hello there. glad to have you on this edition of "newsline." i'm catherine kobayashi with your update. china has penalized foreign banks for allowing the flow of speculative foreign funds into the country. china's state administration of foreign exchange announced it took punitive action against banks for violating its

directives on violation of speculative fund. this included japan's yamaguchi bank. icbc's bank was suspended for three months for facilitating a local realtor to allow the flow of $26 million in foreign funds in january last year by overlooking insufficient documents. two officials in charge of the operation at the time were fined. the other banks in question be have been partially suspended or fined. the chinese government has been vil gant for the influx of speculative hot money in an effort to prevent it from accelerate inflationary pressures in the country. the bank of tokyo mitsubishi ufc is going to increase funding by up to $11 billion in a bid to facilitate the country's rapidly

increasing infrastructure. the boost in capital will allow the bank to raise the amount of loans available per client by 30%. the indian government plans to carry out large scale projects to build new roads, ports and power plants at a cost of $1 trillion. major u.s. and european banks have already launched large lending services in india. the japanese bank says it will try to catch up with those banks by increasing lending to indian firms taking part in the projects. japan's environment ministry will instruct municipalities to closely monitor migratory birds in an effort to spread bird flu. it's been detected in five hooded cranes. several other flu-infected birds have been found around the country. at a meeting on wednesday, a

professor of tottori university described a recent study and said he found no signs of a pandemic there. some panel members called for expanding feeding areas to stop cranes from congregating in specific areas. the ministry plans to work out concrete efforts to monitor the birds to prevent the infection super spreading to other parts of the country. it will inform municipalities of the methods in early january. the japanese government says north korea's willingness to accept a visit by u.n. nuclear inspectors to its uranium

enrichment facilities is a one-off deal. the government of the u.s. state of new mexico, bill richardson visited earlier this month. >> my primary mission was to offer proposals to get a dialogue started again on the korean peninsula, and i believe we've made good progress. >> he said north korean officials told him they will accept the inspectors from the international atomic energy agency. richardson revealed they agreed to sell spent nuclear fuel rods to foreign nations. the rods could be used to develop nuclear weapons. the diplomatic sources confirm north korea is considering inviting u.n. inspectors to yongbyong but it wants the u.s., japan and south korea to compromise on the nuclear program. japan has learned north korea has set a high price for the sale of nuclear fuel rods. five times the going rate. this is seen as a sign the country has no intention of selling the rods.

china is calling for an emergency meeting on the six-party talks on the nuclear program, but the u.s., japan and south korea have rejected the plan. speaking to nhk, japan's top nuclear negotiator used a baseball metaphor to describe the situation. >> translator: north korea is throwing a breaking ball, and the world needs to watch the ball closely before swinging a bat. in some cases, you should not swing your bat. we have to make a plan so that inspectors can fully survey many nuclear facilities in north korea. meanwhile, political analysts say north korea is expected to seek a dialogue with the united states and south korea next year on its nuclear development. north korea's move to accept u.n. inspectors is being taken as an indication that the north is preparing to take a softer stance on the nuclear issue. but they also say the u.s. and

the south will possibly reject the north's call for discussion if they find its measures abandon its nuclear program insufficient. north korea could then possibly conduct a third nuclear test or test launch a long distance ballistic missile. on economic matters, north korea wants to be what it calls an economic power. analysts say the north will have to intensify its efforts to reconstruct its economy next year in order to help strengthen the authority of kim jong-un who has been appointed as the successor to his father, kim jong-il. south korea raised its foot and mouth disease alert to the highest level to deal with an outbreak spreading across livestock in the country. the virus was confirmed in late november in pigs on a farm in the southern city of andong. the south korean government set up a task force on wednesday to

handle the crisis and called for intensified anti-infection measures. it has so far culled 520,000 cows or pigs, or about 4% of its farm animal population. all livestock farms in the country will be thoroughly disinfected and access will be strictly limited. year-end events across the country including fireworks displays have been canceled out of fear the disease may be further spread by spectator's shoes. the chinese government says prosecutors filed for investigation more than 240,000 cases of corruption involving civil servants in the seven years leading up to 2009. the government released the country's first-ever white paper on corruption on wednesday. the paper says between 2005 to 2009 they investigated and dealt with commercial bribery cases involving $2.5 billion. the cases involve the right to use land or develop coal mines. the white paper also cites a

poll that shows 70% of the chinese are satisfied with the government's efforts to fight corruption. but critics say abuse of power by public servants has led to corruption and investigations are limited in scope because law enforcement authorities are not independent from the communist party. a large russian military cargo plane dating from the soviet union era has crashed south of moscow killing 12 people onboard. the russian air force plane disappeared on tuesday night while flying over the tula region. the aircraft was later found to have crashed in the forest. russia's emergency ministry says all 12 military officers on board were confirmed dead. the antonov 22 was developed more than 40 years ago. it was one of the world's largest transport planes capable of air lifting tanks and 300 troops. a technical problem may have caused the accident. the ministry says it has

temporarily suspended the use of long-distance tupolev 95 bombers which have the same type of engine as the antonov 22. a record snowstorm along the u.s. east coast has left thousands of holidaymakers stranded at airports. a two-day blizzard on sunday and monday forced new york's john k. kennedy international and other regional airports to close. more than 5,000 flights were canceled. jfk has since reopened but flights are running more than five hours behind schedule. many passengers are sleeping on cots at the airport. >> we left hong kong on new york time, the 26th -- 26th to 28th is 40 hours -- flying from hong kong. i think i can go around the world. >> at a ski resort in the northeastern state of maine, eight skiers were injured on tuesday when strong winds blew

down the chair lift they were on. they fell eight meters and had to be taken to the hospital. people often associate africa with widespread poverty and armed conflict. but they overlook its growing economy. this year alone it's expected to grow by 5%. but the development puts the same kind of strain on africa's environment as felt by industrialized nations. >> reporter: lake victoryia in eastern africa. it is the country's largest lake bordering on uganda and tanzania. wild animals live in the surrounding area. but the lake has become badly polluted.

the ugandan portion suffers the most. the fishermen earn one-sixth of what they used to. >> translator: recently, i haven't caught any fish and lost so much income. i can't fish anymore. >> reporter: many blame the pollution on industrialization. uganda's economy has been growing by 7% a year. factories are springing up in the area around lake victoria. many don't have a waste water disposal system. research shows that ten tons of untreated waste water runs into the lake every day.

but when we visited the factory, the people we spoke to denied dumping toxic chemicals into the lake. okay. so what goes there is just water? >> just pure water. >> they're supposed to continue with the drainage water to some extent. they reach somewhere. >> reporter: at the same time, uganda's government hesitates to get tough. despite laws to protect the environment, the government sees factories as helping the economy. >> if you have very high punitive measures, you are going to have a fight of investors from neighboring countries who even don't have stringent rules on environment. >> reporter: meanwhile, concerned residents spoke up at a meeting held by a local environmental group.

>> it is received by many people who are living in the slum areas, which are down in the valleys. so we are getting a lot of diseases. >> the investors, they are after the money. they come, they do what they want. now it is we, the citizen, to remain with that problem. >> reporter: others worry that standing up to the corporations would put their jobs at risk. since the companies bring cork to the area. the environmental group urges the people to join forces and put a stop to further damage. >> so when we see our environment being degraded and we sit you there, then we are not serious and we are to go a it disservice to ourselves, our children, our grandchildren.

and the next generation to be. >> reporter: africa faces the same challenge as developing nations, encouraging economic growth while protecting the environment. let's take a look at the market figures.

demand for rare metals continues to grow as they are a crucial component in making products such as batteries and electronics. supplies of these metals are limited and costly. now a new technology that extracts rare metals from old electronic products is gaining attention. >> reporter: extraction of rare metals normally requires large facilities that are expensive to run. the high cost of extraction is also an obstacle for recycling these meltses. the process involves not only a vast amount of energy but repeated procedures to separate one metal from another. >> translator: recycled metals are quite limited due you to the high cost of extraction. many rare metals are simply discarded. >> reporter: researchers at asacka university in western japan are developing a technology that would drastically reduce extraction

costs. for this, they used small capsules with a di am ameter of millimete millimeters. this contains the rare metal paa la palladium. they're put into the solution and mixed. 24 hours later, the capsules have turned black, after absorbing all the palladium. this professor is the leader of the team. he came up with the idea of using a microorganism. it is able to take in iron. because of this trait, he thought the bacteria could absorb rare metals as well will.

experimentation confirmed you that the bacteria does absorb rare minerals into their cell membranes. >> translator: all we have to do is put the bacteria into a diluted solution. they take rare metal particles into their cell membranes in a short period of time. this is an easy and cost effective method. >> reporter: this maker of oral care products approached the research team to collaborate on the project. the firm developed a unique, seemless, capsule-making technology. when liquid drips from a lossle, what's known as interfacial tension forms it into ball-shaped drops. using this principle, the firm developed a unique dual nozzle

technology that dispenses two liquids at the same time. liquid in the outer nozzle wraps around the solution in the inner nozzle as they come. together, they form double-layered capsules. after a year and a half of research, the company succeeded in developing a membrane that filters in the rare metal but you not the bacteria. each capsule contains one billion of the microorganisms. they are now training to refine the technology so the capsules can take in the metal more efficiently in a shorter period of time. >> translator: recycling is very important for a country like japan, which lacks natural resources. a large number of capsules are shipped so i think it's a good business opportunity. >> reporter: the bacteria not only takes in palladium but

platinum, rhodium and gallium. the professor discovered the amount of time it takes for the bacteria to absorb certain metals varies. his team is hoping to take advantage of these time differences and extract specific metals from a solution containing various metals. >> translator: using this technology, it's quite possible to extract rare metals that were previously thought to be nonreso nonrecycleable for reasons of cost. we hope to put this into practice in the next three or four years. hello there. welcome to your world weather update. cold air really surging in from the north, impacting the northeastern corner of asia

today. a couple of storms will also develop fairly quickly foen lly. that will be impacting much of japan. significant snow accumulation. the winds will be pretty strong as well. look for a stormy weather, high waves as well. the cold air starting to enter into central portions as well. we could well see rain and snow later on in tokyo as well. meanwhile, bitterly cold across the korean peninsula. heavy snow likely to impact the western side of the peninsula. in northeastern china, not much change here. widespread snow affecting your region. much of the inland areas will stay fine and settled. dry weather extending into indo on china. 31 degrees in bangkok today. 31 in manila. dropping to 7 in shanghai. that will drop to 2 degrees on friday. certainly that cold air starting to really enter central portions of china.

minus 2 in seoul. let's talk about north america. the cold air expanding over the west. picking up the moisture from the pacific. widespread wintry precipitation. we can expect blizzard-like conditions and heavy snowfall impacting a wide area as well. up to 60 centimeters of snow expected locally. then the snow is reaching as far south as new mexico and arizona today. that could certainly delay some travel conditions. i do expect dangerous driving conditions as well. for the southeastern corner, temperatures easing here. the warm southerly wins helping to produce thunderstorms down in the south, texas, mississippi, as well as louisiana. we've got 24 degrees in houston today. 24 in miami. a different story out west. dropping to minus 5 in denver. only 1 degree in vancouver with sunny spells.

as for europe then, the winter precipitation is targeting the east again for places like poland and belarus and western russia getting substantial amounts of snow, blowing snow as well. down towards the southeast, turkey dealing with more showers, cold rain and snow. but the bulk of europe stays dry and settled. the balkans and central areas and the northwest as well for the british isles, under a high pressure system. there will be more rain for places like portugal and western spain. winds will be pretty strong as well. persistent rain to contend with. 14 degrees in lisbon. 9 in madrid. 7 in london with cloudy skies. frigid in central areas. minus 10 in berlin. way below seasonal averages. moscow you coming in at minus 9 with snow flurries. here's your extended forecast now.

taking a look at our top stories. china has penalized 16 domestic and foreign banks for helping to allow the flow of speculative foreign funds into the country. china's state administration of foreign exchange announced on wednesday that it took punitive action against 79 regional ba s banks -- branches of 16 banks for violating its regulations. the list includes the bank of china, icbc, industrial and commercial bank of china and japan's yamaguchi bank. one branch was suspended for 14 months for allowing the foreign funds by overlooking insufficient documents. two officials in charge of the operation at that time were fined. the other banks in question have also been partially suspended or fined. the chinese government has been

vigilant for the influx of speculative you hot money in an effort to prevent it helping to accelerate inflationary pressures. there's a bid to help finance india's rapidly growing infrastructure. the bank plans to increase the capital in new delhi and mumbai by $120 million. the boosting capital will allow the bank to raise the amount of available loans for client by 30%. the indian government plans to carry out large scale projects to build new roads and power plants at a cost of $1 trillion. major u.s. and european banks have launched lending services in india. the japanese bank said it will try to catch up with those banks by increasing its lending to indian firms. preparations to ring in the

new year are under way across japan. buddhist monks in the ancient capital completed their year-end dusting dusting at the temp itle. they recited a sutra to remove the souls with the healing buddha and two flanking attendants that symbolize the sun and the moon. the three statutes stand in the temple's main hall and are designated national treasures. after the ceremony, the monks and 60 student volunteers began to wipe the accumulated dust with wet rags. >> translator: looking at them makes me feel refreshed for the new year. >> after the cleaning was finished, visitors joined their palms together in prayer before the shiny black statutes. that wraps up this edition of "newsline." i'm katherine koecatherine koba

tokyo. thanks for joining us.