[ speaking in foreign language ]. shaking off the scandal. the president of olympus explains how the company plans to restore its credibility following an accounting coverup. welcome to "newsline." i'm michio kijima in tokyo. the people in charge of olympus say the company is set for an overvalue.

the company is in turmoil after it was revealed it hid more than a billion dollars over the years. the president says major reforms are in the works and former top executives could even face legal action. >> translator: we take a serious view of the scathing criticism. we sincerely apologize for what happened. >> takayama spoke yesterday a day after a panel published the report saying senior management was rotten to the core. >> translator: we aren't stubbornly clinging to power. the board will step down once pressing issued have been addressed. >> it will make way for a new team scheduled for sometime after february. takayama also touched on legal

action. >> translator: we are not yet able to say anything definite concerning the liability of executives who are supposed to prevent illegal activity, but the matter willy dealt with properly with the help of another investigative panel. >> that panel would be made up of lawyers who will look into the question of executive liability. about 70 executives involved with the company from the late 1990s will be scrutinized including former and current board members and auditors. >> translator: any executive who fails to speak up about the wrongdoing is also guilty. >> translator: i think the executives should have a clear idea of what they were supposed to be doing. >> takayama also made it clear, olympus will set up a panel of

outside experts to call for management reform and also tasked with strengthening the functions ever the auditor. in addition, olympus will study best practices by inviting managers from outside and tying up with other companies in order to bolster its bess. the investigative panel's report said former president wanted to make the investment losses at olympus go away. it noted he received a proposal from a former auditor and former vice president to make up for the losses by inflating payments for corporate acquisition. reportedly he said he wanted to go ahead with the proposal and asked if it was possible to erase all the losses. tokyo police investigators, prosecutors and members of the surveillance commission will question former and current executives to figure out how the cover-up unfolded. japan's minister has urged a quick establishment of a new frame work and will not join an extension of the 1997 protocol.

>> translator: they need to be flexible, giving considerations to the different situations in each country. >> japan would not join an extension because it only covers a quarter of global emissions even if it is extended. the european union said it will accept an extension if participation by china and other emitt emitters by 2012. hello, michio. hundreds of shiite muslims gathered in kabul to mourn those that died in the latest suicide attack. bereaved family members formed a funeral procession as they

carried coffins and posters of their children who were killed in tuesday's blast. locals are demanding justice. >> translator: we want our government, the international community and those involved in afghanistan's affairs to find the perpetrator of yesterday's attack. we want to know the real faces of those behind this attack. >> the suicide blast occurred in the heart of old kabul as hundreds celebrated the festival of ashura as the biggest religious event for shiite muslims. more than 50 died and over 160 were injured. a second nearly simultaneous blast dropped the northern city of mazar-e-sharif. analysts say the attacks may have been aimed at stirring up ethic tensions and sabotage efforts to achieve peace. in the week following hillary clinton's visit, myanmar made another stride towards

opening up to the outside world and promoting trade. on monday, this he reopened a checkpoint on a bridge at the border with thailand. the crossing had been closed for nearly a year and a half. we have the details. >> reporter: after one year and five months, myanmar and thai border bridge just opened today. on monday, representatives from both countries celebrated the opening of the crossing thanking them in myanmar and thailand. home appliances and dairy supplies streamed over the

bridge into myanmar. myanmar unilaterally closed the checkpoint last year in protest against the thai government to reinforce bans concerning myanmar. the closure caused a serious shortage of goods in myanmar's largest city. after thailand suspended the project, myanmar decided to reopen the checkpoint last week. >> translator: i am glad that we can reassume active business operations with the thai people. >> it's good for both countries. no one benefited from closing the checkpoint for so long. >> this is a thai border town of meso. the market here, you can feel expectations are high and lead up to the bored opening. immigrants from myanmar account

for half of the town's population of 200,000. as you would expect, products from myanmar are very popular. the impact of the checkpoint reopening will be felt beyond the border. the area lies in the east/west economic corridor connecting myanmar, thailand, laos and vietnam. the opening of the checkpoint will support the distribution of goods. >> opening the bridge checkpoint will help boost the southeast asian economy. i hope this will create jobs for the people of myanmar. >> myanmar is moving forward with democratic reforms and at the same time making efforts to improve ties with the west. the biggest challenge for the government now is to rebuild the nation's economy, which had stagnated under military rule. the checkpoint reopening is

a sign that the government is get ing more serious about improving trade. no doubt, it is hoping that western economic sanctions will be lifted sometime soon. and that concludes our bulletin for today. i am patchari raksawong in bangkok. patchari, thanks. the leaders of japan and the u.s. supported the move of a u.s. military air base. okinawa has been hosting a base since world war ii. now a play group is acting out an old story to give people a

fresh perspective on life. here is nhk world's jun yatsumoto. >> reporter: performers make last minute adjustments. their play becomes a real life drama. june 30th, 1959, a u.s. fighter jet crashes into a village on okinawa. it skids into an elementary school, killing 11 children. six people who live nearby die. more than 200 others are hurt. this woman works with the play group. she remembers that day. >> that year was after 14 years after world war ii.

okinawan people were poor, but they had a hope with their children. but suddenly they lost their lives. >> reporter: the play also deals with the impact u.s. forces had had on okinawa. they took over in 1945. then gave control back to japan 27 years later. but the bases stayed.

okinawa accounts for less than 1% of japan's total land area. but about 70% of all u.s. military facilities in the country are concentrated here. some bases are surrounded by densely populated urban areas. the futenma air station is one of them. in 2004, a helicopter from futenma crashed into a university in ginowan city. no one died. but accidents showed okinawans still face risks, more than 50 years after the elementary crash. other play group members feel it is important to tell the story of june 30th, 1959. she and miyuki write the scripts and songs on the lives of people who lost loved ones. this woman's son died that day. >> translator: he was so burned.

only the string of his pants and a part of his socks were white. the rest was all burned. >> translator: i will tell many people what you told me. >> translator: we parents never forget, even if we try to. i really appreciate that young people like you try hard to tell others about my son. >> reporter: in november, the play group took their show to tokyo for the first time. ♪

>> reporter: they sang about the parents who lost children. the message hit home. >> i feel close to the issue now. we better think about the okinawan issue seriously. >> translator: i think many people are still suffering. that makes me wonder who benefits from the u.s. military bases. >> translator: there were so many students. i'll be happy if one or two realize the reason why we came from okinawa and understand that life is precious. >> reporter: the members of the play group believe it is their responsibility to inform people about the reality of life in okinawa. they want to make sure the tragedy of 1959 is never forgotten, nor repeated. nhk world, tokyo.

"newsline" is the place to turn to for the latest on japan post march 11th. we have two segments offering two unique perspectives on the fallout from the earthquake and tsunami. "nuclear watch" brings you insight and information on the impact of the fukushima daiichi crisis. and "the road ahead" examines japan's efforts to recover and rebuild. don't miss "nuclear watch" and "the road ahead" on "newsline." japanese fishery high school students training at sea are set to help track millions of tons of debris drifting in the pacific ocean in the wake of the march 11th tsunami. japan's environment ministry plans to conduct simulations and analyze satellite photos to see

which rim countries could be affected by the up to 3 million tons of debris from japan's northeastern coast. the military sought the cooperation of japan's fishery high schools whose students do fishing and maritime survey training in the pacific ocean. the schools training vessel will save fuel meaning they are likely to encounter floating debris. the students will report what they see. >> translator: the survey will be part of their fishery studies. it will be educational for students. they will go into work in the fishing industry. >> people across japan know about the grea fishing along the northeast coast, tuna, salmon and oysters, but the tsunami in march damped many of those fisheries including about 400 million oysters in iwate prefecture. now oyster farmers are trying to rebuild their businesses. nhk world has the story. >> reporter: farmers are busy these day.

they are approaching peak season for shipments and they've fallen behind. the tsunami in march destroyed farming facilities. so shipments are delayed. the farmers dig oysters in the hot water to catch them and disburse them, but that work, too, got delayed. the waters are particularly rough during winter making the work even more difficult. this man said his group normally ships oysters for a few years. this year, he decided to just ship smaller oysters. the farmers need to rebuild their businesses. >> translator: more than half of the members once thought of quitting oyster farming, but now that some signs of restoration are in sight, many of them are

rethinking their decision. >> reporter: the tsunami destroyed his home. other members lost their homes, too. >> translator: you cannot take out a mortgage top rebuild a house until you can earn a stable income. so our priority is to rebuild our farms. >> reporter: this man and other fishermen scrambled to collect ropes and what's washed ashore after the disaster.

they repaired their ships and then got back to work. they came up with the idea of the investment pool for oyster owners. in this purchase for 5,000 yen about $64 each to help the farmers grow oysters. the farmers will harvest their oysters next spring. then the investment pool will pay investors with oysters. his team has already collected 1,300 shares, worth about $83,000. they hope to collect more. he went to the internet to attract investors. he advertised at the food fair and asked for support from consumers. >> translator: it may be tough, but i want them to hold on. >> translator: in are people who show interest, and we expect them to support us. our hope is the current owners will come back to us next year as well, and keep eating oysters from miyako. >> that reporter spent a few days with the farmers.

she has more on what they need to do to recover. >> along the coast they have been busy as workers come daily. fishermen are catching salmon. fishermen have not seen a full recovery. as of october, fish holes at eight major posts in miyagi and iwate prefecture are more than half of last year. it is essential if fishermen are to get back to where they were. almost all posts in this area suffered damage. workers working to rebuild sea walls, piers and facilities. they lost a lot of land. the central government announced plans to complete the restoration work by the end of

march 2016. the work for the fishery promises to be a daunting task. >> that was our reporter in sendai. and here are some other stories we're tracking this hour. more moves to encourage democracy in myanmar. u.s. special envoy began a tour of three asian nations. south korea, japan and china and will talk about ways to cooperate in promoting reforms in myanmar. u.s. secretary of state hillary clinton visited the country last week. a sign that years of hostile relations will be coming to an end.

clinton told myanmar's leaders that the u.s. will consider lifting sanctions if there is progress on democracy. ♪ millions of iranians celebrated the festival amid tight security. the show of force is meant to prevent anti-government demonstrations. it is observed by shia muslims around the world. the day is spent mourning the death of a shia martyr 1,300

years ago. an anxious time for authorities in tehran. protests erupted two years ago. during the festival. hi there. time to get you another update. we head into the middle of the week and eastern asia, we will continue to see wet weather for eastern china here. now, it isn't going to be snow. is going to stay rain, but cooling down from shanghai in towards the south. you'll see those temperatures drop by a few degrees. i'll show you the figures in a second. look at all of this headed up in towards japan. the korean peninsula seeing wintry precipitation and southern and central japan, chilly rain. as we head into the north, maybe about 30 centimeters are snow

for parts of western hokkaido. in behind that, things looking dry and settled for much of mongolia as well as china, although very cool to say the least. manila, the philippines, still seeing heavy showers and winds coming in from the northeast and will also see lingering showers across vietnam, cambodia and laos. we were talking about the temperatures. no problems down in the tropics, in the low 30s as we usually see this time of year. hong kong at 21. by the end of the week, actually comes down to 17. still fairly comfortable. shanghai coming down to about 7 by the end of the week. we are going to see temperatures cooling down. average in seoul and beijing. minus 20 in ulan bator. getting significantly cooler up further towards the north. heading now into north america, many will see sunny skies, but very cool conditions as the skies are very clear. we see all of the very cool air spilling in. so do watch for subzero temperatures.

particularly in your overnight hours. as we head into the east, that's when we run into our storms. now, we are going to be seeing the snow falling pretty heavy and pretty wet. anywhere from the mid-atlantic right up into new england. this is what we're looking for. anywhere in the darker shade you could see about 15 maybe 20 centimeters of snow. so certainly enough to have to shovel away in the morning. temperatures are still not too bad on your wednesday for new york city as well as in d.c. expect the temperatures to drop after that storm moves past, and that said, it isn't going to get cold enough to snow in new york city, but you will see very chilly rain. 2 degrees in chicago. 8 in oklahoma city. another cool day in houston. just 10 for the high. 4 in denver. 7 in vancouver and 20, pleasant day in los angeles. all right. as for europe, quite a potent

storm system moving through in towards central europe. now, this one mostly is going to be producing rain. maybe snow for the czech republic as al, the alpine region, southern germany as well. and up into scandinavia, you can see the next round of precipitation, cold rain on its way. there is going to be some snow in scotland as well. causing problems on the roads already. so another round to come in, unfortunately. and down even in towards the southeast, an icy blast there is going to turn that precipitation over to snow for many of you as well. serm winter here as we head into the middle of december. 2 degrees in stockholm. zero in moscow for a high on thursday. kiev, and in london, double figures here as well as in paris and another warm day for you in athens at 19. here's your extended forecast.

that's our broadcast for this hour on "newsline." we'll be back with more news in half an hour. i thank you for watching. bye-bye.