hello there. welcome to "newsline." it's friday, june 17th, 9:00 a.m. in tokyo. i'm catherine kobayashi with your updates. at the fukushima daiichi nuclear power plant, leaking water is threatening to decontaminate highly radioactive water, key to bringing the plant under control. tokyo electric power company or tepco had been planning to start full operation of the water treatment system on friday. it has been carrying out test runs. but a u.s. made device to remove radioactive materials mainly cesium stopped running on thursday.

the utility company says it's examining the cause and trying to fix the problem, but it adds that suspension may delay full scale operation of the water treatment system. the highly radioactive water is building up at a rate of 500 tons a day as freshwater is being poured onto the reactors to cool them down. the main facility to store radioactive water reached capacity on thursday and any delay in launching the treatment system could cause contaminated water to overflow in about ten days. water treatment system is a precondition of the company's plan to bring the plant under control. it intends to use the treated water to cool down the reactors.

tepco announced the plan to solve the nuclear crisis t months ago and it's to review the timetable on friday. radioactive material has been detected in sludge from waste water treatment facilities in many parts of japan since the crisis began at the fukushima daiichi plant. the government announced guidelines on how to dispose of the sludge on thursday, and informed 13 prefectures of the decision. the guidelines say disposal facilities with filters. films created when the sludge is burned or dissolved. sludge contangs radiation with more than 1,000 becquerels per kilogram will be stored with substances like concrete. sludge contains more than 8,000 to 100,000 becquerels of radiation can be buried in waste disposal sites after steps are taken to limit local residents' annual maximum exposeeur to ten

microsieverts. sludge with readings offal,000 becquerels are less can be buried are measures are taken as long as the disposal sites are not used for residential purposes. governments of japan and the united states called off their previously 2014 timetable to relocation the u.s. marine corps futenma air station. in may they agreed to relocate the airbase to the coastal region of nago city, also in okinawa. the two countries will hold a bilateral meeting in washington next tuesday. nhk learned a joint statement will be issued which nullifies the target year. an informed source says the statement will confirm that the planned new u.s. air field to be constructed at u.s. camp schwab in nago city will have two v-shaped runways.

the source says the statement will hint at the possibility of placing the runways far offshore rather than the originally planned site near the beach. the new air field will take over the functions of the present futenma base which is situated in a densely populated residential area. the 2014 target to relocate u.s. marines stationed in okinawa to guam will also be given up. the statement will say the say the transfer of 8,000 u.s. marines will not be completed by 2014. now the statement would reportedly call on the two countries to take measures as early as possible after 2014 on the relocation while maintaining the capabilities of the u.s.-japan alliance. earlier the governor of okinawa referred to the scheduled bilateral meeting and said the futenma air station should be relocated outside the territory as local residents are strongly opposed to the transfer. now he also cited a u.s. announcement last week to deploy a long-range high-tech transporter to futenma in october 2012 as another reason to move the base outside the

prefecture. nakaima said on thursday that moving the base outside of okinawa would pose no problem for the new transporter because it has a longer range than conventioned ahelicopters. >> translator: the new transport aircraft has a longer range, and that means there will be more options for relocation of the base. the japanese government should take more realistic measures to protect people from the dangers the aircraft poses. >> the mv-22 osprey transport aircraft can virtually take off and land as well as fly twice as fast as a conventional helicopter, but there's growing concern about the aircraft's safety following crashes during development. people in okinawa, where 75% of the u.s. bases in japan are located, are fiercely against the deployment as well as the

relocation plan within the prefecture. ai uchida joins us now the latest in business news. encouraging data out of the u.s. >> in the housing market no less. housing starts and building permits increased in may in the u.s. the commerce department said on thursday that work began on 560,000 homes in annual terms, that's up 3.5% from the previous month, and exceeds the market forecast of about 540,000. building permits an indicator of the future trend in housing showed an increase of 8.7% from april. this was also much better than the consensus estimate. in the u.s., concerns are mounting over economic prospects following a rise in the jobless rate. growth in the housing market is a key factor to keep the recovery going. and following this encouraging data, the dow jones edged into the positive overnight. to see how stocks are performing here in jawan we cross over to

ramin mellegard who is at the tokyo stock exchange so ramin, how are stocks trading this friday morning? >> reporter: good morning to you, ai. both the nikkei and the topix actually in the positive this friday morning, following on from the gains that we saw for the dow and the s&p 500. a little bit of good news out of the u.s. we had a drop in the weekly jobless claims and as you mentioned there, a rise in housing starts, so a little bit of positive slant there, which helped the dow and the s&p 500, and end in the positive. we saw tech shares selling weighing on the nasdaq so the nasdaq ended just in the neglecttive. there was also a ripple of good news going through the market, the imf sees a positive resolution to greece's debt problems. nevertheless, the persistent problems surrounding greece continues to play into the markets with a contagion fear of it affecting other eurozone economies and that may keep investors a little bit cautious

according to analysts. here in japan we'll keep track of exporters as well as commodity-related steel and construction shares, and that follows the big sell-off that we saw yesterday so we're going to keep track of the likes of oil and gas field developer impex which fell 4% yesterday, will see a bounce today as well as japanese trading house mitsubishi corporation heavily involved in commodities, as well as steelmaker jfe holdings so we'll keep track of those stocks and sectors as well. autoparts and makers have been lower throughout the week on the back of the stronger yen and also the overall weaker economic data coming out of the u.s. recently in the last couple of weeks. however, could see a little bit of bargain hunting after stocks have been beaten down recently, so we might see just a touch of support there. moving on to currencies, the yen a little weaker against the dollar, the upper 80 yen levels, actually probing above 81 at one

point but still holding around 114 against the euro, and that's on those persistent problems of greece's debt concerns which has been weighing on the euro. but next week a focus will be on the federal reserve open market committee meeting on wednesday, a lot of analysts will be keen to see what comes out of that following the ending of the second round of quantitative easing at the end of june. back to you. >> thanks a lot ramin, that was our market reporter ramin mellegard from the tokyo stock exchange. honda motor has released a new hybrid vehicle in japan after a three-month delay caused by the march 11th disaster. the station wagon type car, the fitz shuttle travels 25 kilometers on a liter of fuel and based on the latest environmentally friendly technology. honda planned to release the model in march as its mainstay hybrid vehicle but the company put off the release until this week after transferring its production base from a plant in saitama prefecture in tokyo to

mie prefecture in western japan. the company transferred the plant amid concerns about power shortages. >> translator: i'd like to express my apology to those who have been waiting for our hybrid car. i hope the introduction of this new model will boost the promotion of hybrid vehicles. >> last month toyota motor also put a new hybrid on the market after delaying it for three weeks. south korea's carrier korean airlines will introduce on friday the world's largest passenger jet an airbus a-380 into regular national service into japan. the aircraft will make one daily round trip flight between inchon international west of seoul and narita airport near tokyo. the a-380 is manufactured by the airbus industries based in

france. the model has a full business class upper deck. it has 407 seats, the fewest among model of the plane. this enables economy class seats to have more space than usual. kal is hoping it will increase the number of japanese travelers to south korea. it also plans to place four of the a-380s in service to europe and the united states. south korea's government drew up a five-year aviation policy last year that aims to make inchon airport an air traffic hub in asia. competition in commercial aviation between japan and south korea is likely to heat up. and now a recap of the latest market figures.

that's all in business news for this hour. back to catherine >> thanks very much, ai. the leaders of china and russia have agreed to increase bilateral trade by more than three times and work closely on international issues. russian president dmitry medvedev and chinese president hu jintao met on wednesday. they will boost to $2 billion. >> reporter: energy is a key area to practical cooperation between china and russia.

both sides want to keep pushing forward with this on a mutually beneficial and win/win basis. >> in addition, the two leaders announced that joint declaration on international affairs charging that air strikes on libya by nato goes beyond the mandate of a united nations security council resolution. they also agreed to cooperate on finding solutions to iran and north korea's nuclear programs. north korea has urged south korea to return nine people who crossed a maritime border in the yellow sea on two small boats last week. a south korean patrol boat spotted the boats near the south korean eye lan of yeonpyeong last saturday. the north korean red cross thursday sent a written message and demanded the south immediately send the group back. the south's government said the group is from south huayhei province in north korea. all nine reportedly asked for political asylum. south korea says it will not

send them back unless they change their minds about defecting. in february, a fishing boat carrying 31 north koreans drifted into south korean territory. the south refused to allow the return of four people who it said had claimed asylum. the pictures next to me show what china looked like 20 years ago. the bicycle was the main mode of transportation. today china is the world's biggest auto market. the country's inland cities are rapidly industrializing and increasing numbers of people are driving cars. the trend is causing big problems like traffic jams and air pollution. in an attempt to reduce car use, the city of wuhan is encouraging citizens to get back on their bikes. nhk world's yutaka yano tells the story. >> wuhan, the capital of hubei

province is home to 10 million people. with a booming economy pushing up personal incomes, the number of cars clogging the streets is growing by over 10,000 a month. the city is building subways and bridges to try to satisfy demand but wuhan's traffic jams have become legendary. air pollution from exhaust fumes has become quite serious. to help save the environment, one solution seems simple. a return to the bicycle. when you walk around the streets of wuhan, you notice that many people ride the same type of bicycle like this one. that's because the city provides rental bicycles for free. wuhan launched a public bicycle share program two years ago with a fleet of 3,000 two-wheelers. it now provides some 50,000 bikes, making it one of the world's largest bike share systems. for cycle ips safety, the city runs an extensive network of

bike path. the program serves as many as 180,000 users a day. >> translator: not only does it help cut exhaust gas emissions, bicycling helps me lose weight. it's good exercise too. >> translator: china used to be a kingdom of bicycles. when i ride a bike i can stay in shape and i feel good. >> reporter: to get on a bike in wuhan is quite easy. all you need is an i.d. card issued from a bicycle rental station and you are free to ride. to ensure your fellow citizens can also enjoy the system, you have to return your bike within two hours of use. but there are more than 1,100 rental stations throughout the city, each within a five-minute ride of another. users can pick up or return a bike to any station they like.

a mechanic at each facility keeps the bikes maintained and the tires full of air. the system is funded by the advertisements brightly covering the bicycles and facilities. to further enhance their eco-friendliness, some rental stations are powered by solar panels. this man uses the public bicycle sharing program for commuting. through the heavy morning rush hour it used to take him over an hour to get to work. now on a bicycle he can make it in just 20 minutes. he no longer has to worry about the traffic making him late. he says the return to old fashioned transport not only changed his lifestyle but it has raised his awareness about the environment. >> translator: air pollution is very bad here but i can do my bit to cut emissions which is

good for me and society too. >> reporter: creating the bike share program cost wuhan more than $18 million, but city officials say it's saving about 250,000 liters of gasoline a day. that's equivalent to a 500-ton co2 emission cut. with many other booming chinese cities facing similar problems, such as wuhan, the bike share program is attracting a lot of interest as an eco-friendly model for urban development. >> translator: our bicycle sharing program has had a nationwide impact. many cities are trying to emulate our approach. the key is how to get citizens to buy into the program. it's one of various ways to raise awareness of the importance of building an eco-friendly society. >> reporter: the city is planning to build 100 more rental stations by august with an eye to increasing the number

of bicycles to 100,000 in the near future. as cities in china grow with enormous speed, people need a better environment and well planned development, but for china to become an environmentally friendly country, improving people's consciousness is urgent. creating a better city environment is up to everyone. yutaka yano, nhk world, wuhan. >> back to the basics there. in other news, italy's u.n. ambassador dashed hopes that a japan supported resolution to expand the security council will be passed this year. japan, germany, india and brazil are hoping to join the council and plan to submit the resolution by september to increase the number of permanent and non-permanent members. in an interview with nhk, italy's u.n. ambassador criticized the draft resolution. the four s only aim is to get

nations and said ratification would be difficult. >> the bad aspect which is the only one frankly, because the only point which characterized the proposition is to have new permanent members and they think about themselves as new permanent members. >> he also said the proposal is supported by only 0% of u.n. member nations. he added japan must have already realized how difficult it would be to adopt, changing the number of u.n. security council members requires a revision to the u.n. charter. it must be supported by two-thirds of its members including the five permanent seats. angry fans ran wild in the canadian city of vancouver on wednesday after its national hockey team league lost the championship known as the stanley cup. the vancouver canucks playing the boston bruins were trying to win their first nhl championship.

disappointed by the deciding game seven defeat, some fans vandalized stores and set vehicles ablaze. police tried to take control, but the rioting went on for more than four hours. clashes with police and violence in the crowd left over 100 people hurt. eight people were treated at a hospital for stab wounds and other injuries. >> this is wrong for the city. this isn't is the reputation we want. after the olympics, we did so much to bring this city to where it is today, and this is what we do now? this is not what the city wants. >> the canucks fell short for the third time in the stanley cup finals. it was the sixth time for the boston bruins to hoist the trophy. hi there. time now for your weather update across eastern asia. you can see some clouds starting to swell just to the east of the philippines here. this will be a tropical

depression that will be moving fairly slowly in a northward direction bringing widespread rain to minute mindanao. meanwhile, a seasonal rain band continues to hover near japan here, somewhat gloomy and unsettled throughout the country this morning. that will be easing off by this afternoon, but still some heavy downpours could occur in parts of kyushu here so flooding cannot be ruled out. as we look towards the north, there will be good spells of sunshine for hokkaido. thunderstorms also easing off across north korea and northeastern china this afternoon as well. for central and southern china, it's a different story. again, we're looking at persistent showers down towards the southern coast here and also areas along the yangtze river will experience some torrential downpours over the next couple of days. a low pressure system will be joining up with that seasonal rain band, and that will create this extensive rain, anywhere

from northeastern sichuan to shanghai, looking to heavy showers, especially for hubei, looking at upwards of 100 millimeters to occur in the next 48 hours. flooding is going to be a big concern here. 30 degrees in chongqing today. stays hot despite the heavy rain. 29 in beijing. summer-like again in seoul at 30 degrees. tokyo is going to be chilly though at 21 degrees. now we head into the americas. lots of thunderstorms developing tonight. we've got a very long frontal system stretching across the u.s., so anywhere from dakotas through the four corners into the east coast will experience some rain and thunderstorms. looking particularly severe down in the south for arkansas as well as mississippi tonight, also near that low pressure system for nebraska and into wyoming could experience a couple of violent storms, but unfortunately, the rain not getting into the place where we really need it. arizona new mexico, into texas will stay extremely dry and

windy, and also hot as well. central america, too, seeing plenty of showers develop here just to the south of mexico. we have a broad low pressure system that could intensify over the next 48 hours. 26 degrees in meco city with plenty of rain. 38 in houston. another hot day. now for europe, looking very thundery across the middle part of europe here for germany into the alpine region. this frontal system is going to be shifting towards the east on friday, but you can see a new system that's going to be coming in from the atlantic. that's going to be first bringing plenty of showers to the british isles and then another round of rain, eventually reaching the alpine region. overall in and around the alps looking very unsettled in and throughout the night into your country. calm throughout much of italy as well as the balkans. much of spain and portugal will escape the rain as well. warming up to 31 degrees in madrid with plenty of sunshine.

looking rather cool though in london at 17 celsius. vienna coming in at 24, looking quite showery here. all right. here is your extended forecast now.

our lead story this hour, at the crippled fukushima daiichi nuclear power plant, leaking water is threatening to delay full operation of a system to decontaminate highly radioactive water which is key to bringing the plant under control. tokyo electric power company or tepco had been planning to start full operation of the water treatment system on friday. it has been carrying out test runs. but a u.s.-made device to remove a radioactive materials, mainly cesium, stopped running on thursday. the utility company says it's examining the cause and trying

to fix the problem, but it adds that suspension may delay full scale operation of the water treatment system. the highly radioactive water is building up at a rate of 500 tons a day as freshwater is being poured onto the reactors to cool them down. the main facility to store radioactive water reached capacity on thursday and any delay in launching the treatment system could cause contaminated water to overflow in about ten days. full operation of the water treatment system is a precondition of the company's plan to bring the plant under control. it intends to use the treated water to continuously cool down the reactors. tepco announced the plan to solve the nuclear crisis two months ago and it is to review the timetable on friday. and that concludes this edition of "newsline." i'm catherine kobayashi in tokyo. do stay with us. we'll be back with more of your updates. ÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷