demonstrators protesting new us a stairity measures now clashed with riot police in athens. the final vote for a bill that includes new tax hikes and salary cuts is scheduled on thursday. welcome to "news line." i'm catherine kobayashi in tokyo. tens of thousands of people walked off the job. the action is part of a two-day strike ahead after crucial vote in parliament on a new round of salary cuts and tax hikes. >> descending on the streets if central athens to take part in the demonstration.

>> the nationwide strike began on wednesday morning when public trsport and other workers left their workplaces in response to calls from labor unions. in athens, more than 120,000 people took to the streets in the largest protests since the greek debt crisis surfaced in 2009. but the demonstrations turned violent when some of the protesters started smashing store windows and throwing fire bombs at police who responded with tear gas. the greek parliament gave initial approvement to a new round of austerity measures on a vote on wednesday. a final vote is scheduled for thursday. measures include tax hikes, cuts to pensions and wages and reduction of 30,000 government jobs. prime minister hopes to secure a final vote in order to receive new loanes from other euro zone members and the international monetary fund. europe making headlines in

business news as well. ai joins us with the late ef. >> good morning. german and french leaders held a meeting thursday. they are trying to mario their differences on how the bailout fund will be used to halt the you're feeian debt crisis. french president -- the two countries have not disclosed the content of the meeting with you sarkozy suggested before he left france that they will focus on how the rescue fund should be used. the european financial facility has been used to buy bonds for debt members and extend loans to kmer recall banks in those countries. the european union is

tightening rules with selling bonds and to temporarily ban trading in emergencies. representatives of the european parliament and member estate reach the agreement on wednesday after discussing rules for speculative financial trading. it means investors will have to report to financial regulators of member states. governments will be allowed to temporarily ban trading during market turmoil. speculative trading of credit default swaps will be banned in principle. they will take effect on november 1 of 2012. time now to get a check on the markets. u.s. stocksened lower due to negative sentiment regarding progress on the euro zone debt problems. let's see how things are kicking off in tokyo this thursday morning. for that we cross over to ramin. good morning to you. how are markets kicking off?

>> good morning, ai. earnings out of the u.s. and the up answers down and downs with european sentiments. on this thursday morning here in tokyo, you can see the nikkei down 49 points and topix is down at 748. the nikkei may remain vulnerable to euro zone debt issues for the rest of the week and maybe into next week ease well. as well as yen sensitive comport exporters. now let's have a look at currency that you can see there. the euro gained then fell back a touch yet again on the rising and falling sentiment surrounding the timing or the amount of a bailout fund for weaker euro zone economies ease well ease plans for major banks exposed to greece. you can see there currently around the upper 10 r5,

105.74-79. as far as key sectors here we will focus on the auto sector as flooding in thailand impeded production japanese auto firms. among those of course, toyota, and honda decided to close factories. suppliers and component makers have also been impeded and also jeopardizing the production of aught yoes in centers of asia such as indonesia as well as asia. cutting across japan as well as the asia-pacific region. olympus shares also as shares have been trading down the last four trading sessions, down over 40%. in fact following the ousting of its ceo and president michael wood ford.

still to come out of u.s., we have exist home sales, jobless claims and earnings from microsoft. back to you. >> thanks a lot, ramin. ramin from the tokyo stock exchange. china's producer of rare earth metals suspended production in a move, it says, that will help balance you apply and demand. air rather high-tech announced it was halting smelting at its plants for one month starting on wednesday. it sites a continuing fall in prices. low demand and oversupply. it says the stoppage will stabilize the market. the company is based in inner mongolia in eastern china. rare earth metals are used in high deland used in everyday devices such as hybrids and air conditioners. this pushed up the international prices of the metals. the high cost forced some trading firms to stop buying rare earth metals from china.

the decision by rare earth is likely to make it harder to procure the metals that may likely affect high-tech firms that have limited stocks of the rare metals. here is a recap now of the latest market figures. that is all for now in business news. catherine, back to you. >> thank you very much, ai. the united states expressed fresh talks with north korea and geneva next week.

the u.s. is skpreexpected to pr to halt. direct talks will be held on monday and tuesday. >> this is a continuation of the exploratory meetings to determine if north korea is prepared to fulfill its commitments under the 2005 joint statement of the six-party talks. and its nuclear international obligations as well as take concrete steps toward denuclearization. >> in the last direct talks, bozworth met foreign minister in new york in july. the spokesperson said next week's meeting will also be attended by the u.s. ambassador to the international atomic agency, glenn davies, who will replace bozworth after the talks. china says vice premier will visit north and south korea next week. he is expected to hold talks with north korean leader kim

jung ill and south korean president. a spokesperson says lee will be in the north from sunday through tuesday and will then visit south korea on the following two days. a spokesperson says china wants to work with the two koreas to push forward the six party talks to ease tensions on the korean peninsula. seen as possible candidate to suck eed premier next year when the communist party is expected to carry out a major leadership reshuffle during its national congress. the party is expected to appoint zing shin to tao. >> we begin with an update on the floods in thailand. the governor of bangkok has called on citizens to remain on alert and be prepare teddy vacate. the warning comes as larger than expected amounts of water descend from the north towards

the capital. the physical and economic damage to the country is worsening by the day. work to reinforce flood barriers around the clock. more than 1 million sandbags have been deployed. but it seems that won't be enough to save the entire city. the bangkok administration issued a warning on wednesday to seven districts in the north and east of the city. it asked residents to be prepared for severe flooding within the next 24 hours. six industrial estates in thailand have been submerged. attention shifted to another threatened zone. the latest government estimates are that 600,000 jobs are at risk. some factories across the country have been inundated.

thailand finance minister says the economy may shrink 1.1% in the fourth quarter from a year earlier. at least 317 people have been killed since july, making these the worst floods hit thailand in half a century. security in pakistan has been worsening ever since u.s. forces killed osama bin laden in may. insurgens stepped up their attacks in that country too. one especially alarming trend is the increasing number of young suicide bombers brain washed by islamic extremists. nhk world filed this report. >> nhk obtained this footage of a training camp belonging to the pakistani taliban. the largest islamic fundamentalist group in the country. the camp is sit ysituated in a

mountainous region near afghanistan border. they are all young boys. >> more and more young train ooes like these have blown themselves up in pakistan and afghanistan. terrorist groups use boys because they draw less suspicion from the military and the police. 19 years old, he lives in this neighborhood. he was just 17 when members of the pakistani taliban stormed into his house and took him away.

>> translator: they took me to the mountain over there. they handed me a bomb and told me to join the jihad. >> he says his abductors slash his arm and put a knife to his throat when he refused it. he eventually managed to escape but says many other boys are still being held at the camp. >> translator: i still have nightmares about the horror i experienced. the memory haunts me. abductors may return. >> to improve the situation, the pakistani built a facility two years ago for boys from islamic extremists. about 200 of them live here. they are being retrained to eradicate the extremist ideas planted by their abductors.

>> translator: the taliban told me i can go to heaven if i blow myself up. >> all of my friends died as suicide bombers. >> the retraining lasts six to nine months. 500 boys here already rejoined society. >> a lot of therapy. a lot of intervention at therapeutic level in session and group session, deradicalization, teaching them the proper concept of islam. >> but despite such efforts by the government, fundamentalist groups come to the country for boys for suicide bombing. >> we alo have more than 2,000 boys being trained as suicide bombers.

after the death of osama bin laden, the boys are even more motivated. to battle the infidel. >> pakistan has corroborated with the united states in its war against terrorism. but the islamic nation now also faces a worsening terror threat from within. nhk world, islamabad. >> that wraps up our bulletin. newsline is the latest place to fwo to for the latest on japan. two unique perspectives from the fallout of the earthquake and tsunami. nuclear watch brings you the 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.

a job is something many people in northeastern japan would love to have right about now. the march 11 earthquake and tsunami left tens of thousands unemployed. but we are learning some businesses have a hard time getting workers or former staff members to return. that's a problem. it is one of the hardest hit areas in northeastern japan. the fishing inus try alone accounts for nearly half of its economy. nhk has the story. >> the president of the company. business hasn't been the same since march 11.

the tsunami killed workers and destroyed his building and plans to expand. he discharged his 100-member staff. he is rebuilding his factories. they were up and running in july. but only 60% of his employees have returned. he is calling workers to personally invite them back. former employee is collecting unemployment. she has had interviewes with seven other companies but hasn't been hired. >> you are asking me to come back to work, but it's hard. if another tsunami were to hit, i would be worried about my

children. i want to go back to work, but i just can't do it. not at that location. >> i can't make you come back if you don't want to. but it is a pity. >> also bringing interns from china, they come to study marine processing techniques. to chinese government issued evacuation advisory after march 11 disaster because of fears about aftershocks and spread of radiation. ars.

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eastern china, korean pinsula d muchcldykiacross the day. the rain will affect the rn peninsula on friday. we are expecting 20 degrees in kyan ou taipei at 28 degrees and 32 i manila in ngk,3 th rain showers but the rain will let up on friday that's good news. heinov tth americas. a powerful low pressure system impacting the northeastern corner of the u.s. as well as aefern ca,sote heavy rain, large hail and gusty winds will likely continue io thursday. and strong wind could creat high waves along the east coast. out towards the west, a system is moving aosritish columbia, bringing condition through out thuray but it is a different sto for much of western and central

u n look forward to a nice and clear skies. but strong winds are pvain in parts of texas and louisiana, ates are shaping up like this another cool day fou i winnipeg. only 9 gr ichagan13 in toronto. southern portions are on the eant side. 26 degrees in miami. 24n hst a 22 in los angeles. finally, let's go over to europe. a large low pressure system will bring cold pcitaon a wl as strong winds across much of the west coast of norway. parts of finland and continental europe. approaching the northern british aisles isles. do ith ut rn is moving south ward and reaching al awe anorthwtern. anil iis largely dry across the peninsula.

a eecting 19 degrees and 26 in lisbon. largely cold in much of euro. en.degrees in berlin and 9 in n kiev and 9 in moscow. plenty of sunshine and 8 degrees inocol all right, then. here is your extended forecast.

that's ail for this eti "newsline."

i'm catherine kobayashi in tokyo. please stay with us.

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