president barack obama meets one on one with japanese prime minister naoto kan on saturday during the apec summit. with china expanding its influence in asia, the leaders will also talk about rebuilding japan/u.s. bilateral relations. ties have been strained over the relocation of u.s. military base in okinawa. >>> suspected muslim militants attacked a police facility in central karachi, pakistan, thursday night. leaving at least 15 people dead and more than 100 injured. local police say the attackers first opened fire at a police checkpoint and then rammed a vehicle carrying explosives into the main building, causing an explosion. the blast destroyed the police facility and damaged surrounding buildings. muslim militants have repeatedly launched attacks in retaliation for pakistan's military operations against them in the country's northeastern region boredingering with afghanistan. >>> the european aviation safety agency says oil leaks may have caused an engine to fail on a qantas a-380 passenger jet last thursday. one of the jet's rolls-royce engines failed soon after takeoff from

japanese prime minister naoto kan is expected to arrive later today. south korean president lee myung-bak issued an outline of the agenda items to be discussed at the summit. the agenda takes up four major points. the first is the currencies issue. second is the ongoing effort to build a safety net against possible future financial crises. third is reform of the international monetary fund. and the final item for discussion is financial aid for emerging economies. gene? >> yonggi, among these agenda items, which is drawing the most attention? >> reporter: among these four items, perhaps the most important is the currency issue. a lot of attention will be focused on whether the g20 leaders will be able to reach some kind of agreement on so-called competitive currency devaluation. export--oriented economies favor weaker currencies, which make their products cheaper overseas, and this is prompting countries to push their currencies down. now, ahead of the summit president obama sent a letter to the g20 nations, urging them to avoid devaluing their currenc

president lee myung-bak has spoken with japanese prime minister naoto kan and u.s. president barack obama about his alliance with their countries. however, the effectiveness of going through the u.n. security council is in question. actually, it took four months for it to adopt a statement about the sinking of a south korean war ship. china was reluctant to back the statement. in the end the security council didn't name -- even though evidence showed it was to blame. now china and russia are concerned about the north artillery attacks, so the south korean government will need to use diplomatic skill to keep the countries on its side. >> and why did north korea attack south korea, and why now? >> well, i think there were two reasons behind this strike. one stems from north korea's domestic situation and the other is based on its relations with south korea and the united states. domestically, kim jong il decided his third son, kim jong un, will be his successor. kim jong un has to quickly strengthen his power because his father is still dealing with the effects of a s

. >>> japan's prime minister naoto kan, says he will ask china to use its influence over north korea. kan was speaking at a diet committee on friday. >> translator: north korea's uranium enrichment activities have been confirmed and one of kim jong-il's sons is set to succeed him. north korea is in the midst of major changes.ellings may have been a planned attack. >> kan said he will ask china to try to pressure north korea so as to calm the situation. >>> later in the day, defense minister toshimi kitazawa said japan will keep a closer eye on the korean peninsula. he said his ministry has already strengthened its information gathering and analysis. >> translator: the defense ministry has increased its number of personnel, that has allowed us to carry out around-the-clock intelligence gathering. >> kitazawa said that japan's maritime self-defense force has deployed ep-3 intelligence aircraft to support the p3c planes that support the region. japan deploys five aircraft from its western base in yamaguchi prefecture. the aircraft are equipped with technologies such as advanced radar to

. >>> russian president dmitry medvedev has sent a personal letter to prime minister naoto kan saying he will attend next week's apec summit in yokohama. on thursday the russian presidential palace said medvedev sent the message to thank kan for inviting him to the meetings, which will be held on november 13th and 14th. in the letter the russian president emphasized the importance of apec's role in the asia-pacific region. he said he will actively participate in discussions on this year's theme, change in action, which japan proposed as the apec chair country. medvedev's letter did not mention his visit to kunashiri island on monday or the sour ties with japan since the trip. kunashiri is one of four islands off hokkaido claimed by japan. >>> a u.s. human rights activist says north korea is sensitive about the increasing number of defections. robert park returned from the country last year after being detained for more than a month. park was detained after illegally entering the north from china last december. he spoke to nhk in seoul on thursday. park said north korean authorities qu

naoto kan has instructed his cabinet to examine the video and tighten information control. >> translator: first of all, we must try to find out the truth about what happened. we'll do our utmost on that front. it is important for japan and china to deal with this matter in a calm manner. >> foreign minister seiji maehara also spoke about china's reaction. >> translator: china expressed interest and concern over the issue through diplomatic channels. >> maehara said the government in japan told china it is investigating the matter. >>> china's foreign ministry has reiterated its criticism of japan over the incident. it says the leak of the video does not change any of the facts in this case. the spokes person said in a statement on friday the japan coast guard vessels caused the collisions. he said they intercepted and pursued the chinese fishing boat near the senkaku islands. hong said the japanese action waz illegal and that the video images can't cover it up. in response to the release of the footage, many internet users in china are posting comments defending the chinese trawler capta

. >>> japanese prrm naoto kan has told the defense forces to step up information gathering to prepare for any contingency following the artillery attack by the north. kan gave the instruction at a meeting with chief cabinet secretary yoshito sengoku, defense minister toshimi mitt za wa and five other bhirnss tuesday evening. he also told the ministers to keep collecting information on north korea and to closely cooperate with south korea and the united states. at a news conference later on tuesday sengoku strongly condemned the attack, calling it unforgivable. >> translator: the japanese government expresses condolences to the victims and support south korea. the provocation undermines peace and stability in northeast asia. we demand that north korea stop such acts immediately. >> sengoku said he doesn't think the attack was accidental but he cannot say for sure until the government obtains more information and analyzes it. he added that the government will consider imposing additional sanctions on north korea. we spoke earlier about north korea's possible aims to attacking south kore

mongolian president tsakhiaglin elbegdorj is now visiting japan and is expected to meet prime minister naoto kann friday evening. the two leaders are expected to discuss the joint development of abundant rare earth metal resources in mongolia using japanese technological support. this comes after china imposed restrictions on shipments of the special metals to japan. the two leaders are also expected to confirm on an economic partnership agreement to promote bilateral free trade, which has been under discussion since june. >>> following recent diplomatic difficulties with china and russia, kan also wants to exchange views on regional issues with the mongolian president. >>> environmental groups in guam have filed a lawsuit against the u.s. military. they are calling for a halt to the construction of new firing ranges on the island. the construction project is part of a plan to relocate about 8,000 marines from okinawa in japan to guam. the u.s. government plans to construct five firing rain ngz for the marine corps in a four square-kilometer plot adjacent to the anderson air force base. on wedne

. >>> prime minister naoto kan is launching his own blog on thursday to provide more down to earth information about his activities. the prime minister's office says the japanese language blog is dubbed "kan-full blog" a play on words indicating a re-energizing camphor shot in the arm. kan will post video images explaining how his cabinet is formulating and implementing policies. his aides and secretaries will also contribute comments and anecdotes. the blog's first post featured kan's views on the outcomes of last weekend's apec summit hosted by japan and on the bilateral summits with china and russia held on the sidelines of the apec meeting. the blog will be updated weekly. >>> a festival showing 75 animated movies from japan has opened in south korea. the five-day event organized by japan's cultural affairs' agency started in seoul on wednesday. the festival explores the history and diversity of japanese animated movies, which are popular in south korea and around the world. made between the 1960s and 2010, the movies include features by legendary cartoonist osam osamu tezuka and modern an

prime minister naoto kan met eu council president herman van rompuy and european commission president jose-manuel barroso on the sidelines of the summit in seoul on friday. kan will work hard to forge an economic partnership with the eu and pointed out that his government's basic policy promotes such deals. kan called for both sides to make efforts and the eu leaders responded positively. the two sides will try to reach a preliminary agreement at their summit in the first half of next year. that will help start official negotiations. kan promised to speed up studies on issues of particular interest to the eu. they include its demand for japan to eliminate known tariff barriers and promote deregulation. the prime minister said the government is doing all it can to eliminate unnecessary regulations and he will instruct his ministers to make further reforms. >>> the two-day summit of the asia-pacific economic cooperation forum will open in yokohama on saturday. ahead of the meeting, world leaders including the presidents of the united states, china and russia have started arriving here i