[ gunfire ] there's a growing antipathy toward the united states by the people of afghanistan. friday marks the tenth anniversary of the u.s. invasion of afghanistan in response to the september 11th terrorist attacks. however, taliban fighters are stepping up their offenses, making the prospects for rebuilding afghanistan unclear. a decade has passed since the united states launched military operations against al chi in a in afghanistan. the invasion also toppled the taliban regime. a new government was later formed under president hamid karzai, with international support. however, public discontent over delays in reconstruction has allowed a resurgence of the

taliban. the anti-government organization has been blamed for recent terror attacks across afghanistan. the u.n. says over 1,400 civilians were killed during the first half of this year, the highest number since the invasion. >> translator: things improved after the collapse of the taliban, but recently the security situation has been deteriorating. >> translator: no progress has been seen. people's livelihoods have become much worse since the u.s. army came to afghanistan. >> the u.s. military began its pullout in july and nato blanz to withdraw troops from afghanistan by the end of 2014. a japanese expert says measures are needed to prevent terrorists from using afghanistan as a base to launch attacks. >> translator: the number of afghanistan troops and police are sufficient, but their skills are not. the taliban might gain ground

and the security and political situation could becomeunstable. if afghanistan becomes a safe haven for terrorist organizations, they might plot and carry out attacks overseas we must take all measures necessary to stop terrorism. >> meanwhile, afghan officials say they've uncovered a plot to assassinate president hamid karzai, a further sign of det r deteriorating in the country. nhk world's hideki yui reports. >> reporter: a spokesperson for the national directorate of security says six people have been arrested in connection with

the alleged plot to assassinate president hamid karzai. they include a guard, a professor and several students from kabul university. they apparently planned to till the president while he was traveling in the provinces. >> translator: unfortunately, they infiltrated the presidential protection system and recruited one of the president's bodyguards. luckily, we thwarted the plot and avoided catastrophe. >> reporter: the intelligence organization suspects that the guard was persuaded to take part in the plot after the five others had trained how to use weapons in pakistan. the five arellegedly connected to al qaeda or the taliban. former president burhanuddin rabbani, who led efforts to talk with the taliban, was killed by a suicide bomber last month.

the president's own brother was also assassinated in july. such incidents are a sign that the afghan government faces an even tougher situation as it looks for ways to open peace negotiations with the taliban. hideki yui, nhk world, kabul. a protest rally has been held in central washington, d.c., to demand an immediate withdrawal of u.s. troops from afghanistan. demonstrators say huge sums of taxpayer money being spent on overseas military operations should be used to create jobs at hole. >> it's no good. we say health care parole now. >> the rally took place on thursday, one day before the tenth anniversary of the u.s. invasion of afghanistan. more than 500 people took part in the rally. they were underby many anti-wall street protesters who have been

demonstrating in new york. young people are upset about the disparity of wealth and high unemployment in the u.s. the u.s. government spends about $10.4 billion every month on military operations in afghanistan. protesters demanded the government should use these taxpayer funds to create jobs at home. >> corporate sponsored, corporate owned. think about who benefits from this the most. i don't benefit from anybody being in afghanistan. >> stop today. there's no reason to be there. countries around the world have come to have a very negative outlook of the united states because of these wars. ai uchida joins us for the latest in business news. smartphones, all the rage these days, but japan was slow to ride the wave. sony is trying to change that. >> thanks, catherine, sony's ten-year partnership with ericson, sony is looking to gain control of swedish

electronicsmaker ericsson to beef up mobile phone operations as competition heats up worldwide. sources say sony is in talks with its swedish partner. the japanese firm aims to take over the gent venture to make it a wholly owned group company or boost its shareholding. sony ericsson mobile communications was set up ten years ago as a 50/50 partnership. it sells cell phones and markets around the world. through an effective buyout of the joint enterprise, sony aims to boost its mobile phone operations and speed up decision making. in other news, the eu has begun discussing efforts to boost the capital of european commercial banks. the measures may include the injection of public money. german chancellor angela merkel added that europe should not

hesitate to recapitalize its banks if it prevents greater economic damage. concerns are rising in europe that falling bond prices of not only debt-ridden greece but also of italy and spain may have a negative impact on the regional economy. on tuesday, a rescue plan was agreed for dexia, a major financial group, based in belgium and france. the group has large holdings of greek, italian and spanish government bonds. european commission president jose-manuel barroso says the eu is proposing member states to take coordinated action. this may get rid of toxic assets they have. u.s. president barack obama has urged european leaders to act faster to tackle the ongoing sovereign debt crisis >> my strong hope is that by the time of that g-20 meeting that they have a very clear, concrete plan of action that is sufficient to the task.

>> the group of 20 summit meeting will be held in kohn, southern france, in early november. on thursday a majority of dutchmakers voted in favor of the measure, a fund to set up to provide emergency lending to eurozone countries with excessive debts. however concerns continue to spread, this prompted eu nations to try and gain parliamentary approval for extra funding. to execute the rescue plan, approval of all 17 eurozone countries is needed. thursday's dutch vote means that 15 of 17 eurozone members have approved the fund boosting measure. after the voting, dutch finance minister january kees de jager. >> it's very important.

it means the dutch parliament is ready to support financial stability in the whole of the eurozone. >> slovakia's parliament will also hold a vote as early as next tuesday. attention is focused whether lawmaker also agree to the bailout measure as opposition remains strong in the slovakian governing coalition. time for a check on the markets. the dow jones ended higher for a third day in a row, boosted by strong data as well as plans by european officials to recapitalize major banks. to see how things are kicking off inpan this friday morning, ramin mellegard is at the tokyo stock exchange. good morning to you. >> reporter: with the weekly jobless claims numbers and the private employment numbers that came out on wednesday it's a somewhat brightened prospect ahead of that key jobs numbers, but we'll have to see, there's always a little bit of a

surprise in those numbers so we have to wait and see until that comes out later today. for now let's look at the opening levels this friday morning in japan, the nikkei and topix up over 100 points. the nikkei yesterday managed to claim bac 8,500 level, snapping four days of straight losses. we did see gains in the financial sector, the likes of nomura for instance jumping over 3% on the gains of u.s. and european banking sentiment and also the tech sector, the likes of sony and canon also rising along with chip-related stocks which had seen some heavy selling in the previous sessions and because of the news you just mentioned about sony trying to gain a stronger control over its joint venture with ericsson he'll continue to watch over developments of the stocks as well in that sector as a whole. the news of steve jobs' passing away, before the markets opened in japan yesterday meant there was a focus on apple-related

shares and we were tracking the likes of soft bank which until recently has been the sole provider of the iphone here in japan. it traded just a touch lower and also kddi, which will soon start providing the iphone 4s and kddi was up about 1%. apple shares in the u.s. traded mixed to lower, dropping around 90 cents. soft bank is in fact due to announce pricing of the iphone 4s later today and we're tracking components and parts suppliers yesterday which did rise so we'll keep track of those again today. with the jump in commodity prices also we'll keep track of shipping companies and trading companies, the likes of mitsubishi corporation, japan's biggest trading company and mitt s mitsuo osk. they tend to ben frit from higher commodity cruises. crude hasriesen from $57 to $82 right now.

with the jobs the focus we'll see how the markets trade. for now the nikkei and the topix in the positive. back to you. >> thanks a lot, ramin p ramin mellegard from the tokyo stock exchange. let's also take a look at some other market figures now. that is all for now in business news. now it's back to catherine >> thanks very much, ai. steve jobs gave the world the ipod, the iphone and a host of can't do without inventions. now the world is giving back. people in different corners of the planet are remembering the co-founder and former ceo of apple. he died wednesday at 56.

people no tokyo laid flowers at one of apple's stores in the japanese capital. >> translator: steve jobs was someone who lived by his own rule, stay hungry, stay foolish. it was looking at him and his way of life i decided to start up a mean company in life. he was my moral support in life. >> i came here out of gratitude for him. i've been using his products for ages and it's fun. i just want toay thank you. >> people in shanghai gathered in front of one of the city's five apple stores. >> translator: i'm a systems engine engineer, so jobs was like a god to me. i'm sorry that i lost my icon. >> translator: i believe apple will be all right. because the spirit of jobs is instilled throughout the

company. >> steve jobs was born in california. he founded his company in 1976 in silicon valley. his revolutionary products made personal computers more friendly and accessible, especially to young adults. his strategy created a worldwide personal computing boom. an internal conflict among executives pushed jobs out of apple in the mid 1980s. he was gone for nearly a decade. apple suffered a downturn. jobs surprised the world by making a comeback as the company's consultant. his innovative gadgets jobs created a splash in 2001 when he released the ipod music player. the device has changed how millions of people collect and listen to music. >> to succeed are people to come. sometimes they don't even want to start a company, they have an idea they want to get out, express out into the world. you have to be passionate about

it because it's so difficult. >> jobs unveiled the iphone smartphone in 2007. the ipad tablet computer followed in 2010. both became big hit products around the world. they introduced the new concept of the touch panel. steve jobs' charisma as an envicinitior and a businessman won oveapple employees and consum consumers. apple is now the world's largest company in terms of market capitalization. jobs battled cancer for the last several years. he resigned as ceo less than two months ago in august, saying he could no longer fulfill his duties as apple's top executive. in other news, chinese vegtdors say last month's subway train crash in shanghai was the result of manual commander roars by train dispatchers during a power outage. 12 staff received disciplinary action. on september 27th, two subway

trains were involved in a rear-end collision in central shanghai injuring 295 people. an investigative team released the findings on thursday. the team said that an automatic signal link system failed to function due to a power outage which forced subway officials to control operations manually. the report says the crash occurred as the dispatchers issued orders without knowing the exact locations of the trains. investigators also blamed station staff for allowing the second train to run without confirming that the track was clear. the findings were announced quickly, roughly one week after the accident. this is seen as an attempt by chinese authorities to avoid public criticism of the government as being lax on safety. japanese foreign minister koichiro gemba has met with his south korean counterpart, kim qwan sol.

the two agreed that prime minister yoshihiko noda would visit and meet president lee myung-bak the following day. nhk world's yukiko shimada has this report from seoul. >> reporter: following his visit to new york and the united nations, foreign minister gemba chose south korea for his second overseas destination since taking office. this is aimed at showing how much the noda government cares about its relationship with neighboring south korea. >> translator: it is true that there are sometimes challenging problems between japan and south korea. however, it's of the utmost importance that we communicate frequently with each other and make efforts for the future as neighboring countries. >> translator: ties between south korea and japan have

developed steadily based on close interactions among people. we also have to step up shuttle diplomacy at the governmental level. >> reporter: in addition to making arrangements for the summit, gemba and kim agreed that they will work closely together on north korea's nuclear issue and on that of abduction of japanese nationals by north korea. on the economic front, gemba stressed the need to resume talks toward reaching a bilateral economic partnership agreement. the talks have been stalled since 2004. but kim's reaction was tepid. with letting south korean industries' concerns that eliminating tariffs would further expand the country's trade deficit with japan. the two ministers also agreed to disagree on the issue of south

korean women who were forced to work as prostitutes for japanese soldiers during world war ii. the south korean government is facing growing public calls to get tougher on japan over its refusal to directly compensate these so-called comfort women. kim called for holding government-level talks, but gemba dismissed that proposal saying all the questions relating to wartime reparations between the two nations have already been resolved. gemba has called south korea one of the most important countries with which japan shares vital interests. whether japan will be able to step up future-oriented bilateral tries will be the first hurdle in the noda government diplomacy.

this is yukiko shimada, nhk world, seoul. "newsline" is the place to turn to for the latest on japan, post march 11th. we have two segments offering two unique perspectives on the fallout from the earthquake and tsunami. "nuclear watch" brings you insight and information on the impact of the fukushima daiichi crisis, and "the road ahead" examines japan's efforts to recover and rebuild. don't miss "nuclear watch" and "the road ahead" on "newsline." time to check on some of the other stories we've gathered from broadcasters around asia. we begin with this item sent by mcot thailand. thai prime minister yingluck sin watt rah said her government will guarantee to rice growers a minimum $666 per ton for their produce. part of her election manifesto promise. addressing 600 provincial

governors in back kong on thursday, she said the scheme would improve the lives of farmers. she asked officials to insure that only general farmers benefit from the scheme. thailand is expected to produce about 25 million tons of rice this year. india and austria signed two do elz to promote science and technology and railway transportation. the agreements were signed after the indian president met with her austrian count gerren part heinz fisher in vienna wednesday. the two leaders discussed various issues, including expanding the united nations security council, terrorism and india's relations with its neighbors, especially pakistan and china. patil said the economic partnership between india and austria will benefit the people of both countries. and now let's take a look at the global weather forecast with saki ochi.

hi there and welcome back. we have one low off the philippines and another off the indochina peninsula. bringing more rain to the area. it has been a prolonged period of showers and thunderstorms. of course, we had several tropical storm systems move through. grounds are well saturated in the area. additional rainfall is not going to be good for the risk of further flooding and land slides. showers continue across portions of thailand. dealing with serious flooding issues. looks like you will not be out of the woods just yet. to the north of all of this rain, we see really dry conditions for the majority of china. as well as the korean peninsula and japan, too. this morning, just a little rain hanging onto northern sections, but that is finally on i way out. we should be seeing nice sunny skies over the next few days even for japan. friday's highs look like this.

24 and mild in tokyo. 22 in seoul, getting up to 25 in shanghai. towards the americas, clouds continue to move across the western half of the united states. a low looking to drop out of the rockies and head for the plain states. it is still bringing rain to the inner mountain west and upper elevations will be looking at snow. as the rain heads to more central sections of plain states, we will have a severe weather threat for some of you here. watch for the possibility of stronger storms. thunderstorms and maybe hail or strong gusts. for the east looking drier for the canadian maritime. the rain is looking to head out tonight and here's a look at temperatures. looking warmer on the east coast. 20 in new york, 23 in d.c. up to 22 degrees in toronto. winnipeg hangs onto warmth one more day coming into the mid-20s again on friday. finally a look at europe. we're seeing a lot more messy weather spreading across

continental europe, too, but this long cold front that's been a long cold front that's been heading southward across the region here in the past couple of days, it looks like it will continue to head further south and will continue to spread more rain in the area. even behind the frontal system, things don't really dry out for this moment. it stays unsettled across western and central areas of europe and scandinavian peninsula, too, looking at more rain and wind for norway. seeing more colder air come in, too, so there is a risk of snow for those upper elevations. as for the british isles, dry for a moment tonight, but there is more rain coming in out of the north. so it will start looking wet for areas like scotland and northern ireland and throughout tonight, winds are going to remain on the gusty side across the area. as for the temperatures, along with rain, it is starting to drop across a lot of europe. looking at 14 only for the high in berlin friday. 11 in vienna. that's been a big drop the past

couple of days, we've been seeing highs reach mid to upper 20s. paris and london coming in at 16 degrees. madrid, too, looks to be dropping coming in at 23 degrees. lisbon, too, finally dropping down into the 20s following all the 30s we've been seeing this week. so that's a look at your weather for now and here is your three-day outlook.

our lead story this hour, friday marks the tenth anniversary of the u.s. invasion of afghanistan, in response to the september 11th terrorist attacks. however, taliban fighters are stepping up their offenses, making the prospects for rebuilding afghanistan unclear. a decade has passed since the united states launched military operations against al qaeda in afghanistan. the invasion also toppled the taliban regime. a new government was later formed under president hamid karzai, with international support. however, public discontent over delays in reconstruction has allowed a resurgence of the taliban. the anti-government organization has been blamed for recent terror attacks across afghanistan. the u.n. says over 1,400 civilians were killed during the first half of this year, the highest number since the invasion. >> translator: things improved

after the collapse of the taliban, but recently the security situation has been deteriorating. >> translator: no progress has been seen. people's livelihoods have become much worse since the u.s. army came to afghanistan. >> the u.s. military began its pullout in july and nato plans to withdraw combat troops from afghanistan by the end of 2014. and that wraps up this edition of "newsline." i'm catherine kobayashi in tokyo. do stay with us. we'll be back with more of your updates at the top of the next hour. see you then.

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