april 16th condemning the launch and called for a list of sanction targets within 15 days. the council's sanctions committees studied them from south korea, the united states and european union but they say they have named only three firms after pyongyang's closest ally china whittled the list down. china's u.n. ambassador says they respect the presidential country's statement but the procedure should be appropriate. u.s. president barack obama took on the role of commander in

chief in a surprise visit to afghanistan. he dropped in on troops at an air base near kabul. he spoke to them one year after special forces killed osama bin laden. he used the opportunity to outline the future of the u.s. mission. >> today i signed a historic agreement between the united states and afghanistan that defines a new kind of relationship between our countries. a future in which afghans are responsible for the security of their nation. and we build an equal partnership between two sovereign states >> obama and afghan president hamid karzai signed a strategic partnership agreement. it commeements the u.s. commitm to afternoon after combat troops are scheduled to leave in 2014. and it's expected to remain in effect until 2024. the deal allows u.s. forces to train afghan soldiers and engage in sweep operations against al qaeda. >> our goal is to destroy al qaeda, and we are on a path to do exactly that.

>> this was obama's first visit to afghanistan since december 2010 and the third since he took office. the taliban has claimed responsibility for an attack in kabul just hours after obama left the country. they killed at least seven people. a taliban spokesperson says they carried out their assault to protest obama's visit. the insurgents struck early in the morning at a fortified compound that houses thousands of foreigners. a suicide bomber drove a car filled with explosives into the complex. gunmen and security forces exchanged fire for about an hour afterward. all the militants were reportedly killed. an environmental activist has managed to breach security and land a pair a drieder inside a nuclear power plant in eastern france. the vierntsal group greenpeace

says it staged the event to spur debate about nuclear power ahead of the presidential election. the greenpeace activist used a motorized paraglider to trespass in into the nuclear site on wednesday. the man circled the plan and dropped a smoke bomb on top of the nuclear reactor before leaving. the police arrested him when he touched ground. he said it was to stimulate nuclear talks. >> translator: we wanted to throw the threat that france's nuclear plants face. >> after greenpeace breached security and entered another nuclear plant in december, the french government said it had tightened the facility at the country's nuclear facilities. now let's take a look at the extended weather forecast for selected cities around the world.

and that wraps up this edition of "newsline." i'm katharine kobayashi in

tokyo. thanks for joining us.