At least 100 NATO oil tankers were stopped by Pakistani security forces Thursday in Khyber tribal agency in northwest Pakistan, local media said, citing official sources. The tankers were stopped from moving ahead into Afghanistan at Takhtabai in Jamrud area for safety reasons, as the sluggish customs clearance on the Afghan side of the border at Torkham has created a long line of trucks, officials said. (Pakistan-NATO- Security) TOKYO -- Japan's ruling Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) and main opposition Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) agreed Thursday to hold an extraordinary Diet session from July 30 to August 6, local media reported Thursday, citing party lawmakers. During the session, key debates will take place on Aug. 2 and 3 in the lower house and on Aug. 4 and 5 in the upper house. (Japan- Diet-Session) WELLINGTON -- A big boost to education scholarships is one of four initiatives that will help New Zealand strengthen its relationship with ASEAN, Foreign Minister Murray McCully announced in Hanoi, Vietnam, on Thursday. 'ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) has ambitious development plans over the next five years, and New Zealand, as a key regional partner, will offer its support by providing expertise in a number of areas,' McCully said in a statement. (NZ- Scholarships-ASEAN) BANGKOK -- The government is still confident that Thailand's economy in 2010 will grow 6 percent year on year as targeted earlier, the Prime Minister said on Thursday, the Thai News Agency (TNA) reported. Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva made the remarks amid the country's robust exports' growth, especially in June this year. ( Thaildn-Economy-Grow) SEOUL -- South Korean Finance Minister Yoon Jeung-hyun will participate in the 9th China-Korea Finance Ministers' meeting to be held in Beijing on Friday, the Ministry of Strategy and Finance said Thursday. 'This year's meeting will be the first one since the beginning of the global economic crisis in 2008,' the ministry said in a press release, adding that the ministers will be talking about post- crisis economic policies and cooperation. (S. Korea-China- Finance) BANGKOK -- A Thai freelance reporter, who was wounded during a crackdown on the 'red-shirt' protest in capital Bangkok, on Thursday filed a criminal lawsuit against 13 people, including the prime minister, the Thai News Agency (TNA) reported. The suit has accused Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva and 12 other members of the Center for Resolution of Emergency Situation (CRES) that they had unlawfully suppressed the anti-government ' red-shirts' at the Khok Wua Intersection in central Bangkok on April 10. (Thailand-Freelance-Reporter) TOKYO -- Prime Minister Naoto Kan on Thursday instructed Uichiro Niwa, Japan's new ambassador to China, to further develop Japan- China relations, public broadcaster NHK reported. Kan made the instruction while meeting with Niwa, who is about to go to China to assume office, at the prime minister's residence. (Japan-China-Relations) HANOI -- The 28th ASEAN Ministers on Energy Meeting (AMEM) under the theme 'Energy and Climate Change' opened in Vietnam's central highland province of Lam Dong on Thursday, the Vietnam News Agency reported. The meeting drew participation of about 500 delegates including ministers from the ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) members, representatives from Japan, the Republic of Korea, China, India New Zealand, Australia, Russia and the United States. ( Vietnam-ASEAN-Energy Meeting) TOKYO -- Japan Airlines Corp (JAL)., plans to ask its main creditor banks to reduce its debt waiver, local media reported Thursday, citing sources with knowledge of the matter. Providing the creditor banks, previously reluctant to the idea of reducing JAL's debt waiver, accept the proposition, the former flagship carrier's debt waiver would be reduced by around 20 billion yen (229.90 million U.S. dollars) from the current 400 billion yen (4.60 billion dollars). (Japan-Airlines-Creditor) ISLAMABAD -- Some 50 people were swept away on Thursday by a flood in Barkhan region in central Pakistan. So far 30 bodies had been recovered from the area, police sources said. Flooding also destroyed several houses in Barkhan region as about 20 people were still missing. The flooding occurred due to the recent rains which led to the overflowing of the Bann river. ( Pakistan-People-Flood) SEOUL-- The Seoul Administrative Court on Thursday ruled in favor of Seoul National University in a lawsuit brought by cloning scientist Hwang Woo-suk, who claimed unfairness at the school's decision to expel him based on insufficient evidence. Hwang was fired from his professorship in April 2006 after he was found to have fabricated the results of his experiments on cloning human stem cells. He gained worldwide fame from his papers published in the journal Science in 2004 and 2005 in which he claimed to have successfully obtained stem cells from cloned human embryos. (S. Korea-Cloning-Scientist) JAKARTA -- The United States Defense Secretary Roberts M. Gates said on Thursday that the United States Military will resume relation with Indonesian army special force known as Kopassus after 12 years of ban due to allegedly poor human rights record. The secretary said that the decision was made after evaluating the Indonesian military reform over the past decade, ongoing professionalism of the Indonesian Armed Forces or TNI and the recent action taken by the Indonesian Ministry of Defense to address human rights issues. (Indonesia-United States-Military) DHAKA -- Bangladesh in the just concluded 2009-10 fiscal year ( July 2009-June 2010) fetched nearly half a billion U.S. dollars from export of frozen food products, official data showed Thursday. According to Bangladesh's Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) data, export of frozen foods from Bangladesh in the 2009-10 fiscal year comparing with the same period of the previous fiscal year 2008-09 (July 2008-June 2009) fell 2.06 percent to 445.18 million U.S. dollars. (Bangladesh-Food-Exports) 