welcome to "newsline." japanese electronics giant panasonic says it's expecting the biggest net loss in its history totaling $10 billion for this fiscal year. that would also be a record annual loss for a japanese electronics manufacturer. panasonic reported on friday they posted a net loss of about $4.4 billion in the first nine months of the fiscal year ending in march. sales came to around $78

billion. that's a drop of about 10% from a year earlier when calculated in yen. panasonic's expected loss for the entire fiscal year is 86% more than the projection the company made in october. the deep red ink is attributed in part to a slowdown in overseas economies due to credit worries in europe. the company also sites flooding in tie land and poor sales in its core television and cell phone businesses. panasonic president says he feels heavy responsibility for his company posting such a huge loss. >> translator: our biggest task is to make panasonic profitable again in the coming years. to this end, all the staff should unite together and make all out efforts. >> he also indicates he has no intention to step down from his post. this week other leading companies are also giving earnings forecasts that are lackluster at best one after another. sharp expects a record loss for

fiscal year through marge. it predicts the net loss will likely reach around $3.8 billion. the firm cited reduced profits from its television business due to the global economic slowdown and strong yen. sony says it will loss about $3 billion in the current fiscal year due to poor sales of tv's in the u.s. and europe. the world's third largest in japan sole maker of dram chips is suffering from the strong yen. the chip maker stipts the losses to come to $1.6 billion for fiscal 2011. floods in thailand and the strong yen weighed heavily on mazda. its net loss for fiscal 2011 will likely reach over $1.3 billion. brew honda motors will avoid posting red. it expects the operating profit will drop by about 65% from the previous year to $2.6 billion. for further insight into what's

behind the poor earnings reports we spoke with the chief market economist at a securities firm. >> biggest reason the aggravation in the global economic situation inshrewding poor exchange rates. so, yes, european debt crisis, losing momentum in the emerging economies. stable use economy and strong yen. those are the main culprit of the bad result, i think. >> but he's not so pessimistic about the outlook. he sees better external conditions helping japanese manufacturers earlier this year. >> some improvement in the germany or in the united states or for overseas economy would be

better later half than first half. as for end late i don't expect any further appreciation of yen later from the current labor that is around the 76 jennifer dollar. conditions for exporting companies going to improve in the later half that my forecast. >> that was the chief market economist at a securities firm. u.s. employment data showed an improvement in january. the u.s. labor department said on friday the job less rate for january fell to 8.3% from the previous month's 8.5%. the figure was better than the market forecast. employers generated 243,000 in the nonfarm sector which is sensitive to economic trends. greek government officials and private sector bondholders are pushing negotiations for cutting

greece's huge debt and the clock is ticking. if the talks breakdown, greece could fall into messy default. a greek government spokesperson said on thursday that the two sides need to reach an agreement at all costs by the end of this week. and its greek officials and representatives of private lenders prepare to get together again this weekend, some expect an accord within several days. the bondholders have agreed to write off about half of the value of the government bonds they hold. both sides have been discussing specific measures that include switching the existing bonds with those with lore yields and the longer maturities. the two sides have not been able to agree on details. "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." last year's march 11th earthquake stranded millions of people in tokyo. trains stopped running. cars clogged roads. commuter either to do better the next time disaster strikes. so they organized a special drill friday. 10,000 people took part. the drill played out at department stores, railway stations and public facilities. the tokyo metropolitan advises people to stay indoors following major earthquakes. during the exercise department store clerks led shoppers to safer areas inside the building. the city sent out messages via broadcast and twitter about available shelters and means of

transportation. participants at a train station used mobile phones to keep informed and compare information. >> translator: the drill taught me how to check information on my phone before making any decisions. >> translator: ten minutes have passed, but i still can't get an update. i wish information would come faster to avoid draining my phone's battery. >> authorities say one of the main challenges in the case of a major earthquake will be to provide shelter for everyone. u.s. navy ships join the drill to transport commuters. members of the u.s. navy in japan have disaster experience. they participated in rescue operations after the march 11th quake and tsunami. during the march 1 19 tsunami and disaster one japanese man saved the lives of many chinese

workers. five of the survivors have returned to work again in japan. the chinese group arrived on friday at an airport near tokyo. the five survivors are among 20 chinese trainees who were working at a fish processing company when the tsunami hit the town. the company executive evacuated the 20 to higher ground but was later swept away and died. his selfless act of courage drew praise from the premier. >> translator: i want to visit his grave and see the tsunami hit areas. i also want to meet the people that helped me during that difficult time. >> the trainees are set to begin work at a sea urchin processing program. 6,000 participants left the country following the disaster. most of them have not returned. japan's nuclear and industrial

safety agency will begin a new series of inspections at the fukushima daiichi nuclear power plant on monday. officials say they want to determine if the plant can safely remain in a state known as code shutdown. inspection teams are to check equipment and contingency preparations by examining manuals. the equipment includes a reactor cooling system that recycles contaminated water from the facility. the checks will be the first safety tests required by law since the onset of a nuclear crisis. the government declared in mid december that the furd nuclear power plant had achieved a state of cold shutdown. it says reactor temperatures have stabilized below 100 degrees celsius and the release of radioactive substances has been contained. the massive march 11th tsunami did more than destroy homes and lives. the flooding left farmland along

the coast full of salt and unusable. in this week's road ahead we look at efforts to help a group of farmers grow new crops on their land. >> reporter: 1/3 of all the farmland in this area was flooded with sea water. until last year, this man grew lettuce and also arranged shipments for neighbors crops to a fast food chain. >> translator: there used to be trees over here, but they're all gone now. >> reporter: his fields are only 700 meters from the coast. the salt has made them unusable. he also lost his home. and his younger brother a fireman died helping people to safety. >> translator: my fields were covered with cars and wreckage.

i was really worried because i knew it would be a long time before i could start farming again. >> reporter: he was at a loss, but about a month after the tsunami he received an offer through a business partner to help set up a tomato farm. the idea came from major restaurant chain based near tokyo as a way to help the disaster area. this restaurant chain serves italian food and it uses lots of tomatoes. its 900 restaurants around the country use 1,000 tons of tomatoes every year. it has its own distribution network source tomatoes from all over japan. the company has a farm where it develops new strains of

tomatoes. it wants to draw on this know how to help farm ners the disaster area. >> translator: we're hoping we can develop this area into a major new tomato producing region. >> reporter: he and ten other farmers began by putting up greenhouses. they're not aware of the special requirements for the greenhouses, so it took them longer than planned. but he is optimistic. >> translator: i feel this is the only way we can make the initial step toward getting back into farming. >> reporter: it took them four months longer than they planned. finally the first tomato

saplings reached them. in place of soil, they use rock pool, a material that holds the water well. the young plants are fed with nutrient rich hydroponic liquid. this technique means they don't have to use their salt logged soil. by carefully adjusting the temperature, the growing season can be extended and they can produce three times as many tomatoes compared to growing them outdoors. he is planning on learning a lot about growing tomatoes and is hoping to turn this area into a new tomato producing area. >> translator: there are many farmers here who won't be able to use the land for the next two or three years. before we lose this valuable workforce, we want to give them

a chance to work as farmers again. >> he expects to ship his first tomatoes in april. officials say it will take at least two more years for the salt to be leached out of the farmland. even then the farmers will need new equipment to replace what they lost in the tsunami. having those expenses covered by a major company will be a huge help for them getting back on their feet. next we go to bangkok to find out what's going on in the region. >> the first final ruling has been announced for the worst human rights abuse by a state against its citizens in southeast asia's recent history. the u.n. backed tribunal in cambodia has ruled that the former prison chief should spend the rest of his life behind bars. >> reporter: the united nations and the cambodian government set

up the special tribunal to talk about the crimes committed. the final judgment against the former chief of the khmer rouge is life imprisonment. the court handed down its first final verdict on friday. the 35-year chair sentence he receive in july 2010. the former prison chief was convicted of war crimes and crimes against humanity. in the late 1970s, the regime killed at least 1.7 million people or 1/5 of the cambodian population through mass murder and forced labor. he was commandser of the prison

known as s 21 where thousands of people were tortured to death. the bereaved relatives have mixed feelings about the final verdict more than 30 years after the regime's collapse. the tribunal planned to complete all the trials within three years. but it took six years for the court to finalize the sentence. >> translator: i'm satisfied with the life sentence. it's what he deserves. >> translator: i'm happy that the maximum sentence was given, but the horror of those terrifying years still shaunts me. >> reporter: for khmer rouge leaders still on trial, many cam doedians want the tribunal to speed up the process due to the

advanced age of the defendants. >> a top u.s. official thinks it's too early to lift the economic sanctions on myanmar. u.s. assistant secretary of state for human rights say as myanmar has not made enough progress with democratization. >> hundreds of political prisoners are still being held. and the number of laws used to areas and detain them remain on the books. >> he says myanmar needs to make greater efforts for democratization before restrictions on trade and investment can be lifted. the u.s. recently decided to upgrade diplomatic ties after myanmar released 651 inmates including political prisoners. the u.s. is urging myanmar to allow local and international monitors to supervisor the by-elections scheduled for april 1st. prodemocracy leader kyi has

filed her candidacy and is widely expected to win a seat. the philippine military says 15 militants have been killed in an air raid on the southern island of holo. the dead reportedly include leaders of groups ink willed to al qaeda. >> reporter: the military says at least 15 people died in thursday's u.s.-backed strike on an islamic militant camp. it says the dead include leaders of the philippine based militant group in the southeast asian terror network. a malaysian leader was reportedly among those killed. the united states had put a price of $5 million on his head for training a man to make bombs. a military commander in the region says the groups have

suffered significant damage. but the military hasn't revealed how the deaths of the leaders were confirmed. he's been on the wing since the leader died five years ago. obzers say the group has split into several factions. so time will be needed to measure the impact of the leaders deaths. >> and that wraps up our bulletin. a newspaper reports that defense secretary leon panetta believes israel is like toy to attack iran in the spring to prevent the country from building a nuclear weapon. the latest edition of "the washington post" says that panetta believes israel may attack iran in april, may or june. israel fears that iran will have stored enough enriched ukraine yum in deep underground facilities to make a weapon very

soon. the report indicates israel told u.s. government that fighting may be limited in length and scale waged for about five days on limited targets. "the washington post" says the u.s. government is discussing how to deal with the israeli plan. the u.s. secretary of defense told reports he had no comment on the report. an article in last sunday's "the new york times" said israel is very likely to attack iran before the end of the year. during the latest talks with the u.s., japan maintained its request that japanese banks be excerpt from penalties related to new sanctions against iran. japanese delegates met with u.s. officials on washington on thursday following the january talks in tokyo. the japanese side again requested exemptions for its banks citing reduced crude oil imports from iran. u.s. officials explained about the implementation of the

sanctions. the u.s. state department said the two governments held constructive talks on implementing new sanctions against iran in another meeting to follow soon. japanese foreign minister began by refraining from clarifying details of the latest proposal. >> translator: it's important for the international community to coordinate efforts and share its concerns about iran's nuclear development. we had detailed discussions on the key issues including application of the exemptions. the talks have significantly progressed. >> he said the two nations are very close to reaching a consensus. japan's health organization says the seasonal flu is spreading rampantly. in some areas the infection rate is the highest in ten years. the national substitute of infectious diseases say that more than 1.7 million people

sought treatment for flu symptoms last week. the figure was up 620,000 from a week earlier. school children aged 14 or younger accounted for a large number of infections typically spread within classrooms. the number of elderly patients aged 60 or older was up 40% from a year earlier. nhk has found that eight flu patients in their 80s and 90s at extended care homes and hospitals suffered complications and died. health officials warn that the fatalities among elderly tend to die when it spreads widely. >> translator: elderly people are more prone to catch the flu. sometimes their health will worsen. eventually a few may not ro recover and die. we urge staff working at extended care homes to try hard to prevent group infections. >> the institute forecast the

number of flu patients will increase before the winter is over. rachel ferguson is up next with weather. let's take a look and see what the weekend has in store in terms of weather. if we flick forward to japan, things are look better across the country. we're back to our usual wintry pattern which means the snow will be found along the northwestern coast. the pacific edge and also the west now looking dry and we'll be getting warmer, too. so high pressure is moving in to help to push out all the arctic air. very, very cold today across much of the country. as we head into the weekend temperatures will be recovering. into tuesday we'll see tokyo's high up to 13 degrees which is what we usually see around mid march. also places like the korean peninsula, northern china, beijing, temperatures are improving over the weekend, but

they will be falling once again at the top of the week. things are looking very dry here. a few showers towards the south. nothing too heavy. there is heavier rain coming down for parts of the central philippines. quite a few areas picking up more than 100 millimetres of rain in the last 24 hours and that wet weather will be fairly heavy as we head into the weekend, too. shanghai at 8 tomorrow. finally temperatures above the freezing point in beijing. a little bit better to sunday and these will drop away tokyo hitting 10 degrees. into north america. we're looking at a very strong winter system moving across the plains at the moment. colorado into nebraska n and kansas heavy snow for you to the south of the system is going to be thunderstorms. now if we take a look, this is actually going to be heading very slowly towards the east. the snow will remain heavy in the midwest. the severe weather, storms, hail and the strong gusts will

actually weaken off as they push further into towards arkansas. elsewhere is looking pretty good. temperatures are widely still above average. if we take a look at see minus 1 in denver a little bit better. chicago 7 degrees way above average. 1 degrees for winnipeg. you're usually well below 0 for your high. we have 12 degrees in d.c., 7 in new york city, 20 in oklahoma city. all right, europe is in the grips of some very frigid weather indeed over the past couple of days. in terms of precipitation, a few snow showers to the north is really this big system over the central mediterranean that's going to be the problem. a very potent snow maker blizzard like conditions for parts of the central balkans as well as italy. now it's this system coupled with the frigid air that's going to be causing the problems. and let's take a look at what's happening with the jet stream trying to explain this. sagging all the way down across the iberian peninsula allowing

the frigid arctic air to spill in. if we take a look into what happens on sunday, there is an improvement in the southeast, some warmer air managing to come up here. temperatures aren't going to be above average, they'll be getting back to normal here in the southeast. conversely to the southwest those temperatures will be dipping down. northern africa experiencing temperatures well below seasonal averages. al jeers down to 6. i'll leave you now with your extended forecast.

u.s. employment data shows an improvement in january. the u.s. labor department said the jobless rate fell to 78.3% from 8.5%. the figure was better than the market forecast. employers get january to 243,000

jobs in the nonforeign sector which is sensitive to economic trends. that's our broadcast for this hour on "newsline." thank you so much for watching. bye-bye. trends.