this is "newsline." welcome. it's tuesday, august 17th, 8:00 a.m. in tokyo. i'm catherine kobayashi. prosecutors in cambodia have appealed the sentence given to a former prison chief under the pol pot government which killed more than 1.5 million people. last month a special tribunal set up jointly by the united nations and the come bodyian government handed down a 35-year prison term to duch. he headed the jail for political

prisoners, where more than 10,000 people were executed. but on monday, prosecutors appealed the ruling saying it is too lenient. more than 1.5 million people were murdered in the latter half of the 1970s in cambodia. mostly from torture or forced labor. the prosecutors also concluded that four other defendants should also be indicted, including a former high ranking government official. they said the four made the people into slaves and massacred them. if they're indicted, their trials would begin as early as next year. even though the defendants and the victims are getting older, the tribunal legal procedures have been delayed. the thai government has lifted the state of emergency in three provinces including the popular tourist destinations of chiang mai and chiang rai. it imposed an emergency decree on 23 provinces to contain the massive anti-government protests earlier this year.

thai prime minister abhisit veg viva made the decision on monday. he said the government made the decision as tourism is vital for the regional economies. he said the administration has to respond to increasing concerns from the local tourism industries. anti-government demonstrations led by supporters for ousted prime minister thaksin shinawatra continued since may. violent clashes with security forces left 2,000 people dead or injured. the government remains vigilant by keeping a state of emergency in seven provinces including the capital bangkok. it believes supporters of the ousted prime minister are showing signs of staging rallies in their base in northern thailand. a colombian plane has crashed on the caribbean island of san andres leaves one passenger dead. it left the colombian capital of bogota for the island. local media report that the

boeing 737 jet crashed while landing at 2:00 a.m. local time on monday. they say the airplane was hit by lightning at just 80 meters from the runway. video footage at the scene shows the fuselage broken in three pieces and parts scattered on the runway. authorities say 127 passengers including crew members were onboard the plane operated by local airline aires. they say one passenger was killed and at least 100 others have been injured. san andres is a popular tourist destination. south korea is conducting a fresh round of military drills with the united states. the exercises are based on the scenario that a military emergency occurred on the korean peninsula. 86,000 troops from the u.s. and south korea are taking part in two weeks of computerized war games. representatives from nearly

4,000 south korean organizations and municipalities are also involved. south korean president lee myung-bak acknowledged monday that people may feel anxious because the drills are taking place at a time of heightened tension on the korean peninsula. lee says preparation can help prevent war and maintain peace. the latest exercises are also meant to prepare for possible terror attacks during november's group of 20 meeting in seoul. south korea and the u.s. carried out major joint drill last month in the sea of japan. it was in response to the sinking of a south korean naval vessel in march. south korea's military also held a large-scale exercise on its own in the yellow sea off the korean peninsula. these current u.s./south korean drills prompted north korea to warn on sunday that it would, quote, wield the iron hammer of a merciless response. a former top u.s. general is urging japan and the united states to resolve a contentious

issue involving the relocation of an american marine base. richard myers says the allies need to focus on more important security matters. the retired general spoke to nhk on monday in tokyo. he was the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff under former president george w. bush. meyers warns the stalled talks on the base could adversely affect many important issues. >> because there is so much focus on this one issue, it just saps the intellectual and physical energy out of people, the bureaus and the ministries. i'm sure adversaries are watching this, and they know the strength of the u.s./japan alliance, and that strength is weakened by the fact that we can't make our decision on futenma. >> japan and the u.s. agreed in 2006 to move the base within

okinawa, but the project has made little progress. myers spoke about potential threats in asia. he says north korea is a hostile nation that has posed a greater risk in recent years with its development of nuclear weapons. he also referred to china's military buildup, but he said the most serious concern when it comes to china is cyberattacks against the united states. japan's economy grew at an annualized rate of 0.4% in real terms during the second quarter. this is sharply lower than the 4.4% in first quarter. it also lags behind china's economic output for the same period. the cabinet office announced on monday that gross domestic product in the april to june quarter grew by 0.1%. this translates into an annualized rate of 0.4%. while the economy has posted growth for the past three quarters, figures for this latest quarter show that the pace of economic recovery in japan is slowing. second quarter exports were up

5.9%. on the domestic side, personal consumption was flat. public investment fell 3.4%. and private investment in housing also fell 1.3%. japan's nominal gdp for the quarter was about $1.288 trillion against china's 1.337 trillion. japan's exports are still larger than china's by $55 billion. but with its fast pace of growth, china is expected to overtake japan this year as the world's second largest economy. a japanese immigrant held hostage by anti-government rebels in colombia has been freed after a military operation. the associated press released images of a man believed to be masao tsutsui joyously embracing his family and friends. 68-year-old tsutsui emigrated to colombia from kochi prefecture

about 50 years ago. he went missing in late march after leaving his farm near the city of cali in the southwest of the country. police began searching for him after his family received phone calls demanding a ransom equivalent to about $550,000 u.s. colombian police say after being abducted by unidentified kidnappers tsutsui was held by the farc forces in colombia. he was released sunday after a colombian air force unit attacked their hideout. they say that tsutsui is unhurt and in good health. one year ago, china's uighur autonomous region was shaken by deadly riots that fueled ethnic tensions between the uighurs and the han chinese. today we meet a young uighur musician who is trying to

generate a better understanding of uighur culture through its traditional music. we report from beijing. >> reporter: this bar in central beijing is popular with young people. a group is playing latin music but the musicians are uighur. the band's guitarist left the region for beijing four years ago with the hope of becoming a professional musician. he pursues his dream while living in an eight square meter room. the instrument he's playing now is called a dotar. it's a two-stringed traditional instrument he brought from his home town. uighur music is not well known in beijing. so he has no choice but to earn a living playing more popular

genres. but he hopes that one day he'll be able to perform the music of his native culture. >> i sing songs in spanish without understanding the lyrics. what i really want to do, though, is play uighur music. >> reporter: a devout muslim, yasin regularly prays at the mosque. the different language and culture of the han chinese have made him feel like a stranger in beijing. >> i speak mandarin poorly. so i've had a hard time dealing with other people. since arriving in beijing, i have managed to make only one friend. >> reporter: yasin feels that last year's riot have deepened the rift between the uighurs and the han.

so he decided to try healing this rift through traditional music. to make the unusual sound of the dotar more appealing, he has given his music a more contemporary flavor. three years after the project becomes a unique opportunity to show his talent finally arose. representatives from hong kong's music industry noticed yasin's skills and invited him to give a live performance. if the performance in hong kong is successful, it could open a way to expand his activities as a uighur musician on the mainland. ♪ in the end, his first concert

before a significant audience was warmly received, exceeding his expectations. ♪ [ applause ] >> thank you. >> it's the first time i've heard this kind of music, but it's very refreshing. >> i don't understand the lyrics, but it's so exotic. >> music isn't bound by the walls of ethnicities and religion. i want to continue this type of performance so that people will understand us uighurs better. ♪ >> reporter: building on his first success, yasin will perform again in hong kong in october. he hopes that he'll be able to take his healing musical message to other audiences in china.

atsushi miyamoto, nhk world, beijing. the heat wave continues in japan. it roasted the country on monday with temperatures topping 38 degrees celsius in some places. nearly 300 people have been hospitalized from heat stroke. the meteorological agency says the high pressure system brought blistering heat and intense sun to many areas. hot air from the south also raised temperatures especially along the pacific coast. temperatures in isesaki city and tatebayashi city in gunma prefecture north of tokyo hit 38 degrees. central tokyo saw a daytime high of 36 degrees. the mercury topped 35 degrees in

134 locations throughout japan. >> nhk has learned at least 289 people were hospitalized from heat stroke in japan on monday and six of them are in critical condition. in tokyo 127 people with heat stroke symptoms were rushed to hospitals. they include nine junior high school students who were playing baseball along the river bank. weather officials say the intense heat will last for about a week, mainly in western japan. they are warning people to take precautions to avoid heat stroke.

as the sweltering summer heat continues in japan, tour is are flocking to one of the country's largest limestone caves to cool off. akiyoshi cave is located about 100 meters underground in western japan's yamaguchi prefecture. the temperature inside the huge cavern stays at 17 degrees celsius all year round. among other sights, visitors can follow a course around a multitude of stalactites called high ak u may czar ra. the formations were created more than 100,000 years ago when lime slowly melted into ground water. >> a city official says more than 110,000 people are expected

to visit akiyoshi cave this month. the number of foreign tourists visiting tokyo declined more than 10% in 2009 from the previous year. a tokyo metropolitan government survey found that the number of foreign tourists visiting the city decreased by 570,000 to about 4.8 million. it's the first decline since the survey began six years ago. the survey also shows that foreign visitors stayed in the metropolis for an average 3.6 days, unchanged from 2008, but they spent less money. the metropolitan government attributes the decline to the new influenza outbreak and global financial crisis. however, to ease access to the capital, the number of international flights at tokyo's haneda airport will be increased this fall. the government also believes more chinese tourists will visit japan following a recent easing of visa requirements. the tokyo metropolitan government plans to invite foreign travel agency

representatives to the city in a bid to attract 10 million international tourist isists p by 2016. moviegoers in japan spent much more money on foreign films than home grown offerings in the first half of this year. and hollywood's 3-d megamovies are getting part of the credit. the motion picture producers association of japan says foreign films brought in about $660 million during the first six months of 2010, a jump of 32%. revenue generated by japanese films during the same period dropped 17% to $540 million. total box office earnings amounted to some $1.2 billion. that's up 4% from the same period last year. the u.s. film "avatar" and other 3-d movies from overseas helped lure japanese cinema goers away from domestic offerings. it marks what could be a turn-around from 2008 and 2009

when yearly box office lev news from japanese movies surpassed those of foreign films. e-reade popular demand for digitized content is expected to rise. now, one university hopes its creation can help publishers bridge that high tech shortcoming and meet the needs of today's avid readers. >> sales of e-readers are rising as new models continue to appear on the market. consumers are looking forward to being able to choose if an extensive array of digitized books and magazines. to meet demand, publishers are digitizing existing books and periodicals. but converting print to an

e-reader format is time consuming. it's a main taking digitizing process that requires a lot of patience. each page from a printed book, periodical or a manga has to be scanned one at a time. >> even in this high-tech world, we have to do things manually. the manpowers that required to digitize printed matter raises our costs. >> reporter: to speed up the process, a neek nolg is being developed by a research team at the university of tokyo. they've come up with a way to scan the print while simply flipping the pages. 250 pages can be scanned in about 90 seconds. after processing the data, the digitized material looks just like its print version.

this professor heads the research team. his unique image processing uses high speed cameras. the high speed scanner is based on a batting machine technology that's also under development. one robot hits a ball that has been shot out of another robot. two high speed cameras track the ball's movement in units of 0.001 seconds. the computer processes the trajectory immediately after the camera shoots the pictures. the batting robot then swings based on the calculated trajectory. the printed matter scanner also

utilizes a high speed camera. the pages are scanned from above. infrared rays are simultaneously imposed on to the pages. the printed material's shape is determined by calculating how much the horizontal infrared rays curve on the page. the camera alternately scans the images and infrared rays in units of 0.001 seconds. the computer then processes the data and produces a three-dimensional image. to make it easier to read, it be can converted into a two-dimensional image. >> high speed processing is the main feature of our technology.

a curved and distorted three-dimensional image can easily be converted into a flat two-dimensional image. it's expected that this technology which we're developing will contribute greatly to the digitizing of books. >> professor ishikawa's group is also developing a device that will automate turning pages in a book. they plan to team up with private firms to market and sell the scanner within the next two years. time now to take a look at the market figures.

hi there and welcome to your world weather update. now across east asia, we're seeing quite a bit of tropical activity towards the south here across the philippines, indochina peninsula, tropical showers and downpours for you. it is impacting parts of southern china as well as inland areas towards southwest, too. then we're looking at this frontal line that does hang over the korean peninsula. showers today for you here. tail end of the impacting parts of central china, then that rain

is going to be heading towards northern japan in the later hours of today. so we'll expect it to be a little wet are for those of you here. showers will move in from the south as well. turning a little more unsettled over the course of today. now, as for high, 35 in taipei and 31 in hong kong, really all across eastern asia we're looking at very warm conditions. 33 degrees for manila. tokyo 35 for your high today. it will be hot all across japan. even up to the north get boog t -- getting into the 30s. so very, very warm conditions on hand. it is going to be quite humid. do take precautions against that heat. keep well hydrated and try to stay indoors. now for the americas, severe weather threat tonight across parts of the rockies here right along this low pressure system. areas like colorado in towards nebraska, wyoming all under

threat of strong storms to develop. also look at this long frontal line that stretches up into eastern canada. along the northeast, new england states, mid-atlantic areas, tonight we're looking at some stormy weather for you. while for the deep south, this low pressure system is just going to stall out over the area. so even for the next few days, it's going to be a pretty wet picture across the florida peninsula. a chance of thunderstorms all the way into tuesday. eastern canada as well showers will hang about. doesn't dry out too much for the next 24 hours, but out west plenty of sunshine for you, getting up to 31 in seattle and 29 degrees for l.a. quite hot across the east coast as well, 32 in d.c. and new york. then 33 degrees for atlanta. now for europe today, a frontal line continues to move through the british isles so that will bring about showers. it's pretty cloudy conditions. also a frontal line hero at a

time rotates across the next day or so. moving out of france heading in towards germany as well as the scandinavian peninsulap about the tail end of that front will move across the east. a short line of showers. that could start moving in towards western russia. meanwhile, highs are going to be looking pretty high across the east. 36 in kiev. getting up to 41 in athens. very, very warm for you. but elsewhere 21 in berlin as well as vienna. a couple showers for those of you in berlin. looking pretty pleasant. paris as well as london, too, mild weather for you on tuesday. that's a look at your weather for now. here is your three-day outlook.

that's all for this edition of "newsline." i'm catherine kobayashi in tokyo. thanks for joining us.