hello there. welcome to "newsline." it is tuesday, september 13th, 9:00 a.m. in tokyo. i'm catherine kobayashi. forces loyal to moammar al

gadhafi have attacked an oil facility, killing 15 people, as fighting continues in libya. the national transitional council laid siege to the ousted leader's hometown of sirte and his stronghold bani walid, southeast of tripoli. the council faces the task of rebuilding the nation. gadhafi vowed to fight to the end and never hand libya to traitors in a message aired by a satellite tv station in syria on monday. in a centralcy of ras lanuf, gadhafi troops mobilized more than ten vehicles, attacked a checkpoint at an oil refinery, killing at least ten guards. the council resumed oil production saturday to secure funds for reconstructing the country. here's an update on monday's explosion at a nuclear waste processing facility in france. authorities say radiation levels around the facility are normal and that the furnace did not explode. the blast happened in marcoule,

southern france at a building where low-level radioactive waste was processed. one worker was killed and four others hurt in the area where the waste was processed. the french institute for nuclear protection and safety says radiation readings in the air around the facility are the same as before the accident. no evacuation order has been issued for nearby residents. the country's nuclear regulatory authority has sent an emergency response team to the site to investigate the cause of the accident. the ecology minister also went to the site. >> translator: there was no radiation leak inside or outside of the site. radiation has been detected from the monitoring posts. >> observers say the french government is trying to assure the public amid concern over nuclear power stations following the accident at japan's

fukushima daiichi plant. japan's new prime minister has been on the job for nearly two weeks now, long enough for people in this country to form some strong opinions about him. our exclusive nhk poll will show you what they think of yoshihiko noda. so far he's got the support of a majority of voters but not their confidence. 60% of the nearly 1,100 people who responded say they approve of prime minister noda. 18% don't. here's now noda stacks up against his predecessors. keep in mind he's the third democratic leader to lead japan, lower than that of yukio hatoyama and naoto kan when they started out. the survey asked what voters expect most of the noda administration.

30% want him to rebuild tohoku and solve the nuclear crisis, 15% strengthen social programs, 13% cut wasteful spending and 12% say he should concentrate on fiscal reform. respondents are split on whether he'll be able to implement the policies. the survey asked about the timing of japan's next general election. 10% want a national vote to be held right away. 13% say it should happen before the end of this year. 26% say by the end of next year, and 4 % say they don't want a general election until 2013, when the government is supposed to schedule one. we asked nhk world's senior commentator masayo nakajima to give us his take on this new poll. here's what he had to say to

michio kijima. >> what is your take on this result? >> noda is enjoying a higher approval rating than prime minister kan did in his final days of his administration. in that sense the ruling dpj's leadership change can be considered a success but even the administration has its honeymoon period, every administration has its honeyperiod but everyone has its scandals or gaffes involving its ministers. noda's already dealing with its issues. his administration and trade minister hachio resigned in office. he faced increased pressure to quit after he called the area around the fukushima daiichi nuclear plant a town of death.

many viewed the comment as insensitive to nuclear evacuees. hachiro's resignation will likely translate into a drop in popularity for noda and doubts about the new prime minister's ability to lead this country. >> this survey is pretty interesting because a majority of voters support noda. >> right. >> but on the other hand, let's see, they aren't confident about his ability to implement his policies. >> that's right. >> how should we look into this result? >> well, it would relate to another question on the survey, that is, how voters evaluate the ruling dpj. the approval has dropped by 50% in the last year. that means many japanese are disappointed with the job that the dpj has done in government. the party is attempting to go back on the campaign promises it made before taking power two years ago. they include a child benefits

plan and making expressways toll-free. the dpj now admits it couldn't find enough money to fund their policies by just cutting wasteful government spending. on top of this, it's taking -- it is talking about raising taxes despite its promise not to do so. but people are still trying to support the noda administration. they seem to want a stable government. so, the issues such as the nuclear crisis and post disaster reconstruction can be dealt with. noda is japan's sixth new prime minister in five years. people are sick and tired of japan's revolving door for prime ministers. calls for an early general election have also decreased since noda took over from kan. >> so, what lies ahead for the noda administration? >> well, the political situation has not changed a bit.

he also has to face a divided diet. the dpj controls the lower house, but the opposition controls the upper house. noda cannot pass bills without help from the opposition. so, his ability to stay in office will all depend on whether he can keep the current relatively high support rate or not. the main opposition leader democratic party wants a general election to regain power, but the ldp cannot refuse requests from a popular prime minister. >> so, what can noda do to make his government more popular again? >> well, addressing the nuclear crisis is the biggest issue, of course, because -- but you know, the road ahead is very tough. there is no quick solution to decommissioning fukushima daiichi and dealing with the radiation that has leaked into the environment around the plant. diplomacy could be a way to maintain popularity. noda is expected to have summit talks with president obama in

september. japan wants to repair frayed relations with the u.s. we know japan had to cancel scheduled talks with obama because of the political uncertainty here. and noda is also expected to hold summit talks with china and south korea by the end of this year. you know, japan's involved in territorial dispute with both countries. noda could score points depending on how he handles these discussions. >> all right. thanks. ai uchida joins us now the latest in business news. we saw a ride on european stock markets overnight and ai, it seems that banks are taking the brunt of the blow. >> that's right, catherine. european stocks plunged overnight on concerns over a possible greek default and eurozone debt problems. in france and germany their key stock indexes fell to this year's low. the drop comes as investors

remain concerned about future financial aid to greece which is faces a financial crisis. in addition, worries are mounting that a fall in government bond prices stemming from europe's credit woes could negatively impact the banking sector. in paris, share prices plunged 4% while stock prices lost 2.3% in frankfurt, both hitting a low for this year. also in london, the key index fell 1.6%. the major loser was the banking sector due to forecasts that credit ratings of major french banks could be lowered. two major banks released statements stressing the soundness of their situation. over on wall street the dow bounced back in late trading monday closing higher than two days of hefty losses. for details and how that's affecting tokyo stocks let's go to our market reporter ramin mellegard at the tokyo stock

exchange. how is the market looking this tuesday morning? >> the dow having traded in the negative for most of the session rallied in the positive backing up by expectations china might buy some italian debt, easing concerns about eurozone economies. the nikkei and the topix a rebound for both indexes and stocks did hit some lows yesterday, so we're seeing some of those stocks actually bullying up the nikkei and the topix. the nikkei hasn't closed above 9,000 since september 1st and been caught up in the stronger yen throughout that period and weaker than expected manufacturing data out of the u.s. and this week further economic data, retail sales coming up and manufacturing data out of the new york and philadelphia manufacturing region so another one which is closely watched.

still, europe does remain the main picture here and driving force for a lot of markets surrounding debt repayments by the likes of greece and also concerns about germany's involvements in helping to bail out weaker eurozone economy so that's a focus throughout this whole week. switching over to currencies, the euro has been a major focus in the last sessions. it's regained a little bit of ground against the yen and the dollar after hitting 103.88 during early hours, it backed off to 103, keeping down japan's key blue chip stocks over the last few trading sessions and that helped to keep the nikkei below that key psychological 9,000 level that we haven't seen, as i said, before since the beginning of this month but as i said, a little bit of a rebound here in the first few

minutes of trading, we'll see if it can continue into the close. back to you. >> good stuff, thanks a lot ramin, ramin mellegard from the tokyo stock exchange. u.s. president barack obama is aiming to reduce tax breaks for wealthy individuals and businesses in a bid to secure enough funding for his job creationplan. white house budget director jack lu told reporters on monday how the administration plans to fund obama's $447 billion stimulus proposal unveiled last week. liu said a limit on households earning $250,000 or more would generate $400 billion for the next ten years and with addit n additional firms on investment managements the government would be able to secure more for the jobs plan. with republicans strongly against tax hikes confrontation between the ruling and opposition camps over stimulus

funding is expected to heat up over the coming weeks. and now a recap of the latest market figures. that is all for now in business news. now back to catherine.

a russian military official says the latest military drill off russia's far east is designed to protect its sovereignty over the continental shelf over the region. 50 warships and aircraft are taking part in the russian exercise which began in the kumchat peninsula off of the end of the month. the drill is designed to protect them. russia has recently been pushing its claim over the continental shelf in the arctic ocean where the diminishing glaciers are are exposing a research rich sea bed that has put the country at odds with canada and other countries in the region.

gentleman fan has launched a protest over a high-ranking russian official's visit to russian-held islands claimed by japan. security council sec. tear nikolai petrushev traveled to two of the islands sunday. he went to kunashiri island. the foreign ministry director-general said the act was unacceptable and reiterated the position that the four islands are japan territory. bely replied the trip poses no problem. >> translator: russia's stance is incompatible with that of japan, so we expressed our regret. we can't accept it.

japan's women's soccer team returned from china on monday, after earning the right to appear in the 2012 olympics. fans were on hand to welcome nadeshko at narita airport. the squad went undefeated in the quarterfinals with four wins and one draw. nhk world's hiro morita talked with the captain when she returned from china on monday evening. >> translator: congratulations on qualifying for the olympics. how do you feel right now? what impression are you bringing

back from the competition? >> translator: after returning from the world cup we immediately played matches in the lake and went to the asian qualifiers, five matches in 11 days was very intensive. >> after they won the world cup people thought you'd win a spot in the world olympics. did you feel pressure? >> translator: there was some pressure. we thought for the sake of the future of japan's women's soccer, we had to win and go to the olympics. there was that pressure. but we had produced results at the world cup. i believe with these numbers, we could win. >> translator: you had battled through a very tough schedule playing five matches in 11 days. what do you think you had learned from the qualifiers?

>> translator: i only played three out of the five matches. even if the veterans, older players like me, sat out, like in the last match against china, we were able to win, which was good for the team. young players could produce results, though tough, which was good for nadeshko japan. >> almost everyone on the world cup squad was also on the roster for the asian final qualifiers. how has nadeshko matured as a team for these two competitions? >> translator: the younger player players during that qualify eveer and the world cup played well and improved their skills. they played much better at the

beijing olympics. they let the younger players and were very promisinpromising. >> translator: you have almost a year before the games. how will you use that time? >> translator: players have to improve their skills. japan's ability to keep the ball, this is an area we need to further work on. >> translator: what is your goal for the olympics? >> translator: the world's top position. >> good luck. >> thank you. >> i'm looking forward to seeing them take that top position. all right, well every summer a small jellyfish that resembles an octopus appears in the koefz of koichi prefecture, southwestern japan. nhk world's yusuke yoshida reports on the spotted jelly. >> reporter: just like an

octopus the spotted jelly has eight appendages. the animals are found mostly in warm areas off in the pacific and indian ocean. ♪ hidemi hirata has the creatures in his store. people buy them as novelty pets. hirata goes to the sea every day to catch them, as he has every summer, for more than 15 years. >> translator: ah, there it is. but i can't reach it. when it's cloudy, they don't come as close to the surface, so they're harder to catch. ooh, something might, looked

like a spotted jelly. >> reporter: in japan in summer people are trying to save energy so a family gazes by candlelight. the creatures shine by the light and the results are astonishing. pretty to behold and a power

saver, too. yusuke yoshida, nhk world, sukumo. welcome back to your weather update. we're taking a look at tropical activity is starting to pick up in the south pacific. south japan, looking at the clouds starting to bubble up. that is a tropical depression that's showing signs of organizing. forecasts are calling for it to become a tropical storm system within the next 24 hours. so it will be a system that needs close monitoring as it could start bringing stormy weather towards the southern islands of japan. the islands will start to feel some of those rough sea conditions along the coastline. as for japan, still remains wet in the northern areas. again this morning, although that is headed out, then things

should look a lot drier really across the whole country. as for china, looking at rain coming out of central areas, starting to head now in towards the northeast, as well as parts of the korean peninsula. then areas pick up a heavier rainfall. you want to watch for that. as for the southeast, we look at plenty of tropical activity. there are showers and thunderstorms across the philippines as well as for the indo china peninsula. again, there will be patches of heavier fog. so you want to watch out for those torrential downpours. tuesday's highs looking like this, 32 degrees for the high in tokyo. it will be on the humid side again today. looks like it will get up to 29 in seoul, we're expecting 24 degrees in beijing. chongqing looking slightly cooler coming in at 2 degrees and falling below the 30-degree mark. as for the americans, keeping an eye on the caribbean. we've got tropical storm maria with us still, slowly moving away from the caribbean islands, heading north ward. looks like it may brush past

bermuda later on this week, but scientists looking like it is not going to be intensifying too much more. likely just maintaining its status as tropical storm system over the next few days. it is a slow moving system. that means rainfall is lingering across the islands. looking at plenty of rainfall for puerto rico, hispaniola, as well as parts of the bahamas. flood risk and landslide risk is going to remain high as those rains continue. for central america, showers still widespread through the area, and mexico, seeing more of that impacting areas along the western coastline. for north america, we're looking at this low that will be moving through ontario tonight, heading towards quebec, eastern canada, bringing in plenty of rainfall, widespread rain, too. behind that, another system is going to drop in towards ontario. so it is not going to dry out too much more for you here. some areas will be looking at chillier conditions. with this some, snow is actually possible here. here is a look at highs for

tuesday. 24 is the high in denver, 22 in chicago 25 degrees in toronto. areas here will need to brace for much cooler conditions in the next few days. as for europe, remaining windy across the british isles. very strong gusts have been recorded here. it is however past its peak, and now it's headed towards the scandinavian peninsula. things will look a lot wetter and windier in the area. in the baltic coastline, you will see rougher conditions. stockholm's high remains at 17 degrees, in the teens again today. 22 for berlin. 29 in vienna. it is remaining warm in parts of continental europe. that's a look at your weather for now. here is your three-day outlook.

an extraordinary session of japan's diet is to convene this afternoon for the first time since prime minister yoshihiko noda took office nearly two weeks ago. at the session, noda will deliver his policy speech to both houses of the diet. do stay with us, as "newsline" will be covering that later in the day. i'm catherine kobayashi in tokyo. thanks for joining us.