"newsline." i'm gene o tani in tokyo. here's a look at the stories we're following this hour. rescuers are searching for people trapped in buildings. from a towerful tornado that ripped through oklahoma. china is reevaluating their

relationship with north korea. rescuers in the state of oklahoma have been working through the night clearing debris and looking for survivors. a giant tornado levelled homes and schools. at least 51 people are dead, including 20 children. the twister swept through a suburb of oklahoma city. wind speeds are estimated to have reached 300 kilometers per hour. >> i felt something, and it was raining on me and all of that. >> it ripped open the door, and it just was just glass and debris that started slamming on us. we thought we were dead to be honest. >> officials at the oklahoma medical examiners office says they expect another 40 bodies. more than 100 people have been treated for injuries, many of them are children.

u.s. president barack obama called the oklahoma governor to pledge support. nhk world john ellis is now in the hardest hit area of moore. tell us the situation at this time. >> reporter: fran tick search and rescue operations are still under way in the town. i'm here in the parking lot of a hardware store. this is the main staging area for the emergency responders. it's very dark right now, but i can still see the massive damage caused by the tornado. the streets and properties are strewned with uprooted trees, electricity polls, and debris from homes. i'm a block from the plaza elementary school where many children are feared to still be

trapped under the rubble. the building is a chaotic pile of rubble. a large number of soldiers spent the day and night combing through the debris. many residents are being sheltered in a shelter tonight, and no one really knows just as of yet the full scale of the damage in this town. >> that was nhk world's john ellis in oklahoma. president xi jinping will meet u.s. president barack obama next month. it will be their first summit since xi took office in march. the leaders will hold talks on june 7th and 8th in palm springs, california. they're expected to discuss a range of issues that include provocations by north korea and cyber attacks that the u.s. blamed on china.

they same to gain trust and a mutual understanding. >> china and the u.s. disagree over some areas, so we need to settle our differences in a proactive manner. >> xi will also visit trinidad, t tobago. the minister spoke of freezing sanctions to banks. >> china is evolving it's thoughts and stance on north korea. they're trying to play a role in the denuclearization of north korea. >> park geun-hye will visit china to meet xi jinping. yun says he hoped more progress

will be made. >> li keqiang made comments to be a group of students in new delhi where he is on a visit. >> translator: china and india growing closer will bring more influence on the growing economy. that will give developing and emerging nations more power. and that will increase fairness and justice in international society. >> li is on his first official trip at premier. people see his remarks as a chance to bring the nations clother together. he also seems eager to speak on maritime intentions. >> china believes in peaceful growth. and china will keep global peace

forever. >> india is increasingly worried that china's maritime advance will reach the indian ocean. it is also strengthening it's military defenses. pakistan is at the forefront of the u.s. led campaign against terrorism. sharif, the new prime minister, is moving in a different direction with the country's powerful military. nhk reports. his pakistan-muslim lead won a victory in this month's general election. he pledged to improve the precarious security situation.

a key focus of the election was rampant terrorism. during the campaign, sharif said he would try to engage militants in talks. the pakistani taliban based in the northwestern tribal region is the country's largest islamic militant organization. but washington may not agree. the u.s. warns the pakistan

military to aggressively clamp down on militants who are hiding in remote areas and often cross into afghanistan to stage attacks. even as sharif was offering dialogue, the military took a decision on monday that will please washington. it pledged to stop the smuggling of chemical fertilizers to afghanistan. the fertilizers contain ammonium nitrate, an ingredient to make bombs. the u.s. defense department claims fertilizers produced and sold in pakistan are used to produce homemade roadside bombs. on monday the pakistani military met with u.s. officials. they announced a decision to increase the number of soldiers in rural areas and improve

surveillance against fertilizer smuggling. the pakistani military has received large amounts of money from the u.s. observers say the latest move is said to partially aimed at stopping relations with washington from deteriorating further. sharif's policy could create friction there and with the united states. nhk world, islamabad. chinese premier li hu chu another deadly attack has triggers more concern about what happens when international combat forces pull out next year. a powerful bomb killed at least sixth policeman in afghanistan. it occurred when the men ran over explosives buried in the road. the truck was completely destroyed in the incident in herat providence.

there were no survivors. it's the latest in a string of suspected attacks by the taliban aimed at overthrowing the afghan government. insurgents have stepped up ahead of the withdraw scheduled for 2014. u.s. internet firm yahoo announced a deal to by tumblr for $1.1 billion. yahoo officials say the plan to complete the deal by the end of this year, the move comes as yahoo trying to turn itself around under marisa mayer who used to work at google. new york based tumblr helps people make personal webpages or blogs. users post their own images in

writing as if cutting and pasting to a scrapbook. david carp is 26 years old, he founded the company after quitting high school at age of 15. officials from 11 countries are in peru for free trade talks. they're working to reach an accord by the end of this year. she spoke at a business meeting on the sidelines of the tpp talks. she said participants remain divided on several key issues including regulates king key is. >> the job is to get it to the point where there is nothing

left. we have been working as was said to find as much flexibility on as many issues as we can. that is prioritizing the issues that truly matter to us. >> she also said the participating nations are finding ways to ensure that japan can take part of the negotiations as quickly and smoothly as possible. the country is expected to receive approval to join the talks by then. the japanese government plans to attract more tourist from southeast asia by easing requirements by the end of the year. it's part of abe's growth strategy that will be worked out next month. the transport and foreign ministries compiled an interim report on monday. they suggested allowing wealthy

foreign tourists to stay long term. a japanese company has begun using ship building technology using carbon fiber. they say it will help reduce the weight and improve efficiency. the material is stronger than iron and ways a fourth of metal. it has been used in making the latest 787 boeing aircraft. they're hoping to use it on other parts of the ship to improve efficiency by at least 10%. >> we're still doing research, but we believe our project has great potential. we think it will help cut down on the weight of large components.

>> they tame to boost their competitiveness. it has been a rough few months for boeings next generation commercial jet, the 787 boeing airliner. it was grounded after a series of battery problems, a boeing engineers have taken steps to take care of the problem and the jet is back in the skies over the united states. they had their first commercial flight between chicago and houston. >> it is bound to fly again in has been ez ig nated the ua 1 to show it's importance to the airline. >> executives from boeing and united airlines took part in a ceremony before the jet took off. >> it was an expensive sculpture to have on the ground, so we're

delighted to have it up and flying. >> some passengers waiting for is departure expressed preflight jitters. u.s. aviation authorities grounded all 787s in january after a series of problems were found involving the battery system. one 787 had to make an emergency landing in western japan after a battery started to smoke. another 787 battery caught fire at boston's international airport. investigators are trying to identify the exact cause of the problems with the lithium ion batteries, but authorities gave the go ahead for the resumption of flights after they redesigned the battery system and introduced new safety measures. one modification introduced, are these holes to allow any smoke

from the batteries to escape. the boeing, and united airline executives, on monday's flight emphasized their confidence in the plane. they said he understands some passengers may still have concerns, but he said the safety of the plane will not be compromised even if any of the batteries catch fire. >> we got every expert in the world together in a room. we found 946 things that could have been the problem, and we addressed all of them. >> two japanese airlines, japan airlines, will resume flights in june after a series of test flights. boeing and others have a lot riding on the dream liner. now they want to make sure that

travelers will once again put their trust in the jets. >> here are the latest market figures. japanese experts are working to become more competitive in the global at site launch business. they built a new rocket for the first time in 12 years.

they will launch the epsilon on august 22nd. it's a solid fuel rocket 24 meters long and 2.5 meters in diameter. that's about half the side of h2a. costs will be cut to $37 million, or a third of that of the h 2 a. officials have confirmed that a woman died from a bite of a tick last year. the tick reportedly bit the woman on her neck. this is the first time authorities have found sfts in south korea. the symptoms are high fever and diarrhea. it lives mainly outdoors in the mountains and grass. it's different to the ticks found in homes. health authorities are advising

people to wear long sleeves and pants outside. 50 people have been infected since 2005, eight of them died. hollywood actress angelina jolie's decision to come out and admit she had a double mastecto mastectomy. jolie says she carries a particular gene that increases her risk of developing breast canc cancer. her mother died of breast cancer at the age of 56. doctors estimates she had an 87%

of getting the disease. it has now been reduce todd 5%. women in japan are less prone to developing breast cancer than women in the united states. but the number of people diagnosed with having breast cancer has increased six times in the last 30 years. it's estimated that 5 to 10% of breast cancer is caused by inherited genes. in japan, prevent i have surgery is not as common. japanese are resistant to operations when their bodies are healthy. >> it's scary to under go the surgery unless i'm 100% sure i have cancer. >> translator: rather than spending many years with anxiety, i would have a mastectomy before i develop cancer.

>> two hospitals in tokyo are performing surgery on women that carry the genes. the summary has been improving. doctors are able to oeshl without leaving as noticeable scars as before. some japanese experts are still cautious. they say there is not enough data showing the procedure better the mortality rate. there are no guidelines of who should be screened for the test. they want to help patients understand the risks of the disease and treatment. >> a decision for the surgery cannot be made in a short period

of time. we must create a good system to help patients make their decisions. >> the announcement has helped raise awareness about breast cancer prevention. but it could still be a long time before preventive surgery is an option by many in japan. africa, a continent of promise and plunder. more than a billion people in 50 countries form a culture ra mosaic. it's a source of economic growth and conflict. "newsline" is looking at the challenges and the opportunities on this continent in the lead up to an international conference in tokyo. don't miss our coverage starting may 27. we have more on the tornado

that struck the u.s. this time with meteorologist robert speta. >> we are continuing to watch the severe weather event still going on and outbreaking here across much of the central u.s. i want to take a look back here because rain now, we still have this cloud cover forming under oklahoma city. let's take a look at the radar image from earlier in the day. and you can really see it here, on the imagery. this is at 15:06 p.m. you have that wrapping around effect. it shows the sigh colonic circulation is pulling in and the updraft and moisture and mail wrapping around, and this is also debris amist this cloud here. now the stlaet not so much here any more.

it's shifting to the east, thankfully. we're going to keep seeing this tornado threat, but farther down here toward the east. we have cool air to the north, about a 20 degree difference between these two air masses. and this is where they're clashing, right here. golf ball-sized hail. and flash flood watches and warnings around the river. so this is adding to that as this storm develops, pushes here, and into wednesday, severe weather risks across much of the northeast. oklahoma city, houston, you're under the risk of strong storms, chicago as well. some of this could be severe. even as we look over toward the florida peninsula. we had a fatality here on monday due to a tree falling on a car.

and some rain reports outside of miami. so severe weather, it's isolated, but we're still at risk. let's look at eastern asia. it has been coming down here in the last several weeks alone. we will continue to watch this stationary boundary linger here. it is extending over the southern japanese islands as well. let's look at the last week of rainfall. we have seen upwards of about five to 600 millimeters of rain. this is causing serious flooding. i want to show you this footage in southern china here. this is in guangdong province. water rose to one meter running into many homes and roads here. but the town received more than 200 millimeters of rain on

sunday. it caused the river to burst over the banks. local authorities are warning against landslides. it's going to be dangerous as the story continues to develop. 100 to 200 meters of rain cannot be ruled out. tropics and afternoon storms blowing up here. to the north, it looks like some nice weather across much of korea and over towards japan here. partly cloudy skies and tokyo. that is a look at your world weather, here is your extended forecast.

that's "newsline" for this hour. for all of us here at nhk world, thank you for joining us.

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