show of strength, the chinese military reveals its elite helicopter unit, a key part of its growing defense arsenal. welcome to nhk world "newsline." chinese leaders spend more money on their military than any other country aside from the united states. they just showed the international media roughly what their $100 billion budget buys them. the tour happens as china faces criticism for having disputes with other countries in asia over territory. the people's liberation army invited 70 media organizations to a helicopter base near beijing. it has been organizing these

tours annually since the 2008 beijing olympics. commanders exhibited main take attack helicopters and missiles and rockets, chinese officials say domestic manufacturers are making the aircraft. pilots are also demonstrating skills in the cockpit. these helicopters are one part of the military which has been growing rapidly. western nations say chinese authorities aren't transparent about their spending. the u.s. and japan and other countries are concerned about china's military muscle. the chinese government has been more aggressive in its campaign to force the claim over disputed islands in the region. analysts say it is partly intended to keep other countries in check over the disputes. analysts are sounding the alarm about the naval buildup. their annual white paper says recent actions by chinese authorities are a grave concern for east asia and the rest of the world.

this year's report says china's defense budget increased by 30 times over the past 24 years. defense officials believe the growth is from building aircraft carriers and say chinese leaders are dispatching war ships more frequently to the south china sea and east china sea. the latter is home to the senkaku islands. which both china and taiwan claim. the wipe paper claims ownership. defense officials will submit the report to the cabinet and then release it to the public by the end of this month. public anger over the deployment of military aircraft. some don't want the osprey flown from bases in the country. the plane has a spotty safety

record. both nations will discuss it thursday. >> translator: it's important to ensure osprey safety. we would like to discuss with u.s. officials what we can do to express public concerns in japan. >> protesters gathered monday in western japan as a fleet of 12 ospreys arrived at a u.s. air station. the marines will conduct test flights from the base next month. they will begin full flight operations from okinawa in october. it is important to strengthen japan's security over the island. morimoto will meet next week with leon panetta about the safety of the aircraft. morimoto is expected to get the causes of two crashes earlier this year, and measures it put in place to reinforce not having

another. the air force has postponed training in new mexico. air force officials last year explained to local residence a plan for training near cannon air force base but about 1600 residents including some from neighboring state, colorado, voiced their worries about noise pollution and the environmental impact. the air force decided to delay training until next year. it cited the need for a further enirnmental assessment. defense department officials say they plan to conduct nearly 700 annual night time flights of ospreys and another aircraft. some of flights will be at altitudes as low as 90 meters. members of syrian president ba sar al assad's administration admitted for the first time they have chemical and biological

weapons. they say their country would use the deadly arsenal if troops intervene in the 16--month-old conflict. they responded to speculation by antigovernment fighters and other countries that syria could use weapons of mass destruction. he says his countries's chemical and biological weapons are safely stored away and under the super vision of armed forces. >> these are only to be used in strict aggression of the public. >> he stressed the military would never use the weapons againstcy villains or syrian people under any circumstances. syria hasn't ratified the convention. officials from western countries suspect the assad government has stockpiles of serin and mufrt mustard gas. there is concern that other nations could take these

weapons. >> we will make clear to assad and those around him that the world is watching and they will be held accountable bit international community and the united states should they make the tragic mistake of using those weapons. >> obama said the u.s. will continue to work with allies and opposition to help the syrian people that respects freedom, dignity and peace. nhk world former middle east correspondent has been giving us insight on the syria story. he spoke earlier with our sasar ssheri ahn. >> actually it is not a big surprise because everyone knows that syria has an arsenal of such weapons of mass destruction. let me point out two factors. the first is that antigovernment forces in the country are putting up a strong offensive in recent days.

western media is speculating about the possibility of the assad regime of using so-called dirty weapons to fight back. i think they used monday he announcement for that. they are deterring any possible intervention from the west. the regime think that u.s. and european countries may form a kind of coalition to intervene in the conflict. >> so what impact will this announcement have on the efforts to end the conflict or on the conflict itself? >> it seems to me that assad regime is back need a corner and is anxious about its survival. in the u.n. security council, syria doesn't have the support of russia and china. but assad is being very cautious about possible interceptions. mainly by europe and the u.s. and arab countries.

outside of any u.n. framework. for now, the west maintains that it has no intention of intervening militarily in the conflict in syria. so for the time being, i think the syria fighting between the assad regime and antigovernment forces will continue. i think is there's no guarantee that assad administration won't use their chemical and biological weapons in a last ditch effort to retain power. neighboring countries are strongly concerned that some terrorists groups will obtain the arsenals. israel is on the top list of nations on high alert i think. >> that was our senior commentator. syria's civil war sin tensefying with increasing sectarian conflict with muslim groups. three quarters of the country's population are sunni muslims.

but the government is controlled by alawi muslims, a shia group. in a way of change sweeping across the middle east, iran, a shia country has been working with the government. saudi arabia and qatar are increasing support for anlt eye government forces. this intervention by neighboring countries is fuelling the syrian civil war. nhk world reports from jordan. >> reporter: the city is near the border with syria. several charities set up bases they're help syrian refugees. every two weeks cash vultures worth about $190 are giving to 1,500 families. it is enough to sustain their lives in this area. these charity groups are funded by the sunni muslim state, saudi arabia. and other arab countries of the

gulf region. it is part of their counter measure against syria. >> precious lives are being lost. both among those who make up the government forces and among those who have joined antigovernment fighters. but to achieve freedom and justice, we must give the rebels all of the support we can to ensure a better future. >> on the pretext of helping refugees, this charity group is supporting the forces against their regime. >> translator: i'm grateful for the support from saudi arabia and other gulf countries. >> reporter: gulf countries are safe to step up military support by providing weapons.

>> translator: since there's no hope for any political or diplomatic solutions, we should go about arming the antigovernment forces. >> on top of weapons, the media is playing an important role in supporting hezbollah as well. al jazeera is a network sponsored by qatar. the assad administration is accusing al jazeera, saying the broadcaster is exaggerating facts, reporting as if it was a massive demonstration. even some al jazeera staff express dismay. some reporters have quit in protest.

al jazeera beirut bureau chief last rule. year. he is concerned that the media reports would aggravate the conflict. >> translator: media in the arab world only seemed to follow the policies dictated by the leaders of gulf countries that are financially supporting them. and this is fuelling confrontation in syria that is simply escalating the fighting. >> reporter: on the other hand wbt assad administration is backed by major power, iran. a syria products fair has been held to support the assad regime. which is struggling amid economy sanctions. >> because of the embargo, i

believe that we can work together. >> iran seems to be supporting military support to syria. with rocket launchers and other arments. in january, antigovernment forces released image of people who are said to be iranian snipers helping the assad forces. iran denied it. saying they were engineers dispatched to help with infrastructure work. looking increasingly like a proxy war of neighboring countries. fighting in syria is intensifying. nhk world. >> people in japan's northeast are focused on overcoming the challenges of the 2011 disaster. but it won't be easy 37 they have to rebuild homes,

businesses, entire communities. we will show you their struggles and their successes on the road ahead, every wednesday at 1:00 p.m. japan time, here on newsline. new research into last year's fukushima daiichi nuclear accident -- records were exam naned at number two reactor. they compared the radiation data from the surrounding environment. the group examined radiation data from a monitoring most at the fukushima daini plant. radiation spiked three times from the night of the 14th to the morning of the 157b8g. wind was blowing south from the daicchi plant. workers were desperately trying to cool it down.

they were unable to because of pressure inside caused by steam buildup. the workers decided to open safety valves. the researchers suspect that reactors fuel might have already started melting down, damaging the containment vessel and releasing radiation into the atmosphere. this would explain the high radiation at the monitoring post. each spike was about one hour after attempts to relief pressure. the a researcher says it is serious if an operation designed to protect the reactor led to a significant radiation release. >> translator: i think workers at the site had no choice but to relief the pressure inside the reactor. >> researchers say radiation from reactor 2 was ten to 20 times higher than other reactors, which suffered hydrogen explosions. operators of a nuclear

facility north of fukushima daiichi are trying to learn from last year's disaster. they have a drill aimed at protecting. some 150 workers used power trucks to practice restoring energy in the event generators work down. operators at fukushima were unable to run cooling systems on overheated reactors. when the plant lost external and back up power. workers also practice injecting water into reactors using special vehicles introduced last march. germany has criticized moody's investors services after the major credit rating agency down rated the country's sovereign debt rating outlook. the german finance minister said in a statement that moody's is focusing too much on short term risk without considering

long-term prospect. the menstry added that country remains solid economic fiscal health and plans to balance its budget by 2014. it also downgraded the outlook for netherlands and luxembourg. this is the first time germany's ratings outlook has been lower to negative since greece's fiscal crisis brought about the european debt woes more than two years ago. the eurozone's driving force, germany, supports the struggling economyes. moody's latest move underscores the difficulty in detaining europe's debt worries. here is the latest market figures.

united nation officials are trying to get political leaders to protect something we can't live without. studies suggest two thirds of the world's population could be living under water stressed conditions by 2025. using water sustain built means keeping it clean. engineers at japanese company today come up with a new kind of filter to further that goal. it is a product they believe could be a hit with heavy industry and households. >> water is essential to this industry. drilling for shale gas. estimated reserves on this natural resource are big enough to challenge the global energy balance.

in getting shale gas from the ground, drillers sink wells up to 3,000 meters deep. then they inject tons of water to create fractures from which the gas is released. the process also produces massive amounts of polluted water containing chemicals. the water is treated using polly edge lane filters and then disguarded. the filters guess dirty and must also be replaced. now a japanese firm is developing a longer lasting filter for use in a new recirculating system. engineers at the company have built the filter into units for wastewater recycling. the filter is made of ceramic. it is durable and easy to clean. they specialize in high density

ceramic parts called anchors. they are for fixing bolts in electrical environment, such as railways. engineers lower the ceramic density for use in wastewater treatment. they successfully produced a strong ceramic that permeable to water but blocks impure its. a men of the team that developed the new ceramic flat sheet membrane. cylinders are widely used for drinking water, but they are expensive for wastewater. he thought using flat filters would be cheaper and faster. it was a tough challenge. he made hundreds of ceramic sheets without success. they were never flat. and often broken. >> the failures looked terrible. i wondered if this project would

ever bear fruit. i became obsessed with what could be wrong, thinking about it constantly on my way to and from work. >> after three years, and constant trials with firing temperatures, he achieved a one-meter long ceramic flat sheet membrane. >> translator: when we finally got one perfect example, well, i got pretty emotional. >> then time for testing. water in the test tank was loaded with even more chemicals than the typical shale gas extraction. water passes through the millions of microscopic holes on the filter's surface before flowing into the internal chambers. when nakagawa compares the filtered and tap water, the processed water certainly looks clean. lab tests show it is almost the same as ordinary city water. canada is a center of shale gas

production. the country also hosted globe 2012, one of north america's largest trade fairs on the environment and energy. meidensha showed its flat sheet at japan's pavilion. >> there is that type of technology, but it appears to be a little bit different, maintenance wise, especially on the brmembrane technology. looks like it might fit in well with my line of work. >> his dream is for the flat is ceramic filter to bring purified water to the world, not only for personal use, but for cleaner industry too. >> overcast, muggy and hot in tokyo. the weather is more extreme in south china faced with a storm. robert speta has the weather forecast for here and elsewhere. robert? >> yes, we are still watching our tropical storm now.

it did make landfall tuesday, west of hong kong. i want to start out showing you video from long kong. it made landfall in the morning. it did injury more than 100 people. no reports of deaths at this time but the city did raise to its highest typhoon warning overnight while gail force winds and torrential rain grounded flights and halted port operations and marked one of the strongest typhoons, that battered the city in the past decade. more than 24u7b tree estoppeled and pieces of buildings were seen crashing down on down downtown streets. almost 250 people thought refuge in storm shelters. financial markets, schools, businesses and nonessential markets were closed on tuesday. it looks like people are out here trying to clean up after the aftermath of this storm but still there is a threat of rain. there is a counter clockwise of

rotation around this system. it is pulling out of the south china sea here. and with that about 150 to 200 additional millimeters of rain could be seen here off-shore towards gong dong province. still weakening with that threat of the rain fall with it, and this is what it'll look like for rain totals and even in northern portions of vietnam here, you could see heavy rain fall with that threat of flash flooding and also landslide. this is still a developing situation here throughout the next 48 hours. now, off towards the east here, we do have an area just east of the philippines closely watching this because sea surface temperatures right here just east of the philippines, are about average for this time. and it does look like there does have a risk of possibly developing into a prop cal system by the latter part of this week. further off north though, here in japan, afternoon rain showers

and thunderstorms pop up here for daytime heating. don't be surprise if you hear a rumble of thunder or two. northeast china and into north korea, another low is developing up here in that threat of yet further flooding could be seen there in beijing after you hear that devastating weekend here. a high of 29. seoul at 33. and manila as well into the low 30s on your wednesday. now over towards the america's here. we do have storms blowing up across the ohio river valley. a frontal area here, also watching a cold front push through the northern rockies into the dakotas. southwest monsoon there in the southwest but over towards the central u.s. where you need the rain and it is not looking like any rain in the near term here. wichita with i-40 in the midst of route conditions on your tuesday. now, where you don't want rain and good news, it doesn't look like any for the near term here is across london into southern portions of the uk here. all these preolympic festivities currently occurring across this area.

so good news, at least on your wednesday and thursday, no rain in the forecast but friday, very weak chance there. you might see some showers moving across this area where you are going to be seeing showers is across italy towards the balkins. it is continuing to spend similar conditions over towards the iberian peninsula. while temperatures are looking like this, madrid with a high of 37. rome at 28 andagen athens a hott on your map all the way into thursday.

we'll be back with more updates in 30 minutes. i'm gene otani in tokyo.