fearing the status quo. residents of okinawa worry a long disputed u.s. base might not be going anywhere. residents of one japanese city woke up to the news that 1300 u.s. marines may be headed to their town. japanese and u.s. officials have been trying to figure out how to redeploy american forces stationed in okinawa. nhk learned that the americans sounded out their counterparts about transferring marines to an air station. american officials made the

suggestion during review of the realignment of u.s. forces. the countries agreed in 2006 to keep about 10,000 marines in okinawa, transfer 8,000 to guam. residents of iwakuni are expected to be opposed to the idea. the city already hosts a marine corps air station and aircraft carrier unit from central japan will be moved. japan and the u.s. agreed in 2006 to relocate the futenma station and return five stations to japan at the same time. but they haven't made much progress. now they want to separate the two issues. japanese government leaders say possible moves to ease the burden of hosting u.s. bases on okinawa. now three quarters of forces are based in okinawa.

he used to advise the japanese government on how to deal with t he says separating the location issue may mean the u.s. gave up on moving to the less populated city. >> translator: the u.s. is tired of waiting for the relocation plan to move ahead. it has decided to organize its military to deal with the strategic environment of the asia pacific region. and it has apparently decided to separate the relocation issue to minimize impact on the u.s., regardless of political developments in japan. >> people in okinawa fear that would mean the air base would remain in futenma. asian leaders are scrambling to work together as the crisis goes around the world. ai uchida has more. japan and china coordinating their efforts? >> they are planning a meeting

next week. the japanese finance minister is planning a trip to china next week to strengthen the cooperation. he is slated to meet with the vice premier and the finance minister starting next start. they are expected to talk about setting up task forces for agreements reached last december. these include the purchase of chinese government bonds by japan and enabling direct trading of the two country's currencies. also likely on the agenda, how to respond to request by the international monetary fund. imf is calling on members to invest financial contributions by $500 billion in case europe's credit crisis worsens. the officials will likely consider establishing a lending system among 13 asian countries, including china, south korea, and japan, using their foreign exchange reserves. that's in a bid to prevent

europe's debt problems from spreading further to asia. these concerns are more immediate in europe. the ruling coalition parties in greece failed to agree on an austerity plan, a precondition for additional aid from the eu. a large number of greek government bonds will mature next month. a default seems inevitable unless they receive more aid from the european union. the prime minister was scheduled to meet with the leaders of the coalition parties to discuss whether to accept the conditions. however, the meeting has been postponed to tuesday. labor unions plan to strike and stage protests on wage cuts that are included in the austerity plan. meanwhile, french president nicolas sarkozy and the german chancellor stressed urgency of the situation. >> translator: time is running out. it is just a matterdays.

we need a conclusion. romania's prime minister is stepping down. emil boc made the announcement today. he announced he was stepping down to ease political and social tension. romania imposed spending cuts as part of a deal for 20 billion euros in fiscal aid from the european union and other organizations. the government slashed public workers' wages and raised the sales tax from 19% to 24. public anger at the austerity measures triggered street protests. the row man yan president emil boc asked the former foreign minister to try to form a new government. now let's check the markets. the nikkei is down to 8,920.

the strong yen over the credit problems are cooling market sentiment. many invest ors are waiting to see if greece will accept the austerity measures. the u.s. dollar currently trading at 76.56. the euro against the yen is 100. 100.42. the look at the latest interest rates. this is the ten-year japanese government bond. indonesia is getting a boost from the european debt crisis.

gross domestic product in 2011 rose 6.5%. higher than the previous year. it is due to gross domestic spending of a nation of 240 million. backed on the increase of average wages. it sites a direct amount of foreign debt. it forecasts higher growth this year at 6.7%. along with the expanding economy, indonesia is seeing growing demand for power. a thermal power plant was recently completed on the island of java. it was built by a group of japanese firms and can supply 10% of electricity used on the island. the japanese energy consortium is lead by the corporations of

toshiba. in a ceremony marking the completion, an indonesian government official said the power plant will continue to resolve the power shortages. in all, the japanese consortium invested $5.2 billion in the project. it has a generation capacity of 264 megawatts. many power plants are being built, but japanese firms have lost bids by south korea firms for past projects. a recap of the latest market figures.

>> that's the latest in business. back to you. >> thanks, ai. a japanese wholesaler will not renew with iran. it is after they asked to reduce the oil import from japan. jx nippon oil has several contracts. the one in question is about 10% of the company's impacts and expires in april. jx is considering making up the oil from saudi arabia. it is believed that jx is preparing in case of a agreement between the u.s. and japan. they are talking about reducing imports from iran.

this is likely to influence others. a group of army deserters is increasing fighting in homs. the deserters began their monda. the troops loyal to bashar al-assad are using rockets to attack the rebel forces. forces have pulled out of some areas of homs. fighting is intensifying in the southern city of daara. the activist group says more than 300 people were killed over the weekend. "newsline" is the place to turn to for the latest on japan, post-march 11th. we have two perspectives on the fallout from the tsunami and

earthqua. "nuclear watch" and "the road ahead." don't miss "nuclear watch" and "the road ahead" on "newsline." workers at fukushima daiichi are trying to cool the plant's number two reactor. they are injecting water into the facility but the temperature remains high. spokes persons maintain it is in a state of cold shutdown. tokyo electric power company issues say a thermometer at the bottom of the reactor monday read above 73 degrees celsius. the temperature has risen more than 20 degrees in the past four days. spokespersons say two other thermometers stayed at 44 degrees. tepco has been injecting more than ten tons of water per hour into the reactor. spokespersons say the temperature rise indicates the flow of water may have changed direction after plumbing work was carried out, disrupting a cooling system. but they maintain radioactive

xennan hasn't been detected in gases around the reactor, and that nuclear criticality is not taking place. they say workers will increase the amount of water injected into the reactor to see if it cools. now, the japanese government has decided to review donation practices at power companies. utilities donate money to projects where their plants are located. they then pass on the expense to consumers. but utilities aren't obliged to disclose how much or to whom they donate. nhk asked officials in 44 prefectures and municipalities how they felt about the issue. local governments got $2.1 billion from 12 nuclear plant operators and two related agencies since the construction of nuclear plants began in the late 1960s. local authorities can decide how to spend donated funds. they have invested the money

into public works projects and events to promote local economies. in some cases, local governments actively solicited donations from operators of nuclear plants in their areas. in 2009, shizuoka prefecture asked for money to build a road in a city that hosts a nuclear plant. >> something about nuclear power plants makes people think not in my backyard. so municipalities hosting plants should be rewarded in ways that are institutionalized. shizuoka has never let rewards affect its safety standards. >> a specialist in corporate finance told nhk that including donations and utility charges is undesirable. >> translator: the cost should not have been passed on to

electricity users in the first place. the central government must make the firms disclose the flow of money. >> a panel of experts with the ministry of economy trade and industry has been reviewing the way power companies charge consumers. panel members said in a recent report that donations should not be included in user fees. the ministry hopes to decide on the report by the end of march. some fisheries in miyagi prefecture still can't shake off the effects of the tsunami. first they acknowledge their plants stopped production. now they ran into a hitch that prevents them restarting operations. this is slowing recovery in the region where the long term economy depends on the seafood industry.

>> the disaster last spring left its mark on ishinomaki. it took the lives of many residents and left the city in ruins. factories that process seafood so badly damaged, they couldn't operate. now the industry is trying to get back on its feet, but it's proving difficult. takashi yokoyama owns a seafood processing company. he is building a new plant where the old one stood. he expects to get production rolling again in august. he offered jobs to his former employees, but many turned him down. a lot of them had found other jobs. >> translator: some now live with relatives in tokyo. others moved to sendai, the nearest big city. they found new jobs. at least half my former employees are not coming back to work for me.

>> he's found it impossible to hire employees to replace the former ones. he is not alone. many other seafood companies in the devastated region face the same problem. this company started processing seafood again last october. at a factory that has not suffered major damage. but the firm was only able to rehire seven former employees. half the number working there before the disaster. noriyuki hobara owns the company. he asked local unemployment agency for seven workers. he waited by the phone, but after four months, no one had applied. >> i thought i would get at least a few calls, but there hasn't been a single one. i simply cannot start a business without workers.

>> hobara says people have found higher paying jobs in the building industry, booming now that reconstruction has started. many people need higher paying jobs to make up for lost wages. >> i hear that construction jobs are paying about $130 a day. the truth is that jobs in the seafood industry pay less. we pay about $80 a day. >> hobara again asks the agency for workers. this time, he offered higher wages, even though his business might lose money. >> i decided to raise the wage from $80 a day to $130. >> that's equal to the salary plant managers receive. >> translator: i would appreciate it if you could find

me one or two people. obviously you can't do anything at all without workers. all i want is to hire people. and get the business running again. >> first, it was the earthquake and tsunami that stopped the plant's operations. now it's the rebuilding. unless the seafood companies find employees, it will take longer for this devastated city to recover. >> the road to recovery is still a long one in northeast japan. time to check on the stories we gathered from asia. we start with this story in

thailand. more than 100 prisoners took part in a riot demanding the removal of a new prison guard. the new guard is responsible for rooting out drugs in the prison. last month, a number of inmates were found to be engaged in drug trafficking from their cells. during the riot, inmates torched mattresses and tires and used sling shots to fire at prison guards. after a long negotiating session, the inmates agreed to end their protest. bangladesh has joined muslims around the world to mark the prophet muhammad's birthday. the founder of islam was born in 570 in mecca, saudi arabia. tens of thousands of people, including the president ramin and cabinet members took part in

prayers. colorful parades were held. to mark the day, many muslims provided alms that will be used to help the underprivileged. malaysia's community has been gearing up for one of the most important days in the hindu calendar. the festival. on the day, they parade through the streets of kuala lumpur. they smashed coconuts, symbolizing the defeat of the ego. flowers and incense was offered. some people climbed the 272 steps to the temple in the caves in the area to fulfill their vows. i had to open up my umbrella this morning and that cold snap

we were having in tokyo has given way to a warm spell. sayaka mori has the latest weather picture. >> welcome back to the weather update. let's begin with japan. a lot of clouds are covering much of the nation. underneath them are heavy amounts of precipitation blankets much of japan. particularly right along the pacific side. thunderstorms, gusting winds and high waves will accompany the torrential rain. as for the back side of the nation, the precipitation is rain rather than snow because temperatures are on the rise. from tonight, colder air will flow in. that will bring another round of heavy snow as well as windy conditions. as for the korean peninsula, snow will impact the

southwestern corner of the region this afternoon. head ing back to the big pictur, taiwan will ease today. to the philippines, a major earthquake occurred in the central portions of the philippines, but it looks like rain is moving into the area. rain could hamper the rescue efforts. today's highs are looking like this. 31 degrees in manila. 33 in bangkok. up to the north, cold air sags south reaching seoul. minus 6 degrees for tuesday's high. tokyo warming up to 17 degrees. temperatures will plummet this evening. moving on to europe. biting cold conditions are still pounding much the continent. to give you an idea of how the conditions are, let's look at video coming out of the balkan peninsula. this area is being hit hard by the combination of the winter

storm and the prolonged cold snap. in serbia, villages are trying to break a path through the frozen lake to get to the nearest road. warmer air in bulgaria has problems. icy rain is creating slick roads and heavy rain to the south is leading to floods. this low pressure system has been bringing these stormy conditions and it looks like it will stay here for a while. the precipitation amount will be very huge. to the north of this low, a lot of heavy rain or heavy snow is continuing. to the south, a lot of rain. over the next 24 hours, 100 millimeters is expected in greece. the reason is warmer air is coming in from africa. temperatures will be reaching to 13 degrees in athens and 11 in

rome. for the rest of the area, an lots of sub zero figures. minus 8 in berlin. minus 12 degrees in moscow. the cold conditions will likely continue her throughout the week. all right. up next is the three-day forecast.

our lead story this hour, residents of one japanese city woke up to the news that 1300 u.s. marines may be headed to their town. japanese and u.s. officials have been trying to figure out how to redeploy american forces stationed in okinawa. nhk has learned that the americans sounded out their japanese counterparts about

possibly transferring marines to an air station in the city of iwakuni. american officials made the suggestion during review of alignment of u.s. forces. the countries agreed in 2006 to keep about 10,000 marines in okinawa, and transfer 8,000 to guam. residents of iwakuni are expected to be opposed to the idea. they already host a marine corps air station and aircraft carrier unit from central japan will be moved to iwakuni. japan and the u.s. agreed in 2006 to relocate the futenma station and return five facilities to japan at the same time. but they haven't made much progress on futenma. now the u.s. officials want to separate the two issues. japanese government leaders say possible moves could ease the burden of hosting u.s. bases on okinawa. three quarters of u.s. bases are

stationed on the island. separating the relocation issue may mean the u.s. has given up on moving futenma air station to the less populated city of nago. >> translator: the u.s. is tired of waiting for the relocation plan to move ahead. it has decided to organize the military to deal with the changes in the strategic environment in the asia pacific region. and it has apparently decided to separate the relocation issue. >> people in okinawa fear that would mean the air base would remain in futenma. that wraps up this edition of "newsline." i'm catherine kobayashi in tokyo. do stay with us.