at the top of the hour, it's time for "newsline" from our studios here in tokyo. i'm james tengan. britain said it's halting air cargo from somalia and yemen following the discovery of a parcel bomb. british authorities found the bomb in a cargo bound from yemen. it was hidden from a printer cartridge.

a similar bomb was intercepted in dubai. british home secretary theresa may said that the suspension of air cargo from yemen will be expandeded to somalia. she cited a possible link between an al qaeda offshoot in somalia and poor airport security in mowing deegadishmog. may said large printer cartridges will be banned from hand luggage and air cargo. the german government also announced the suspension of flights from yemen and large cargo flights. voters in the u.s. will cast their ballots in the midterm elections on tuesday to decide whether the democratic party can retain its majority in congress. all 435 seats in the house of representatives and 37 seats, or about a third in the senate, are up for grabs. voting starts from the eastern state of vermont at 5:00 a.m. local time. the elections are seen as a test of confidence in president

obama's administration. democratic candidates face an uphill battle as the u.s. economy remains sluggish. and the unemployment situation shows no sign of recovery. polls show that the democrats are likely to lose a significant number of seats in both chambers. the party risks losing control of the house and faces a strong challenge to its majority in the senate. a group of japanese lawmakers viewed a video of a chinese fishing boat colliding with coast guard vessels near the senkaku islands. opposition lawmakers called for the video to be shown to the public, but the government says that would be inappropriate. about 30 members of the upper and lower house commits watched the seven-minute long video on monday. the video reportedly shows the chinese boat ramming two japanese coast guard vessels on

two different occasions. the video was submitted by the diet last week. during the viewing, lawmakers were allowed to take notes but were forbidden from recording or videotaping the footage. no mobile phones were allowed into the viewing room. >> china has reacted sharply to the video screening. a spokesman for the chinese foreign ministry said in a statement that it is illegal for th chinese from fishing there or to arrest the fishing boat captain. ma emphasized that china will not change its policy on the islands. he said showing the video will not change the truth and will not hide japan's illegal acts. the secretary-general of japan's ruling democratic party, katsuya okada, will visit china

with other dpj lawmakers in mid-december. >> translator: we'd like to deepen the trust that the dpj had previously developed with the chinese communist party. we hope to have high level of exchanges of opinion. >> okada hopes to improve bilateral ties that have been strained since the maritime collision near the senkaku islands in the east china sea. the secretary-general said he hopes to exchange views over the future of japan/china relations. we make way for ines here with the latest in biz. >> thank you very much, james. u.s. factory outlets are expanding. manufacturing grew in october at the fastest pace in five months due to increased orders and production. the institute for supply management released its manufacturing index on monday. the gauge rose to 56.9 in october from 54.4 in september. readings above 50 indicate an expansion.

economists had been predicting the index will fall to 54. the latest figure highlights that the manufacturing sector is still the main engine of growth for the recovery. the chairman of the survey said the report signals a continuation of the recovery that began 15 months ago. he said the strength of the data raises expectations for growth in the rest of the quarter. trade will be high on on the agenda at the group of 20 summit in seoul next week. senior u.s. officials say they want action taken to correct imbalances between the world's leading economies. the treasury secretary for affairs said that sustaining economic growth will require reducing gap between trade surplus nations and trade deficit ones. brainard said discussions at the summit will focus on setting a range of current balances for member nations rather than specific targets.

this follows opposition from various countries to u.s. call for numerical targets aimed at stimulating competitive devaluation of currencies. the white house said it will continue to press china to revalue the yuan. a senior u.s. official said he does not expect the chinese currency issue to be revolved at the summit. the south korean president called on the people to take pride in hosting the forum in a speech made on monday. >> translator: the economic effect of the g-20 summit would amount to $57 million. the promotional effect would be four times than that of the fifa world cup. >> he said four on major topics would be on the agenda. the weak currency policies of some countries, a new international framework to

prevent financial crisis, reform of the international monetary fund and support for developing nations. the south korean government plans to set aside $25 million. it will deploy a record 60,000 security personnel to guard against terrorist attacks and threats from north korea. japanese automakers are revising their estimates for sales in china. their new projections are higher. the rosy outlook is the result of chinese government measures to promote eco-friendly vehicles. the summit on monday said it sold 830,000 vehicles in china so far this year. it has revised its annual sales goal from 860,000. they raise their target to 800,000 vehicles. honda is also positive on china, bumping up its 2010 sales prediction by 50,000 to 630 n,0.

ought auto sales in china slowed. but customers have streamed back into show streams since the government introduced a new subsidy. the sales rebound has been stronger in china's most prosperous areas. sales exceeded 13 million in the first nine months of the year. the annual figure looks to surplus last year's making china the world's largest auto market. tokyo stocks closed in mixed trading tuesday morning. the topics of all first section issues briefly dipped below the 800 mark for the first time since april last year. it ended the morning at 801, down 0.2%. the nikkei finished at 9,145.

the yen continued strength prompted sell-offs on export related issues. on the tokyo foreign change, the dollar is moving in a narrow range against the yen on tuesday morning. the greenback is currently trading between 80.64-68. the yen is at 112. sources say investors are playing it safe awaiting the outcome of the u.s. elections on wednesday. this is the yield on the benchmark ten-year japanese government bond. in other asian markets, the hang seng opened 0.2% lower, currently unchanged. the shanghai is down 0.4% and the sse composite is up a quarter of a percent.

idol groups are popular in japan. they are song and dance groups made up of cheerful performers. local communities are performing their own idol groups in homes of injecting a little energy into their sluggish economies. ♪ >> reporter: this is a local idol group in japan. the three members were chosen by audition. the group performed at a shopping district in niigata city. the event attracted more than 150 people. >> translator: they're charming and have cute smiles. >> translator: i love them. >> reporter: as a promotion gimmick, the group hands out

scallions. they were formed for the express purpose of promoting niigata onions. >> translator: keep up the good work. >> reporter: the group is the brain child of niigata prefecture's agricultural cooperative. scallions sell the most of all vegetables produced in the prefecture. but sales are dwindling annually under pressure from cheap chinese imports. to stem that trend, the cooperative holds concerts at promotional events and festivals throughout the prefecture almost every week. they've also distributed 1.7 million labels featuring the idols to farms in niigata to create even more buzz. >> translator: we'll suffer a lot if scallion production goes down. it could weaken niigata's

agricultural industry. it's a matter of life or death for us. >> reporter: in matsuyama city, western japan, a different idol group made its debut in late october. ♪ the canned fruit idol group is comprised of local junior and senior high school girls. the man behind the group is iga. he runs a local live music house. the central part of the city used to be full of shoppers. now stores are shutting down, one after another. the streets are nearly deserted. he wants to turn this trend around. >> translator: with the idols at the core, i want to plan events.

working in cooperation with local people, we can reinvigorate the whole community. >> reporter: this is a meeting of local store owners. they've gathered to create a strategy to draw people back to the district with the help of the idol group. >> translator: maybe customers can shake hands with the idols. >> translator: what if the idols run shops for a day? >> reporter: stickers publicizing the group are ready. and store owners are united in support of canned fruits efforts to reenergize the region. >> translator: the shop owners are very cooperative. an ideal collaboration is being built between them and the group. i'm also doing my best. ♪

>> reporter: more than 20 local idol groups are currently active throughout japan. these idols appear to be an ideal way of buoying struggling economies. >> next is a recap of the latest market figures. that's all for now in biz news. back to james. a major industrial trade fair opened in baghdad on

monday. some of iraq's former weapons makers are taking part showcasing new nonmilitary products. at the opening ceremony, iraqi prime minister nuri al maliki said iraqis should not be defeated by terrorism. >> translator: this fair shows that iraqis are determined to rebuild their country. >> reporter: more than 1,200 firms are exhibiting products demonstrating strong economic growth in iraq. among them, 60 former state-run weapons makers are presenting products from drinks to wheel chairs. they make parts using technologies when it made weapons. the robots are sold at one-tenth of the price of similar models made in europe or the united states.

>> translator: the reactions are good. our manufacturing sector will grow a lot in future years. >> reporter: the trade fair continues until november 10th. an international nongovernmental organization released a report on the damage from cluster munitions. the land mine and cluster munition monitor released the report on monday. it says seven countries have completed destroying their stock piles. and at least 176,000 cluster bombs have been demolished. it said the victims are increasing with the global death toll estimated between 58,000 and 85,000. they contain hundreds of bomblets. many remain unexploded for years after a conflict until they are disturbed, often by children.

the organization is calling on organizations to put pressure on nonsignatory countries such as the u.s. and russia. the first meeting of signatory countries will begin in the laotian capital on november 9th. relatives of people abducted by north korea from japan and other countries have agreed to work closely together beyond borders to resolve the issue. about 200 of them from japan, south korea, romania and thi thailand met in seoul on monday. one said that the best thing to do was to get north korea to the negotiating table and they should pool their anger to make this happen. they pledged to fight for their lufd ones until north korea punishes those responsible. the resolution calls for governments to make all-out efforts to resolve the

abductions issue in cooperation with international institutions. >> translator: it means a lot that all these families of abductees can meet and work together. to help save all those who have been abducted. >> nearly 70,000 people have been forced to evacuate their homes because of volcanic ab seduction abductions on java. volcanic activity had temporarily subsided but stirred again on the weekends. there had been confirmed erup z eruptions for three straight days through monday. local authorities are busy building housing facilities and getting food to the increasing

number of evacuees. meanwhile, after a tsunami from the strong earthquake off sumatra on october 25th, 431 people have been confirmed dead. indonesia's national disaster agency said on monday 88 are still missing. about 15,000 people are taking shelter at evacuation centers. light-emitting diodes or l.e.d.s use less energy than normal lights. they're good for the environment and business. with its advanced l.e.d. technologies, japan has a healthy market share. and it could grow more as crafts men and large institutions in ishikawa prefecture switch to l.e.d. lighting to help the area's economic recovery. >> reporter: ishikawa prefecture's industrial research institute uses a model home that saves energy. the home comes with solar panels

and high grade thermal insulation. the lighting looks fluorescent but it's actually from l.e.d.s. compared to a fluorescent light of the same size, l.e.d. lights use half the energy. they also last ten times longer than fluorescent lights. a venture firm developed the light. the company sells medical equipment and renovates hospitals. but when business dropped, the company started looking for new ideas. after the hospital asked how it could save energy, the company started developing this l.e.d. lighting. l.e.d.s only emit a narrow range of light. so they can't illuminate a big area.

>> l.e.d. fluorescent lights have a base behind them. no light reaches the back part of the l.e.d. tube. so we made them adjustable. >> reporter: their innovation played a part in selling 12,000 fixtures to public institutions, hospitals and offices in the past year. >> translator: if you consider a building, for example, the lighting alone consumes 40% of the electricity cost. i can see the potential of the market expandsing to ten or 100 times what it is now. >> reporter: traditional crafts people have also started using l.e.d. lighting. interior woodwork in this region goes back 360 years.interiors i

recession have crippled the industry. one-third of the shops have survived from 30 years ago. this man works with wood. he is using l.e.d. lights to introduce a new approach to his traditional craft. three years ago, an earthquake devastated this region. with no electricity, people spent a night in darkness and fear. so he had an idea. he decided to mount l.e.d. lights on paper sliding doors. when it's dark, the door automatically lights up. any electrical outlets or wires from the l.e.d. lights would stand out and ruin the screen's simple beauty. so he placed solar panels on the

side of the screen where the sun hits them. the panels generate electricity and batteries store it. one day's worth of sunlight can power 20 hours of l.e.d. light. you can also detach the l.e.d.s and use them as a flash light. this traditional craftsman uses new lighting technology to revive his industry. >> translator: our tradition has lasted for 360 years, but we never thought of using electricity in our pieces. recent concepts like disaster prevention and barrier-free access give me new ideas. if we don't move forward, we won't survive. >> you can find l.e.d.s on traffic signs and high-tech greenhouses and museums. locals expect the l.e.d. business will improve the regional economy.

hello there. welcome back to your world weather update. well, it is blustery and wet across northern japan. feeling more like winter here. across the south, it's a different story. basking in sunshine. it will be quite mild and pleasant from central portions of the country into the south. dry weather across much of the korean peninsula and a high pressure system for northern and western china. showers for the inland areas but nothing severe. for indochina peninsula, northern thailand escaping that wet weather. plenty of rain elsewhere for central and southern vietnam and just in the last 24 hours, here are the figures, showing you the staggering rains that have fallen. not just in the last 24 hours but places like vietnam dealing with flooding rain. up to 400 millimeters recordeded

in parts of southern thailand in the last 24 hours. other areas dealing with lots of torrential rains. this is from where it was hardest hit. the roads are severely flooded as well, and also in vietnam. you see the floodwater almost reaching the s.e.a.l. levceilin what looks like the ground floor. three people have died as a result and conditions have been critical since the weekend in vietnam. here is the setup for your tuesday. very active low pressure in place, helped by this tropical cyclone in the south. really intensifying that storm system. more torrential rains expected in the next couple of days. looking at well over 100 millimeters in vietnam. 19 degrees in shanghai and 25 in hong kong. as for the americas, keeping a

watch on tropical storm thomas over the caribbean. it looks like it will maintain that strength as a tropical storm but will be intensifying later on in the week and head towards haiti. keep a close eye on where this storm system is headed. across the u.s., a couple of thundershowers to watch out for down in the south, for texas, mississippi and elsewhere. high pressure system dominating much of the area. there will be wet and windy weather for british colombia. those winds slowing dying down as we head into tuesday. 14 degrees in vancouver. as for europe, the heavy rain is again going to be really hitting italy today. flooding is going to be a major concern here. lots of severe storms to watch out for as well. not just in italy but up in the alps and the pyrenees. then we'll slowly start to see that storm heading into the balkans next as well. as for the british isles, lots of wet and windy weather from the west.

the southeast will stay mostly dry. london will be quite mild today. 15 in paris. and then we've got 8 degrees in stockholm and 13 in warsaw as well. here's your extended forecast now.

that's it for this edition of "newsline." gene otani the bring you more news at the top of the hour. thanks for watching.