hello and welcome to "newsline." i'm hideshi hara in tokyo with the latest at this hour. nhk has obtained official myanmar government documents that outline legislation for mandatory military service. the documents show that the mandatory military service legislation was enacted on december 17th last year.

the government will introduce a draft for men and women age 18 and older. men between ages 18 and 45 and women between 18 and 35 will be drafted into the army for two to three years. the government requires citizens of eligible age except those physically challenged to register with local authorities. those who fail to register or try to evade the draft face imprisonment of up to five years. following the country's first general election in 20 years last november, the new parliament is expected to convene as early as this month to establish at least an appearance of civilian government. the last-minute decision to introduce the draft system before the new government's integration is likely to set off protests from the public. top officials from japan and the united states have reiterated they will resume talks with north korea after it takes steps to abandon its nuclear program.

japanese vice foreign minister kenichirsasae meu.s.pecial reesentative for north korean policies stephen bosworth in tokyo on friday. bosworth visited south korea and china before flying to japan. north korea offered to allow u.n. nuclear inspectors into its uranium enrichment facility and recently called for unconditional talks with south korea at an early date. sasae and bosworth discussed the north's strategy and exchanged views on china's proposal to hold meetings of the six-party talks on the north's nuclear program. but they agreed that they will continue to urge north korea to take concrete action toward dismantling its nuclear facilities as a precondition for resuming talks. two officials confirmed that japan, the united states and south korea will continue to coordinate their positions on north korea. the chinese government says president hu jintao will visit the united states for four days starting the 18th of this month.

it will be the president's first visit to the u.s. in five years. the chinese foreign ministry announced details of the trip on friday. it says hu will meet u.s. president barack obama in washington on the 19th. china views the trip as one of its most important diplomatic events of the year, and as an opportunity to mend ties. u.s./china relations soured l.a. last year after the obama administration decided to sell arms to taiwan. in retaliation, china suspended military exchanges with the u.s. the two countries recently agreed to resume military contact. however, differences remain between the two countries over the yuan/dollar exchange rate and how to deal with north korea. ♪ year after year, china prominence has been increasing

in the international community and it looks as if this year as well the country will remain in the spotlight. on the economic front, china is projected to see an annual growth rate of about 9% this year, and will continue to be a driving force behind the world economy. this will become quite clear later this month when chinese president hu jintao will visit the united states for talks with president barack obama. but domestically there is growing public discontent arising from an economic divide that is presenting a major challenge to the chinese government, which will have to work out solutions to pressing domestic issues. nhk world's lisa komiya is in beijing with more about this year's agenda and prospects for china in 2011. >> reporter: china's maintaining row bit of economic growth but at the same time there is domestic instability that cannot remain hidden. also among the challenges facing china's leaders are diplomatic

problems with the governments of the united states and japan. joining us here in the studio is nhk beijing director director general yoshio nishikawa. do you think china will remain of main interest this year? >> i think it will. in the latter half of this month, china's gdp will be announced and it is almost certain that china will pass japan to become the world's second largest economy. china's astounding rise is due to the economic policies the country's leaders have nurtured through the open door reform policy that have entered the 33rd year. this year is the initial year of china's new five-year economic plan. the basic policy is aimed at improving the livelihood of the chinese people. the chinese economy is expected

to continue growing at a relatively high rate. >> translator: china will adopt a proactive fiscal policy and prudent monetary policy and will work to maintain for economic development and social stability. >> reporter: china's relationship with the united states is also a global concern. president hu is scheduled to meet with president obama in washington on the 19th of this month. how are the chinese preparing for the upcoming meeting? >> china's relationship with the united states became strained over u.s. armistice to taiwan and president obama's meeting with dalai lama, tibet's spiritual leader. the soured bilateral relationship has yet to fully recover, and the two governments remain divided over how to handle the tense situation on the korean peninsula. when china indicates that president hu appears set to

clearly state china's position on contentious issues so that he can place china on equal footing with the united states. >> translator: the primary objectives of hu's visit will be to enhance channels of dialogue, deepen mutual trust and span realms of common acknowledgement and address matters of discord. by so doing, the two countries desire to play an active role in quickly reviving the world's economy. >> reporter: what are the factors that lie behind china's tough diplomatic stance? >> the biggest factor is domestic situation. china's communist party marks the 19th anniversary of its founding this year. also china's vice president has been given the post of vice

chairman of the central military commission. his appointment last autumn is widely viewed as a clear sign that he will succeed president hu jtao when the party leadership is replaced. that makes this year a transition period for the hu administration. communist leaders who seize power without elections can never -- can never free themselves from the challenge of maintaining the momentum that keeps them in power. the chinese government must show diplomatic achievements that can be seen by the public as being comparable to china's status as a global power >> reporter: you're saying this chinese government's hard-line diplomacy is a reflection of his lack of confidence in the steering of domestic affairs. if so, the government must be burdened by a mountain of

domestic problems that are yet to be resolved. >> this year the communist party is expected to see the opportunity presented by the 19th anniversary of its foundation in july, to tout its historic achievements at the national people's congress to be held in the spring and that the communist party's meeting in the fall. china's leaders will unveil specific measures to improvement, and the much talked about policy of improving people's livelihood. the most sensitive domestic issues for the current administration are pro-democratic movements. this became obvious with liu xiabao won the nobel peace prize and when ethnic conflicts occurred in the tiban autonomous regions. the spread of information across national boundaries by way of

the internet is exerting a huge influence over how china's government deals with such pressing issue. the chinese government, therefore, will wield its power along with its economic strength crucial to the communist party's goal on remaining in power. so where is china is heading from here? we'll just have to keep watching carefuy to find the answer. >>eporter: thank you for your analysis. that was our beijing director-general yoshio nishikawa. i'm lisa komiya in beijing. major japanese financial group resona holdings has decided to raise $8 billion in additional funds through stock offerings to pay down its public debt. resona received more than $36 billion in taxpayer money by

2003 to pull itself out of financial trouble. it still hasn't paid back nearly $20 billion of the debt. the financial group decided to issue up to 1.3 billion new ordinary shares this month and in february it plans to use part of its past profits and sebd a total of more than $10 billion back into the state coffers this time. resona says it will pay back all of the debt over the next five years. japan's defense ministry launched a process to select a new generation of mainstay combat aircraft by the end of 2011. defense minister toshimi kitazawa attended the first meeting of a team set up within the ministry to select the next mainstay fighter for japan. the midterm defense buildup program endorsed by the government last month called for japan to buy 12 new planes. kitazawa said he wants to earmark money for the acquisition this summer when ministries and agencies submit rough budget requests for fiscal 2012. the ministry was originally due

to choose the successor of the aging f-4 fighter jet by march 2010, but the selection process has been long delayed by efforts to acquire the f-22 stealth combat aircraft despite a u.s. ban on its export. the japanese team will now study the performance and cost of the f-35, the stealth fighter developed by nine countries including the united states and britain. another candidate is the eurofighter developed by four european nations. the united states has frozen the assets of the president of cote d'ivoire whose refusal to step down has triggered deadly clashes in the west african nation. the u.s. treasuries dertment announced on thursday it had frozen the u.s. bank assets of laurent gbagbo, his wife simone and three close aides. the department said gbagbo continues to demonstrate disregard for the will and well-being of the people of cote d'ivoire. gbagbo refused to concede defeat in a november presidential

election. he was later declared the winner, annulling the election. post election violence between supporters of the two candidates has left more than 200 people dead and has forced 14,000 people to flee the country. gbagbo is resisting calls from the united states and other african countries to step down. u.s. officials had earlier suggested that they would have accepted a request for asylum from gbagbo, but have now taken a tougher stance to try to restore order in cote d'ivoire. a former cia officer has been arrested for allegedly leaking u.s. security secrets about iran and other countries to a newspaper reporter. u.s. justice department officials say the ex-officer's actions were deplorable and endangered national security. 43-year-old jeffrey sterling was employed by the cia from 1993 to 2002.

he is suspected of illegally disclosing national defense information to a "new york times" reporter several weeks after the cia rejected his request to allow the publication of his memoirs. the obama administration is responding harshly to all information leaks by government officials following the recent disclosure of thousands of u.s. diplomatic cables by wikileaks. the number of people infected with the h1n1 influenza is rising in japan. the virus is now blamed for over half the number of infections. the national institute of infectious diseases reported 9,863 cases of influenza as of december 26th. the figure is based on reports from about 5,000 clinics and hospitals across the nation. the number of patients rose for the tenth straight week mainly in northern and southern japan. the institute says the h1n1 strain of the flu virus was responsible for 62% of all new

infections in december. until that month, the majority of infections were attributed to seasonal strains. >> translator: the h1n1 virus could become the mainstay of this winter's flu epidemic. if it prevails in major cities, it will quickly spread around. >> in 2009, the h1n1 virus triggered a pandemic alert by the world health organization. the warning was lifted globally in august last year. fukuoka city in western japan is considered a front runner in developing the latest kind of digital game called the serious game. and it helps players learn or make improvements to their lives. efforts are now being made to advance this new industry even further.

>> reporter: children are completely absorbed in a computer game. it teaches them how to separate garbage while walking a dog. >> translator: it was fun. i learned how to separate garbage. >> reporter: recently created, it's called a serious game that teaches children while they play. a team from kyushu university developed these games. they are part of a three-year project that was launched in 2009. at an event at fukuoka city the team revealed a new game with an eco-friendly theme. now the team is working on a computer game to help people

taking physical therapy. the game involves real-life exercises. as you stand up or sit down a digital tree grows on the screen. the group has completed a trial version. it plans to have elderly try it at a rehabilitation center and then the developers will make improvements. >> translator: we hope the game will alleviate the discomfort of rehabilitation even a little and motivate the patients. >> reporter: on this day city officials and executives of the game company attend a production meeting. four years ago fukuoka city found the fukuoka game industry promotion agency? partnership with kyushu university and 13 local game

manufacturers. they intend to make fukuoka an industry center and create new jobs. >> translator: we believe games can bring fun and entertainment in many different fields. i think we can create a new industry in the areas of education and welfare. we would like to spread the serious games industry out from fukuoka to the rest of japan. >> reporter: the city's efforts are receiving a lot of attention from other countries. the dutch embassy held a seminar in fukuoka city hoping to attract game manufacturers to the netherlands. the dutch have made this advanced industry a national priority. there, the production of serious games accounts for 60% of the computer games market. >> we are strongly focused on both medical and rehabilitation games that we create with our business partner modec medical. >> reporter: a dutch game company introduces its newest product including one with rehabilitation exercises for

children with cerebral palsy. japan is a computer game leader. the netherlands takes a special interest in fukuoka. >> translator: fukuoka is a hub for computer game development. i haven't seen another region in japan where education,ndustry and government agencies have come together like this. i'm very impressed. ♪ >> reporter: what does the future hold for serious games development? with the collaboration of educational, industrial and government groups, fukuoka is ready to lead the way. now, let's look at some of the news we gathered from broadcasting stations across asia. we begin with this item sent by btv bangladesh. baladeshprime minister is calling for the eradication of polio in the country. she inaugurated saturday's

19th national immunization day early by giving drops of a polio vaccine to children at her official residence in dhaka on thursday. the prime minister has directed health authorities to vaccinate all children below the age of 5. in a special drive on saturday, children will receive anti-polio doses at about 160,000 temporary clinics set up across the nation. police in bangkok are claiming success after more than 4,000 drug traffickers were arrested and a huge amount of drugs and weapons were confiscated as part of a nationwide crackdown. beginning on december 21st, police raids in the capital seized methamphetamine tablets and marijuana. an official says the nationwide campaign aimed to shut down drug trafficking during the new year season. he says the country's poorest northern border remains the main route for drugs

entering the country. a two-day event has gotten under way in the bangladeshi capital dhaka that aims to showcase the country's cultural diversity and create communal harmony. they showed off their talents by preparing a variety of succulent dishes. also on show were a classical musical performance and ethnic dances. next is the story of a big discovery made by tiny hands. an elementary schoolchild in japan uncovered the fossilized tooth of a dinosaur. it comes from a strait where fossils of a dinosaur had already been unearthed. the fossilized tooth is 3.7 millimeters long and 5.7 millimeters thick. experts say it comes from a 2 meter long dinosaur known as an ankylosaurus. the person responsible for the rare discovery is a 7-year-old.

>> the dinosaur shown here as a scale model was covered from head to tail by a thick plate of bone. researchers say this is the fourth time that a fossil of this particular variety is uncovered in japan. tanaka made the discovery in october during a school trip that focused on fossils. the young dinosaur enthusiast found the tooth inside of a rock after cracking it open with a hammer. >> the fossil was later analyzed at a local museum. >> translator: children are better at finding small objects than adults. it can lead to interesting discoveries like this one. >> the fossil will be on display at the museum throughout the weekend.

hello again. time to get you updated on the world's weather. we'll head to eastern asia. dry and cold, that's the forecast for much of mongolia and china but we are going to be seeing a bit of moisture moving into southwestern portions of china. now that's just going to blossom over the weekend. it doesn't look like much right now, but into next week for monday it will become quite widespread and it will be fairly chilly and some of this turning to a bit of snow. for the time being most of the snow will be found up over japan and quite severe winter storms raging over the past couple of days. into saturday, a lot of that is going to clear. we'll see good, sunny spells, but by sunday another low pressure system will form and we'll see a return of the heavier winter precipitation. speaking of heavy precipitation we go down to the south and this time we find rain and it just kept coming into the philippines and into the next 48 hours we'll see an additional 100

millimeters, of rain, up to 120 anywhere you're seeing in the orange there. and not good news and there is already a widespread flooding problem here. manila will see about 31 for the high on saturday. 18 for you in taipei. 7 in shanghai. just 1 degree in beijing. that's quite cold actually here in northern china. usually we see around the 9-degree mark for the high. as for tokyo, 9 degrees is forecast for saturday. let's take a look now at north america. things are looking quite settled for many of you in mexico right through western portions of the u.s. and into the south. that said there will be a few snow flurries across the four corners region and nothing too significant. we will find heavier snow up into the pacific northwest and the system moves inland and it's right along this border from southern b.c. into alberta where we will see 10 to 15 centimeters of additional snow. then we goo theast and we find yet more snow. very cold arctic air spilling right down into the southern --

into the southeast here and although temperatures will drop the snow will probably stop around tennessee, north carolina kind of area. light snow showers here expected and the much heavier stuff pushing up into the mid atlantic and the northeast. we have minus 4 in toronto. 1 in new york city and 4 degrees in washington, d.c. expect the temperatures to dip into the weekend. excuse me. as we head to the west we can see all of the warmth move in with it. 8 degrees in denver, not bad. 10 degrees in seattle and 9 expected in vancouver for your friday. all right. we go to europe, unfortunately it's not going to be a very good outlook for most of you across the continent. the good news, though is that we aren't going to see a return of the heavy snow and we've been dealing with that since late november and actually very warm, southwesterly winds pushing up through here will keep this mostly rain across the west. the heaviest of the rain will be found here across parts of iberia, spain and portugal. and by the time it moves up to central regions of the baltic

states, most of this will be fairly scattered and light. the snow will be confined to northern scotland and up to scandinavia. you will see a bit of a break here before the next round of snow arrives on your saturday. temperaturewise, we'll see that reflected and 5 degrees in berlin and minus 3 in moscow and that's a big improvement on temperatures earlier on in the week. and no problems out to the south. out to the west, double figures all around. here's your extended forecast. here is one of the main

stories at this hour once again. the number of people infected with the h1n1 influenza is rising in japan. the virus is now blamed for over half the number of infectis. the national institute of infectious diseases reported 9,863 cases of influenza as of december 26th. the figure is based on reports from about 5,000 clinics and hospitals across the nation. the number of patients rose for the tenth straight week mainly in northern and southern japan. the h1n1 strain of the flu virus was responsible for 62% of all new infections in december. until that month, the majority of infections were attributed to seasonal strains. >> translator: the h1n1 virus could become the mainstay of this winter's flu epidemic. if it prevails in major cities, it will quickly spread around.

>> in 2009, the h1n1 virus triggered a pandemic alert by the world health organization. the warning was lifted globally in august of last year. and that's it for th edition of "newsline m deshi hara in too. we'll be back in 30 minutes. thanks for joining us.