Xinhua Asia-Pacific news summary at 1600 GMT, Jan. 24

TOKYO -- Senior legislators from China and Japan have agreed to push for further improvement of bilateral relations during their meetings which concluded on Wednesday.

Chen Zhu, vice chairman of China's National People's Congress (NPC) Standing Committee, led a Chinese delegation to attend the 10th meeting of the cooperation committee between China's NPC and the House of Representatives of the Japanese parliament, and the 7th meeting of the bilateral exchange mechanism between China's NPC and Japan's House of Councillors. (Japan-China-Legislators)

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TOKYO -- An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 6.2 struck off Aomori prefecture, northeastern Japan, at 7:51 p.m. local time (1051 GMT) Wednesday, Japan Meteorological Agency said.

The temblor was centered off the coast of Aomori prefecture, with the epicenter at a latitude of 41.0 degrees north and a longitude of 142.5 degrees east and at a depth of 30 km. (Japan-Earthquake)

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NEW DELHI -- Heads of governments of 10 Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) members headed for New Delhi on Wednesday for the "India-ASEAN commemorative summit" scheduled for Thursday.

The summit, with the theme "Shared Values, Common Destiny," will mark 25 years of India's ties with the Southeast Asian bloc. (India-ASEAN-Meeting)

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NEW DELHI -- Protesters resorted to arson in several Indian states a day before the nationwide release of Bollywood Hindi movie Padmaavat, demanding a ban of the controversial film, police said on Wednesday.

The protesters from fringe group Karni Sena, who claimed to represent Rajput community, torched passenger buses and pelted stones on vehicles in Gurugram on the outskirts of Delhi despite the Supreme court orders that film be screened. (India-Movie-Protests) Enditem