welcome to nhk world "newsline." tension remains high in egypt at anti-government protests continue across the country. security authorities detained more than 500 people on wednesday alone. at least three citizens and one police officer were killed in clashes between demonstrators and riot police on tuesday during the country's biggest protests in years. the rallies follow an uprising in tunisia that ousted the

country's long time president. on wednesday, about 3,000 demonstrators occupied streets in central cairo demanding an end to president hosni mubarak's nearly 30-year rule. riot police fired teargas and protesters responded by throwing stones. egypt's government is cracking down on the demonstrations. among those detained 24 cameramen from a british tv news agency covering the rallies. calls for further protests are continuing online. the security authorities have blocked access to some websites. in washington, u.s. secretary of state hillary clinton voiced concern over egypt's response to the protests. >> we urge the egyptian authorities not to prevent peaceful protests or block communications, including on social media sites. russian prime minister vladimir putin says that chechen separatists had nothing to do with monday's deadly suicide

attack on moscow's domodedovo airport. the explosion that ripped through the arrival terminal of russia's busiest airport killed 35 people and wounded over 130 others. russian authorities suspect the attack was a suicide bombing. they are investigating links to islamic extremists from the north caucasus who have carried out previous terror attacks in moscow. >> translator: according to preliminary checks, this terrorist attack has no relation to the chechen republic. >> but prime minister putin didn't deny that other extremist groups in the north caucasus could be responsible. meanwhile, russia's president dmitry medvedev disclosed that he fired a top transport official for failing to ensure security at the airport. he said all the officials responsible need to be brought to their senses. on wednesday the russian government declared a day of mourning for the victims. the kremlin, the prime minister's office and other government offices flew russia's

flag at half mast. citizens laid flowers near the explosion site for the victims of the blast. russian president medvedev came straight from managing the aftermath of the attack to davos, switzerland, on wednesday to speak at the world economic forum. there he promised to focus on fighting terrorism. speaking to world business and political leaders, medvedev said he would tackle terrorism at its source. >> translator: we need to tackle poverty and unemployment which are at the roots of terrorism. >> medvedev said the international community needs to unite behind the fight. he stressed that russia can safely host to the 2014 winter olympics in sochi and the world cup in 2018.

medvedev also called for foreign investment in infrastructure projects in russia. afghan president hamid karzai has convened parliament for the first time since last september's election. he's been criticized for his handling of the political confusion that followed the voting. karzai called on lawmakers to cooperate with the government at wednesday's parliamentary session. he said all ethnic groups must unite to rebuild afghanistan. in last year's election, a quarter of the votes were invalid, and protesters demanded a second ballot. karzai established a special court to investigate the election fraud and delayed the inauguration of the new parliament. but his moves only deepened the political unrest. chickens at a farm in aichi prefecture central japan have tested positive for bird flu. this is the fifth outbreak of h5 type avian influenza at poultry farms in the country this winter. more than 450 chickens were found dead at a farm in toyohashi city between monday and wednesday. some of them were positive for

bird flu in preliminary tests, and genetic analysis confirmed the virus is the h5 strain. on thursday, authorities began destroying all the farm's 150,000 chickens. they also restricted the transport of chickens and eggs from 44 poultry farms within a ten-kilometer radius of the infected farm. chicken meat processing facilities have also been temporarily shut down. before the latest case, all bird flu outbreaks have been detected at poultry farms in western japan. the virus has also been found in wild birds at several sites. now to a series on the japan syndrome. we're looking at impact of the country's rapidly aging population and the decline of its workforce. today our focus is on retired people. a growing number of them are leaving japan because they are trying to maintain a better lifestyle and can't afford the cost of living at home.

the number of japanese aged 60 years or older who spent more than two weeks abroad is reflecting the new reality. their ranks have grown by 70,000 in the past decade. before spending retireme luxury available only to t y. t recently me pele choosing to ve areesap ang nhk worlrert

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large amounts of money with them, right? >> well, chiang mai estimates they are pumping around $33 million annually intthe local economy, and it expects that figure to grow at more than inh. for japan, on the other ha, it means an outflow of the country's wealth. >> yusuke, thank you for your report. our series on japan syndrome continues monday. we'll tell you why asian countries are focusing on one japanese city's simple but effective way to curb social security costs. b news, the u.s federal reserve will maintain its monetary easing policy to put the economy on a firm recovery track amid sluggish labor in the housingke in a policy meet on wednesday, the central bank's board members e on cdi easing sly to contie

measures announced in november. the measures include purchases of up to $600 billion in ngerrnntnd the fed will also keep the etanor t federal 25nds rate unchanged at 0% to the central bank said the economic recovery is continuing but not fast enough to boost employment significantly. the fed also set the housing maets ildepressed. commodity prices have risen due to the higher cost of crude oil, but the fed points out that inflation remains below its rg fchvi price stability. the dow jones industrial average temporarily surged over the 12,000 mark for the first time in two yearsnd sen months. new york stocks were bought on wednesday as better than expected new hng sales data raised investor exptaon f the u.s. economic recovery. investors were also encouraged by president barack obama's plans to cut corporate taxat anounsed in his state of the union speech the previous day. but after the dow hit the

highest point since june 2008, the average closed bew the ,0 mk due to profit-taking. the dow ended at 11,985, up 8.25 points from tuesday's close. the u.s. federal budget deficit for 2011 will likely hit a new record of$1.48 trillion. on wednesday the congressional budget officennnc i estimate of the deficit for the fiscal year through september 2011. the figure is rger than the fiscal 2009 deficit and amounts to about 9.8% of u.s. gdp. the budget office says the record-high deficit stems from legislation signed by presen barack obama extending large-scale tax cuts and unemployment benefits. obama's expected to announce his budget plan for fiscal 2012 in mid-february. the budget office projects next year's deficit at $1.1 trillion. a shortfall of that level would mean the u.s. deficit surpassing th$1riioma for a

fourth straight year. japan's national debt is set to swell to more than $12 trillion by the end of fiscal 2011 next march. the finance ministry estimates that the state's debt balance llineay more than $600 billion from a year earlier. the balance includes government bonds in borrowing. the projection comes after the generalccnt f t coming fiscal year's budget bill expanded to a record $1.1 trillion. the size of the budget bill meant the gernment had to issue about $530 billion in bonds. for the second year in a row, bond issuances will exceed tax revenues. the debtalceil aun to about $95,000 for each japanese showing that the government has become highly dependent on debt to pay for public spending. toyota motor plans to recall nearly 1.7 million vehicle in japan and overseas. the problems include a faulty fuel pipe. the company notified japan's

transports ministry on wednesday that 16 models will be recalled in japan. they include the noah, voxy, isis and wish. more than 1.2 million units that re made beeen may 20 and october 2008 will be recalled. overseas, six models including the avansis will be recalled, and they will amount to over 420,000 cars. toyota's report to the ministry shows one factor for the recall is the engine's fuel pipe is thinner than required. this may cause cracks and result in gasoline leakage. the ministry says massive recalls are increasing partly due to more shared parts among multiple models. through such a reduction in parts used, automakers aim to cut costs, but a problem in a single part can then affect many models. here's the latest market figures.

the grace and skill of figure skating attracts many young people to the sport but it's an expensive activity so usually only children from higher income families can afford lessons. but in one new york neighborhood, an organization is giviortunities to children from all backgrounds. nhk world's rosa sabrino reports. >> reporter: one of every three residents in harlem, northern manhattan, comes from a household with an income lower than about $22,000 a year.

figure skating is not a sport that one would expect to be popular here, but many local girls between the ages of 6 to 18 are taking figure skating lessons at the local ice rink. >> it makes me feel like i'm jumping in the air and doing lots of fun things. >> reporter: there are 135 girls in this program. it costs $375 per year to participate. a fraction of the normal cost. scholarships are given to students in need. the program is run by a local non-profit organization. its director, sharon cohen, once skated in competitions. she hopes skating will help the girls build their feeling of self worth and confidence. >> you see girls that when they don't have things to do to keep them occupied after school, the teen pregnancy rate is high, the

rates of violence are higher. you don't necessarily have to be the most talented, but if you stick at something and work hard, you'll see the results. and that's what we want them to find in themselves. >> reporter: 14-year-old alayah mikhail has been taking the classes for four years. she excels at spinning. >> it's really exciting when you get better at something and you just want to keep doing it again and again. >> reporter: eliyah lives with her mother, her older sister and younger brother. as a family, they have faced challenges together and the classes have personally helped eliyah become a stronger person. >> she became more confident and even her posture was better because even though she was tall and graceful, she had a tendency

to walk like this. but now she's more -- even her posture is better. >> the program also teaches other important skills. to help the girls become more self-sufficient, the program teaches subjects like nutrition and finance. >> how we could approach or approach miss sharon and get her to be our sponsor for our upcoming business. >> i would be like, people put on their bags and stuff like that. like the pin buttons. >> okay. very nice. >> eliyah? >> the pins saying this is our first year competing, they would want to support us maybe. so if we sell them the pins then that will be showing support. >> reporter: eliyah and her classmates are going to test their skills in a competition next month. their first. they are making last-minute improvements to their routine.

>> i really like to skate. so i'm going to be committed to this now. i will probably study math or political science. >> the program has been very successful and all of their graduates have gone on to higher education. the organization hopes to expand their program to other areas. rosa sobrino, nhk world, new york. japan's space agency says its solar propelled spacecraft is having a perfect mission so far. the space yacht was launched last may to test the use of sunlight to enable propulsion. ikaros unfolded its solar sail in space last year. the development team at the japan aerospace agency, or jaxa, explained the mission to reporters in tokyo on wednesday. a photo showed ikaros navigating about 80,000 kilometers from

venus on december 8th with the planet appearing in a crescent shape over the craft's silver sail. jaxa said the mission's goals included using solar power to accelerate and controlling the craft's orbit by sending signals from earth. the team plans to continue operating ikaros until march next year collecting data on the sails' strength with the aim of making it ten times wider. the team's leader osamu mori says he's relieved the first mission ever of its kind has gone off without a hitch. >> translator: we proved the success of ikaros to the world. now we can finally move to the next mission which is using this technology to develop a jupiter probe. the number of tourists ghog japan hit a high in 2010 reflecting its popularity. japan's national tourist organization says about 8.6 million travelers visited last year, the highest since records began in 1964.

the resumption of regular international flights at haneda airport in tokyo last fall helped boost the figures. south korean visitors accounted for the highest number at 2.4 million. that's up by more than 50% from the year before. china came second at around 1.4 million travelers helped by relaxed visa rules. visitors from thailand, singapore and malaysia were also the highest on record. japan's governments still failed to meet its target of 10 million visitors. tensions caused by a maritime spat between the trawler and vessel. the strong yen is also blamed for its failure to reach its target. hello again and welcome back to your world weather update. across japan today, we are still seeing lots of very cold air coming in from the north. that is also bringing in plenty of snowfall to the western flank

of the country. again today here, areas -- localized areas are looking to pick up to 40 to 77 meters of snowfall, additional snowfall, on all we've seen so far. lots more snow headed your way. some areas could be looking at the blowing snow as well. do stay on the watch for that. next door, towards that, the korean peninsula, northeastern china staying dry today. however, we are looking at precipitation. a lot of cold rain and snow spreading across central and southern sections of china, even in towards shanghai looking at the chances of sleet today. temperatures will remain low for you. 4 only in shanghai. we've got minus 6 in seoul. very cold conditions. and then 9 degrees in tokyo with a little bit of sunshine. across australia, we are keeping an eye on the western coastline here. western australia looking at tropical cyclone bianca. it's now a severe tropical cyclone and still on a strengthening path. expected to reach its peak

strength about friday morning. so we've still got another day to go with that strong system. it's currently a category 3 storm system packing wind gusts of well over 165 kilometers per hour. it's likely going to remain offshore, at least the center of the storm system, but still some gusts could be affecting the coastline. do watch out for that. of course, there's that rain, too, as well as coastal flooding storm surges that you will need to watch out for here. over towards north america, a lot of the activity remains along the east coast. we've got this developing system that will ride up along the atlantic seaboard today, spreading rain and snow. inland areas across the mid-atlantic states, new england region will be looking at snow. another storm system comes in off the great lakes. lake effect snows will pile up for you. minus 2 in chicago. minus 1 in toronto. subfreezing temperatures across the board here. we've got 3 in new york, and

only 1 for d.c. finally, getting a look at europe here. a lot of the activity is going to be located towards the south, the southern tier of europe. lots of activity in place. a couple of systems moving in toward the iberian peninsula. and that will produce some strong rains in the days to come. also right now, looking at a little bit more activity developing along southern italy and in towards greece. chances of some of strong to severe thundershowers for you tonight. otherwise, a fairly settled picture for the northern half of europe. a little bit of snow moving in toward the norway coastline, but that will be just about it. here's a look at highs. it is remaining quite low. minus 6 in stockholm. 0 for berlin. as well as vienna. minus 2 in warsaw and minus 4 in kiev. lots of temperatures here well below zero. it is going to be quite chilly again on thursday. that's a look at your weather for now. here is your three-day outlook.

we'll be back with more news in 30 minutes. i'm gene otani. x