it's wednesday, january 25th in egypt will lift a state of emergency during the day. it marks the first anniversary of the birth of the democratic movement that ousted hosni

mubarak. lifting the state of emergency was one of the main demands. a chief spoke to the egyptians in a televised announcement. >> translator: egypt and its people celebrate the first anniversary today of the january 25th revolution which ushered in a new era for the people of egypt who made sacrifices to achieve freedom, a life of dignitnd social justice. >> the state of emergency was imposed in 1981 after the assassination of president anwar sadat. egyptians view it as a negative legacy of the mubarak era. the council chief says authorities can still arrest people for acts of thug re. he failed to spell out the details. the military often labeled organizers of anti-government

demonstrations as thugs. in iraq, four car bombings have hit mainly shia muslim areas of baghdad killing at least 13 people. two parked vehicles exploded one after another in the northeastern sadr section of the capital early tuesday morning. soon after two car bombs went off in other predominantly shia areas. pedestrians walking nearby. 70 others have been wounded. police believe that the explosions were targeted at shia muslims. the religious rift has worsened in iraq after the shia-led government under prime minister nuri al maliki issued an arrest warrant against sunni vice president tariq al hashimi on terrorism charges last month. the iraqi government suspended three sunni cabinet ministers from duty last week. after u.s. forces withdrew from iraq last month, the security situation has deteriorated. more than 200 people have been killed since the beginning of this month.

prospects for building new nuclear reactors in japan have dimmed since the accident last march at the fukushima daiichi power plant. even so, the japanese government is stick to go the policy trying to win orders from emerging economies where demand for electricity is surging. in the middle east, that's the kingdom of jordan. some have high expectations for japanese nuclear technology. others are advising concerns. >> even though surrounded by iraq, saudi arabia and other oil-produces cunning. the countries with eye relies on imports for most of its energy. jordan has long harbored ambitions of owns nuclear reactors as a means of boosting power self sufficiency.

the plan gained momentum with a discovery there four years ago of huge deposits of uranium, which can be used to make nuclear fuel. the yellowish area contains uranium ore. firms from many countries are offering to help jordan achieve its nuclear dreams. among them, japan has received praise from jordan for its technology. say there has been more or less shaken confidence in our confidence or sgrus in the japanese technology on the contrary, we learn from those lessons. >> reporter: meanwhile, concerns have begun to spread among residents.

the planned construction site in the north of the country. in june last year, about 500 people took part in the rally against the nuclear plant. some even confronted diplomats from japanese embassy were surveying the site. we asked one of the rally organizers, muhammad kowarta to show us the site. he says he's worried there won't be enough water to cool the reactors, because the location is so far inland. he says safety cannot be guaranteed, as proving by the fact that a serious accident like the one in fukushima could happened in an industrialized nation like japan. >> translator: even japan with such high standards of technology is suffering from the nuclear accident. an accident in jordan, a country without technology, would do irreparable damage.

>> reporter: japan's nuclear policies are being questioned in the wake of the crisis in fukushima. the accident has heightened the debate in jordan, too, over the feasibility of nuclear power and building the plant with the help of japan. tjushi, nhk world. we earlier asked why the japanese government's policy of exporting nuclear power seems unchanged. >> it's a billion dollar industry and growing, the agency the international atomic energy estimated the number of nuclear reactors in the world could increase up to 350 by 2030. it could ducked and most of the demand would be from emerging economies. the united states, france, russia and south korea, all countries with nuclear energy are eager to export their reactors. japan is no exception.

even with what happened at fukushima daiichi, the government still sees the export of nuclear reactors as part of its economic growth strategy. because only a limited number of countries have the ability to build nuclear plants, nations like vietnam are interested in japanese technology. one japanese nuclear association says the world will continue to relies on nuclear energy, so it's japan's responsibility to contribute to improving nuclear safety. >> translator: countries have high expectations for our technologies. we need to meet those expectations, because japan is considered to be one of the leaders in the field of nuclear energy. >> what's clear is public support has waned.

an nhk poll last all showed that people want fewer nuclear pants. 33% says japan could abandon nuclear power all together. the japanese government has already said it will reduce its dependency on nuclear industry, but critics say reducing it at home while exporting it overseas is a double standard. they also say it's irresponsible, because we still do not know the main reason for the nuclear accident. >> translator: many people in fukushima are still suffering with how to deal with radiation, and they are very concerned about what will happen to their health in the future. it is disgraceful to export the cause of the tragedy under such circumstances. >> the prime minister said that japan has a duty to share the

lessons from the accident. if the government wants to export nuclear reactors, they need to keep their promises and show how they are going to guarantee their safety. u.s. president barack obama is putting final touches on the state of the union. he will talk about the state of the economy and his legislative agenda. he will deliver the speech with the presidential election in mind. americans head to the polls in november. he will speak to their economic concerns while laying out themes of his re-election campaign. we will carry it live here on nhk world in about two hours. japan's finance ministry released the most recent trade data. let's go to the business desk for more. good morning. >> since it was the last month of the year, we have the annual trade data now.

japan posted a trade deficit in december for the third straight month, for all of 2011. the country also posted a trade deficit that's the first in 31 years. the finance ministry released its preliminary report wednesday. it says the trade balance for 2011 posted a deficit of about $32 billion. exports dropped 2.7% to over $840 billion. meanwhile, imports jumped 12% to $872 billion. now let's check the markets. in new york overnight, the dow ended slightly lower as investors stood by to see progress over greek debt reduction talks. to see how stocks are opening, we go to ramin mellegard. we had the trade numbers for japan. how is the market reacting. >> good morning to you, ai. as you mention, trade deficit numbers, annual deficit in japan

since 1980 largely driven by weaker exports and stronger yen and slower global growth which has effected the economy. let's look at the nikkei and topics this wednesday morning. back above 8800. it has been on an up trend this year. we broke above 8800 inter day level yesterday and have done so again today. we will see if that momentum can carry through. signs from the u.s. economy seems to show improving economy, with housing, manufacturing, jobs picture, showing some improvements in the data we've seen. even the euro is quite resilient, despite concerns about greek restructuring of debt plans. let's look at the currency levels. you can see what i am talking about. the euro yen at the bottom of the screen, 101 levels.26-31.

compared to 100 yesterday, and 99 on monday. and 97.04, which was the low we hit last week. you can see if anything, eurozone countries has the effect of the euro there. the stronger euro helped a lot of japanese exporters selling to eurozone countries. ai? >> still a lot to come from the united states today. what's expected to move markets tomorrow? >> quite a few things indeed. we have the federal reserve meeting which is going to be wrapping up. we will have fed chairman ben bernanke giving a news conference, and for the first time, a lot of members giving their views on interest rates. we'll also get earnings reports. apple coming out with strong numbers after the bell, showing net income rose to 13 billion come pardon to 6 this year. apple shares shot up as well. we're going to keep track of related shares such as kddi,

soft bank, toshiba. a lot of japanese manufacturers make components that go into apple products. >> and as catherine reminded us, the state of the union address by president obama coming up. >> indeed. a lot of investors here in japan will be looking at any keep statements he makes regarding jobs and that relates to all of the sales for the world's biggest economy for japanese exporters. that's crucial as well. as catherine said we will be covering that on nhk world. >> thanks for that update. ramin mellegard from the tokyo stock exchange. the international monetary fund downgraded outlook for the world economic growth. it says global financial conditions deteriorated and risks have escalated. they revised the forecast to 3.3%, down 0.7 percentage points from the september forecast. it says the global recovery is

threatened by intensifying problems in the euro area and instability elsewhere. the fund expects europe to go into a mild recession. it adds growth in most other advanced economies is also lower and predicts a significant slow down in emerging and developing economies. they kept the outlook for the u.s. economic growth unchanged at 1.8%. downgraded the forecast for eurozone by minus 0.5%. the outlook for the japanese was downgraded to 1.7%, a drop of 0.6 percentage points. monkey merging economies, the growth outlook for china was revised down by 0.8 percentage points to 8.2%. imf downgraded the outlook for the global company to 3.9%. this is also a downgrade of 0.6

percentage points from the previous forecast. the european union is considering imposing sanctions on hung ar ee for failing to take measures to cut the budget. they failed to come up with raemgs to bring the trade deficit below 3% of gdp. regulations introduced last month allow the eu to punish member nations for violations of fiscal discipline. eu is likely to suspend grants and impose other sanctions if hung ar ee zoercht change the policy. the finance minister expressed confidence the country will be able to avoid sanctions, although resolving the problems will take time. and that's the latest from business for this hour. back to catherine. >> thanks very much. a fund to help people not covered by the foegs compensation program for the

nuclear accident. a government panel decided last month to pay rep raise for emotional distress to the residents of 23 -- but western and southern regions of the prefect tough complained about being excluded from the program. the governor set up a fund. they plan to allocate $520 million for the fund in t second supplementary budget for the current fiscal year. "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 fukushima daiichi crisis. and "the road ahead" looks at japan's efforts to recover and rebuilt. don't miss it on "newsline."

japan's prime minister is trying to find political consensus in a nation where that often doesn't come easy. he is aiming to get the opposition to cooperate with his plan to raise the consumption tax. he says that the money is urgently needed to maintain the country's social security programs. >> translator: i pledge an all-out effort to tackle issues including recovery from the disaster, dealing with the ongoing nuclear accident, and efforts to revive the economy. >> noda wants to double the sales tax to 10% by 2015. he says that the extra revenue will be returned to the taxpayers in the form of health care, pensions and the other benefits they enjoy, but the prime minister must win over the opposition and the public if he is going to turn his plan into a reality. voters have been angry about wasteful government spending. noda says he understands, and he is promising to enact

legislation to cut the salaries of civil servants. as for the opposition, noda needs their cooperation, because japan's diet is divided. his party has a control in the lower house, but the opposition party controls the upper house. now prime minister noda may have to do more than just double japan's sales tax if he wants to meet the goal of balancing the country's budget by early 2020s. officials and technical workers at a tokyo based communications company put decoys disguised as free music and movie clips on file sharing networks. if you download and open one of the files, a message appears, prompting users to stop illegal downloading. the move comes amid arise in the number of file sharing software users. in japan, the most popular programs are used by about

150,000 people per day. >> fighting online piracy is like a cat and mouse game. new file sharing software is always available, but users should be aware they're violating copyright law. >> the ministry plans to continue circulating decoys for five more days to gauge how effective it is. many japanese learned the hard way that after a disaster there's often no running water. to make sure they have enough of this precious commodity, some people are coming up with their own solution. >> this tokyo apartment building has a well next to the entrance. the building owner installed it so residents have a supply of running water during

emergencies. he also installed an emergency toilet over a manhole in the parking lot. it is connected to the sewage system and flushed with well water. he wants residents of neighboring buildings as well as his tenants to use it during emergencies. >> translator: in a big earthquake, no running water is a big deprivation, so it will be really useful. >> the company that constructed the building has so far equipped 102 of its structures with wells. >> translator: since the march 11th earthquake, more clients have agreed to not only make their buildings resist at the present time to earthquakes but to install a well. >> nowadays more home dwellers are building wells in their

yards. each well costs about $3300. and you have to check with the local authorities or some have regulations. but since march 11th, this drilling organization has received as many as 150 orders per month, mainly from the tokyo area. >> translator: the numbers of orders we're receiving has increased, from communities, schools, kindergartens, schools that want to be prepared for emergencies. >> however, some people are finding out about a more simple way of digging wells. he dug one in his yard to prepare for the next natural disaster. >> translator: i heard people had a difficult time after the great earthquake because their toilets didn't work. i learned i could dig a well on my own. >> you can buy the tools in

stores for only about $40. he began by digging with a shovel, then pouring water into the hole. he inserted a pipe and kept digging. the water soften the, and the mud entered the pipe. he removed it, and to make the hole deeper, he kept repeating the process. in just ten days, he dug a well 8.5 meters deep. for three days after the march 1 # earthquake, he had no running water in his house, so he flushed his toilet with well water and gave some to his neighbors. he started a website to show others how to dig a well. since the disaster, the number of hits to the site increased by

about 100,000. he has also received more than 200 e-mails from people interested in digging their own wells. >> translator: a low tech solution like this holds up in a disaster. i hope more people prepare themselves. people in some parts of japan are getting ready for heavy snow. let's go to the weather picture. let's look at what's happening across asia. the coldest air is covering much of japan. the western side still dealing with t heaviest snow, an additional 80 centimeters possible in the next 24 hours.

today, and possibly as much as ten centimeters even in the lower elevations. that's resulting in highways and -- and also raising the risk of avalanches. the pacific side should stay largely -- now heading over to china, a high pressure system in in china, dry weather for most of the region. the southwestern regions dry through most of today. throughout today. so today's highs looking like this. we are expecting 5 degrees in shanghai and 1 degrees in beijing, still on the cold side, minus 5 degrees. temperatures will get back to normal on thursday. tokyo will be coming in at 8 degrees. there will be a slight chance of snow this evening.

now, moving on to the americas, lots of active weather is going on in the south and the west, the next powerful system is starting to impact the b.c. area and pacific northwest. as you can see, the isobars are very close together, meaning fierce winds are blowing. a gusts of about 130 kilometers per hour, and snow could be piling up as much as 45 centimeters. as the system pushes onto the east, the pacific northwest should get dryer. down toward the south, there is a slight risk of seer thunderstorms, and the threat will likely continue for the next couple days. over the next 24 hours, rain will also affect the lower great lakes. so on wednesday we are expecting

23 degrees in houston, 9 degrees in oklahoma city, and across the west getting up to 27 degrees in los angeles for the high, and 7 degrees in seattle. finally let's go over to europe, and a new system is moving into the british isles bringing wet and windy weather. as the system moves toward the east, norway will start to feel strong winds on wednesday. down towards the south, very strong and stationary low pressure system has been bringing thunderstorms, heavy precipitation, as well as gusty winds in the balkan peninsula as well as much of turkey. that will continue for the next couple days. a high pressure system is pushing on central europe, bringing dry weather, so rain in

front, heavy snow in austria will ease on wednesday. we're expecting 11 degrees london on wednesday, and the same goes for paris. across the east still on the cold sigh with moscow with minus 11 degrees. i will leave you now with your extended forecast. ♪

that wraps up this edition of "newsline." i'm catherine catherine kobayashi in tokyo. kobayashi in tokyo. do stay with us. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com