WASHINGTON (CNN) — It’s a long trip — 6,800 miles (11,000 km) — for a short meeting, but Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso is scheduled to meet President Barack Obama Tuesday morning in an hour-long summit at the White House.
The visit, announced last week, gives Aso the distinction of being the first head of state to be hosted by the Obama administration and comes hours ahead of the president’s first address to a joint session of Congress.
“It clearly shows President Obama gives the Japan-U.S. relationship high priority,” Takeo Kawamura, Japan’s Cabinet secretary, said.
The White House says the leaders will “discuss the close and long-standing alliance between the United States and Japan” and will emphasize “the importance of consultation between leaders of the world’s largest economies in the run-up to the London Economic Summit” in April.
Another topic likely to be on the agenda is Japan’s Asian neighbor North Korea, which U.S. intelligence says is preparing to test a long-range missile. Pyongyang has denied the charge, instead saying it is making preparations to launch a satellite.
A test-fire by North Korea in 2006 failed 40 seconds after launch. The missile is thought to have an intended range of about 4,200 miles (6,700 kilometers), which — if true — could give it the capability of striking Alaska or Hawaii.
Aso’s visit to Washington comes, as his approval rating stands at a meager 11 percent, the second lowest ever recorded for a Japanese prime minister. Yoshiro Mori, a former prime minister, resigned after his rate bottomed out at 9 percent.

Rudolfo Lange Neto:
Greetings everyone! First of all I live in south Brazil (Santa Catarina state) and would like to give advice and/or exchange ideas about whatever you want to talk about. If you need any help or just want to chat, don’t hesitate to contact me here or by MSN <madinearth at hotmail.com>.

For those who plan travelling to south Brazil, don’t hesitate asking me help to plan your travel.

We are considering travelling to the UK, France and throughout Europe this coming July / August but are unsure of the impacts of recession / slowing economies in some of these countries, as well as Australia (where we are living currently).

Would any more experienced travellers in those regions be able to offer their views as to the benefits / challenges of travelling at at time of such economic uncertainty?

Hey Dylan, I arrived this week from a month in Europe, I’ve been a couple days in France and England. I’ve stay in Bordeaux for the first time, is a nice place at totally different of Paris. The french capital still the same as the last time I’ve been there at 2007, expensive… London also but a lot of stores desparetly trying to sale with uncountable discounts everywhere. But London and Paris, I’m talking about two of the most expensive cities in the world. If you maybe go to see Portugal or Spain you can check the difference. (more…)

Quake
A quake registered 8 on the Richter scale hitted Wenchuan on May 12,2008.The quake brought so huge loss for people’s life and treasure that it aroused attention from all over the world to Wenchuan.

Our government at different levels reponsed to the quake very quickly,all kinds of rescuing work were organized effectively at once,especially,premier Wenjiabao arrived at disaster areas on the very day and spent 88 hours in those areas. At the same time,compatriots,including overseas chinese,all have tried their best to help those people in the disaster areas with various ways,this catastrophe made us feel strongly a spirit of chinese again,that is the spirit of facing difficulties bravely and helping each other selflessly. In addtion,many foreign governments and international friends provided their donations for us , many professional rescuing teams of abundant experience were dispatched to the disaster areas.We also noticed the opening attitude of China government to the report of this accident, it is a hugh progress compared with previous time. (more…)

At christmas eve, to whom the neon-lit city belongs??
the annual grand festival is coming, people in china are doing warming-ups. we all know that the christmas feast is celebrated for commemorating the birth of jesus, it’s a big day for the west, but chinese people gets ready too. surely, the globalization cements every country in the world. but does it really concern you? whom does the big festival blong to? and who make the waves? (more…)