it's 10:00 p.m. in tokyo. welcome to "newsline." i'm michio kijima with the news at this hour. a group of north korean defectors has been transferred to southwestern japan a day after they were found on a small boat in the sea of japan. the japanese government is now arranging to send them to south korea where they say they want to go. the japan coast guard flew the defectors to nagasaki prefecture

on wednesday. the group consists of three men, three women and three children. they were then taken to a nearby immigration control facility. the government is likely to send the nine defectors to south korea. the wooden boat carrying the north koreans was spotted on off the coast of wajima, ishikawa prefecture on tuesday. the group has told the japanese coast guard that it left north korea last thursday with the intention of heading for south korea. the group's leader says he belonged to the korean people's army and said he catches octopus to raise money for the north korean military. observers suggest there are various factors behind the north korean boat people ending off japan instead of korea, their intended destination. >> reporter: after picking up the nine defectors, they took them to a patrol ship anchored at the port of kanazawa. they sent the defectors to komatsu airport by helicopter on wednesday afternoon. the members of the group, which includes three children, are

apparently all in good condition after eating breakfast served on the patrol boat where they spent tuesday night. a japanese fisherman working in the sea and who saw the rescue operation had this to say about the people who were rescued. >> translator: i thought to myself, isn't that a north korean boat? i thought i must report to the coast guard that i had seen a suspicious boat. when my fellow fishermen gave them some water, they joined their hands together and bowed. >> reporter: the united nations estimates more than 100,000 north koreans have defected from their country since the korean war. many of the defectors headed for south korea, across the border, where people speak the same language. heavy security and mine fields at the border zone forced many of them to take the ocean route. the defectors told the japan coast guard that they had left

the north korean port of chongqing for south korea last thursday morning. but they are believed to have arrived to japan after strong currents drew them away from their intended southbound route. among the factors driving people to defect from the north is believed to be the worsening food situation caused by massive floods damaging this year's crops. past cases of north korean defectors entering japan include a family of four spotted in a small boat in the sea of japan off the coast of omura prefecture in june of 2007. the four were sent to south korea as requested. japan's chief cabinet secretary says the japanese government plans to follow the past presidents respecting the defectors wishes and giving top priority to humanitarian considerations.

following their wishes, it is believed the nine defectors will end up heading for their desired destination, south korea. barely two weeks on the job and japan's new prime minister is already feeling the heat. the country's lengt chur is back in session and the opposition grilled yoshihiko noda during first question and answer period. the leader of the main opposition liberal democratic party started things off. sadakazu tanigaki said the people cooperated with the coalition in rebuilding areas hit by the march 11th disaster. then he went on the attack. tanigaki expressed doubt that noda will stick to an agreement with the ldp and the new komeito party to carry out the manifesto. >> translator: i'm concerned about whether the democrats will follow through with the three-party agreement. the new government scheme he

announced during the dpj leadership election clearly goes against the deal. i'm afraid the prime minister will speak with a forked tongue. the democratic party should withdraw its manifesto, apologize to voters, and seek a fresh mandate. >> translator: i believe the basic ideas presented in the manifesto are not wrong, but i will prioritize the policy issues and in the process i'll take into account the policy agreement reached with the two parties. our government intends to overcome pressing challenges, one by one, and seek a public mandate at an appropriate time. now is definitely not the time to call an election. now is definitely not the right time to call a general election. >> tanigaki also explained about a series of remarks made by members of noda's administration. he zeroed in on comments made by former economy, trade and

industry minister yoshio hachiro. he called the area around the fukushima daiichi plant a town of death. he joked with reporters when he visited and said the dirt he got on his sleeve could have been radioactive. >> translator: how will you take responsibility for having picked hachiro as a key cabinet minister for the country's reconstruction. >> noda expressed regret. he pledged his cabinet would work tirelessly to control fukushima daiichi and provide relief for evacuees. russia and north korea have been working to strengthen their economic ties. it appears they are also cooperating on other fronts. the russian interfax news agency says the country will hold joint military exercises next year. they reportedly made an agreement last month when the commander of the eastern military district konstantin sidenko held talks with korean peoples army officials. the exercises will focus on search and rescue operations

that would deal with maritime accidents and large disasters. neither country has revealed the size or locations of the drills. north korean leader, kim jong-il, visited russia in august to meet with the russian president medvedev. defense ministers from both sides attended the summit as well. kim also toured a fighter jet factory and watched an exercise by the russian military. the u.s. special envoy to myanmar called on the government to take further concrete steps toward democratization. derek mitchell was speaking at a news conference in myanmar's largest city yangon at the end of his latest visit to the country. >> i responded for the united states recognized and welcomed recent gestures such as president thein sein's meeting, the establishment of a national human rights commission, public emphasis on dialogue with ethnic minority groups in the interest of reconciliation.

>> during his visit, mitchell met pro democracy leader aung san suu kyi and government officials. he said myanmar should take concrete action including the unconditional release of all political prisoners and engaging in a meaningful dialogue with aung san suu kyi. his visit shows that u.s. government intends to maintain economic sanctions in order to pressure myanmar to take further steps toward democratization. a panel of experts has begun discussing effective ways to remove radioactive materials from areas near the fukushima daiichi nuclear power plant. experts on radiation and soil pollution attended first meeting of a panel on wednesday. environment minister goshi hosono told the panel that a decontamination is japan's top priority and the country faces a challenge of an unprecedented scale.

in fukushima prefecture, municipalities near the damaged nuclear plant have launched their own efforts to decontaminate buildings and soil. the government plans to launch a model decontamination project in 12 fukushima municipalities before it starts focusing on severely tainted areas early next year. the panel is to discuss how much top sil must be scraped away for effective decontamination and set standards for municipalities that are temporarily storing radioactive soil. six months after the northeast japan disast, a continuing problem plaguing the region has been how to dispose of the mountains of rubble. the traditional building material of the area is timber. the environment ministry estimates nearly 70% of the disaster debris is wood. now there is a company making use of this scrap by burning it, biomass energy can be produced. when wood is burned, carbon dioxide is emitted. but the trees have already

absorbed carbon dioxide when they grew. the amount of carbon emitted when wood is burned is considered roughly equal to the carbon absorbed by the trees as they grew. that's why electricity from biomass is said to be very clean energy. nhk world reports on a new initiative to dispose of the disaster debris in an ecofriendly way. >> reporter: around 17 million tons of wood debris is estimated to have accumulated in the disaster stricken region. most of it is piled in temporary storage spaces. recently a company in yamagat prefecture adjacent to the disaster hit region began using the wooden scrap to generate power. each day, about 30 tons of wood separated from waste is burned to produce electricity. enough power is generated for about 4,000 households.

>> translator: there is a tremendous amount of rubble in those areas. so i think using it in power generation, particularly an environmentally friendly way, is a great solution. >> reporter: one of the hurdles of biomass power generation has been the cost. it doesn't turn a profit unless wood fuel can be procured cheaply. but thanks to the cooperation of a city, the companies have been able to utilize salvaged wood as biomass fuel to use in power generation, the wood must be broken up into small pieces. this procedure is managed by kisenema city. they cover the cost of transportation 200 kilometers way. the total cost of about $4.8 million is covered by kisenma

when receives subsidies from the government. the chips, however, cannot be used immediately. local residents are concerned about possible radioactivity. to ease their worries, the company inspects every shipment of chips daily. if the level exceeds the limit of 200 becquerels of radioactive cesium per kilogram, the wood is sent back to kisenema. >> translator: we really appreciate this effort. there are still large amounts of rubble in the city. and we have to keep on removing it. >> reporter: making use of rubble in power generation is a practical measure to reduce the

colossal amount of debris. nhk world. earlier we went to sendai studio. >> the report we just watched introduced biomass power generation that used wooden rubbles. how much debris is actually used for the biomass power generation? >> about 1.36 million tons of a level was produced in the city. only one portion of that is processed into wood chips. biomass energy has been drawing attention as a renewable energy. however, up until now, biomass power generation has been limited to re-using timber because the cost is high for the power generation and it is not profitable, it has not been made into a business. however, due to the tsunami following the march 11th

earthquake, 1.36 million tons of rubble was produced in kesenuma city. the city has been trying to come up with ideas to make effective use of the rubble. this project is an innovative example of re-using the waste. the city expects that the attempt will add momentum to the further development of biomass power generation. >> what is their stated position on biomass power generation? >> the march 11th disaster has prompted the government to actively put to use natural energy. the government plans to submit the budget. it will include around $130 million to build debris firepower plants and other cities to use rubble to use for

heating and hot water. however, it remains unclear who should be in charge of building the power plants and how many of them should be constructed at various locations. the details of the project remain to be worked out. >> that was hiroki yajima from our sendai studio. we begin with this item from rtn malaysia. malaysia's customs department has seized 183 kilograms of methamphetamine drugs worth about $15 million. this is the biggest haul of methamphetamines in the country's history. following a tip-off, officials raided a house in kuala lumpur on tuesday. the drugs were flown in from iran and qatar via kuala lumpur international airport. they were in wooden crates declared as containing glass ornaments and flowerpots. a 29-year-old iranian suspect

has been arrested. if convicted, he could face the death penalty. the raid follows a separate raid in the western state of salangur late last month. the commander in chief of the thai army says he will seek cooperation from the military in myanmar to combat cross war drug smuggling. the thai myanmar border is one of the world's most notorious hot spots for narcotics trafficking. the general was speaking in bangkok on wednesday before leaving for myanmar where he will meet with his opposite number in his first official visit to the country since taking the army's first post. the two army commanders are expected to discuss various issues related to such things as border checkpoints and mutual courtesy calls for the top brass of both countries. japan will provide about $32.5 million to bangladesh over five years to improve its primary education system and reduce the number of dropouts. at present, nearly half of

bangladeshi students leave school before completing primary level education. senior officials from both sides inked an agreement covering first year of the aid program in deccia on tuesday. the funds will be used to train science and mathematics teachers and to make primary education more attractive to students. japan will continue the aid until 2016 providing the region with $6.5 million per year. chinese premier wen jiabao says china will invest more in europe by boying government bonds. this will help european nations with excessive debts. >> translator: china is willing to give a helping hand to europe. we want to keep expanding investments in european countries. >> wen was addressing this at a

annual world economic forum meeting in china on wednesday. the premier said the global economy is slowly recovering but instability and uncertainties are on the rise. he cited the u.s. economic slowdown and european debt concerns. the premier asked the u.s. to stabilize its fiscal and monetary systems to protect their interests and confidence of investors. china is the largest holder of u.s. government bonds. leading japanese textilemaker says a carbon fiber body is the key to making next generation electric vehicles lighter and more energy efficient. toray industries unveiled a prototype electric vehicle with carbon fiber body on wednesday. the two seat convertible weighs 846 kilograms. toray says that a four seater electric vehicle with a carbon fiber body would be 40% lighter and able to travel distances 30% greater on the same charge as one with a steel body. carbon fiber is already used in

the fuselage of airplanes and some luxury cars, but its high cost has so far prevented the widespread use in automobiles. toray says it aims to lower production costs by promoting mass production of carbon fiber auto bodies. it says it will approach automakers with proposals for using the material in their most popular models. major japanese cosmeticsmaker shiseido held a contest for models and makeup artists on wednesday. 16 models and 18 makeup artives were chosen from the more than 3,000 applicants from across china. the event marked the 30th anniversary of shiseido's entry into the chinese market and is a part of shiseido's plan to gain an edge over the west, europe and japanese rivals in the fast growing cosmetics market. the winning model will appear in

shiseido advertisements in china, while the winning makeup artist will have the opportunity to receive training at a beautician school in japan. and here are the latest market figures. hello there. time for another look at the world's weather. let's head into eastern asia. once again, we start with a look at our tropical storm. now this is rocky. now rocky is heading towards the okinawa islands at the moment, moving west/northwest at 20

kilometers an hour, so it picked up the pace a bit. the wind speed still at 65 with gusts a bit stronger at 90 kph. it looks like it will be heading in towards the southern japanese islands here, certainly we're already dealing with some high waves as well as swells and actually this will extend up towards the pacific side of western japan as well. we're just going to keep tracking the system over the next couple of days for you. let's pull back and see what is happening across the rest of japan. in short, not much. high pressure across much of the country. it is going to be continuing to be very hot in fact, across much of japan. we will see a few showers heading across into hokkaido tomorrow. that's going to be coming off this stationary front that has been lingering across north korea and down towards central china. now, we will see more heavy rain from this front into the next 24 hours. anywhere up to about 150 millimeters for some areas. we're talking about parts of north korea. and that could lead to flooding as well as potential for mud slides and landslides. we see continued showers across the philippines.

we have a tropical depression in the area, just towards the northeast. it doesn't look like it is going to be getting any stronger for the time being. but certainly enhancing the rainfall across the philippines. plenty of showers across indochina as well. let's talk about the temperatures. we have this very cold air descending across mongolia. that's bringing the temperature to just 7 and we'll see the low getting down to minus 4 i think your overnight hour. beijing, 25. for the time being, we're still seeing much of the rest of the continent looking at around 30, upper 20s, low 30s. but we will start to see that changing into the weekend as this cold air descends and we'll see the temperatures coming down by a few degrees. all right, into north america. we'll start also with the storm here. this one is maria, just here down -- moving up towards bermuda. doesn't look like it will be making a direct impact, but we will certainly see tropical storm conditions in bermuda in the next 24 to 36 hours. now, the eye of the storm certainly passing towards the west. but certainly there will be that heavy rain and strong wind to

contend with. we'll keep an eye on this one for you too. as for the u.s. and canada, we have a few things going on here. i want to point out this long cold front, which extends from new england right up in towards montana. now, this one all along front you'll be seeing the storms, maybe hail as well as heavy rain and strong winds. but towards the north is where we're going to be seeing the cooler air filtering in. high pressure is allowing that to happen. down to the south, it still stays very, very hot. i'll show you that in the temperatures in a second. what happens when the two air masses collide is we get a lot of very bad weather, basically, lots of heavy rain. that's where you're going to be seeing here in the four corners, maybe upper elevation snow as well as heavy rain and storms just towards the east of that system. again, the same thing happening here and extending all the way up to south of the great lakes. and maybe seeing some snow in ontario pushing into quebec as well. let's look at the temperatures to give you an idea. denver, just 13 for you. 10 in winnipeg. 38 in houston, texas. all right, into europe we go.

we have been looking at the remnants of that hurricane that was katia, now a low that has been moving across the northern portions of europe. you can still see a lot of wind with that, extending back to the north sea. the uk is looking better to be honest. we have that high pressure extending across much of the west of europe as well. along this front you'll be find something pop-up thunderstorms, nothing too much to worry about, temperatures hot to the south and much cooler, just 15 for you in stockholm. here is your extended forecast.

once again, the top story at this ho twour, weeks on the job and japan's new prime minister is already feeling the heat. the country's legislature is back in session and the opposition grilled yoshihiko noda during the first question and answer period. the leader of the main opposition liberal democratic party started things off. sadakazu tanigaki says the ldp will cooperate with the governing coalition in rebuilding areas hit by the march 11th disaster and then

went on the attack. tanigaki expressed doubt that noda would stick to an agreement with the ldp and the new komeito party to review the ruling democratic party's manifesto. >> translator: i'm concerned about whether the democrats will follow through with the three-party agreement. the new government scheme he announced during the dpj leadership election clearly goes against the deal. i'm afraid the prime minister was speaking with a forked tongue. the democratic party should withdraw its manifesto, apologize to voters, and seek a fresh mandate. >> translator: i believe the basic ideas presented in the manifesto are not wrong. but i will prioritize the policy issues and in the process i'll take into account the policy agreement reached with the two parties. our government intends to overcome pressing challenges one by one and seek a public mandate

at an appropriate time. now is definitely not the right time to call a general election. >> tanigaki also complained about a series of remarks made by members of noda's administration. he zeroed in on comments made by former economy, trade and industry minister yoshio hachiro. hachiro called the area around the fukushima daiichi nuclear plant a town of death and joked with reporters when he visited saying the dirt he got on his sleeve could have been radioactive. >> translator: how will you take responsibility for having picked hachiro as a key cabinet minister for the country's reconstruction? >> noda expressed regret. he pledged his cabinet would work tirelessly to control fukushima daiichi and provide relief for evacuees. 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.