sorrow in south korea. family mourns the killing of a coast guard official. the relatives of a south korean coast guard officer killed in a crash with chinese fishermen have gathered to remember him. rather killed in a clash with chinese fishermen have gathered to remember him. the officer died on monday in the south korean city of inchun after he was stabbed by the captain of a fishing boat. the attack has topped off a flourish of diplomacy on the

china sea. it may relax its rules on firearms. the captain and his crew were fishing illegally in south korea's economic zone in the yellow sea. they boarded the boat to inspect it. then the captain attacked. officers took them near seoul for questioning. maritime authorities have laumpbled an investigation. the coast guard only permits firearms to be used for self-defense. but authorities are now reviewing that rule. officially china has stuck by an agreement with south korea over fishing rights. but on the water it's a different matter. this part of the yellow sea is a rich fishing ground. they are being going here illegally to catch fish. bolding tactics to avoid being caught.

this vessel has steel rods on the sides. they use steel pipes to attack any coast guard officers that try to board the vessels. some fly the south korean flag to try to deceive authorities. china's fishing resources are in decline but the demand for seafood is surging. so the fishermen are becoming more audacious. they are saying they're feeling threatened by the chinese boats which operate in groups. >> translator: the chinese use troll nets which are banned in korea and take everything they can. >> south korea uses a satellite to confirm a rej city and imposes fines without a permit. tokyo stocks are erasing yesterday's gains tuesday morning. more on that. so why the turnaround? >> you're right. we are basically back where we ended on friday.

and behind that is major u.s. credit rating moody's comments on the es u agreements. they said it did little to ease the crisis. the nikkei is trading at 8,542. that is down 1.3%, a loss of 111 points. the topix also down 1.1% on the day. and to currencies. investors are selling the euro against the dollar this morning. this also weakened the yen against the dollars. let's see where they're trading right now. the green back is against the yen at 77.92-95. the euro against the dollar currently at 1.3182-3184. sources say investors' concerns over the european debt crisis rose after major credit rating firms negative review of the two-day summit. now, the nikkei is following a

trend we saw on wall street overnight. stock prices plunged in new york as investors placed orders on a wide range of shares. the dow jones fell more than 200 points at one stage. in addition to european credit jitters, another factor contributing was leading chip maker intel cutting its revenue forecast. the dow ended the day's session at 12,021. that's down 162 points. shares also slid on europe's major markets. they fell 1.8% in britain. and 2.2% in paris. concerns are mounting that britain may end up isolated in the european union after the country rejected a new agreement for containing the region's credit crisis. some of britain's ruling coalition are growing krit cattle of their prime minister's stance. >> i went to brussels with one

objective. to protect britain's national interest. and that is what i did. >> at friday's eu summit, all member nations except for britain agreed to revise the eu treaty. britain opposed on the grounds it would leave their financial activity more vulnerable. french president nicolas sarkozy told a local newspaper there are now two europes. he said one camp wants to strengthen unity while the other is only interested in the benefits of the single european market. let's take look at markets once again this hour.

french nuclear energy giant ariva blamed for the accident at the fukushima daiichi power plant. they expect to post a huge loss in 2011. areva is one of the big conglomerates. of nuclear reactors and reprocessing of spent fuel. the french firm announced a projected full year operating loss of up to 1.6 billion euros. that is more than $2 billion. spokespersons say the accident at fukushima encouraged the antinuclear movement and hurt businesses in the sector. they say the construction of their latest power station, the european pressurized reactor in finland has been delayed.

they asked the paris force to suspend stock listing. they worried about the plunge in a price. french media announce areva will cut its workforce. that is all from me for this hour. it's back to catherine now. reconstruction after the accident at fukushima weighs hely in japan's 2012 budget. leaders put a priority on it while trying to cut the national debt. adopted key principles for the next budget. council members say the bill will mark the revitalization. also a rethink of the energy policy. the outline says general expandture and bonds should not exceed the budgets this year. agreed that the government should limit new bonds to 44 trillion yen or about $567 billion. they said the debt crisis the

need in japan's fiscal structure. the government plans to formally endorse the principles this week. now, japan's government has announced details of a new agency to oversee reconstruction in the northeast. the lower house last tuesday approved a bill to create the agency. the government says 200 people will coordinate the rebuilding work of other ministries and agencies. the headquarters in tokyo will employ about 420 people. in iwate, miyagi, and fukushima prefectures. the government plans to open the agency in february. it hopes to eventually employ 400 people. "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. >> investigators in japan are trying to figure out how optical equipment maker olympus was able to cover up losses for more than a decade. we spoke to a former company executive to get his take on the story. >> reporter: miato served a z a board member at olympus between 1995 and 2006. he says he knew nothing about the coverup. >> translator: i am ashamed to say that most directors including myself were unable to see through the coverup. >> reporter: independent panel set up to investigate the scandal has pointed out that some top olympus officials were

concealing the losses. it criticized senior management saying its core was rotten. miyata says he and others were too preoccupied to keep an eye on the company's finances. >> translator: all the directors tended to focus on their own areas of business. they have this idea that as long as they were doing a good job managing their divisions, they were fulfilling their duties and responsibilities. i admit that our sense of corporate governance was low. >> reporter: with the coverup now revealed, olympus has lost public confidence. >> reporter: now faces the possibility of d-listing from the tokyo stock exchange. >> translator: this is all such a shame.

>> reporter: miyata worked for olympus for more than 40 years. he says he regrets the company he loves finds itself in this quagmire. >> translator: we all believed the company would prosper with its technology. it's too bad the money game led to the losses and the coverup. >> reporter: last month b miyata launched a website. he's hoping it wl give olympus employees a chance to think about rebuilding the company. on the website, some of them said they want to regain public trust. they say this is a time to change the firm drastically. >> translator: the employees must take the initiative for a miraculous revival of the company. i want them to take action in their own way rather than pretending that they don't see the problems.

>> accountants at olympus are busy putting first half deadlines together. japan is now closer than ever to launching a transport business in space with successful rocket liftoffs reaching 95%. an h-2-a rocket lifted up without a hitch on monday. the attached satellite is now orbiting above earth. it can detect small objects as small as one meter on the ground. it's also able to function through clouds and at night. this would make it possible to obtain pictures of every location on earth at least once a day.

the 4h2 a has had a success rat. a 95% success rate has been deemed reasonable. >> translator: we thought it would be a distant goal. we're happy we were able to meet our objective. now we have reached a world class level. >> but several hurdles need to be cleared before japan's space program is a viable business. cost is the primary obstacle. it costs $10 billion to launch the h2a. and the smaller payload is a major barrier. the h2a is designed to carry satellites that weigh around four tons. the global norm has now shifted to five tons or more. japan's first commercial mission will be a south korean satellite next year. a japanese government policy-making group has agreed to maintain the existing ban on the export of arms.

but it will take exceptions or rather it will make exceptions for joint international ventures in developing and producing defense supplies. vice ministers of the foreign defense and other ministries met for the third time on monday to discuss easing restrictions on arms the ministers decided to k the exports while some are reluctant to change them. they maintain that japanese firms can maintain or develop equipment with partners in other countries as long as the projects do not prolong projects. classifiy eied data must be producted. they also agree must sell heavy machines to other countries for international peace-keeping missions. the sdf have been using such equipment for their peace-keeping operations. the group hopes to discuss modifying policy to meet new standards on arms exports by the

end of this year. yoshihiko noda is japan's sixth prime minister in five years, so needless to say dealing with voters discontent is part of the job description. still he's only been in office for a few months. according to a new nhk poll, his support rate a slipping. more people disapprove of his cabinet than approve of it. nhk carried out the poll over the weekend. 37% of respondents said they support. that's a drop of eight points from the previous month. among those who disapprove, 39% said they have no confidence in the cabinet's policies. another 34% said it lacks the ability to implement them. nearly 50% said defense minister ichikawa and yamaoka. 34% said they approved of noda's

plan to promote a tax bill increase by march. 48% said they do not approve. now for the latest in sports with hiro morita. >> japan is known as a place where a people live a long time. according to the world health organization, the average life expectancy for japanese men is 80 years. for women, it's 86. today we'll meet someone who's well above average. not only she's nearly 90, she recently claimed two world athletic records. dragging a six kilogram tire twice around a 30 meter track isn't the way most people spend their golden years.

>> but mitsu morita is far from ordinary. she holds world records in the 100 and 200 meter sprints from masters athletics. mitsu was born in 1923, a time of great change in the world. the soviet union for example was just getting started. mitsu, however, didn't start her athletic career as a youngster. she waited until she was 70. since then she's attended any number of competitions. so many that she can't keep track of all the medals she's won. at the age of 85, she set a world record in the 100 meter sprint with a time of 19.83 seconds. three times a week she works out along the river bank near her house. she belongs to a field and

athletic club. most of the people around her there are students from the neighborhood. none of them treats her like an elderly woman. she's someone working out just like everybody in the club. >> i visited mitsu's home to ask her how she does it all. i follow the voice until i found her in the kitchen. looks like she's getting ready to eat a hearty breakfast.

>> i think i now know the success to her. because she eats fish in the night and meat every morning. so she's very balanced diet. a strong diet for that matter. and that's what her keeps going. here's another of her secrets. she snacks on small fish to keep her bones strong. >> pork and fish and lots of will power have built a body that breaks world records. mitsu took part in a masters

athletic event. she went to compete in the 100 meter sprint. however, there was a bit of a problem. nobody else was in her age group over 85 so she ran along participants who are 65 or 70 or so. >> her time was 22.96 seconds. >> mitsu plans to take part in the world masters athletic championships in taiwan next november. what do you get from running?

>> mitsu turns 90 in two years. her goal is set a world record then. i wouldn't bet against her. that's all for today's sports. >> just an impressive lady there. hiro morita with the latest. sunny and dry here in tokyo. but quite a different picture for southeast asia. we go to sakai ochi now who has the weather forecast. >> welcome back to your weather update. getting a look at the weather conditions in asia. there is quite a bit of activity in the southeast here. especially in the south china sea. we've had a tropical depression that formed and it is showing signs of strengthening.

call for potentially organized within the next 24 hours. we'll keep an eye on its developments. for now, though, we are looking at rain that's starting to impact a little bit more of vietnam today. it may start spreading along the coastline here of southern vietnam. things could look a little wet per. but otherwise dry picture for the indochina peninsula. just the southern tip here that picks up on showers. indonesia gets a little bit wetter. sri lanka and over the southern tip of india looking wet again today. today talking about isolated showers and down pours. things are going to be looking wet again. and that does follow several days of steady rainfall. so trying to accumulate. ground's getting well saturated. you do want to watch out for flooding as well as landslides. looking for dry skies around much of china.

may have lighter flurries forming in the northeast corner here. but they shouldn't be too heavy. for japan also looking at largely sunny skies across the country even northern areas have been seen all that snow the past few days. it is starting to ease and the winds should die down as well. but then into wednesday, we'll start seeing showers form. this time along the pacific side of southern japan. highs on tuesday looking like this in chongqing. tokyo high of 12 degrees with partly cloudy skies. little bit cooler than yesterday. and over towards the americas. it's the southwest corner that's going to be looking at quite a bit of activity. we've got the slow-moving low that's slowly working its way on land. and it is going to be bringing in showers for areas like southern california and then this northern area of new

mexico. into the sierra will into watch for snow. this is a slow-moving system. so the snowy weather, stormy weather is going to be lingering over the next few days. accumulations could hit 10 to 40 centimeters in the highest elevations. watch out for that. and then even as that snow lingers, it also will be bringing cold precipitation to the central plains. so here instead we'll be talking about freezing rain possibilities, icy conditions are also going to pose a danger in this region as well. over towards the pacific northwest, 4 degrees in seattle. i expect on tuesday. then getting up to 3 in vancouver. and finally getting a look at europe here. mostly stormy conditions persisting across the british isles. but it's going to be spreading eastward in towards continental europe as well as the scandinavian regions. wide area talking about rain as well as snow and the strong

winds especially for uk and ireland. you want to watch out for that. temperatures overall looking fairly seasonal across the board here. 4 degrees in warsaw. up next we have your three-day outlook.

our lead stories this hour. the relatives of a south korean coast guard officer killed in a clash with chinese fishermen have gathered to remember him. the officer died on monday in the south korean city of inchun hours after he was stabbed by the captain of a chinese fishing boat. another officer was wounded. the attack has touched off a flurry of diplomacy on and around the yellow sea. now the coast card hints it might relax its rules on firearms. the captain and his crew were fishing illegally in the yellow sea. the officers boarded the boat to inspect it. then the captain attacked. the coast guard detained him and eight other fishermen. today took him near seoul for

questioning. maritime authorities have launched an investigation into the killing and the illegal fishing. the coast guard only permits firearms to be used for self-defense. but authorities are now reviewing that rule. the japanese government has announced details of a new agency to oversee reconstruction in the disaster-hit northeast. the lower house last tuesday approved a bill to create the agency. the government says 200 people will coordinate the rebuilding work of other ministries and agencies. the headquarters in tokyo will employ 140 people. about 20 people will work at each of the branch offices in iwate, miyagi, and fukushima prefectures. it hopes to eventually employ 400 people. and that's all for this edition of "newsline." i'm catherine kobayashi in tokyo. do stay with us.