Kyodo news summary -3-

---------- China denies its military hacked into Pentagon computer system

BEIJING - China on Tuesday dismissed allegations that its military successfully hacked into U.S. Defense Department computers.

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu told reporters in Beijing that the reports were untrue and that China was against any illegal hacking.

---------- Environment Minister Kamoshita's political fund reports contradict

TOKYO - The annual political fund reports of Environment Minister Ichiro Kamoshita's fund management organization contained erroneous entries over borrowings from the minister himself, Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Matsushige Ono said Wednesday, while stressing that they were simply ''administrative errors.''

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, asked by reporters if Kamoshita should leave the Cabinet over the issue, said, ''That would not be the case if it is an error in recording.''

---------- Japan, N. Korea to address history issue on 1st day of talks

ULAN BATOR - Japanese and North Korean envoys agreed to first discuss ways for Japan to atone for its colonization of the Korean Peninsula, as they began talks on Wednesday aimed at solving thorny rows preventing the two countries from normalizing diplomatic relations.

Yoshiki Mine, Japan's ambassador in charge of normalization talks with North Korea, and his North Korean counterpart Song Il Ho met in the morning at the Mongolian state guesthouse in Ulan Bator for the negotiations, which are expected to last through Thursday.

---------- 13 tourists injured in Bangkok hotel fire

BANGKOK - A fire broke out in a hotel in downtown Bangkok on Wednesday, injuring 13 foreign tourists, including six Japanese, and forcing hundreds of guests to evacuate, police said.

The fire started after midnight from the second floor of the 372-room Mandarin Hotel and quickly spread to other parts of the hotel, which is under renovation, according to the police.

---------- Ruling, opposition camps agree on extra Diet to be called Monday

TOKYO - The ruling and opposition camps agreed Wednesday with the government's proposal to call an extra Diet session next Monday.

The two camps gave the endorsement after Chief Cabinet Secretary Kaoru Yosano made the proposal at meetings of executives members of the steering committees of both houses of the Diet.

---------- Hu reiterates stands against Taiwan independence

HONG KONG - President Hu Jintao reiterated China's stand against an independent Taiwan when addressing his compatriots in Australia on Wednesday, Hong Kong media reported.

''Recently, Taiwan authorities stubbornly persist in secession activities, striving toward the so-called referendum on accessing to the United Nations under the title of Taiwan,'' Hu said. ''We work hard on pursuing a peaceful unification, but we will definitely not allow anyone, in any form, to split up Taiwan from China.''

---------- Chiba supermarket manager held over shoplifter's death

CHIBA, Japan - The manager of a supermarket in Funabashi, Chiba Prefecture, was arrested Wednesday on suspicion of beating a shoplifter and leaving him to die on a nearby road, police said.

Yuichi Iwasawa, 40, is suspected of taking the man, who allegedly shoplifted two cans of beer from the supermarket, to a storage space shortly after 8 p.m. Tuesday, and beating him in the stomach and face before leaving him on a nearby road.