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tv   Newsline  KCSMMHZ  June 11, 2013 6:00am-6:31am PDT

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welcome to nhk world "newsline." i'm gene otani in tokyo. here's a look at some of the stories we're following this hour. >> turkish police fire tear gas and water cannons at protesters on a square in istanbul. astronauts aboard a chinese space craft blast off and head for an experimental laboratory orbiting the the earth.
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and japan's best bmx bike rider has been tearing down the track for the world championships. at 14 she's already racing to become number one in the world. riot police in turkey moved in on protesters occupying a square in istanbul. the protesters fought back. the demonstrations started as a push to save a city park but have spread to reflect a growing anger toward government. police moved barricades set up by the demonstrators and they fired tear gas and water cannons to disburse the crowds. the demonstrators retaliated. police say they won't advance to nearby gezi park where protesters have put up tents and camping out. protesters are protesting against what they call prime minister recep tayyip erdogan's government.
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istanbul governor said police took action because the demonstrations were giving the world a bad impression of the city. analysts say the turkish government is worried the unrest will hurt istanbul's bid to host the 2020 summer olympics and have a negative impact on the economy. nhk world was in the thick of things in istanbul. we spoke earlier about the day's events and what's ahead. >> riot police moved in around 7:30 in the morning. and after almost eight hours, clash is still continuing. maybe you can see black smoke coming out just behind me. police are using tear gas and water cannons to disburse the crowds. protesters wearing gas masks responded by throwing rocks and fire bombs. a police vehicle was even caught in fire. the protesters are gathering again in square. the tension here in taksim square is still very high. prime minister erdogan said he will meet on wednesday with protest leaders.
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today, he delivered a speech in parliament. and he said he will listen to demands presented in the democratic manner. however, he also stressed that he will not allow this kind of demonstrations that is happening now. the nationwide movement began as a local protest against the government's plans to redevelop a park. excessive police oppression has helped expand the scale of the unrest. after what happened here today, the demonstrators are calling for -- protests will likely deepen. >> that was kohei in istanbul. chinese leaders are further long in their race to get a better position in space. they've launched another manned spacecraft. it's the country's fifth such mission. astronauts will conduct docking tests with a prototype space station.
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inland china. officials say the craft has entered its planned orbit. three astronauts are on board, two men and one woman. they will conduct docking tests with the module. chinese president xi jinping entered the launch to encourage the crew. state television broadcast the launch across the country and around the world. it will be china's longest manned space mission. government officials in beijing have had their sights set on space for many years. they started their man mission in 1992. eleven years later the chinese successfully launched their first spacecraft. then in 2008 one of their astronauts walked in space for the first time.
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china launched a prototype space station three years later. they succeeded in docking their craft with the station. only crews from the u.s. and russia have pulled off this feat. government officials from western nations are concerned about china's space program mainly because the military plays a big role. the facility in the gobe desert was originally built to test fire missiles. the military effectively screens astronauts and trains them. and it develops the rocket used to go into space. u.s. defense officials say people's liberation army strategist see the ability to use space and deny rivals access as central to a neighboring modern warfare. they've said their manned spacecraft project is only for peaceful purposes only. analysts have been mapping out china's space strategy to see how it fits with the country's overall goals, and they've been
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looking at the timing of this mission. >> translator: space development entails a major military role, and it's important to grow. china is playing up it's comprehensive military role over wide areas ranging from deep seas to outer space and cyberspace. >> he says it's no coincidence china launched the manned spacecraft right after president xi's summit with president obama. >> translator: china has already surpassed the u.s. in terms of number of rocket launches. china already reached a very high level quantititively and kwa kwaltively. it's catching up with the u.s. really fast. >> chinese leaders are planning to build their own space station. they hope to have it up and running by around the year 2020. efforts to revive relations on the korean peninsula have hit
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a snag. talks with the counterparts in the north have been canceled. meetings were scheduled for wednesday and thursday. a spokesperson for the south korean unification ministry says north korean officials called to announce they would not be sending delegates to the talks. >> representatives of both nations agreed last week to meet. officials in seoul wanted the north to send a top negotiator who is in charge of interkorean relations, but authorities in pyongyang refused. that's why the south koreans downgraded the level of their delegate. if the talks happen, both sides want to discuss a number of issues including the reopening
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of a jointly run industrial complex and a tourism destination. japan's central bank policymakers have decided to make tan their bold monetary easing measures. their aim is unchanged. bank of japan board members made the unanimous decision at a two-day policy meeting that ended on tuesday. the officials also upgraded their economic assessment for the sixth month in a row. they say japan's exports have improved amid ongoing economic recovery in the u.s. and elsewhere. japanese consumer spending has remained resilient and corporate capital investment is bottoming out. policymakers are likely to have discussed how markets reacted to the monetary easing measures in april. long-term interest rates have surged and share prices in the
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valley of the yen have fluctuated. let's check out the markets. japan's nikkei fell after the policy meeting. the nikkei slipped 1.45% to finish at 13,317. many investors seem to have been disappointed. the central bank didn't come up with strong measures to respond to recent bond market fluctuations. and japan's long-term interest rates turned volatile after the b.o.j. meeting. the yield on the benchmark 10-year government bond swung between the 0.85 and 0.88 levels during the day. it closed at 0.88%. at the beginning of april the jgb yield touched a record low of 0.315% just after the b.o.j. announced bold monetary easing measures. in may, it once surged to 1%. and b.o.j. governor says central bank policymakers didn't see any immediate need to introduce new measures to keep long-term interest rates down.
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>> translator: the bank will continue to carefully watch long-term interest rate movements. a sharp increase in volatility is not welcome. we will maintain our efforts to minimize wide fluctuations. >> he also said the b.o.j.'s massive government bond purchases have proved effective in holding interest rates down. he noted that long-term interest rate fluctuations have been easing as a result of the bank's flexible bond buying operations. the government said the economy has been recovering steadily. he predicted that the markets would gradually regain calm in response to the improvement in the real economy. for insight into the b.o.j.'s latest announcement, we spoke with a senior market economist at the bank of tokyo bfj.
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>> they have not changed their policies. people are recognizing that the current b.o.j. policy is incredibly accommodative and frankly i don't think that we need further additional policy easing. however, i think the participants expected further easing. so a little fragile due to these expectations. yen appreciation or equity markets may force people to think of further easing. however, this fragile market movement was coming from i think international environment, particularly so other u.s. monetary policies. for example, market movement in u.s. prices -- equity prices in
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the sector are very fragile. so people saw no movement for that result. it's fragile market movement. the situation will be changing if -- moves and they will wait for outcome of federal reserve move. next meeting will be held in july. that date u.s. will have additional gdp data second quarter. it will be difficult for the reserve to move. my guess is their move will be happening in september. competition in the video game market is going to heat up this year. sony has just unveiled a low-priced playstation. it's the company's first new model in seven years.
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the play station 4 with the sleek new black body has been introduced by sony computer entertainment ahead of the world's biggest game industry exhibition. the electronic entertainment expo will open in los angeles on tuesday. the play station 4 is scheduled to go on sale for $$399 in the united states in time for the year-end shopping season. it has a touch panel users can operate with fingertips. it's also equipped with the function that enables many others to observe games and progress through the internet with the touch of button. rival microsoft rolled out its new machine xbox 1 on the same day. it would carry a price tag of $499 and go on sale in november. executives at electronics giant hitachi say they've inked a deal.
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hitachi will deliver trains, tickets machines and signaling systems as part of the $370 million deal. the 19-kilometer railway line will open in hochiminh city. hitachi is also actively pursuing this kind of work elsewhere in the world. it signed a contract last year with the british government to build and maintain 600 train carriages. spokespersons say revenue from overseas projects accounts for 30% of the company's rail business. the plan is to double that over the next three years. reformist groups in iran are now rallying behind one candidate ahead of friday's presidential election. and they're hoping voters will do the same. a high profile contender has dropped out of the race to replace outgoing leader mahmoud
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ahmadinejad. he said he respects reformist calls for a single candidate. his exit means they'll now be able to poll their support for rahni. a negotiator under the former president. he has gained support from voters dissatisfied with the government. rahni wants better relations with the west. they're coming under intense pressure from security authorities. conservative hard line candidates close to supreme leader homini are leading in the polls. also are reportedly considering ways to consolidate their support base. the united nations warns that the state of security in afghanistan is deteriorating. the special representative for the u.n. secretary general in afghanistan held a press conference in kabul on tuesday. the number of children and civilians killed in fighting in
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terrorist attacks is increasing. he says in the period from january to the beginning of this month the number of civilian casualties has increased 24% over the same period last year. the number of children killed has sharply increased. anti-government militants have attacked facilities of international groups such as the international committee of the red cross and international organization for migration. cuba slammed such tactics saying that the organizations are not involved in fighting and supports suffering people. the majority of foreign troops are scheduled to withdraw from afghanistan by the end of 2014 when they will hand security over to local forces. cuba says the anti-government forces are launching attacks in an effort to show that the international forces are not capable of providing security. he also expressed his concern that the situation may
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deteriorate more ahead of the election scheduled for next year. more people are signing a petition calling for an ex-cia whistleblower to be pardoned. snowden released details of a top secret u.s. surveillance program to gather phone records and monitor internet data. his whereabouts have been unknown since he checked out of a hotel in hong kong. "the guardian" in britain and "the washington post" reported on sunday that snowden agreed to disclose his identity as the source of the leaks. the newspapers first published details of the programs last week. snowden told "guardian" journalists in hong kong that he believes the programs destroy the privacy of people all over the world. the petition for his pardon was created on sunday at a white house website that allows petitions for various issues. he received more than 34,000 electronic signatures in one day. says snowden is a national hero and should get a full pardon.
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the obama administerministratio defended t defended the program. you take some hard knocks at the top of a sport like bicycle motorcycle bmx are official olympic event. japan's best rider and best medal hope is a young girl. she has won the title in her age group for two years in a row. >> she's -- this girl is 14 years old. all she ever wanted to do was race bmx. she has made a name for herself for her powerful jumps. they're as strong as those of much bigger males.
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>> translator: it's fun to pull off a big jump or clock a better time. that's really why i ride. >> sae has been on a bike since before she remembers. she started racing bmx in her brother's footsteps. by age 4 she was practicing on racetracks. she won race after race in local competitions after entering elementary school. she then started racing internationally. she has three world titles so far. >> translator: i want to be the world's fastest racer in women's bmx. >> her family is backing her dream. sae's father tunes her i didn't
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mean to every day. >> translator: do you feel lighter today? you must be in good shape. >> her mother works part-time so sae has the funds to race abroad. >> translator: she's putting her whole self into the sport. i'll do anything i can to support her. i want to accompany her to overseas races too. >> when it comes to rivals, sae has no equal in japan. but she still needs to improve if she's to be a serious threat in women's open competition abroad. one of her trainers was a coach for the japan bmx squad at the on this day he's working on her jumps. >> translator: it's tricky. just ten or 15 centimeters in
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where you take off makes a huge difference in how far you can jump. >> sae practices over and over so her muscles remember the timing. >> translator: she never hesitates. she gets up her courage and just jumps, even in places where it's pretty frightening to do so. but she's got the momentum. i want to send her to the 2020 olympics. >> a national bmx championship was held in osaka last month. sae led from the start. she held off her opponents. and she won overwhelmingly. but she was not satisfied with
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her performance. what went wrong? this is her first jump. she loses her balance. with a clean jump she would have gone a lot faster. >> translator: i wish i'd done better. that's why i want to keep up my tough training. my dream is to take part in the olympics and to race in the u.s. as a pro. >> as long as sae continues to jump, her dreams look firmly within grasp. >> sae will aim for her third consecutive title at the world championships to be held in new zealand in july. it's been raining in tokyo as tropical storm yagi looms in southern japan.
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meteorologist robert speta has more on the developments. robert. >> we are continuing to watch this storm here. it's still pulling off towards the north, just south of japan here. we did see those showers near the coastal areas of japan partly due to the tropical storm. also the rainy season front still lingering across the area now going into wednesday though that's where we're really going to start to see the inflow from this tropical system as it does pull off to the north. look at the track and right now it's actually slowed down quite a bit throughout the day. earlier we were seeing this move about 35 kilometers per hour, starting to really slow its pace because it is pushing into that stationary boundary of high pressure just to the north. that's going to act to block it. with that said you can see the track here. this is over the next several days. it just starts to meander here just towards the west of the islands. the problem with that is not the fact of the winds. we don't expect tropical storm strength winds to really hit the mainland here, but it's just the rainfall. it's going to start to wrap around the front of this storm system. it's going to be -- remember
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this counterclockwise motion pushing waves up here about three to four meters high in some areas. but also you're going to be seeing heavy rainfall. toki region, there is the risk of flooding as the system does continue to linger. and then gradually dissipates off. right now we're seeing about max intensity with this as far as the winds, pressure's gradually going to rise and you're going to see a weaker system definitely by the end of the workweek. look to the west, southeastern china seeing rainfall, about 50 to 100 millimeters expected in the next 24 hours. taiwan, northern portions of taiwan, you saw about 90 millimeters in just the past day. there's going to be that risk of flooding still. even some landslides as that continues to lipger, hong kong expect thunderstorms throughout the next several days. manila, you've been seeing thunderstorms throughout this evening. that's expected. rainy season now in full swing here. and you're definitely through the afternoon hours, so the daytime heating trigger up the storms. taipei at 30. beijing and chongqing high 20s
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to low 30s. sunny skies for you. tokyo, rain showers and also cloudy skies. so it's going to be a little bit cooler as well, but muggy 23 expected here on your wednesday. take a look towards the americas. well, what's going on here today is the severe weather as we go through the day on tuesday especially through the afternoon hours here as well you have a low pressure area starting to come in out of the rockies. what that's going to do is drive some cooler air towards the east, collide with this really just above average temperatures been lingering across this area. could be seeing some golf ball size hail very well possible, winds up and over 100 kilometers per hour. tornado threat with this one as well, but the main threat is going to be those damaging straight line winds as this does continue to push off there towards the east. another thing that's going to be triggering up this rough weather is dry air down towards the south. desert southwest, you're still under some fire weather possible here throughout the next several days right around the four corners regions. keep an eye on that. this storm system, another problem with it as we go into wednesday and thursday, you really have been getting hit by
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heavy rain in the northeast. that's going to bring another shot of rain showers out here really up the risk of flooding. talk about risk of flooding, here in central europe you've just been seeing historical floods. you have to go back to the middle ages in some areas here to compare it up with the floods you have just been seeing here recently. well, you don't want anymore rain. upper level low starting to spin over the area, good news is pushing off towards the east. still seeing thunderstorms into the balkans peninsula. high pressure in behind it and then the low pressure area starts to come in from the west. across the british isles some showers, wednesday evening into london and paris. temperatures cooling off. only 17 expected on wednesday in london. that's a look at world weather. here's your extended forecast.
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that's "newsline" for this hour. i'm gene otani in tokyo. from all of us here at nhk
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world, thanks for joining us. have a great day wherever you are.
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hello from above. the tokyo sky tree that opened about a year ago is garnering much attention in japan. just look at this view. or lack there of. it was cloudy on the opening day. but not to worry. one can enjoy this tower with one's ears, not just the eyes. what, you ask? this soup curry is the key. >> translator: the spices have an awakening event. >> awakening spices? tell me more.

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