welcome to "newsline," i'm michio kijima in tokyo with news at this hour. the japanese government has downgraded its economic growth forecast to half a percent in >> now it's planning to establish a new nuclear watchdog under the environment ministry. cabinet ministers made the decision on friday, they agreed that nuclear and industrial safety agencies should be separated from the industry ministry, which promotes atomic energy. the ministers decided to merge the ministry wgs the nuclear safety commission, which is

currently under the cabinet office. the environment ministry has been handling disposal of radiation contaminated debris around the fukushima daiichi nuclear plant. the government plans to submit bills to the diet early next year related to the new nuclear watchdog. the agency is expected to start functioning in april. the japanese government has downgraded the economic forecast. the japanese government has downgraded its economic growth forecast to half a percent in real terms for the fiscal year through march 2012. that's down one percentage point from its previous estimate given in december last year. the government says the march 11th disaster in northeastern japan caused production and exports to plunge temporarily. personal consumption came to a standstill. the growth forecast will serve as a basis for the government's budget plan and revenue predictions. the downward revision means the goal of restoring the country's financial health and having a budget surplus by 2020 cannot be achieved even if the consumption tax is doubled to 10% by march 2016.

after the release of japan's economic forecast, economic and fiscal policy minister kaoru yosano stressed the need for a consumption tax hike. >> translator: the consumption tax must be raised to at least the 10% level by fiscal 2015. the japan external trade organization or jetro said global inflation surged more than 22% over the previous year as asian economies rebounded from the financial crisis. it reported on thursday that last year's world trade amounted to $15 trillion. that was an increase of 22.2%, the second largest in the past 30 years. the upturn was led by the fast recovery by china and other asian countries. exports from resource-rich

countries such as russia and brazil also grew as prices of crude oil, iron ore and other raw materials surged. china was the world's largest exporter for the second straight year, with shipments of nearly $1.6 trillion. the united states and germany ranked second and third. japan was fourth, exporting goods worth $767 billion. jetro said it expects world trade to slow down from the latter half of 2011 to the first half of 2012. they cite growing concerns over the growing economic outlook caused by uncertainties in the u.s. economy and the european union financial problems. activists have staged a rally in new york city, to call for the shutdown of an aging nuclear power plant nearby. about 300 demonstrators gathered in manhattan on monday.

participants urged people not to forget the ongoing crisis at the fukushima daiichi nuclear plant. they offered a silent prayer to the victims of the quake and tsunami. the decades-old indian point power plant is located 40 kilometers from manhattan. >> anyone tells you that what happened in fukushima cannot happen here in new york, they are wrong. >> it's really time for the world as a globe to come together and to move towards a sustainable energy future. china is putting the brakes on the opening of a new high speed rail link. the government hasn't made a formal announcement about the delay. it's faced criticism over the safety of its bullet train service since a collision last month killed 40 people and injured more than 190 others. the news service has reportedly been tested since july 26. it runs about 100 kilometers

between guangzhou and shenzhen. in the southern province of guangdong. passengers were expected to be traveling on the line on friday when an international sports event opens in shenzhen. but the new shenzhen station remains off limits to the public and no tickets were being sold there on friday. the railway ministry has yet to make an announcement about the delay. and station officials says the line has not started commercial operations. >> translator: i hope the authority can act on the principle of safety first. there have been too many rail accidents recently. the pictures out of britain this past week gave the world a good idea of the damage caused by rioters in london and other cities. now insurance companies are putting a price on how much it's going to cost to fix things. more than $320 million. the association of british insurers released the estimate. it says damage claims will add

up to at least $324 million. prime minister david cameron told an emergency session of parliament that the police will partially compensate uninsured shop owners. the riots broke out in london on august 6th. the disturbances spread to other cities. mobs looted buildings and set buildings and cars on fire. british police have arrested more than 1,500 people. a crackdown by syrian military on anti-government demonstrators continues, despite mounting criticism from the international community. in the central city of homs government tanks have been shelling houses and fire ing indiscriminately at civilians. a civilian human rights organization says that 38 people including women and children were killed across the country on wednesday and thursday. in the past five months 2,000 people are believed to have died in crackdowns on protesters

demanding the resignation of prsident bashar al assad. meanwhile, u.s. secretary of state, hillary clinton, told an american tv station on thursday that china and india should consider sanctions against syria's energy sector. the two asian countries have been active in developing oil and other energy resources in syria in recent years. kyoto university says it has been granted a u.s. patent on a technique for creating induced stem-cells or ips cells. ips stem-cells were first generated by a kyoto university professor. they're considered crucial in regenerating medicine for their potential to be turned in to a variety of tissues or organs. in news conference thursday, kyoto university said u.s. authorities had approved the patent to a basic technique which entails introducing three to four genes into skin cells to

transform them into ips cells. >> translator: as soon as possible, i want to turn this technique into one which is useful in clinical practice. the patent still has to go through a number of u.s. patent procedures before it is finalized. up next, the extended world weather forecast. friday marks the 26th anniversary of the worst accident in japanese aviation history. on august 12th, 1985, a japan

airlines jumbo jet crashed into a mountainous area near tokyo. 520 people died. relatives of the victims attended a memorial service at the foot of the osutaka ridge where the plane went down. people lit candles in honor of the victims. then at 6:56 p.m., the exact time of the crash, participants held a moment of silence. >> translator: i don't want any other families to feel such sorrow. i don't want anyone to forget this tragedy. and i hope it will not be repeated again. that's our broadcast for this hour on "newsline," we'll be back with more news in half

an hour. i'm michio kijima in tokyo. thank you for watching. bye-bye. just five days after his first daughter was born. the proud papa got an emergency call ordering his immediate return to work. the following day he left his family behind and resumed his duty, training mine-detection dogs. 29-year-old chor buntheng.

atha, the dog he works with now, is a special case. different from all other dogs he's trained in the past. aths is the only cambodian-born canine out of 71 dogs in training. buntheng must train him to pass the mine-detection dog test and eventually they will clear mines together. buntheng believes this will build cambodia's future.

>> approximately 6 million unexploded land mines remain throughout the nation. a legacy of past civil wars. many of them were planted in farming areas near cambodia's borders. even now, more than 100 people are hurt or killed annually by land mines. this is in central cambodia. the training center for mine-detection dogs is located here. buntheng lives in this town with atha, away from his family. they do everything together.

in this line of work, communication between man and dog is imperative. >> atha, sit. >> in the field, if the trainer and dog are out of sync, it can lead to disaster. atha will be facing exacting exams very soon. the dogs are trained under conditions that replicate clearing mines in the field. the mines have been disarmed, of course.

the dog follows the rope searching for the scent of explosives. it can smell within 40 centimeters in width. once finished with the first row, the rope is then shifted over another 40 centimeters. the dog continues the same process row after row until it finds the mine. the final training takes about four months. atha must then face the final exam to determine if she has what it takes to be a mine-detection dog. land mines are buried 30 centimeters deep. atha has been trained to sit once she detects the scent of explosives. >> good! yeah! atha, yeah, good! >> praising her immediately is essential.

atha is a breed called malinois which have a very sensitive nose. but she makes mistakes occasionally so daily training is indispensable. before being assigned here atha underwent a year of explosives training in detection. 3-month-old puppies are first trained to recognize the scent of a plastic toy called a kong through play. next, they are trained to sniff out pieces of the toy which have been scented with explosives.

the pups try to detect the toy while playing. by repeating this process, they gradually learn the smell of explosives. next, the dogs learn the scent of the explosive alone. explosives, dead leaves, soil and cigarette butts have been hidden inside 12 containers. only dogs capable of detecting the explosive graduate to final training. atha is now in the midst of her final training. but there's one problem. >> search. >> she walks too fast. as if she feels rushed.

>> sometimes atha continues hunting for the next mine without sitting, even though she detects explosives. this could be a fatal mistake. but buntheng won't scold atha no matter how many mistakes she makes. can he get atha ready to pass the test? cmac promotes land mine clearing in cambodia. it has been importing mine-detection dogs from countries like bosnia. each fully-trained dog costs up to $30,000. so there aren't enough dogs to fill the country's needs.

to save money, a project was launched to breed and raise mine-detection dogs locally in cambodia. atha is the first dog from this project. failure is not an option. >> buntheng worked with three mine-detection dogs before being assigned to atha. he was given this special mission in recognition of his strength and tenacity. buntheng takes atha's training seriously.

>> mine-detection dogs that worked and died for cambodia are buried here. not a single dog has died in a land mine accident. >> in honor of all these dogs, and for his country's future, buntheng has partnered with atha, vowing to never give up.

buntheng grew up in the poor countryside. since his youth he's seen many people fall victims to mines. it's a year since he got married. he looks forward to hearing voices of his wife and baby by phone. >> his daughter is 4 months old now. he worries about his wife, who is exhausted from child-rearing, and their daughter's crying throughout the night.

every morning buntheng takes atha out for long walks. to help atha concentrate, he trains her in places where there are no other dogs. >> stand there. stand there. >> buntheng believes in order to understand a dog, humans must adjust themselves to the animal. buntheng, however, is still having trouble fixing atha's weaknesses. atha walks impatiently as always.

>> atha, come on. >> sometimes she even misses the smell of explosives. nevertheless, buntheng never scolds her. on this day, atha continuously makes mistakes. the instructor blanches.

>> buntheng thinks atha starts walking fast because she loves searching for explosives. like a child absorbed in play. if he scolds atha, she might lose her love for tracking explosives. each time atha finds a mine, he praises her patiently. >> atha, come! >> thousands of times, he continues training atha to walk slowly.

this dog holds cambodia's future on her shoulders. buntheng will not give up. since atha loves being in the pool, buntheng lets her swim as much as she wants. day after day, buntheng continues to train atha to walk slowly, praising only her strengths. at last, atha is becoming calmer.

>> finally, it's exam day. the test is held in a field that buntheng himself has never seen. >> six dogs are taking the test. atha is the only one born in cambodia. this testing ground was created a few years ago. land mines are buried here just like in the field.

four months have passed since they started training. the time has finally come. >> stand there. stand there. >> like always, buntheng pets atha to calm her down. the test begins. atha starts walking. then -- buntheng suddenly stops. >> he notices atha's impatience.

but he acts as if nothing happened. and quietly sits by her side. he doesn't give any orders. ten minutes later, buntheng has atha start over again. >> search. search. oh, good. >> atha sniffs out the mines. and buntheng marks each spot. atha steadily discovers mine after mine. >> good. >> the evaluation starts.

>> and the final results. >> atha found every single mine. she's become the first mine-detection dog born in cambodia.

>> the next day. buntheng and atha already have their assignment to work in the field. they've been assigned to a village on the thai border. it's a dangerous area where no one knows how many mines are buried. buntheng and the first cambodian-born mine-detection dog, atha, head out. they will protect the lives of cambodians.