hello and welcome to "newsline." it's friday, august 26th, 9:00 a.m. in tokyo, i'm catherine kobayashi. an audio message believed to have been from moammar gadhafi calls on forces to fight while opposition forces hunt for him. council forors are searching for

gadhafi with nato's help after taking hold of the regime's corps facilities. about 1,000 soldiers surrounded the building where they claim gadhafi and his family might be hiding. later in the day, a satellite tv station run by loyalists run a message thought to be from gadhafi. the man claimed he is in the capital and calls on supporters to purify the city of rebels who he calls "rats." gadhafi forces continued their resistance by deploying snipers throughout the city. they stepped up their offensive near gadhafi's home town. the national transition council is working to launch a transitional government and asking for international assistance.

while battles continue in the libyan capitol of tripoli the oil-rich city has lost its luster. ucido futori has this report. >> reporter: the economic boom with its oil money. but now one of the largest cities in north africa is almost like a ghost town. sporadic clashes continue, but there is hardly anybody walking the street. i don't see any stores open for business. this morning, i went to green square in the center of the city. the square is a symbolic place for gadhafi loyalists where they gather every day. scorched cars lay abandoned here. empty gun cartridges litter the ground. residents were sweeping up. a gadhafi portrait above the

square once looked down on everybody below. but it has since been removed. checkpoints are a new addition across all the city streets. as the colonel and soldiers loyal to him are still on the run, militia supporting the transitional national counl are searching each passing car. and the city is now quiet, tensions remain here. there is still speculation that gadhafi loyalists might launch a desperate st stand. yujiro futori, nhk world. a british newspaper reported that special forces from that country were on the ground in libya assisting the fall of tripoli. "the daily telegraph" on wednesday quoted defense sources

as confirming that soldiers from the british army special forces sas regiment have been in libya for several weeks. the paper said soldiers have been dressed in arab civilian clothing and carrying the same weapons as the rebels. after taking part in the fighting to capture the military headquarters in tripoli that served as gadhafi's residence, the forces are now involved in tracking him down. britain's defense secretary liam fox appearing in a local tv network on wednesday acknowledged that nato is supporting the antigovernment forces' hunt for gadhafi but did not comment on the activities of the sas. the syrian government has intensified its crackdown on demonstrators following the virtual collapse of the gadhafi regime in libya. more than 20 people are dead. antigovernment demonstrations took place wednesday night and thursday in damascus and other

parts of syria to demand the resignation of president bashar al assad. government forces responded with heavy fire to put down the protests. a human rights group based in syria says 23 people have been killed in the past two days, including seven in the central city of haams. the united nations says that more than 2,200 people have been killed in the government crackdown that started in march. the u.n. security council is studying a sanctions resolution against the country. however, the assad government continues its military repression, calling demonstrators terrorists inspired by a western conspiracy. it is feared the situation will deteriorate on friday, as large anti-assad rallies are being called for after muslim prayers. we go to our business desk with the latest in business news. thanks, ai. >> let's start with business news around the world. chinese president told french

president sarkozy china will help europe overcome its fiscal woes. they met in beijing thursday. who said china has the ability to overcome its hardships and china will continue to invest in europe. his remarks are seen as an apparent attempt by china to prevent a drop in trade with europe which is the country's largest export market. sarkozy expressed his gratitude for china's support and asked the country to extend further cooperation during the-up of 20 summit scheduled for november in cannes, southern france. >> a u.s. investment fund led by warren buffett will inject $5 billion into bank of america to boost the health of the largest u.s. commercial bank. beshg shaw hathaway made the announcement thursday. bank of america has seen its stock price plunge 28% this month due to mounting losses on

home mortgagees as the u.s. economy remains sluggish. concerns over the impact of worsening financial health at european banks are also weighing on the stock price. focus is whether the investment in bank of america will be enough to ease worries over the financial systems in the u.s. and europe. >> let's check on the markets here in tokyo. the dow jones declined after three days of gains ahead of a key speech by federal reserve chairman later today in jackson hole, wyoming. we are going to cross over now to the tokyo stock exchange to see how stocks are changing this friday morning. good morning. we had consumer prices out for japan. how are markets reacting? >> good morning to you, ai. showing consumer price index in july excluding fresh food was up 0.1% from a year earlier. both indexes, nikkei and topix

in the negative. not a major move, but following on with the dow and nasdaq and s&p 500. as you mentioned there, a lot of focus is going to be on fed chairman bene bernanke's speech later today at jackson hole, wyoming, in front of a lot of central bankers and policy makers. we did see a little bit of selling in the u.s. ahead of that event. not enough to wipe out the gains we've seen in the last three sections. maybe a little bit of position squaring, if you will. also a weak european stocks led sentiment lower. renewed debt issues there playing into the markets. one key signal the fed chairman bernanke may actually refrain from hinting about any extra measures to boost the economy was seen in the dollar. the dollar gained a touch. having a look at the currency levels, you can see it's trading around the lower to mid 77 yen levels, up about 1% from levels we saw this time yesterday. the dollar gaining a touch against the yen.

the support for the dollar in this case comes from the market perception there may be no need right now for any further quantitative easing measures by the fed. japanese stocks have sold off over 1,000 points so far this month, getting caught up in s&p downgrade of the u.s. credit rating and euro zone debt issues. recent gains are still not enough to bring the indexes back to levels that we saw in july. still, having said that, we have seen a little bit of a reprieve from exporters. nissan yesterday was up 7% on the back of those stronger than expected durable goods orders. also some auto parts makers. let's not forget the gdp numbers coming out later in the u.s. ahead of that speech by bene we gains just pinned back a touch. back to you. >> thanks. all eyes and ears on jackson hole, wyoming, this weekend.

in related news, the tokyo stock exchange is to give myanmar its full support to a bourse in the nation. the military government was transformed into a democratic administration in march the first nim 23 years. the tokyo stock exchange is expected to work with japan's daiwa security group to help myanmar establish rules and security systems for stock trading. investment into the new bourse is being considered. stronger ties with asean nations is to help them continue to grow as they set up an economic community in 2015. competition is heating up as south korea is offering assistance to open stomach exchanges in cambodia and laos. that's all for this hour in business news.

time nor "nuclear watch" bringing you the latest at fukushima daiichi. the government are working to bring the plant under control. the next big challenge will be to decommission the plant. tepco released its time table in april. the first part focused on stabilizing and cooling the reactors, lowering their temperature. the government and tepco announced in july that stage one had been completed. the second stage is now in progress. it aims to significantly reduce the amount of radioactive materials released from the plant. it emphasizes decontaminating highly radioactive water that has built up at fukushima daiichi and recycling it to continue the cooling process.

workers are aiming to achieve a cold shutdown by january. with reactor temperatures being kept below 100 degrees celsius. if that happens, the biggest challenge remains. decommissioning the reactors. the government's atomic energy commission has set up a tanl of experts to discuss a time table. the first meeting was on august 3rd. here is what the government and tepco put forward as their plan. work would start in 2014 to remove the spent fuel rods stored in pools. in 2021, the process to extract fuel from the reactor cores would begin. removing all the fuel along with dismantling and removing the reactor building is expected to take decades. the panel plans to finalize the time table by january. the deadline for bringing

fukushima daiichi under control. the actual work to decommission the reactors will proceed according to this time table. the panel will draw up the time table using the 1979 three mile island accident in the united states as a reference. this man is a former member of the government's nuclear safety commission. he was involved in the restoration of three mile island. he also represented japan in subsequent japan/u.s. joint research. in the three mile island accident, loss of cooling water regulated in a meltdown of 70% of the core. he thinks japan has a lot to learn from the restoration work at three mile island as it tackles the crisis at fukushima daiichi. >> translator: the fuel rods have melted.

stuck or scattered into pieces. i assume the situation at the fukushima plant is pretty much the same as it was at three mile island. >> reporter: extracting fuel from reactor cores is believed to be the toughest part of the decommissioning process. after the three mile island accident, it took a long time to design a machine that could handle the fuel. it wasn't until 11 years after the accident that all the fuel was finally removed. the situation at fukushima daiichi is even more serious. no one knows where the melted fuel is or what condition it is in. >> translator: in a three mile island accident we knew the fuel was being held in a pressurized containment. if fukushima we have pinpointed where the fuel is. that's the biggest difference.

>> nhk world gave us some insight on the decommissioning process. he spoke earlier with our yuko fukushima. >> translator: the time table for decommissioning fukushima plant is using three mile island accident as a reference. does the panel think it will take longer time decommissioning fik schumma than three mile island? >> translator: that's right. the accident is more serious than it was at three mile island. consequently, the decommissioning process will probably take longer. a review of the process at three mile island. it took three years after the accident to see the level of the radio action to work in the

reactor. it took six years to start extracting the fuel and 11 years to remove the materials. they assumed in june they would have to wait ten years just to start removing the fuel. >> translator: why does the process take longer time at fukushima daiichi plant? >> translator: the biggest difference is the condition of the mode in the collapsed fuel. in the three mile island accident, all the fuel was held in the reactor. the work was inside of the vessel. even that, however, was challenging for modern fuel to irregular shapes. they had to adjust operations depending on where in the vessel they worked on. modern fuel has pierced through the reactor, causing the

scientists to believe some leaked into the outer container vessel. in addition, the huge amount of water contaminated radioactivity is believed to be spilled outside the container vessel. normally, the nuclear fuel is removed in water-filled container where water shields the radioactivity. the container vessel won't be able to hold water in fukushima. how can they identify exactly where and how much the fuel is? how to proceed the operation in the environment of the high level of the radioactivity, the specific plans of these crucial operations are yet to be formulated. >> so how long does it take for the decommissioning of fukushima daiichi plant to complete? >> it is inevitable to take decades. in three mile island, the so-called meltdown took place in

only one reactor, compared with fukushima's three. needless to say the fukushima situation is far more serious than three mile island. the risk of radiation will never go down to zero. consequently, residents around the nuclear plant have to live in fear if they can ever return home. the specialists panel of the nuclear energy commission should work very hard to proceed, produce a clear road map leading to the successful decommissioning as quickly as possible to allay the angst of the local people. >> translator: thank you. i was talking about the decommissioning of the nuclear power plant in fukushima. changiing gears, sri lanka will lift emergency law from 2005.

the president told parliament on thursday his country no longer needs the laws as it has suffered fewer terrorist attacks since the end of the civil war against the tamal tigers. the sri lanka government declared victory in 2009 putting an end to a civil war that lasted more than two decades. the emergency laws remained in place, allowing authorities to detain suspect for lengthy periods without trial. as a result, sri lanka had been criticized by western nations and neighboring india for infringing on human rights. the move is an apparent bid to rehabilitate the country's international image as the government hopes to attract foreign investment to reconstruct the war-torn region. time to check on some of the stories we gathered from broadcasters around asia. we begin with this item from malaysia. malaysia and indonesia have agreed to hold joint marine patrols to combat international

crimes such as human trafficking. under the deal, marine forces of malaysia's southern state will conduct joint patrols with their counterparts from the indonesian province of the neau islands. a marine commander said on wednesday that the forces will also assist each other in dealing with natural disasters and other accidents. he added that senior officers from both sides will hold monthly meetings to exchange information. in thailand, the death toll from floods since last month has risen to 46. the flooding triggered by torrential rains has affected almost a million households in 32 provinces. on thursday, authorities issues flash flood warnings for residents in low-lying areas, including those among the mekong river. flash floods were triggered, forcing many schools to close. thousands of people have also been suffering from the

flooding. many highways in the province are still inundated. despite the price of gold staging its biggest weekly gain in 2 1/2 years, people in china haven't stopped buying the precious metal. more and more investors feel it's safer to put their money in gold. jewelry is also a favorite as a family gift. statistics show sales of gold jewelry in china have shown the biggest increase. but experts say buyers must be cautious when they put their money in gold as the metal has seen many ups and downs in the past. welcome back to your weather update. in asia we are monitoring a couple of tropical storms. very close to northern end of the philippines and really showing signs of developing. we are sighing this eye starting

to form here. this will be typhoon nadol. you can see the tropical storm force winds are impacting this corner of the philippines. this has been a slow-moving system. it will maintain that slow speed. stormy weather will be in the area. that means continuous winds and heavy rain. gradually as the system heads toward taiwan, southern taiwan may start feeling the effects toward the weekend, as well. off in the pacific we have tropical storm talas. this is starting to move in a nortesterly direction. forecasts taking it really not quite sure where it's headed.

looks like it's going to be not moving in any direction too quickly. showing signs of intensifying, as well. japan has been deal iing with tt very rainy front. it's still with us again. starting to sag toward the south. showers and heavier downpours again. focusing more on southern areas and in towards the afternoon including the tokyo area will start seeing showers and heavier downpours are going to be found, as well. friday's high looking at 30 in tokyo coming in at 27 in shanghai. the caribbean is also dealing with hurricane irene and the eastern coast of the united states also will need to start bracing for this system. it starts aiming for the north carolina coastline this weekend. you want to take precautions before these stormy conditions

start up. you want to watch out for strong winds and rough sea conditions down the coastline, too. rip currents could produce very dangerous conditions here. finally a look at europe. looking messier toward the west. got a couple of systems here that are going to combine to bring in showers and gusty weather in towards anywhere from the british isles through western europe into parts of central sections. southern scandinavia peninsula will get wet. london only 14 degrees. 20 in paris. it's still hot for areas like berlin. 33 is your high. vienna 35 degrees. budapest at a scorching 37 degrees sellsia. here is your three-day outlook. .

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a message thought to be from moammar gadhafi calls on forces to fight. the opposition national transitional council forces are searching for gadhafi with

nato's help after taking control of the regime's corps facilities. thursday amidst heavy gun fire about 1,000 soldiers surrounded buildings in tripoli where they claim gadhafi and his family might be hiding. a satellite tv station broadcast an audio message reported to be from gadhafi. the man claimed in the message that he is in the capital and calls on his supporters to purify the city of rebels who he calls "rats." gadhafi forces continued their resistance while deploying snipers throughout the city. the national transition council is working to launch a transitional government and asking for international assistance. that wraps up this edition of "newsline."

i'm katherine kobayashi in ks f.