looking into the nuclear crisis. video shows the interior of the disabled reactor at the fukushima nuclear plant. the operator of the fukushima daiichi nuclear power plant has released a video clip showing the inside of one of the reactors. this was the first footage shot inside the reactor since the accident last year. the utility recorded a half-hour video on thursday by running a

scope through the hole in the number two reactor's containment vessel. tokyo electric power company released an edited one minute version of the voochl it begins inside the open leading to the contaminated vessel. white dots caused by ga ma rays appear. reddish brown walls and pipes are visible, although most are blurry. condensed vapor from contaminated water -- a fifth hole located four meters above the bottom of the vessel also appears in the video leading to utilities to cite that the con dominated water is less than four meters deep. for more on the images, we interviewed an expert on nuclear reactors. the professor first noted the white horizontal lines of vapor falling from above.

>> translator: come of the vapor from con dominated water has cooled and returned to a liquid state. but water inside the pressure vessel appears to be leaking freely. water that has been poured into the reactor to cool the spent fuel rods is leaking from the damaged vessel like rain. >> the professor also singled out that corrosion that can be observed on the inner walls. a factor that could in his opinion undermine the durability of the vessel. >> translator: the rust does not pose an immediate threat at this point, but we need to keep an eye on possible vulnerabilities if the corrosion continues to advance. i think we'll have to monitor the situation on a long-term basis. >> tepco is also surveying the plant's underground areas for radioactive water. the utility said it has found five tons of radioactive water near the number two reactor. the con tam natd water was found in a pit on thursday. the pit has a valve which is

used for pumping in sea water. the water contained over 16,000 highest level of radioactive substances found in this month's vary. the utility found con dominated water in a pit near the number three reactor. that means radioactive water is unlikely to have leaked into the ocean. the company will look into how the contaminated water got into the pit. four kapd dates are make their final appeals ahead of saturday's primary. each one is trying to show their best foot in this november's election. former massachusetts governor mitt romney, former house speaker newt gingrich and two other contenders took part in the televised debate thursday.

romney is a successful businessman with personal assets of more than $250 million. his opponents say his tax rate is lore than that of ordinary americans because much of his earnings come from investments. gingrich said he disclosed his tax records. he demand romney do the same. >> if there's anything in there that is going to help us lose the election we should know it before the nomination. if there's nothing in there, why not release it? it's a very simple model. >> i'm not going to apologize for being successful. i didn't inherit money from my parents. what i have i earned. i worked hard the american way. >> romney indicated he will release his records in april. romney won the new hampshire primary last week. he was initially declared the winner of the iowa caucuses. but a recount overturned the decision and gave the victory to former pennsylvania senator rick sab tomorrow. the latest opinion poll shows

gingrich has overtaken romney. still romney's rivals are increasing their criticism of him through the media. texas governor rick perry dropped out of the race thursday and endorsed gingrich. next we go to bangkok to find out what's going on in the region. >> malaysian prosecutors say they filed an appeal friday against the acquittal of opposition leader ibrahim on charges of sodomy. an war was found not guilty this month after a trial that had threatened to derail his political career. malaysian faces elections expected to take place in months in which anwar will challenge the ruling coalition. the opposition seems to have good momentum ahead of the poll amid frustration within the business community about policies that favor ethnic malaise. the appeal process in malasia takes a long time.

observe eshs say it's unlikely to be prevent anwar from taking part in the elections. thai prime minister has announced new flood control measures. she hopes will repair the nation's tarnished image as a regional, industrial hub. some observers are already expressing doubts. >> at a news conference attend by media the prime minister outlined plans to control future floods along the river, the main source of last year's disaster. the measures include planting trees along the upper stretches of the river to improve water retention in the soil.

in bangkok, and other heavily populated areas, the plan calls for a quick strengthening of river banks and the creation of canals to better drain water from the swollen river to the sea. defenses and drainage pumps willal be upgraded at seven industrial parks. the government will make available low interest loans for businesses to invest in flood controls. many of the companies affected by last year's disaster are still struggling to get their businesses back on track. with the rainy season looming in may, some people are already questioning whether the new flood control measures can be implemented in time. and next, some flash news on a series of stories from indonesia. first up, an attack to tackle the nation's rice shortage that some people are finding hard to

swallow. the trade minister is quite simply urging indonesians to eat less rice. the archipelago's 240 million people eat more of the staple food than the country can produce. indonesia is the world's third biggest rice producer, but surging demand means it now has to import extra quantities of the grain. the eat less rice campaign is already being rejected by many consumers. they insist a meal without rice just isn't a meal at all. >> and next to banton province in western java where children currently have to risk their lives to get to school. they climb carefully over a bridge that was severely damaged by recent floods. if they take a different route, it would add an extra five kilometers to their journey.

so many of the youngsters say they have no choice but to put fear aside and tackle the 168 meter long bridge if they want to make it to class on time. the area already lacked adequate infrastructure and concerned parents are calling for faster action from the local government to repair the crossing before one of the children is injured. and finally, exstat is scientists have just released time lapse images that confirm a type of monkey thought to be extinct is still alive in a remote corner of the world. the monkey known as miller's grizzle was photographed in an area where it was not previously known to exist. scientists hope that the surprise discovery will pave the way for laws to protect the unusual animal. and that is going to wrap up our

bulletin. gentleman japanese who survived the march 11th earthquake and tsunami are now struggling with crisis. their communities barely exist. more than ing.g.mamamamamamany family. it's not all bleak. in one neighborhood two shopkeepers a husband and a wife have thrown out a lifeline. >> reporter: in this part of the city 106 families live in temporary housing. a convenient store sits on a corner of the housing block. this couple own it.

the convenient store they operated before march 1 19 was washed away by the tsunami. but in july they were back in business in this 30-square meter store. since opening day, they have been taking pictures of the customers. people smile when they face a camera. they put on a nice face. it's better to have a good memory from a picture than carrying around bad memories with you. the photos reflect the gradual changes taking place in the residents' lives. when they lived in the shelter, no ice cream was available. now this youngster is making up for lost opportunities. in autumn, some women enjoy the warmth of the sun shining in front of the store.

everyone living in the temporary units held a festival. at the moment, the couple have about 1,000 photos. inside, we find changes in what customers want. >> reporter: when fall arrived, the couple stocked locally grown vegetables. before christmas, they brought in a new product that customers had been asking for. it's a sign that customers now enjoy more than the basics. >> translator: when people come in asking for things like this, i felt that life was returning to normal.

>> reporter: it's been about five months since the couple opened the store. some of their regular customers stop by every day. one of them is this 4-year-old. she, her parents and baby brother live across the street. after moving into her temporary home, she and other children didn't have as much time to play with their friends. now they can meet and play at the convenient store. >> translator: she's very nice. >> translator: these children give us a reason to go outside. they lift our spirits.

>> reporter: it's more than ten months since the natural disaster offended people's lives. now residents slowly get things back in order. this couple are helping by selling goods and taking pictures of the recovery. >> why na is home to 41 unesco sites. one site is under threat from the surrounding desert. great effort is being made to protect the site from erosion. >> reporter: echoing sound mountain is a massive sand dune. the caves extend over a 1.6

kilometer stretch along the dunes' eastern cliffs. construction of the caves began in the late fourth century. the site is made up of 735 individual grottoes. inside one of them is a statue of buddah more than 30 meters tall. there are 2,100 other statues and 45,000 square meters of murals. the caves have survived under a succession of dynasties and conquere conquerers. in 1987, unesco declared the area a world heritage site. since then, it has become an increasingly popular with tourists. the number of visitors last year reached 700,000. >> translator: i've always wanted to visit. i was extremely moved. the caves are interesting from both an educational and cultural standpoint.

>> translator: the caves demonstrate the continuity of thousands of years of chinese culture. the heritage is well preserved and can be passed along to future generations. >> reporter: people in china have been fighting against the wind and sand blowing from the desert to conserve the caves. this 73-year-old is a director of the academy. she has been involved in work to preserve is caves for half a century. >> translator: we've been taking a variety of steps to prevent the sand from blowing into the caves. these include firming up the sand, holding it in place, and covering it. >> reporter: the group is now turning its attention to protecting the artwork inside the grottoes. these walls and statues are made of mud and grass.

they are vulnerable to erosion of water or salt. >> translator: cultural artifacts inside a museum can be moved. temperatures and humidity can be adjusted indoors. but we cannot control these things in nature. we have to fight against it. >> reporter: since the 1980s, she has embarked on a mission of preserving the site using digital technology. she got ahold of a camera especially made for the purpose in august last year. the camera has a resolution of one gigapixel. it can take 2 h 500 photographs of the same suggest. then it automatically analyzes the images and puts them in a

single photograph. he's a single photo. the contrast ratio is more than 300 times higher than that of commercially available cameras. such photographs can be produced so the details seem almost three dimensional. >> translator: we hope the caves will last forever, even if they disappear, at least this digital project will preserve the exact images. we plan to complete this project and recording historical materials to convey the value of the caves to future generations. >> reporter: with the help of the latest technology and the passion of people like fan, the ancient caves continue to offer one of the world's finest examples of buddhist art. >> the in your opinion of foreign visitors to japan posted a record drop in 2011 in the wake of the march 11th

catastrophe rchl japan's tourism agency says the number of visitors are down 289% from the previous year for a total of 6.2 million. we have a report from one of tokyo's most popular destinations. >> reporter: people from all around the world come to tokyo's neighborhood to shop and see traditional japanese style architecture. rain or shine this temple attracts more than three million foreign visitors every year. >> in general we like to -- >> my family are encouraging me to come here. and i like japan. >> reporter: but 2011 proved to be a difficult year for the people who run the shops at this outdoor market. statistics show the number of tourists dropped sharply after japan's nuclear accident and so sales dropped, too. >> translator: it was terrible. there were no customers and the

store was empty. >> reporter: however, ten months after the disaster, things are slowly improving. >> i've always been a fan of japan, i've come here numerous times. obviously i looked up sort of the websites and all that on the nuclear scare. it s they've done a pretty good job with cleaning it up. it wasn't really an issue for me, really. >> do you know why he proposed to me last year is after the disaster. we saw that disaster is so terrible. so many people died and we are still living. >> translator: business is getting better, but we haven't seen a full recovery. sales are probably around 80% to 90% of what they used to be. >> reporter: shop owners say think look forward to seeing the usual flow of customers in the near future. >> we have sumo up next.

on day 13 of the new year's sumo tourney, ozeki baruto came in with a chance to claim his first top deviceal title. hakuho has no more room for set backs if he were to pull that one off. baruto got a huge advantage over second place hakuho as the estonian held a two-win lead with just three days remaining. kotooshu gets his favorite right hand rip. baruto shows a firm resistance. baruto then gets himself into high gear and lifts up kotooshu and slams him down to the ground. baruto gets one step closer to his first championship. with baruto's victory, hakuho must win here to keep his championship hopes alive. the moment he loses to kotooshu

the emperor's cup will end up in bruteos' hands. kotooshu gets the outside grip immediately and has hakuho on the run. kotooshu's attack doesn't stop and the bulgarian keeps charging forward. kotooshu overwhelms hakuho from start to finish and scores his first victory over him since the 2009 may tournament. with his defeat, hack hoe clinches the new year's basho championship. >> congratulations to baruto for capturing his first title. the title race is over, but he'll still be fighting with a lot of motivation in the final

two days as the big estonian tries to put icing on the cake by finishing the tourney with a perfect record of 15 wins. so make sure you keep watching "newsline" sumo summary until the last day of the competition. >> rachel ferguson is up next with weather. welcome back. let's take aen final look towards the weekend starting in eastern asia. we're finally getting that rain we've been looking for here on the pacific edge of japan. one low pressure system is just pulling away right now. that means portions to the south will be recovering, but the region including tokyo will have some steady precipitation in through saturday and sunday. and unfortunately for some who have been enjoying the snow today it's going to be turning over to rain as temperatures are on the rise. we'll also be seeing some rain toward the south of china here. that turns over to snow to the

north. not only the north, but even the shanghai region is looking for wintry precipitation as temperatures drop an icy arctic blast comes down. already tomorrow we're seeing 6 for the high in shanghai. that's likely to come down further into sunday. seoul 5 for you. i expect to see that figure come down as well. -3 in beijing. tokyo is warming up to 6 degrees. not as warm as we thought it was going to be. certainly an improvement on today's frigid cold. into north america, we've been seeing a weakening of the big snowstorm that swept across the pacific northwest. there is another storm on its way. it's starting to move inland here. this one is going to be bringing more heavy rain very strong wind i should point out right here as well as you can see. in terms of the rainfall another 100 millimeters or so is expected anywhere in the red. from california through oregon and all the way up into british columbia the potential for troublesome rain here. we've had damage reported from

coastal flooding in some communities really impaired there. there is going to be snow with this system as well. maybe even as much as a meter, 90 centimeters forecast for the cascades. lower lying areas probably seeing any snow turning over to rain, freezing rain, sleet as well because those temperatures come up. i'll show you those? just a second. let's head over to the east. mostly it's going to be rainshowers, maybe moderate rain to the south. if it is cold enough to support snow, you might see about ten centimeters of it piling up by the great lakes and in towards new england as well. those temperatures then 8 degrees in seattle, 5 in vancouver, that's a big improvement. denver at 12. saturday up to 14 degrees. then the cold frigid air is going to be shifting further towards the east. -18 in winnipeg-6 in chicago and 2 for the high in new york city. in europe storms are the call of the day here as well.

the british isles getting hammered by this big front moving through. low pressure sitting off to the northwest. scotland is seeing some snow with this pretty windy system as well. otherwise rain and rain moving across the continent as well. the alpine region is going to be seeing snow, but wet snow accompanied by gusty winds that means the potential for avalanches. down toward the southeast as well, the return to those thunderstorms that's going to be moving east in towards turkey. we'll see some hefty mountain snow piling up as well. north to have black sea you're likely to see some snow. temperatures will be indicating that. minus 6 in moscow. 1 in warsaw. 0 in kiev, then out in the iberian peninsula things are looking fairly summer light. lisbon 18 for you. let's leave you now with your extended forecast.

that's our broadcast for this hour on "newsline."

we'll be back with more news in half an hour. thank you for watching. bye-bye.