(Adds quotes, background) WASHINGTON, Feb 5 (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will discuss "financial markets turmoil" as well as security, climate change and humanitarian issues during a Feb. 15-22 trip to China, Japan, Indonesia and South Korea, the State Department said on Thursday. "In all capitals, the secretary will be discussing common approaches to the challenges facing the international community, including the financial markets turmoil, humanitarian issues, security and climate change," State Department spokesman Robert Wood told reporters. On her first foreign trip since becoming President Barack Obama's secretary of state, Clinton will visit Japan Feb. 16-18, Indonesia Feb. 18-19, South Korea Feb. 19-20 and China Feb. 20-22, the spokesman added. Wood did not mention North Korea in his announcement of the trip. He later said he was sure that the issue of its nuclear programs "will come up in conversations" but that he did not expect any major announcements on the matter during the trip. The spokesman's emphasis on the global financial crisis as a topic for Clinton's trip is somewhat unusual for the State Department, which usually leaves the U.S. Treasury Department to take the lead on such issues. Clinton this week had lunch with Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, who earlier this month rankled China by repeating Obama's charge that China manipulates its currency's value.
Shepherds watch over their flock of goats and sheep on a drought-ridden field near the village of Houyan, located around 400 kilometres (248 miles) south of Beijing February 5, 2009. China ...
