hello there. this is "newsline." welcome. glad you could join us. it's tuesday, september 7th, 11:00 a.m. in tokyo. the international atomic energy agency said iran stepped up its uranium enrichment activities. on monday, the watchdog organization urged them to cooperate with inspections. the iae said iran enriched

uranium by the end of august. the amount quadrupled from april, showing iran expanded it its enrichment program even after the u.n. imposed more sanctions in june. they expect iran of trying to develop nuclear weapons. it's called on the country to allow inspectors to view all nuclear facilities and interview relevant officials. iran's nuclear program will be discussed at an iae board meeting september thenth. the latest revelation is expected to lead to increased pressure on iran to stop its uranium enrichment activities. with the u.s. midterm elections less than two months away campaigns started in earnest on labor day, monday. president barack obama was in the midwestern state of wisconsin to rally support for democratic party candidates running in the november congressional elections. all house of representatives seats and a third of the senate seats are up for grabs. in wisconsin obama unveiled a new economic stimulus package focusing on rebuilding railways

and other infrastructure projects. it is a key state where democratic candidates are facing an uphill battle. >> i am going to keep fighting every single day, every single hour, every single minute to turn this economy around and put people back to work, and renew the american dream, not just for your family, not just for all our families but for future generations. >> in the latest survey, 51% of americans said they will vote republican. the democrats are trailing by ten points. the democratic party is at risk of losing control of both chambers of congress. the results of the midterm election will have a significant impact not just on the obama administration, but on his chance of re-election as president in 2012. a japanese scientist who discovered a way to turn human skin cells into stem cells won

an international award in biology. the professor of kyoto university is one of the four winners of the international prize. the balzan prize foundation said it chose yamanaka for being the first to bruce the stem cells three years ago. researchers hope to it use the cells, which can grow into various tissues into regenerative body parts to replace ones lost from diseases or accidents. the prize is for those who have made outstanding achievements in natural sciences. each winner will receive 750,000 swiss francs or $740,000. the awards will be presented in november at a ceremony in italy. germany will extend the life of its nuclear power plants due to the lack of alternative energy sources such as solar or wind power. chancellor angela merkel

revealed the plan on monday. the lifespan of the seven plants that began operations before 1980 will be extended to 40 years from 32. other nuclear power plants will be given an extra 14 years. former chancellor gerhard schroeder's administration had decided to halt operations of all 17 nuclear plants around 2022 to promote renewable sources of energy. if merkel's plan is introduced, some nuclear facilities are expected to be in operation beyond 2022. opposition parties are against the new policy which needs parliamentary approval. the government says it only needs to be approved by the lower house where the ruling coalition holds a majority. but the opposition argues that the upper house has to approve it as well. the ruling parties recently lost a majority in the upper house. if the government enforces the plan, leading opposition members have hinted that they would bring the case to the german constitutional court.

the spanish interior ministry said his country will continue the crack down on the baste separatist group. the interior minister said on monday that the eta announcement cannot be trusted. eta released a video statement through local newspapers and britain's broadcaster bbc. the group decided to stop the use of force and will seek to resolve conflicts through dialogue and negotiation, but the statement stopped short of declaring that the cease-fire was permanent. the group announced a truce in 2006 but later returned to violence. the group's senior members have been arrested. a local political organization close to eta urged the group to end its violence. a referendum to amend the constitution in the former

soviet republic of moldova has failed due to low voter turnout. the poll concerned a proposal to choose the next president by popular rather than parliamentary vote. the central electoral commission said on monday less than 30% of registered voters participated in sunday's vote. for the result to be valid, it required the participation of one-third of registered voters. under the current system, presidents are elected by parliamentary majority vote. since september last year when the former president retired after serving out his term, neither the governing party, alliance for european integration, nor the pro-russian communists have been able to secure a majority. the governing coalition is now calling for a new parliamentary elections to break a political deadlock. the communists are gathering strength after successfully urging people to boycott the referendum. over to the world of

business now. ines joins us with the latest. >> hello. profit-taking sent tokyo stocks lower on tuesday morning. the nikkei ended at 9,279 points. with few incentives to buy, investors locked in gains after the benchmark rose over 470 points during the past four sessions. on the tokyo foreign exchange, the dollar is moving in a narrow range against the yen on tuesday morning. the greenback is trading at 84.19-24. sources say that investors remain cautious about the future of the u.s. economy despite the country's better than expected job data released last week. meanwhile, the euro's changing hands at 107.87-92. and next is a look at the latest long-term interest rates. this is the yield on the benchmark ten-year japanese government bond. in other asian markets, the hang

seng opened up 0.13%. the blue chips are slightly down, 0 minutes 1%. and the s&e composite is down. u.s. president has proposed a $15 billion plan to rebuild infrastructure to boost the country's sluggish economy. >> barely one one in five construction workers are unemployed, so that's why milwaukee today i am announcing a new plan for rebuilding and modernizing america's roads and rails and runways for the long-term. i want america to have the best infrastructure in the world. >> white house officials say the six-year program aims to create jobs in the short term. they say the government is considering abolishing tax deductions for oil companies to fund the project. the proposal is one of several economic initiatives that obama is due to unveil on wednesday.

they include extending tax cuts for the middle class and increasing and permanently extending tax credits for business research. mitsubishi ufj trust and banking corporation plans to invest in a chinese company to launch full scale asset management business in china. sources say mitsubishi ufj trust and the shanghai based swwg asset management company agreed that the japanese bank will purchase 33% of the chinese company's shares for about $100 million. mitsubishi is negotiating details of the plan with china's financial authorities. the chinese company is mainly managing personal assets of about 1.5 billion. mitsubishi ufj trust says individual investment will increase as china's economy grows sharply. the japanese bank is also predicting strong interest from institutional investors in areas such as pension investments.

restrictions on foreign investment in the asset management business are easing in china. mitsubishi ufj trust is the first japanese bank to invest in an asset management company in china. president hu jintao says his government plans to improve the living conditions of workers, in a special economic zone bordering hong kong. he made the comment at a ceremony to mark the 30th anniversary of the foundation of the special economic zone on monday. the district was designated in 1980 as the first special economic zone in china to accept foreign investment. hu stressed that a reform and open door policy led to the economic development of china.

hu also said the government will establish a system for companies and workers to share benefits and create better working conditions for workers who are from the country's rural areas. in china a widening economic gap is becoming a problem after the country has achieved rapid economic development over the 30 years since the introduction of special economic zones. stleefd a key word. up until now, the manufacturing industry had been using 3-d for manufacturing products. but now they're looking to increase productivity and at the same time cut hots. >> reporter: hitachi construction industry is one of japan's leading manufacturers. the company uses three-dimensional computer-aided design or 3-d c.a.d. when creating new products. five years ago, the firm began

using this technology for its parts catalogs. it issues a new catalog every time it introduces a new product or makes a change in an existing item. because of this, nearly 200 new catalogs are printed each year. in the past, illustrateors drew each part by hand, based on blueprints. one catalog costs an average of about $12,000 to make. thick catalogs such as a 700-page one costs about $95,000. to cut costs and increase efficiency, the company started using 3-d c.a.d. now illustrate or illustrators

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wantt gd weather. so theerform a traditional ceremony. it's a time-honore ed ritual,k . tradition says laughter blows the clouds away. the ritual must have worked. after eight days of waiting, they can go out and gather kel

fresh loads of kelp on the beach make it lively again. just threy out the fresh kombu to dry. >> translator: finally, it's dried. we did well today. everyone irang for good weather and planning to work really hard during the second half of the season. >> reporter: the strong rays of the sun are what make the kombu so liou for these kelp harvesters, it's been a longrting for the sun to emerge. >> the harvesters say they'll

gather kombu until october. now let's take a lookt e global weather forecast with sumi zushi. hi, there. welcome back to your world weather update. let's start off with storm system in eastern asia. this is a tropical storm. it's just sort of psing -- squeezing past south korea, approaching the northern end of japan. e rtrn peninsula will escape the worst of the storm. substantial amounts falling in the southeastern corner. more heavy rainfall is expected for us in the next 24 hours. doesn't look like it's going to be making landfall here. it will make its wayurernd further towards the sea of japan and hitting central areas of july later in the week. taking a look at the rainfall acmuti, u n ep to 90 millimeters possible in parts

of southern korea. some of these areas had already someorntl rns due to a previous storm system. the ground will be quite tute towards the southhe wl heavy showers in northern japan. to the north, overall, looking at a very wet picture across japan, if notumcrs central portions of the country. tropical depression to the south of taiwan will be bringing wet conditions here. erisha cnc of the low system becoming a tropical storm system just yet. we will keep an eye on it. much of china dealing with ows lheayrothe southwest into the east coast. some of it will be quite heavy. more than 100 millimeters expected in the next 24 hours. 24 degrees in chong ching today. in manila, 33 degrees with

thundershowers. let's head to northeastern mexico. the tropical storm continues to strengthen. it's getting very close to the east coast of northeastern mexico. about to make landfall monday night local time. we've gotrocastm warnings in effect as well as hurricane watches posted for are some of these areas. now once it makes landfall, it will to make its way further inland. we'll probably reach central texas early wednesday as a opalepssnr l pressure system. still, there will be ample amounts of rain in the days to come. flooding will be a major coern. over towards the atlantic, we're keeping an eye out on this low pressure moving towards the lerd islands. the system could also become a tropical storm system once again as well. the u.s. is going to be dealing with severe thunderstorms across the upper midwest. it will be quite cool up here.

14 degrees in winnipeg. finally, taking a look at europe. the rainn the et i going to be slowly weakening. but out towards the west it's a different story. lots of wet and windy weather coming in from the atntic. heavy rainfall warnings posted for parts of the uk. and island. you can see lots of widespread showers for france as well. that rain is going to be impacting on temperatures here. you can see it cooling down considerably in madrid, 25 degrees for your tuesday. 23 in paris with thundershowers. here's the extended forecast now.

taking a look at our top stories once again. the international atomic energy agency says iran stepped up its uranium enrichment activities. it urged the country to cooperate with its inspections. the iae said iran enriched 22 kilograms of uranium to 20% purity at a nuclear facility by the end of august. the amount quadrupled from april, showing iran expanded its enrichment n after the u.n. imposed more sanctions in june. the iea still suspects iran of trying to develop nuclear weapons. it called on the country to let the country view all facilities. iran's nuclear program will be discussed at a board meeting on september 13th. the latest revelation is expected to lead to increased pressure on iran to stop its uranium enrichment activities. a japanese scientist who

discovered a way to turn human skin cells into stem cells has won an international award in biology. professor yamanaka is one of the four winners of the international balzan prize. the foundation chose him for creating the stem cells three years ago. researchers hope to use ips cells which can grow into cells in regenerative medicine to replace body parts lost from disease or accidents. the prizes are awarded to people who have made outstanding achievements in humanities and natural sciences. each winner will receive 750,000 swiss francs or $740,000. the awards will be presented in november at a ceremony in italy. that wraps up this edition of "newsline." i'm kathericatherine kobayashi

tokyo. ross mihara is up next at the top of the next hour. hope to see you then. jj