Hiroshima gets letter on Obama's absence from Nobel laureates meeting+

HIROSHIMA, Nov. 5 Kyodo -
The Hiroshima municipal office said Friday it has received a letter from
Washington informing it that U.S. President Barack Obama will not attend a
meeting of Nobel Peace Prize laureates to be held here on Nov. 12-14.
The letter dated Oct. 26 in the name of Kurt Campbell, assistant secretary of
state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, said Obama would be absent from the
meeting, while adding that the gathering for abolition of nuclear arms fits
with Obama's vision of a world free from such weapons.
The letter was sent to Hiroshima Gov. Hidehiko Yuzaki on Thursday. Yuzaki,
Hiroshima Mayor Tadatoshi Akiba and others had sent a letter to Obama asking
him to attend the meeting to be held in the city that was hit by a U.S. atomic
bomb in 1945.
Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, former Soviet President Mikhail
Gorbachev and other Nobel Peace laureates have said they will attend the
meeting.
Former Chinese pro-democracy leader Wuer Kaixi is also set to attend on behalf
of imprisoned Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo, winner of the 2010 prize, according
to the summit's secretariat.
==Kyodo
2010-11-05 22:21:53