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Xinhua Asia Pacific news summary at 1600 GMT, Jan. 18

Xinhua, January 19, 2015 Adjust font size:

At least 2,000 families have been evacuated in six provinces in central Philippines as tropical storm Mekkhala, locally known as Amang, battered the country, the state disaster management agency said on Sunday.

The Philippine Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council ( NDRRMC) said earlier that a 27-year old volunteer worker died after being hit by a soundbox due to a collapsed scaffolding caused by heavy winds brought by the storm in central Philippine city of Tacloban on Saturday shortly after Pope Francis presided over a mass. (Philippines-Tropical Storm)

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SINGAPORE -- The chief nuclear negotiator of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) and former senior officials and scholars from the United States were in Singapore on Sunday for a unofficial meeting over topics including the DPRK nuclear issue.

Leon Sigal, director of the Northeast Asia Cooperative Security Project at the U.S.-based non-profit organization Social Science Research Council, told reporters that the meeting will cover the DPRK's nuclear missile programs. (DPRK-US-Talks)

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TOKYO -- Acting Chief Katsuyu Okada became the new leader of Japan's largest opposition Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) by beating Goshi Hosono in the party's presidential run-off vote on Sunday.

In the first round of vote, former secretary general of DPJ Hosono led Okada by four points, but none of the three candidates, also including former health minister Akira Nagatsuma, got a majority of votes. Thus a run-off vote between Hosono and Okada was held immediately. (Japan-DPJ-Election)

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KHOST -- Five persons including three police and two civilians sustained injuries as a roadside bomb struck police van in the eastern Khost province on Sunday, spokesman for provincial government Mubariz Zadran said.

"A mine planted by militants struck a police vehicle in the outskirts of the provincial capital the Khost city at around 02:00 p.m. local time, injuring three personnel of Border Police Force and two civilians," Zadran told Xinhua. (Afghanistan-Bombing) Endi