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Japan set to waive Myanmar's remaining debt of 200 bil. yen

The Japanese government is arranging to waive the remaining approximately 200 billion yen debt owed by Myanmar and offer around 100 billion yen in aid, following a bilateral accord in April last year to forgive about 300 billion yen, Japanese government sources said Thursday. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is set to announce Tokyo's waiver of the debt and its new official development assistance plan during talks with Myanmar President Thein Sein in Naypyitaw, the capital of Myanmar, on Sunday, they said.

Greece to disarm MPs entering parliament

Greek deputies who have been carrying pistols and daggers into parliament must now hand them over at the door, parliamentary speaker Evangelos Meimarakis announced Thursday. The measure targets in particular the 18 deputies from the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party, several of whom say they circulate armed and who resort to angry and violent outbursts both inside and outside the building. Meimarakis earlier in the week announced he had a metal detector reinstalled at the parliament's entrance after one party member was expelled in a highly publicised incident.

Liberals demand answers on Senate expenses scandal

OTTAWA - The federal Liberals are accusing the Harper government of misleading Canadians about a paper trail in the Senate expense claim scandal. The Conservatives insist that no legal documents exist that spell out the terms of a $90,000 gift to Sen. Mike Duffy from the prime minister's former chief of staff. But Liberal MP Ralph Goodale says the government has not denied that at least one email exists that could contain details of the transaction.

Japan, India to announce 71 bil. yen loan for subway in Mumbai

Japanese and Indian leaders are set to announce next Wednesday a 71 billion yen loan from Tokyo for subway construction in the western Indian city of Mumbai, a Japanese Foreign Ministry official said Thursday. During a meeting in Tokyo, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his Indian counterpart Manmohan Singh are also expected to reach an agreement on advancing talks for a civil nuclear cooperation pact between the two countries.

Ex-PM Noda aide visited Pyongyang in fall to break impasse: source

A secret mission to Pyongyang last fall by a close aide to then Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda led to Japan-North Korea talks in Mongolia in mid-November amid disagreements over the abduction issue, a source close to bilateral ties said Thursday. During the mission from late October to early November, the aide met with senior North Korean officials and Pyongyang indicated a willingness to set up a joint investigation panel to look into the whereabouts of Japanese abducted by North Korea in the 1970s and 1980s, according to the source.

N. Korea signals shift from bellicose posture to dialogue mode

North Korea expressed willingness Thursday to hold talks with other regional powers to defuse tensions on the Korean Peninsula, China's official Xinhua News Agency reported, a sign Pyongyang may be shifting its recent bellicose posture to a mode of dialogue to extract aid or concessions from other countries.

Japan set to waive Myanmar's remaining debt of 200 bil. yen

The Japanese government is arranging to waive the remaining approximately 200 billion yen debt owed by Myanmar following a bilateral accord in April last year to forgive about 300 billion yen, Japanese government sources said Thursday. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is set to announce Tokyo's waiver of the debt during talks with Myanmar President Thein Sein in Naypyitaw, the capital of Myanmar, on Sunday, they said.

NK envoy-China visit

BEIJING, May 23 (Yonhap) -- North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's special envoy met with another top Chinese party official Thursday, the second day of his scheduled three-day trip here seen as aimed at mending frayed ties between the two countries. Vice Marshall Choe Ryong-hae, director of the General Political Bureau of North Korea's People's Army, flew to Beijing on Wednesday. Shortly after his arrival, he had met with Wang Jiarui, the head of the central committee's external affairs of the Communist Party of China (CPC).

Top Chinese leader urges North Korea envoy to work toward denuclearization

BEIJING (Reuters) - Liu Yunshan, the Chinese Communist Party's fifth-ranked leader, told a North Korean envoy on Thursday that China hopes all parties would work toward denuclearization and called on all sides to restart talks on North Korea as soon as possible, state television reported. Liu, who is also the propaganda tsar, also told Choe Ryong-hae, a "special envoy" of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un that China is committed to its relationship with North Korea and that peace and stability on the Korean peninsula is in the interests of all sides.

Abe seeks Japan's bigger role in infrastructure projects in Thailand

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Thursday expressed hope that Japanese companies will play larger roles in infrastructure development in Thailand, when he met with his Thai counterpart Yingluck Shinawatra. Abe is promoting Japanese exports of infrastructure such as atomic power plants and medical and railway systems to the developing world as a main pillar of his strategy for economic growth.
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