it's time now for "newsline". hello and welcome to nhk "newsline." government ministers from countries around the pacific have gathered to talk about the challenges their countries face and ways to cooperate. they're representing the 21 member states of the asia-pacific economic cooperation forum. they will improve the infrastructure in their countries and enjoy closer economic ties. our reporters saw the contents of the draft joint statement and the draft says a strong sustainable facilities like ports are vital for stronger

economic ties among apeculiar member countries. it says the government leaders will step up their infrastructure development and investment over the coming three years. the draft also says the leaders will ensure more transparency in their schemeless for accepting bids from contractors acquiring land and imposing taxes. and it says that they'll create systems for cooperation between the public and private sectors. the u.s. government shutdown is having repercussions for the country's diplomacy. president barack obama has canceled his plans to attend next week's economic summits in indonesia and brunei. instead, he will remain in washington and continue urging lawmakers to pass a budget bill that would reopen the government. obama was to attend the asia-pacific economic cooperation forum in bali. he was then supposed to chair the transpacific partnership free trade talks there. the president's next scheduled

stop was the east asia summit in brunei. a white house spokesman said obama phoned the leaders of the two host countries to express his regrets. obama had already canceled visits to malaysia and the phillipines. investors around the world are keeping a close eye on the u.s. fiscal issue as the government shutdown continues. labor officials had to postpone the release of the jobs data scheduled on friday due to the suspension of u.s. government services. market participants had been wag for the latest numbers for clues on whether the federal reserve would start to taper its monetary easing measures soon. we asked marisa di natale, an economist at moody's analytics, about the impact the government shutdown is having on the nation's economy, and risks of the nation defaulting on its debt. >> the impact of the government shutdown on the u.s. economy really depends on how long it lasts. so if it only lasts maybe a couple more days, and it's

resolved next week, we expect the economic impact to be pretty minimal. so we're talking about fourth-quarter gdp growth that's maybe about 0.2 of a percentage point lower than it would have been. if, however, the shutdown lasts longer, if it lasts two or three weeks, even four weeks, like it did back in 1995-1996, we could actually see a decline in fourth-quarter gdp, and the economic impact would be much, much more severe. we also have to remember there's about 800,000 federal workers that are laid off right now without pay. when that happened in '95-'96, they were paid retroactively when the government opened up again. so that's good, but in the meantime, we're missing a lot of consumer spending, discretionary spending in the economy. we think that the shutdown will probably be resolved sometime next week, and i think the

bigger risk right now is negotiations over the debt ceiling limit, which will come up in the next couple of weeks. it seems like house republicans are saying that they are unwilling to allow a default on federal government sovereign debt. so it seems like if we can get the federal government shutdown resolved, we could also raise the debt ceiling and do it all in one deal. so as a result of all of this, we think that the economy is going to be probably pretty weak through the end of 2013. we weren't expecting job growth to really pick up until early 2014 anyway. and so now it's likely that we could see weaker growth in the fourth quarter of '13 and then faster growth as everything bounces back in the first quarter of 2014. engineers at the fukushima daiichi nuclear plant have

resumed testing of filtration systems after operations were suspended for half a day. they say a glitch in the control system of a holding tank caused the decontamination system to automatically shut down. plant managers say an alarm went off on friday morning indicating something was wrong with the advanced liquid processing system. the engineers found the control system of the holding tank was sending out two contradictory signals about whether it could contain more water or not. the engineers plan to suspend operations for three days from saturday to check the system and make any adjustments. an estimated 400 tons of groundwater is seeping into the damaged facilities at the plant every day, and is becoming contaminated. representatives of governments around the world have laid the groundwork for the next u.n. talks on climate change. they're preparing to try to hammer out a new framework for cuts in greenhouse gas emissions. leaders will gather in warsaw next month for the 19th united

nations framework convention on climate change. officials from 40 governments held two days of talks in preparation. they focused on the challenge of creating a framework to kill the protocol when it expires in 2020. the current rules only require industrialized nations to cut their greenhouse emissions. they'll encourage leaders of industrialized and developing countries to discuss how they should all be treated. >> translator: we'll use our experience of democratization to treat all countries equally and come up with a conclusion. >> governments will also lead their talks through greenhouse gas emissions through 2020. japan is the only nation that has not announced any targets for cuts during that period. engineers at the fukushima

a lonely dwa on the daughter's 49th birthday seasons their daughter was abducted. the girl was grabbed by a north korean agent in 1977 when she was 13. officials in i don't thipyongya father is 80 and her mother is 7 7 and they don't have much time left. >> translator: ever since she was take chb we've grieved. not just on her birthdays, we never feel alive. >> she says they're concerned about poor medical facilities in north korea and once she returned before she becomes so 08d and bed ridden.

he says he wants his daughter to know people are doing their best to get her released. she said she asked the japanese officials to get hr back before she turned 40, nearly a decade ago. she says she wants the prime minister abe to make the, ducks his top priority and bring her back to japan before she turned 50. here's your three day forecast.

that wraps up this edition of nhk. in tokyo, thank you for joining us.

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