the edge over japan while forging closer ties to other asian countries. nhk world, beijing. the united states has added to its sanctions list a north korean bank and it's affiliate firm. u.s. officials say they're supporting pyongyang's development of ballistic missiles and weapons of mass destruction. a treasury department announced on thursday that it's sanctioning daedong credit bank and its finance company. the front company's representative kim chol sam is also included. they're prohibited from conducting financial transactions with u.s. businesses and any assets in the u.s. will be frozen. the latest sanctions follow a u.s. ban in march on north

korea's foreign exchange institution ftb, the foreign trade bank, from doing business with u.s. companies. treasury officials stress they will put more pressure on north korea through financial spngs they say pyongyang appears to be toning down its provocations but it's still engaged in missile development. military commanders in egypt say they're ready for the worst. their troops are on stand by in case anti-government protests turn violent. opponents of president mohamed morsi are marking his first year in office by renewing their call for his resignation. the protesters believe morsi is to blame for the deteriorating economy and worsening security situation. they're expected to clash with supporters of the president. both sides are calling for rallies starting on friday. they took power and replaced hosni mubarak who left office after widespread demonstrations. officials from the muslim

brotherhood maintain most egyptian support his leadership. >> we believe that the majority egyptian, they are supporting the democratic process. >> but some of morsi's critics say he's done nothing right. >> translator: morsi has broken his promise with the people. he has divided egyptians. there's no justice if morsi stays in power. >> the leaders of the coalition of groups who oppose morsi have pledged to continue their demonstrations until he quits. security forces have put concrete barricades and shipping containers in front of the presidential palace in cairo. military commanders say they've mobilized their troops to protect the public and safeguard government buildings. our nhk crew has seen a tank regiment deployed in the suburbs of the egyptian capital. u.s. president barack obama says he won't intervene directly

in the edward snowden affair. he says he shouldn't have to call foreign leaders to ask them to help american authorities arrest the former intelligence contractor on espionage charges. snowden is hiding in a transit area of the moscow airport. >> i'm not going to have one case of a suspect who we are trying to extradite suddenly being elevated to the point where i've got to start doing wheeling and dealing and trading on a whole host of other issues. >> obama argue you'd regular legal channels should be enough to handle the u.s. request to extradite snowden. he said russia or countries that have been talking about providing snowden asylum should abide by international law. snowden worked as a contractor for the national security agency. he revealed earlier this month that nsa agents collect private phone and internet data at home and abroad. he flew to the moscow airport

sunday from hong kong. president vladimir putin said he won't extradite him because the u.s. and russia don't have that type of agreement. snowden has requested asylum in ecuador. the defense chiefs of japan and the philippines have agreed to cooperate more closely. they want to counter china's growing maritime activity. defense minister itsunori onodera met with the minister in the philippines. several ships have approached the senkaku islands in the east china sea. japan controls the islands but china and taiwan claim them. defense chiefs also talked about a dispute between the philippines and china. both countries claim the spratly islands in the south china sea. >> translator: we agreed that these issues should be resolved under the rule of law.

>> onodera said there's concern that events in the south china sea could spill over into the east china sea. >> we are very happy to note that the japanese government is working with our people on resolution of the case. we have agreed to continue our exchanges. filipino leaders are also working with their longtime allies in united states to send the message to china. navy crews from both countries are holding annual drills a short distance away from another group of islands that are the focus of a territorial dispute. nhk world reports. >> reporter: this is a philippines most modern warship. for the first time it will participate in joint drills with the u.s. where chinese maritime surveillance ships are closely guarding. it is the very same ship that

figured in a recent standoff with chinese government vessels there. on the first day of the six-day operation, navies from the philippines and the united states held a press conference at the bay, the one-time site of an american navy base. >> we cannot work effectively together without those relationships in place and being reinforced by exercises like this. >> let me call to mind to work toward a common purpose. the u.s. navy and the philippine navy would like towards mutual interests and concerns. >> reporter: this location of this year's exercise is near a shoal claimed by both china and the philippines. chinese boats retain effective control of the small group of rocky islets keeping away philippine vessels. china's military is far larger

and more powerful than that of the philippine's. manila is hurrying to modernize its armed forces. the philippine navy acquired the warship from the united states and will use it in these exercises for the first time. also on thursday, the philippine military announced a plan to build new naval facilities at subic bay. china issued a quick response. >> translator: china charges the philippines and regional countries to meet one another half way to make joint efforts to maintain trust between countries, make positive effort toward regional peace and security and play a constructive role. >> reporter: during these exercises, military personnel will practice storming an unknown vessel and seizing its crew. but the biggest benefit for the philippines will be the opportunity to demonstrate to

china its close working relationship with the united states. charmaine deogracias, nhk world, subic bay, philippines. aid workers in the north indian state of uttarkhand are asking for emergency splice of clean food and water. more than 2,000 people remain stranded from floods and landslides caused by heavy monsoon rainses. officials say about 600 people are confirmed dead after more than ten days of floods in the mountainous state. india's home minister has said the final death toll may be more than 1,000. emergency services are hurrying to reach stranded people. they've rescued 1,500 so far, but another 2,500 are waiting to be evacuated. medics are warning about risks from poor sanitation. >> it is important for them to have safe water, safe food, if they don't get that, there will

be an epidemic of water and food-borne diseases, diarrhea, food poisoning, jaundice, other communicable diseases. >> many isolated areas have been cut off by landslides and are accessible only by air, making it hard to reach survivors. the floods are india's worst since at least 2008 when around 500 people were killed. campaigning has kicked off in cambodia ahead of a general election slated for the end of july. prime minister 00 sun's party has been in office for the past 28 years. it's asking voters to renew its mandate claiming they led the country's recent period of strong economic growth. election rallies took place in phnom penh on thursday. eight parties are contesting 123 seats in the lower house. five years ago hun sen's ruling cambodian people's party scored a landslide victory. the result was seen as a clear sign of support for the prime

minister. many people credit him with achieving peace and economic growth after years of civil war. but opposition parties claim that hun sen's politics for three decades has spread corruption and human rights abuses. voters will go to the polls on july 28th. thousands of residents are still waiting to go home. vast tracts of land are still waiting to be restored. and more than half of fishing ports on the pacific coast must be rebuilt. people in northeastern japan still face challenges following the 2011 disaster, but step by step they're moving forward. see their stories every wednesday on "the road ahead," right here on "newsline." a ship carrying nuclear fuel has delivered its cargo to a dock on the sea of japan coast.

it's the first such shipment in two years since the accident at the fukushima daiichi plant. it is bound for the tack ka ham ma power plant. the mixture of reprocessed uranium and plutonium has powered four japanese reactors. but those facilities were idle. the operator of the plant wants to use the fuel in the number 3 reactor. it's still offline, but officials say they'll seek permission to resume operations when new safety guidelines take effect next month. engineers at the damaged nuclear plant may be able to start removing fuel rods from some reactors sooner than expect. officials with fukushima daiichi have approved a plan to speed up the process. they've revised their road map for scrapping the four reactors damaged by the earthquake and tsunami in 2011. tokyo electric power company engineers could start removing fuel in reactors one and two in

first half of 2020 at the earliest. that's a year and a half sooner than the previous plan. the timeline is different for reactor three. reactor four was offline at the time of the accident, so no fuel melted down. officials warn the road map is just a plan. they say work could fall behind schedule because tepco engineers don't know the state of the fuel inside the reactors. >> we have a separate plan for each reactor. so we're ready to make the right decisions. >> the government and tepco also decided to form an organization to ask people in the region how they think the work should proceed. >> translator: this road map is just a start. the most important thing is to get the results on to the road map. >> decommissioning work at fukushima daiichi including tearing down reactor buildings

could take as long as 40 years. japanese engineers are looking to wind power for sustainable clean energy. they've started operating a major wind turbine on a trial basis in southwestern japan. the turbine is 83 meters wide and stands off the coast of kitakyushu. it can meets the needs of 1,500 households. officials pressed the start button to set the turbine in motion. this is because sea winds are stronger and are less affected by topography. >> translator: we lag behind europeans in offshore wind power, but we have the technology to win. i hope this project marks the start of japan's efforts to catch up with and overtake europe. >> the engineers will analyze the equipment's durability against salt and waves over the next two years.

young women around the world aspire to become top models. some in russia are seeing their catwalk dreams turn into reality. the fashion industry there is growing and doors are opening. nhk world reports from vladivostok. >> reporter: beauty on the catwalk in russia. it has started. people gathered to see the big show. vladivostok has style. the idea is to use the region as appealing to young people. there are visitors from near and far. >> i'm very, very impressed. an amazing amount of fantastic

models. >> reporter: since russia has been economic growth more are becoming fashion conscious. and demand for models has soared. there are over 1,000 agencies in russia now with over 100,000 models on their books. this 21-year-old is an aspiring model. tall and slim, she has the perfect proportions for the job. >> translator: my dream is to conquer the greatest catwalks around the world. i hope it comes true. >> reporter: her home town is 700 kilometers away. she's now a student at the university in vladivostok. since signing up with a model agency, she has slowly been getting jobs and was even featured on the cover of a local magazine. living away from home isn't

easy. to make ends meet, she does a parttime job as a baby-sitter three days a week. she shares a small apart with a friend. the rent is about $500 per month. as a model, she knows she has to watch what she eats, both for quality and quantity. she says the key thing is to live an orderly lifestyle. >> translator: first of all, you have to be very patient. it may look as though modeling is very easy, just striking poses, but it's not easy at all. >> reporter: she's training hard for an upcoming competition, the gateway to a modeling career. she's been picked as one of only 15 contestants from russia and three other countries. if she does well, this could open up opportunities abroad. she's taking classes to tone up

your body so that she can project a strong, healthy image on stage. the day of the competition arrives. she leads the way down the catwalk. the contestants have to model in swimwear and other outfits. they're judged on their appearance and posture and the aura of a model. darya has won the top prize. it's a scholarship to a top modeling school in new york starting this fall. >> translator: i'm overwhelmed. it's so wonderful and amazing. i'm so happy. i hope that going to study in

new york will lead to many opportunities to model, not just in russia, but in europe and, of course, in asia. >> reporter: for darya, the door has opened to become a top model. the world will now be her catwalk. reporting for nhk world, vladivostok. now let's take a look at the market figures.

time now for a check on the weather with mai shoji. mai, good morning, it is raining in tokyo today. how it is looking elsewhere? >> significant amounts of rainfall fell over western japan. two days ago was a very short break yesterday. now we get again another round of heavy rain will return to the similar areas where the flooding and landslides have already occurred. well, it is the rainy season, but we really don't want a low pressure system sitting over this front to activate it bringing much more rain. in kagoshima prefecture in kyushu we have 17 millimeters in the last 24 hours. 150 millimeters into saturday morning. so that's going to be certainly enough to cause further secondary disasters. central japan and northern half of japan high pressure system sits over hokkaido. and this is creating quite a drier and hotter condition for today.

now, the seasonal front stretches all the way into southwestern china. and this is another area where another round of heavy rain will be falling. about 100 to even 250 millimeters of additional rain could be possible into the next 72 hours, especially in and around namchang. another area we're seeing heavy rain is due to this tropical depression that formed over east of the philippines. this is likely to turn into -- intensify into, i should say, a tropical storm by tonight, then into the next few days it's likely to bring really heavy rain as well as gusty conditions across the eastern half of the country. manila's now looking at 34 degrees for your high on friday with chances of thunderstorms. also a chance of thunderstorms in bangkok at 33 degrees. 33 in beijing also the digits the same, but you'll see sunny

spells. mostly overcast but 26 degrees nice and comfortable today. now towards north america, we have a couple of low pressure systems and the very slow moving upper level low both combined are bringing severe conditions. we still cannot rule out the fact that there are possibilities that these systems could spawn tornadoes, but main threats are going to be large hail as well as damaging winds. then towards the weekend this system will be driving into the mid-atlantic state, d.c., atlanta, all this half of the country will have a chance of looking at thunderstorms. dry thunderstorms and really low humidity are still brought by this heat dome, extreme heat warnings and watches are still posted across the southwest. we're looking at 48 degrees if phoenix on your friday. so please do watch out for your flammable items and stay hydrated if you are in those vicinities. now towards europe, though, meanwhile, some areas are

looking at winter-like pictures. let me show you a picture coming out from norway today. the old summer cabin was completely filled with ice blocks in winter because of a change in the course of a nearby stream. this is what the cabin looks like now. summer officially started last week. there's a thick sheet of ice on the floor. the interior was damaged but the owner said he did not have much of value inside. pulling you back, norway's going to be looking at a little bit of a thunderstormy weather in the scandinavian peninsula, but stockholm at 19 degrees with plenty of sunshine. i'll leave ynow for the extende forecast. ♪

and that is all for this edition of "newsline." i'm catherine kobayashi in

tokyo. thanks for joining us.

.