glood to have you on this edition of "newsline." a 6.7 magnitude earthquake. there is tsunami warnings but it was lifted 50 minutes late are. the 6.7 earthquake occurred at 6:51 a.m. japan time at the coast of iwate prefecture. japan's meteorological agency has issued a tsunami advisory along the coastal areas of iwate. please evacuate the area as soon as possible if you're around the area. registered in iwate prefecture,

the agency issued tsunami advisories but lifted them at 7:45 a.m. okinawa remembers the end of world war ii. people began to arrive at the peace memorial park at dawn. more than 200,000 people died, including 120,000 civilians. they will reflect the difficulty of passing down the tragedy to

the young. >> translator: our lives are based on the sacrifices that were made. i came to pray and remember what their losses mean to us. we must never go to war again. >> prime minister naota kan will attend the ceremony. the operator of the fukushima daiichi power plant is trying to get things under control and there is a race against time. the new water decontamination system was shut down five hours after it went into operation on friday. the utility says a device in the system only exceeded in lowering

the concentration of cesium to 1% instead of 0.1% as initially expected. the utility says that it increased from 3 mill lee receive verts on tuesday. it wants to resume operating the system as soon as possible before the contaminated water overflows from the storage facilities. the operator says humidity is dropping but radio activity remains high in some parts of the building. extreme humidity was one of the factors hampering the activity. on wednesday afternoon, workers found humidity levels inside the

building to be between 46 and 65%. they installed surveillance cameras on the ground floor. high radiation levels were measured on the second floor. workers also found that contaminated waste water in the basement measured 6.1 meters deep with surface radiation between 348 and 440 milliseverts per hour. work was scheduled for thursday but was postponed because of the continuing high raid lags levels. a new computer simulation shows how radiation spread from around the world. it was created by a group of

researchers. the simulation is based on a scenario in which contaminated air was vented from the disabled reactor 2 building three days after the earthquake and tsunami. computer images show that it was carried 5,000 meters into the air and spread over the pacific ocean. after the fourth day, the substances reached the west coast of the united states and on the seventh day they approached iceland after crossing the atlantic. the disaster at the fukushima daiichi has spread radio

activity beyond the evacuation zone. medical experts and scientists held a meeting in tokyo to address their concerns. >> reporter: doctors and radiation scientists gathered in tokyo to share their knowledge. nearly 150 people were at the meeting. they are concerned, how much danger are we in? what can i do to protect my health? some spoke about the unease that they are experiencing. he had to leave his home about 33 kilometers from the nuclear plant. >> officials visited the village

and all they told us is that the area is generally safe. that could mean it is safe so we won't do anything. now they say they will carry out tests in the area. i hope they will take action based on the results. >> reporter: they say that the radiation is too low to cause problems in the short term but say that they have a limited understanding of how prolonged exposure to low doses of radiation will affect human health. the doctor pointed out that the japanese government hasn't given detailed instructions on radiation exposure. he's a member of the international commission on radio logical commission. >> translator: we cannot ascertain where and how much radiation an individual is exposed to. more realistic measurements are

needed. we have found that food plays a major role in internal radiation exposure. so it will be critical to control food safety. >> in the short term, the focus is getting the fukushima daiichi under control but what happens in the long term is not known. some that has been released from the nuclear plant has had long lives. the low doses effect is still largely unknown. experts of japan's disaster center say they plan to continue providing scientific evidence so people can make informed decisions about the risks posed by radiation. >> a segment offers the insight into japan's ongoing crisis. every thursday night at 8:00 and

11:00 japan time. summer has officially started in japan and this year companies and households of the eastern part of the country are being told to power shortage is looming because the tsunami and earthquake crippled the plants and put many offline for safety reasons. the government has set an energy reduction target of 15% during peak time hours to avoid blackouts. peak shift is popular in europe. >> reporter: this tokyo-based maker is a power saving leader in japan. they saved 30% from energy from

the target more than week announced the 15% savings plan. the company is trying to shift its consumption away from peak hours. so it's been asking all employees not to plug anything into wall outlets between the hours of 1:00 and 4:00 p.m. at business meetings, workers are required to bring laptop computers. they cannot charge their cell phones between 1:00 and 4:00 p.m. and in case they forget, some of the companies' walls are covered up. japan's local factories are also making power saving airports. diapers normally operate morning until night but to reduce consumption, they are considering stopping in the late hours. >> workers did not have any idea

what they could do. workers are viewing this challenge as an opportunity. >> reporter: this research and development lab is based near tokyo. the company is using a complex to save during peak hours. it's called an energy system. here's how it works. the lab has a cooling machine that sends energy to a laser bar at night for storage. during daytime peak hours, the energy is released and is used around the air conditioning unit. the reservoir is loaded with water-filled bowls and there is a liquid that is below freezing sells yes, sir. the balls freeze at night and

then during peak hours they release energy. the lab expects to reduce usage by 480 kill lowatts per hour. but they must make sure that the restored energy is released at the right time. >> translator: the thermal energy system enables us to shift 8 to 10% of electricity consumption from peak hours to nighttime. but we have to manipulate computers because the temperature outside will influence the pace at which the ice melts and energy is released. so our workload will increase and become an additional burden. >> earlier, he filed that story and followed us in the studio to give us more insight on this story. >> as we mentioned, the government has set 15% as the energy target for saving around the country.

this is a big burden again for companies but what if they can't reach that goal. >> they will face fines. the penalty is up to 1 million or about $12,00 but there are exceptions. for example, the energy-saving rule and compared with other countries, what does japan need to do to promote energy saving. >> well, in general, companies have been performing well and make the demand on the energy system more even. japan is starting to get better so-called electric load leveling but germany and france. france has been changing since 1960s and offers a variety of systems and differs from seaso

to season and 1.5 times higher than at night. this gives consumers an incentive to save energy and has been effective in reducing the usage. in japan, the government cannot control the prices decided. it's now asking for businesses and households across the country to submit the energy-saving ideas. >> this is unprecedented. how will the expected affect japan's economy and people's lives? >> for one thing, working hours are changing. some companies are promoting holidays and others are cutting overtime and making start and finish times earlier. another change is buildings. some businesses and local governments are installing rooftops and replacing light bulbs with low level l.e.d.s and many are trying to introduce

solar systems and renewable power sources. some are moving the power intensive situation such as data facilities in order to avoid the expected power storages in the east. the unprecedented disaster is giving the japanese people an opportunity to not only limit their power consumption but the future of their system. >> thank you for joining us tonight. now for the latest in business news. there's a fly caught in my hair there. >> something flying around. >> the u.s. economy and fed's next move? >> absolutely. bernanke admitted that the skmee shakier than he previously thought but nonetheless, the u.s. central bank said on wednesday it will terminate the

emergency credit easing program at the end of the month as planned. the decision was made unanimously at the two-day federal open market committee. officials said the slow down in the pace of the u.s. recovery is expected to be temporary. the policy makers decided to keep rates low to support the struggling economy. the fed said the slowdown it due to higher prices of food and energy. supply chain disruptions stemming from the march disaster in japan had a dampening effect. policy makers said that the housing market, a key sector, continues to be weak. the fed said that it will keep the rates at rock bottom and continue to provide ample liquidity to the money markets. and the fed chairman ben bernanke spoke at the policy makers meeting. bernanke indicated that u.s. economic recovery may proceed at a slower pace due to a weak

housing sector and other problems. bernanke said growth is going to pick up into 2012 but at a somewhat slower pace than the fed anticipated back in april. >> the weakness in the financial sector, problems in the housing sector, balance sheets and deleveraging issues, some of these head winds may be stronger or more persistent than we thought. >> bernanke's comments were less optimistic than the fed's statement which said that factors behind the slower pace of recovery, such as highe prices and energy is likely to be temporary. he stressed that extra credit easing measures were successful as they improved the job market to a certain degree. >> many objective indicators suggested that deflation was a nontrivial risk and i think that the securities purchases have been very successful in eliminating deflation risk. >> the fed downgraded the

economic growth estimate for this year between 2.7 and 2.9%. that's from 3.1 to 3.3% announced in april. now, let's turn to the markets and for that we are joined by our market reporter at the new york stock exchange. how are stocks trading after the overnight news from the fed? >> a very good morning to you. thank you very much for that. tokyo stocks are trading lower on this thursday morning after that news from the fed and chairman ben bernanke's news conference. let's take a quick look at the opening levels here in tokyo. the nikkei average trading lower, down by more than 30% and breaking below the 9,600 mark. overnight in new york, a four-day winning streak. the fact that the fed chairman did not make any reference to the possibility of qe 3 and that the fed cut its growth forecast for u.s. economic growth this year and next triggered a round

of selling. now, u.s. stocks were also prone to profit taking, especially after four straight sessions of gains which pushed up the dow by almost 300 points. on thursday, the -- on wednesday the dow finished at 12,109 points, or two-thirds of 1% and nasdaq finishing at 2,669.19. here in tokyo, the overnight losses in new york could put pressure on stock and the nikkei rise of 2% could mean investors could shell shares to take profits. meanwhile, worries over the situation in greece have eased somewhat, especially after the vote of confidence in the greek parliament. that could mean something positive for market sentiment here in tokyo. and on the corporate front, suzuki is announcing the earnings forecast for the current business year that he is

something that investors are going to pay close attention to today. >> and finally the currencies, the yen is weaker against the dollar. in new york, dealers bought the u.s. rising afrt f 1 c meeting and they were pretty limited and against the euro, the yen is trading higher. that's trading lower in the 115 level. that's all from here. back to you. >> thanks a lot for that, yogi. mitsubishi aircraft will enter a servicing tie-up with boeing. this is for the newly developed jet also known as mrj. the two firms announced the deal for the mrj on wednesday at an air show in paris. they say under the agreement boeing will provide parts and manage the inventory. boeing will help with the

maintenance of the mrjs. >> mitsubishi aircraft will be able to offer very best customer support in partnership with boeing. >> since the ys 11 turbo prop. and mrjs from carriers in japan and the u.s. >> and that's it in business for now. south korea's top intelligence officials say north korea has set up a new riot squad to prepare for possible middle east style demonstrations. the director of the national intelligence service made the remark at a closed parliamentary committee meeting on wednesday. a lawmaker who attended quoted him assaying that public frustration is mounting in the north over the crumbling

economy. the riot squad is equipped with foreign-made pull lut proof vests to prepare for a possible uprising in the middle east. he warned that the north could conduct another round of cyber attacks on computer systems at financial institutions, power companies, and airlines in the south. nhk has shot footage of a chinese naval ships in okinawa. the defense ministry and self-defense ministers confirmed that the ships were in the sea. three ships were sailing towards china at waters about 120 kilometers northeast of miyako island from 5:45 p.m. to 6:25 p.m. on wednesday. they are the chinese navies most advanced category.

the ships are part of a chinese naval fleet which conducted live firing drills in waters south of japan on tuesday after passing between okinawa and miyaka islands two weeks ago. japan's defense ministry says the fleet comprises of 11 ships, including destroyers and marines. the fleet is likely to conduct submarine battles. the chinese navy has been active in pacific waters east of the nasei islands. welcome to your weather update. two tropical storm systems in the south pacific today. this is tropical storm that has been with us since yesterday slowing moving towards the southern end of china and areas

are starting to feel the tropical storm winds. this has been moving very slowly so that it's going to mean that the conditions are going to be with you and that presents a risk of landslides and stormy weather for the next few days. on the other side of the philippines to the east, that is we have tropical storm mary that has just joined us and it's bringing the stormy weather conditions in towards the philippines and it's expected to further strengthen the water. it's going to bring in stronger winds over the next few days. by the weekend, likely taiwan as well as parts of japan, could be looking at strong, stormy weather. both are, of course, packing plenty of rainfall and ahead of that, we have a long frontal boundary that is bringing in

rain. once again, we're looking at this long rain band out of southwest china, extending towards the korean peninsula and pink is showing up and a lot of areas are going to pick up on that very heavy rainfall. we could be seeing amounts in the triple digits. for japan to northern areas are going to be seeing a lot of rainfall. 100 to 200 millimeters is possible. you want to watch for flooding of low lying areas as well as mudslides and it's going to be on the stormy side as well. another area continues to be the northern end of the indian subcontinent and towards the western areas. you are going to see much heavier rain over the course of today. as for highs, 31 in tokyo and staying steamy. 28 degrees in beijing, getting back down from 30s for a change. it heats up in shanghai.

34 degrees for you today. for europe, it's getting stormy tonight for central areas right along this cold front. widespread thunderstorm watches in effect and it's going to continue to be stormy tonight and for the alpine region, that rain is going to linger while the rest of the rain heads up into the scanned knave ven peninsula as well as the balance particular states. showers across the british isles and temperature is not bad. 20 degrees for london as well as paris. madrid gets up to 30 degrees. not quite as hot as it was but it's still warm. lisbon, up to 27 degrees. it warms up for you quite a bit. all right. that's a look at your weather conditions for now. and i will leave you with your three-day outlook.

and that concludes this edition of "newsline." do stay with us. we'll be back with more of your

updates at the top of the next hour.