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tv   Newsline 30min  KCSMMHZ  July 31, 2012 6:00am-6:30am PDT

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welcome to nhk world "newsline." indian authorities are scrambling to secure the country's energy supply after a second day of power failures. lek tris grids collapsed without warning. outages affected more than 600 million people. that's more than half the population. nhk world reports from new delhi. >> indian power grids collapsed suddenly on tuesday afternoon. total 20 states and union territories in the north and east of the countries are
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affected. subway services ground to a halt causing chaos as travellers tried to continue their journeys by bus. concerns are mounting abou patients in hospitals that don't have generators. the authorities are lacking to restart idle hydropower stations as solution. india faces a chronic power deficit. the nation's infrastructure can't keep up with rising demand. this week's failures are said to be the last in the decade. >> this is a failure of government policy. because they -- they have no, you know, reasonable solution. >> the massive blackouts exposed the vulnerability of india's
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power grid. voices questioning the responsibility of the government seem likely to grow. nhk world, new delhi. japan's defense chiefs are casting a watchful eye over their neighbors. their new 2012 white paper warns of the military buildup and stresses the need to monitor north korea. defense officials presented the report tuesday to prime minister noda and his cabinet. its main focus is military activity in the region as it has been in previous years. the report notes china's defense budget increased 30-fold over the past 20 years and says the country will likely expand the maritime activities and chinese naval vessels in the ocean and increase in monitoring activities in waters near japan. it cites north korea as a continuing threat and says authorities in the north may be developing nuclear arms with
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highly enriched uranium and says they are likely to continue missile tests following a failed rocket launch in april. it addresses american foreign policy noting the shift in u.s. emphasis towards the asia pacific, they say japan will seep to deepen defense ties in a way that fits the new security environment. the paper acknowledges the issue of u.s. military facilities in japan says the bases should maintain their deterrent role while reducing the burden on host communities. the defense report touch on the territorial dispute with south korea and describes a small group of islands as japanese territory, that prompted officials in seoul to launch a protest. the white paper reiterates it remains unresolved and restates japan's claims to the islands, south korean foreign ministry officials issued a statement in response. they say south korea alone exercises sovereignty over what they call the dokdos islands and
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urging the japanese government to take immediate corrective measures. he spoke about the meeting and explained japan's position and said the country cannot accept south korea's complaint. necessary newly declassified documents show that the u.s. offer to vacate bases in okinawa before the prefecture rurped to japanese sovereignty in 1972. japan's foreign ministry released the diplomatic files on tuesday. the papers recorded talks in 1967 between ex prime minister and u.s. defense secretary robert mcna mera. the documents show that mcnamara believed his country's military should not remain in okinawa once japan no longer had a need for the bases. he also said the u.s. did not intend on remaining if it meant
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shouldering unnecessary risks. he added that his remarks were not the view of the u.s. government. japan understood that the u.s. was in okinawa for the stability of japan and asia but kis hawaii wanted japan to shoulder its own defenses. >> translator: the u.s. likely had no intention of pulling out of okinawa because its military bases were needed to fight the vietnam war. >> he added that mcnamara may have been trying to head off a movement to recall for the return of the u.s. bases. experts from the international atomic energy agency are getting down to work at the nuclear plant in northeastern japan. they're trying to find out how the onagawa plant weathered the the impact of last year's earthquake and tsunami. nhk reports. >> reporter: the experts are turning their attention to the sea wall behind me. they're interested in learning how it is positioned and designed to help protect the
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plant from the tsunami. the experts had focused on the sea wall but looking at several systems at the plant. they checked a heat exchanger at one reactor. and a cooling system that was flooded by the tsunami. the head of the iaea is leading the team. >> i was at fukushima daiichi and i'm here. we've just begun so we're trying to figure out what is the difference. we'll see. as we look at things we' have a better understanding of what could be the difference. >> reporter: iaea experts examined the fukushima daiichi plant last year and checked on
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the progress of decontamination work there. the team at onagawa will go in all three reactors to see how piping and fuel pools performed during the disaster. they plan to release their findings when they finish their work next week. nhk world, onagawa. japanese government officials say radiation levels of the sea off fukushima daiichi are decreasing. they've decided to shrink the no entry zone around the waters of the damaged plant. members of the nuclear disaster task force decreased the zone from the current 20 kilometer radius to 5 kilometers. people who work in the fishing industry in the northeast have been lobbying for the change. they say they need a transfer route closer to the coast to save money and time. task force members say radiation levels are sufficiently low at sea compared to on land. a large part of the 20 kilometer radius around fukushima daiichi is still off limits. the operator of the damaged nuclear plant is spending
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billions because of the accident on the cleanup, on compensation, and on the decommissioning process. tokyo electric power company is barely staying afloat. now the government has effectively brought the utility under state control. it's giving tepco $13 billion. this is part of a restructuring program the utility created in may. the money comes from a state-backed bailout fund. the financial support will help the firm pay for the cost of compensating victims of the nuclear accident and scrapping damaged reactor. the president says the company will try to revitalize itself. he says it will also use the funds to secure a stable supply of energy. >> translator: it's impossible to compare the time frame of this move with other companies that have had injections of public funds. state control is expected to last for quite some time. >> tepco executives are also dealing with rising fuel costs for the utility's thermal plant, plus the government rejected the
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proposal to increase electricity charges by more than 10%. it only approved a hike of 8.5% and told the company to cut costs. residents of the commercial spain's unemployment was the highest in the region hitting a record 24.8%. the latest data for greece are available only for april. 22.5% of greek people were without work in that month. japanese electronics maker, panasonic, has swung into the black in april through june quarter, thanks to cost-cutting efforts. it was the company's first quarterly profit in one and a
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half years. panasonic executives say net came to add about $164 million. sales dropped 6% on the year when calculated in yen. totaling some $23 billion. sales of flat screen tvs continue to decline but massive restructuring of the tv business helped the company to turn around. a spokesperson says panasonic has now returned to a recovery track. japan's top three shipping firms reported better earnings for the april through june quarter. in the same period last year, they suffered heavy losses as result of the earthquake and tsunami. nippon yusen add profit of 61 million. kawasaki had a profit. mitsui's profit was smaller than the earlier year period. that's because of drop in demand
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in europe due to the areas credit crisis. there is speculation iron imports may slow down and this is also casting a shadow over the future of the shipping business. japanese workers are finding construction jobs in areas hit by the march 11 disaster. they are helping push down unemployment rate. internal affairs ministry spokespersons say the job less rate was 3.4%. the number of people without jobs was 2.8 million. people with jobs stood at more than 63 million. the people at labor ministry say job availability rose for a 13th straight month. 82 positions were available for every 100 job seekers. spokespersons say for the labor ministry say jobs in fukushima are improving jobs if those prefectures. with jobs rising is is spending. there was year-on year increase for the fifth straight month of june. gentleman paen internal affairs
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ministry says households of two or more people spent average of $3400 in june. that's up 1.6% from the previous year in yen terms. a lot parj of the rice is put down to new car purchases due to government subsidies for eco-friendly vehicles. the after ranch income of salary earning house hoeltd of more than one person rose by 3.8% to more than $9,000. that marks the sixth straight month of increases. ministry officials say household spending recovered to predisaster levels as the economy gets back on track but they added they will closely watch the figure as they're not sure if the trend will continue once the subsidies lose their effectiveness. here's the latest market figures.
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a swiss soccer player is on his way home from the olympics. the team expelled him for a comment he made on twitter. officials with the swiss olympic team say michele morganella was dismissed due to a tweet he made, shortly after his team lost to south korea. he is the second to be thrown out of the london games over a tweet comment. a greek triple jumper was also expelled. organizers responded to criticism about empty seats at many events. seats are held by sports federations and corporate sponsors. officials began collecting unsold and unused tickets and offering them to the public on-line. they said they are asking the accredit id groups to free up more tickets. u.s. government officials
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criticized chinese leaders for suppressing religious activities. they noted a mark deterioration in the respect and protection of religious freedoms. state department officials released their international religious freedom report. they said chinese authorities placed increased restrictions on religious practice, especially in buddhist monetaries and comments in the tibeten on ton mouse region. a dozen tibetens set themselves on fire and buddhist monks were arrested protesting against the crack down. the report said some died as a result of torture. state department officials said tibeten buddhists in china are not free to ven rate their spiritual leader, the dalai lama. and to repress muslims living in the region even other parts of china is? the shanghai international film
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festival is coming of age. china's annual cinema extravaganza boastes a large line-up of films, local and foreign. it is the kind of international attention the government is keen to attract. but one film this year got little exposure. nhk world reports from shanghai's cultural fringe. >> reporter: the 15th shanghai film festival took place. there were films from cline yaen overseas. there were a host of actors from abroad. the chinese government is keen to develop the festival into a world class event. many films got billing instead of run media. but this greeting was not one of them. it took place in a small cafe. the film is a documentary.
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it tells the story of villages campaigning against the dam project. the title is "walking the green tiger." chinese director shot the film over a period of five years. the province is in southern china. the film focuses on a river and one day officials ordered everyone in the village to relocate. they are going to build a dam. for people suddenly facing the loss of homes and lively hood, the film is a record of how the villagers respond. people in the villages hear
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about the eviction notice. before long, a protest movement is born. simply put, the film is about an awakening, ordinary people realize they have to speak up or lose everything. and it has a happy ending. officials scrap the dam project. civic action is a sensitive subject in china. officials order the director to cut some scenes from the film. afterwards, members of the audience peppered shi with questions. moved by the story of villages speaking out against injustice.
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>> this movie really gives people hope. >> i thought that the government's decision was final. i was surprised that civic action can bring change. >> film organizers gave the film almost no publicity. as a result, the turn-out was low. but shi feels that just being allowed to show the film at the festival was a significant achievement. >> translator: showing the film at the festival means it had the government's approval. i hope to shot film to chinese people at other occasions. the basic solution to all of life's problems is for people to take action for themselves. >> the government has high hopes for the film festival. it is trying to promote the image after modern and open culture.
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a platform for film can also become a stage for social activism. something authorities could not avoid. nhk world, shanghai. >> we're looking at asia's rising economies this week. today we focus on india. nhk world kmen it thor tells us more about one of the fastest growing economies and some of the challenges it faces. shiromi, can you tell us about how the indian government is guiding domestic development and some of their priorities? people are moving into the cities as the economy grows. government ministers say their aim is to build our environment that can accommodate all these people. one government minister told me about a scale of the task. >> well, it is a huge challenge. because today we have about 55 cities with population of more
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than 1 million. in the next, there will be 70 cities with the population of 1 million. we have a huge urban structure deficit. whether in water, in waste management, in sewage. it is in urban roads. this is a huge challenge. and the government is now giving it the highest priority that to get organization to look at suburbanization to see that there is plan development and big trust in infrastructure development in our urban areas. >> how is urban development changing people's lives. >> one example is a subway. when they began operations ten years ago, and lines are still being added. this means that the road congestion is becoming less of a problem. the government is also building a corridor between delhi amumba.
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>> india's urbanization is taking place rapidly. people are moving away from there. rural areas. so we are going to see that as new cities, our cities, better cities, are formed on industrial corridor. it will help in the process of ind why's urbanization. there will be 600 million people living in the urban centers. and it is centers and small towns, small cities, small municipal areas, along the industrial corridor. which will generate economic activity. >> india is not carrying out projects on its own. i believe japan is also involved. >> well, india has a huge market and a young -- they will take
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greater advantage, so they are trying to attract investment and technology from abroad. the japanese government provided technical assistance to help build the sub i have a weigh in delhi and the investment in the delhi mumbai corridor. they are also involved in projects in the western city of kolkata. there are challenges in order to keep the economy growing. the government wants to ensure there is stable supply of food and energy and reduce inflation of poverty as well as modernizing culture. it is one area where holding companies can afford assistance by becoming involved with the urban project. they can improve with their lives of the indians.
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>> thanks for that. nhk world in emerging countries in asia. tomorrow we will focus on myanmar. >> people in japan's northeast are focused on overcoming challenges of the 2011 disaster. but it won't be easy. they have to rebuild homes, businesses, entire communities. well show you their struggles and successes on "the road ahead" every wednesday at 1:00 p.m. japan time, here on "newsline." for an update on the weather forecast, here is mai shoji. mai? >> yes, we have tropical storm systems. one is the severe tropical storm that could become a typhoon any time soon. and in the next 24 hours it could become a strong typhoon as it approaches typhoon. excuse me, a strong typhoon. and it will be packing up winds, earth 162 kph gusts.
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as much as 11 meters high and the coastal size of taiwan so that could create a dangerous conditions and i would advise to you stay way from water and the coastal areas. and sometimes to the rogue waves. it could be even double of that. and the movement is stationary. so it'll be lingering here for a while, which is very bad news, because that will add up the accumulation of rain fall in the next 72 hours, the amount is staggering, and that's enough to create urban flooding conditions. most landslides will be high risk as well in the western seaboards, as well. eight people have died eaffected with this storm already directly and indirectly affecting these areas and 145,000 people have been evacuated already. again, accumulation of rain fall
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will be staggering there. even in okinawa as well. then we have another storm system, which is feeding each other. this is the severe tropical storm which is now moving towards southern kushu and this is bringing up the waves as well. about seven meters high, generally speaking, in and around southern kushu areas and western sea boards as well, about 60 meters possible. rain accumulation could be in the area where the land is still very saturated in kyushu. so let's keep a close eye on this system. the rest of japan will look at very hot and muggy conditions that will be prevailing but in hokaido, this system will bring very haeavy rain at times. in a very short time heavy rain has been reported already. 60 millimeters in an hour could be found in the next 24 hours
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until tornadic activities cannot be ruled out. also a beijing, really heavy rain targeting the area, reflecting in the temperatures at 24 degrees. reaching up to 35 in seoul and 31 in tokyo. moving to the america's, now a couple of areas where the severe weather could target. this is the southeastern area as well as the upper midwest regions. the main threat will be localized heavy rain fall as was gusting winds which could be as much as 90 kph and also a very severe thunderstorms. heat still prevails in the region. a heat dome. take a look at these temperatures, soaring in the 40s. average is just about mid 30s and much of the regions are really for your standards, going to be hot. moving over to the european continent, now we have a storm system coming in to the british isles. you will be targeted about very gusty positions as well.
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but for london, you will look at dry weather on your wednesday and even some sunny on your thursday and friday temperatures not looking bad at all. but the wind will be very strong, especially on your friday. here is your extended forecast. well be back with more updates in 30 minutes.
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i'm gene otani in tokyo.
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