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. the former u.s. intelligence contractor wanted for espionage is seeking asylum in ecuador. >> chinese dissident slammed authorities. and officials from one of the most ancient cities are trying to master the tea ceremony. they are learning it's not as

easy as it looks. the man who has threatened u.s. government surveillance practices is trying to get to ecuador to seek asylum. american authorities want former national security agency contractor edward snowden on espionage charges. he revealed nsa agents collected private phone and internet data at home and abroad. snowden arrived in moscow sunday, and left the night at an airport hotel. russian media report he had finished boarding procedures. the flight left on monday but there was no confirmation that snowden was on board. leaders in ecuador say they will consider helping him whenever he arrives. >> translator: our government is prepared to accept snowden's request for asylum and is considering how to proceed. >> ecuadorian president, rafael correida, is a leftist

politician, who is anti-u.s., his government granted the founder of wikileaks asylum last year. british police arrested julian assange on suspicion he assaulted two women. he's been staying at the ecuadorian embassy in london. u.s. officials are calling on governments not to allow edward snowden to enter their countries. they say his american passport has been revoked and is invalid. people in hong kong and china have shown a keen interest in the story. media have focused on keeping them informed. the apple daily in hong kong says the issue has set off a new cold war over cyber attacks. the newspaper said it will inevitably undermine u.s./china relations. the story broke in june, before president barack obama and xi jinping had talks. the global times in china reported on their front page that snowden had left abruptly.

left chinese leaders have made it clear they will not use snowden as a bargaining chip. the experts say china hopes to prevent incidents like this from affecting ties with the united states. >> chinese dissident spoke in taiwan and said china pressured new york university into cutting his job as visiting research fellow. the school and the chinese government deny the claim. >> translator: authorities are reacting sharply and precisely because we're following the right path in the fight for human rights. they will never be able to silence us using these kinds of methods. >> chen spoke in taiwan where he is on a visit with his wife and children. he declined to comment on future projects but said it would be natural for him to return to china.

a spokesperson responded. >> translator: every chinese citizen has an obligation to comply with our country's institution and our laws and to refrain from undermining state's interests. the spokesperson said china's foreign ministry will be monitoring media reports on his visit in taiwan. people in south africa and around the world are worrying about the health of nelson mandela. the former president is in critical condition, fighting a lung infection. doctors say his health has deteriorated. mandela is 94 years old. he entered a hospital in pretoria more than two weeks ago. at the time doctors said his condition was serious. president jacob zuma visited mandela on tuesday and spoke with the medical team. >> former president mandela remains in critical condition in hospital. the doctors are doing everything

possible to ensure his well-being and comfort. >> zuma asked people in south africa and elsewhere to pray. mandela has had lung problems for decades, since being imprisoned during the apartheid era. in 1993 he was awarded the nobel peace prize for having led the movement to abolish racial segregation. he became the country's first black president in 1994 and worked towards reconciliation. mandela retired from active politics in 1999 but continued to mediate throughout africa. emerging economic powers still struggling with poverty. emboldened citizens still demanding democracy. the push for peace and shadow of conflict. get news live from bangkok only

on nhk "newsline." more than 1,000 people are believed to be dead from landslides in northern india. rescue workers are struggling to reach survivors with the rain forecast to continue this week. >> monsoon season started earlier. this year's rainfall has been more intense than usual. predicting the death toll will rise above 1,000. bad weather is hampering rescue efforts. army officials suspended operations on monday due to reduced visibility. more than 10,000 people including pilgrims and tourists remain stranded at hindu religious sites. parts of the state have been cut off for days after landslides severed communications. officials say people in isolated mountain areas have to deal with cold temperatures at night and shortages of food. trade within asean linking nations on the indochina

peninsula. the network includes the southern economic corridor which runs 1100 kilometers from bangkok to ho chi minh city. nhk traveled along a 700-kilometer section to see the changes coming down the road. >> reporter: large trucks jump. providing local businesses with the chance to expand their need. this factory outside of bangkok belongs to a major japanese food manufacturer. the company can use the corridor to transport its seasoning products across the border to cambodia. phnom penh is about 700 kilometers away. the road used to be narrow with

only one each way. it was improved nine years ago with construction of a central divide. four hours after leaving the factory we arrive at the border. there's a long wait to pass through customs. drivers kill time by the roadside. inside cambodia the first town we come to is poipet. the highway has brought dramatic changes to this once isolated town. shops are crowded with people and imported goods such as alcohol and accessories. >> translator: i never imagined poipet would be a thriving town like this. this area used to be a jungle.

>> reporter: a new driver takes over for the next 400 kilometers to phnom penh. the road in cambodia is pitted with holes. at least for now there are no street lamps. the road is pitch black after sunset except for the glow of headlights. that doesn't deter some brave drivers. >> translator: driving in this darkness isn't easy. sometimes the car in front stops suddenly. some vehicles don't even have brake lights. >> reporter: 12 hours after crossing the border we are

arrive in phnom penh at 2:00 the next morning. he stops the truck by a packing facility and takes a nap. he waits for morning when the factory opens and unloads the seasonings. this is just one of our seven trips he makes each month. >> translator: sometimes i become sleepy at the wheel or find it hard to drive. i'm relieved to deliver the goods safely. >> reporter: seasonings have traveled a long way along the corridor and are packed and shipped to consumers in cambodia. the route is changing the way goods are distributed, but as more companies use it, so the need for improvement also grows.

nhk world, phnom penh. the japanese government has decided to terminate a currency swap agreement with south korea, which expires on july 3rd. the two countries allowed to exchange the japanese yen and south korean yuan up to $3 billion at a time of crisis. it's designed to provide liquidity. government officials from the two countries have been discussing an extension of the deal, but south korean officials decided to drop their request. japan has a separate agreement with south korea. under that accord japan could exchange up to $10 billion with the south korean currency. officials say this agreement will remain effective until it expires in february 2015. two years ago japan expanded the scope of the swap program as an emergency measure following the european debt crisis, but since then the amount has been reduced

because of strained bilateral relations stemming from a territorial dispute. a japanese government tax panel has started discussions on ways to tackle corporate tax evasion. members of the tax commission have held their first meetings since shinzo abe became prime minister. >> translator: we need to carry on discussions while striking a balance between sustained domestic demand-led growth and fiscal consolidation. >> the panel members started discussing the issue of tax evasion by multinational corporations that transfer profits to subsidiaries and countries with low tax rates. the issue had been among the main topics at a group of eight summit last week. the commission also plans to take up the issue of imposing consumption taxes for downloading electronic contents through the internet. these taxes are charged on purchases from domestic online retailers while those from

overseas are not. now a quick look at what's happening on the global economic front this week. first, new u.s. home sales for may will be out on tuesday. april sales showed a 2.3% gain from the previous month. also, in the united states a final reading of first quarter gdp will be released on wednesday. an earlier report showed the u.s. economy expanding at an annual pace of 2.4% between january and march. on thursday european union leaders will gather in brussels for a two-day summit. the top officials in the region are expected to discuss ways to create jobs for young people and also to prevent cross-border tax evasion. and in japan two key economic indicators for may will come out on friday. they are the consumer price index and the industrial production index. in april the cpi fell 0.4% from a year earlier while the production index picked up 0.9% from march. here are the latest market figures.

voters have handed the japanese prime minister a boost ahead of an election for the upper house of the diet. shinzo abe's liberal democratic party won a victory in voting for the tokyo metropolitan assembly. candidates were competing for 127 seats. the liberal democrats won 59. their coalition partners in new komeito was 23. that was enough to gain the majority. all the candidates in the coalition won the races, but

fewer than half of eligible voters turned out. still, the liberal democrats hope their support will lead to similar fortunes in the uper house election next month. >> translator: the results show we gain a good reputation of running the government over the past six months. >> officials hope voters in the upr house election will realize what they've done for the economy. earlier we asked our senior political commentator what helped the ldp win in tokyo. he has been tracking elections in japan for years. >> japanese voters seem sold on prime minister shinzo abe's economic policies. you know, he has spent the past six months pushing his anti-deflation strategy of monetary easing, and growth strategy in order to spark private investment. the results show that japanese

voters in tokyo support abe's plan and feel that it could help the economy recover. another factor that gave the ldp the upper hand is the opposition. the democratic party and the other party did not make a sfrong showing. while the result of the tokyo assembly election will have a great impact on the outcome of the next month upper house election i think. the japan's diet is divided. the ruling coalition led by the ldp has a majority in the lower house, but the opposition control the upper house. prime minister shinzo abe often faces deadlock when he tries to pass bills. so he wants to have a majority in the upper house so he can push his policies forward. you know, the victory in the tokyo assembly election gets him closer to realizing that goal, i think. >> japanese politicians are

playing catch-up when it comes to social media. lawmakers recently lifted a ban on internet campaigning. >> politicians gathered for a crash course this month in online campaigning. up until now candidates were restricted during election periods in making direct appeals to voters. but under the revised election law passed in april, internet campaigning is permitted. >> translator: we want to involve as many people as we can. >> prime minister abe has pushed his ruling liberal democratic party to adopt social networking. ldp members are pouring energy and resources into the new media. this lower house member has one of the largest online followings. he says politicians have no time to waste building an internet presence. >> if you don't have many people reading your blog today, you cannot expect many people are going to be reading your blog in

a month. >> the ruling party is also creating its own software application. it will deliver information and campaign agendas of candidates who are otherwise not so well-known. >> if we could send out focused message, maybe some constituency become willing to go to the polling station. for the young voters it's a good way to get more information and think about actually voting for somebody. >> in another strategy, the opposition democratic party is holding online debates. it wants voters to participate. the co-leader of the japan restoration party with more than one million followers, the party urges candidates to get online. >> translator: if you can pick up unaffiliated voters in their

20s, 30s or 40s,ould very well win an election with such a margin. >> the political group called your party also makes use of facebook and other tools. party members arranged a contest calling for ideas for regulatory reform. want to filter the enormous amount of information on the internet known as big data to try to learn exactly where people's dissatisfaction lies, however such information is only truly useful if the voter reveals in which electorate he or she lives. >> what we are interested is if the voices or messages coming from social network service to your party is linked to where

they are by the location service then that may be helpful because we would know where we have strong support. >> professor of major university participated in barack obama's campaigns both in 2008 and 2012. he says in the u.s. data collected on the internet is used for door-to-door canvassing and other activities. despite japan's law, restrictions remain. >> unfortunately, in japan canvassing is prohibiting. so young people can use the internet, but i don't think a lot of young people will go to vote in this election. face-to-face is more important. >> by using the internet, politicians can now reach more

voters more easily than ever before. but we may have to wait for the upper house elections to see if this changes voters' thinking. >> the best-known animated film director in japan is about to release his long-awaited next movie. hayao miyazaki award winning works include princess and spirited away. the wind is rising focuses on the life of a boy who experienced the 1923 earthquake in tokyo and world war ii. he was the chief designer of the zero plane used by japanese pilots in the war. he wanted to depict the inner struggles of a man who lived through tough times. the director says he doesn't intend to retell history or inform people what the war was about. >> translator: we must do our

best in life, even a long life is a short life. the message is to make the best of every moment. >> anime fans have been waiting for five years for the film. his last release was the box office on the cliff by the sea. fans of the late-japanese artist foujita will soon have a chance to see two of his works never before exhibited. the tokyo-born painter moved to paris in 1913 and mixed with artists including picasso. foujita's works often feature milky white features. he produced the newly revealed oil paintings in his later years. he painted serene in 1952. it's based on greek mythology and shows adult and child mermaids. foujita produced the other works grotesque three years later. it features a woman lying on her back surrounded by figures with

distorted faces. >> translator: you can find hidden messages about christianity, mythology and other things in these works. they show a new dimension of foujita's art. >> the paintings will be on display at an art museum near tokyo beginning next month. for the latest in weather, we have rachel ferguson. rachel. >> hi there. we'll go into eastern asia and talk first about the heavy rain that's been impacting southern china and into northern portions of indochina. now, there is of course the southwest monsoon going on at the moment. but in addition we have what was a tropical storm which is now a tropical depression which has been really adding to the rainfa rainfall. some places getting up to 227 millimeters of rain in the last 24 hours. as the storm decreases we'll see significant rainfall in the next day or two. another 150 millimeters is not

out of the question. further across the northern in eastern portions of china coming into western japan more heavy rain off of this stationary front as well. and that's really going to up concerns for flooding in these places. as for the rest of japan, you can see that blue coming in as we head on into tuesday. it's really going to be quite unstable. so thunderstorms during the afternoon and evening hours through much of the country a possibility into wednesday. i want to take you to india, which has also been dealing with extremely heavy rain. that's been causing all sorts of problems. people stranded, thousands of people, pilgrims, stranded in the himalayas. and in the northern portions of the country as well. we have reports of about 600 fatalities because of the heavy rain and unfortunately it keeps going. into the next 72 hours you're seeing popping up in the orange and red, we're talking upwards of 150, 200 millimeters of rain.

a very, very situation ongoing here. all right. into the americas and more rain. we have a tropical storm which has just formed, cosme, the good news is it's going to be heading out away from the mainland. it's not expected to cause a big problem although it is expected to become a hurricane. you can see it pulling away from mexico here. the outer bands though are going to be bringing significant rain, maybe about 100 millimeters in the next 24 to 48 hours for portions of southwestern mexico. more heavy rain and severe storms across the northern plains and down in towards the great lakes region. flash flooding is possible from wisconsin into iowa and down into northern portions of illinois as well. could get 100 to maybe 150 -- 50 to 100 i'm afraid, sorry, millimeters of rain in the next 24 hours. and that could definitely cause some flash flooding, which is very serious stuff indeed.

staying unstable untowards the northwest all the way down into northern california for the next couple of days. meanwhile critical fire weather, no rain, very low humidity, gusty winds and the heat in the four corners. all right. on into europe we go and more storms here. severe ones have been interrupting in northern portions of the balkans and we're expecting heavy rain, possibly flooding rain as parts of poland, chezech are public i very unstable. this coming downright towards the south is clashing with the heat coming up from northern africa. 37 in athens. we've got 30 in madrid. 38 in lisbon. as the temperatures drop off you can see the difference there. 14 degrees in vienna. this is where we're really going to see the violent storms breaking out. here's your extended forecast.

that's "newsline" for this hour, i'm gene otani in tokyo.

♪ built over 600 years ago, the haguro five story pagoda is said to be the tallest in the area. even when shaken by the 9.0 magnitude great east japan earthquake, it did not collapse. it remains standing to this day. on february the 22nd, 2011, less