water woes. people in bangkok try to save their city any way they can. as the flood waters threaten to overrun more major industrial complexes. it's 10:00 p.m. on a wednesday night here in japan. thanks for tuning in to this edition of "newsline." i'm james tengan in tokyo. thailand's floods have had an enormous impact on the country's economy. now there are concerns things could get even worse.

patchari raksawong is in the thai capital with the latest on the crisis. two more important economic zones have been advised to prepare for possible flooding. water continues to descend on the capital from the north. many residents are beginning to feel like they're fighting a losing battle. flood waters came within ten kilometers of central bangkok on wednesday. people living in the affected areas are doing everything they can to cope. some even poured garbage out of clogged drains to let the water flow. >> translator: our life has been seriously floodwater. we're in trouble. but i have no choice but wait until the water recedes. everybody has to just put up with the situation. >> two more major industrial zones have been placed on alert. they include the estate in

eastern bangkok. the threat woes after they decided to open a critical new gate. they say their homes have been sacrificed to save the city center. the number of people killed nationwide jumped to 427 on wednesday. and with every passing day, the toll on thailand's people and economy is mounting. as the flood crisis in bangkok drags on, new concerns are surfacing. the latest problem comes from contaminated tap water. it's a threat to public health and also the city's economy. nhk world reports. >> reporter: this canal is connected to bangkok's main water-producing facility where water supplies will be generated to households. bangkok's tap water comes from

the river, but the floods have polluted it with mud and trash. the water around the pipes are stagnant. the level of bacteria is so high that purification facilities can't cope. bangkok's citizens have seen their tap water at home become cloudy. it has also started to smell. many households are storing water for emergencies, but the dirt is clearly visible. >> translator: water quality is not good, but we have no choice. >> reporter: restaurants have also been affected. a japanese restaurant owns a high-end filter to purify tap water for cooking.

but now it's using bottled water. the restaurant buys about 100 liters a day. >> translator: it's tough. we've got fewer customers. and we have to pay for our water now. higher costs, less income. >> reporter: japan is trying to help the thai government. it sent experts from the osaka water supply authority. bangkok's water officials decided to use a chemical they are familiar with to sanitize polluted water. the experts from japan advised them how much to use. >> translator: it's a very severe situation. we'll do our best to help the thai people. >> reporter: bangkok water officials say they have to turn

off the city's tap if they find toxic substances in the water supply. the government has warned that the crisis may last for weeks or even months, but new challenges are emerging every day. nhk world, bangkok. and other parts of southeast asia have also been affected by intense rain and floods with many casualties, but amid all the suffering, there have been some stories of hope, like this one. inside this little bird cage are some unlikely animals. a pair of leopard cub who is survived the floods in cambodia. a fisherman brought the newborn cubs to a wildlife refuge about three weeks ago. he discovered them inside a hole. their mother had apparently stowed them there to keep them

safe from rising flood waters. >> translator: i think these animals were lucky that their mother got them out of the floods. then they met a kind person who brought them to the zoo. >> originally there were three cubs. sadly one of them didn't make it. but these two surviving sisters are on the way to a full recovery. once they're old enough to stand, they'll be united with the other leopard cats at the refuge. and that will wrap up our bulletin. i'm patchari raksawong in bangkok. in other news, france and germany will try to persuade greece to accept the rescue package that eu leaders proposed last week. the greek goth is saying it will hold a referendum on the debt measures. french president sarkozy and german chancellor angela merkel are to have an emergency meeting on wednesday with greek prime

minister george papandreou in france. papandreou announced on monday that greece would hold a referendum on the eu debt deal. his cabinet approved the plan on tuesday. but opposition parties have demanded general elections instead. it remains uncertain whether papandreou's government will survive a vote of confidence scheduled for friday. the eu had originally planned to present the rescue measures for greece on thursday at the g-20 summit in cannes. the aim is to gain understanding of the other countries taking park. wikileaks founder should be extradited from britain to sweden to answer to sex crimes allegations. assange was arrested in britain in december of last year on suspicion of sexually assaulting two women in sweden. the swedish authorities issued a warrant for his arrest. on wednesday the london high court upheld a lower court decision to transfer him to

sweden saying the swedish judgment cannot be said to be disproportionate. assange is considering an appeal to the british supreme court. >> i have not been charged with any crime in any country. despite this, the european arrest warrant is so restrictive that it prevents uk courts from considering the facts of a case. as judges have made clear here today. >> wikileaks has so far published more than 250,000 secret u.s. diplomatic cables. last december international credit card firms stopped processing donations for wikileaks. facing difficulty in raising funds, the group has been forced to temporarily suspend publication of secret diplomatic documents. workers at japan's damaged nuclear facility are picking up alarming readings. they've detected a radioactive

substance that reactor 2 went into a state of criticality. tokyo electric power company employees detected radioactive substances tuesday in gas near a filter in the reactor's containment vessel. they also found signs of it on wednesday. radioactive is produced during nuclear fission. the half-life is five days. and that of z non1355 is just nine hours. tepco workers poured a boric acid solution to suppress nuclear fission. spokes people say temperatures remain unchanged. the cooling process is continuing. they expect to achieve a cold shutdown at fukushima daiichi at the end of the year as planned. workers will keep monitoring the

levels in the number 2 reactor as well as checking the condition in reactors 1 and 3. tepco is asking the japan atomic energy agency to re-examine the situation because it might have detected a different substance that has similar characteristics to z non. in addition tokyo electric said radiation levels near number 2 reactor were basically unchanged from the previous day. the utility says the reading on a monitoring post located about 500 meters northwest of the number 2 reactor stood at 293 microsieverts. it says the radiation level near the compound's west gate, about one kilometer from the number 2 reactor, was unchanged at 11.2 microsieverts per hour and no radiation detected there. readings taken around the post on wednesday were also identical

to tuesday's data. we asked nhk leading congressmen at a timer, noriyoki mizuno, what he had to say. here's what he had to say. >> translator: it's not in a critical condition, but close monitoring must continue to avoid criticality. mounted uranium fuel is believed to be scattered everywhere in the number 2 reactor in the containment vessel. a neutron ray may be causing nuclear fission from time to time. so long as this reaction is localized and temporary, there's no need to worry about, but this time the location of melted fuel or amount of water inside is believed to be creating a condition suitable for continuous nuclear fission. having said that, there's no change in the temperature of pressuring the containment vessel. tepco is pouring boric acid

solution to suppress nuclear fission, so it's unlikely the huge amount of radioactive substances will be released from the reactor. government has been saying it aims to achieve a state of cold shutdown by the end of the year. it means bringing the temperatures inside the reactor under 100 degrees celsius with the release of radioactive materials substantially reduced. but if nuclear fission occurs, even temporarily, new radioactive substances will be released, so it's difficult to declare that a situation has been brought under control. first and foremost, the condition inside the reactor must be grasped in detail. how much melted fuel still remains inside the reactor, how much of it has fallen into the containment vessel, is the fuel submerged in the water, those kinds of things. of course we cannot see the inside of the reactor directly, so various computer simulations would help us grasp the condition to some extent. if we know that nuclear fission

is likely, we can change the water injection method to prevent it from happening. the nuclear fission may be taking place in number 1 and number 3 reactors as well as they also have melted fuel. so we need to know the conditions of other reactors in detail. >> that was nhk senior come men at a timer, noriyoki mizuno. resumed power generation after a month-long stoppage. the first reactor in the country to stop after the fukushima accident. the reaction at the saga prefecture wednesday afternoon halted automatically on october 4 due to a procedural error. the reactor re-started on tuesday after getting the go-ahead from the nuclear safety

agency. the company plans to increase the amount of power generated and return to normal operation by friday. the reactor is scheduled to be stopped again in mid-december for a regular inspection. today we'll feature renowned scholar and japanese literature donald king, the professor amer tus from columbia university decided to become a japanese citizen after the march 11 disaster. last month he realized his long cherished desire to revisit the temple in disaster hit prefecture. nhk went with him. >> reporter: imagine him as a young man 56 years ago. he returned again a few weeks ago. this june he added the temple to

the list of the world heritage site. [ speaking in a foreign language ] >> reporter: literature and culture spans more than half a century. he has translated a variety of literature works from classic to modern novels. he felt inspired by a poem. he decided to make the same pilgrimage as by the poem's author. he has had a deep affinity. could you share your candid reaction to the temple?

>> i felt enormous relief. at first the news of the success, the earthquake, the tsunami and then the atomic leakage, everything was unspeakably bad. and there was no room for saying whether the was all right. of course any damage to the temple even very, very minor damage is unfortunate. one would like to have the building stay as it was first built and as it stayed over the centuries. >> he decided to obtain japanese citizenship after the earthquake on march 11. he wanted to show his loyalty to japan. he arrived in japan in septem r

september. >> the fact that other countries are abroad the united states and europe and so on, are the impression of japanese people has gone up enormously because of the patience and the decency everyone feels the japanese are not only bearing up under the terrible disaster but they have behaved in absolutely model way. there's no account of looting. nothing indicates anybody. so i think that this fact, this new feeling of the importance and the bravery of the japanese will have a powerful effect in the future. will no longer be thought japanese are hard to understand and so on. people will now think that the

japanese have behaved an extraordinarily good way. >> reporter: he says he's committed to help survivors rebuild their lives. do you think that japan can recover from this disaster? >> i think it's because of my experience in seeing tokyo in 1945 in a remarkably short period of time tokyo was revived. it's a question of whether people have the bravery, which i think they have, and also the help from other japanese and people in other countries too to enable them to make this revival possible and to make the tohoku region even more attractive and more memorable than it was before. for an outsider to give them

sufficient warmth and help, but the japanese are famous for getting over terrible disasters. >> reporter: he says he's spell bound by the culture here. he hopes he can make a significant contribution. nhk world. here are on "newsline" time to check on stories we've

gathered from broadcasters around asia. we begin with this item sent by trt turkey. turkey hosted an international conference on afghan security and economy in istanbul on wednesday. leaders from 27 countries including the presidents of afghanistan, pakistan and turkey attended the meeting. afghan president karzai warned there would be no peace for his country without strong regional cooperation on terror. >> terrorism is a menacing threat that does not just effect afghanistan and pakistan but also other countries in our region. >> the meeting is expected to prepare afghanistan for the withdrawal of nato forces by the end of 2014. the 80th general assembly of the international police agency, interpoll, is underway in the vietnamese capital. the deputy prime minister opened the meeting which is taking place in vietnam for the first time. 200 police from 190 countries and territories are taking part

in the four-day event. they're discussing ways to boost international cooperation to fight transnational crimes such as terrorism, drug smuggling, money laundering and human trafficking. interpol's president warned that criminals are likely to take advantage of technological advances. losing $400 billion yearly to cyber and international other crimes. a historic fort in the indian capital reverberated with music on tuesday. the second day of the dell hi international art festival. a running group of mystics from egypt captivated the audience with their sterling performances. [ speaking in a foreign language ] >> the music traces its or gin

to islamic mysticism and spread throughout southeast asia during medieval times. let's now take a look at the latest market figures. let's now see what rachel ferguson has cooking for us in world weather. hi there. time to get you a check on the weather as we head on into

thursday. across asia things are starting to get a little bit wet. we're talking about up in towards northern parts of china. we've got this low pressure system also down towards the south. showers are moving out of the mountains and coming down into towards the southwest. this is going to be heading up, in fact, in towards eastern parts of mongolia as well. generally staying dry at the moment for the korean peninsula, but you are going to start to see showers moving on in into your friday. thursday should be staying mostly dry. the same goes for japan. holiday coming in tomorrow and it should be fairly settled across much of the country with temperatures a bit above average as well. shanghai region seeing a few showers. taiwan also going to be seeing those showers. heavier rain though is going to continue across parts of philippines. strong winds coming in from the northeast as well make the seas quite rough. high waves also the possibility of localized flooding perhaps in lower lying areas. as we head into indochina along

the eastern coast we still see those showers again. this is the northeast monsoon. the heavy rain will in across parts of malaysia and southern parts of thailand also seeing continued moderate showers. all right. thursday temperatures, 23 in tokyo. 22 in seoul. and 14 in beijing with just 2 for the high in ulaanbaatar. 17 in chongqing. 28 hot day in hong kong but not as hot in the tropics manila and bangkok both in the lower 30s. north america. a big storm is moving into the central plains at the moment. this is bringing some snow right across colorado at the moment. it's going to be heading up in towards the great lakes. you can see where that low pressure is. once it starts to head in towards the east, so the eastern half of the plains, it will turn over to rain and maybe a mix of some snow showers, sleet and rain for you as well. but while we're seeing the snow across the four corners it's going to be very, very windy as well. so blizzard-like conditions possible. maybe reduced visibility. think about that if you're going

to be driving in the area. you can see just how windy this high pressure coming in behind the storm is. and those gusts down in the southern plains are going to be getting up to about 100 kilometers an hour. there's yet another system coming in from the pacific northwest. this brings some showers to the coast and mountain snow. so that's the sierra nevada and cascades getting their first snow of the season. all right. temperature-wise 27 in houston. 18 degrees in oklahoma city. your low is going to be 1 degrees. so it's going to be a really sharp drop when we see that storm coming in. just 1 degree for the high in denver, meanwhile. 12 in seattle. 29 in los angeles. and out in the west coast of california continuing to see the potential for fire weather there. low humidity and strong gusty winds. all right. talking about gusty winds, we have a big storm coming in to western europe. you can see it right here. it's going to be a big mess. heavy rain as well. particularly the focus on this west. so we're talking about spain of

course portugal and southern parts of france. potential for flooding here and very windy. you can see the long cold front coming in and all those very close together showing you how windy it is going to be. so stormy out west. looking fairly good out towards the east in fact. but we will continue to see some showers for eastern turkey. and potential for some sleet, in fact, in van, which was effected by the earthquake last sunday. okay. temperature-wise we are seeing moderate temperatures out towards the west. 19 in paris. 17 london. 16 in madrid. but you have the storms. out towards the east and central locations it should be mostly dry and fine but temperatures a bit on the chilly side. here's your extended forecast.

power-saving efforts have begun in the southwestern japanese city. reflects concerns over possible energy shortages this winter. the city launched the five-month electricity saving campaign on tuesday calling for employees to dress warmly and use less heating. thermostats will be set at 19 celsius in about 190 municipal facilities including the city hall and ward offices. workers are encouraged to keep themselves warm with sweaters, robes and hot drinks. >> translator: i'm worried about the tight supply of power this winter. so i support the warm biz initiative.

and that's it for this hour's "newsline." thanks for watching. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com