deeper to win additional bailout funds they desperately need. finance ministers of 17 eurozone nations meet as eu headquarters in brussels.

reuters news agency says the chair of the group is calling for greece it ratify its austerity plan by sunday, and then find a further 325 million euros worth of spending cuts by next wednesday. after the talk rs, the finance minister said it will approve extra funding for greece by wednesday. greece needs more money from the eu and fund to cover bond payments worth 14.5 billion euro. those payments are due march 20th. the bailout package would help defer a fault. they are now wondering if the european bank would suffer as well. >> the eu holds a lot of greek

bonds. the ecb should hold losses if private financial institutions should do so also. >> everybody has been talking about at they cou do and not do. ecbd t sgforthecb e it will mean out fosparties.

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woven rugs are 90% less tan from iraq as well, economic sanctions cause inflation. iranian rt makers must pay more for material, so me ve developed new strategies. rug ke focus on the reality rugs made by acnegs to whe many carpet makers use chic dyes, he seeks thnara dye. he is using fruit an miral. >> translator: natural dyes make the rugs mhre colorful. not only that, when they look at the pe you see they have

morelier >> reporter: he also takes a good look at the wide variety th designs in carpets made ro country. he blends traditional designs with modern colors. his new rugs are gaining popularity through word of mouth. >> translator: they are totally diffent from mchine mad rugs. they are the genuinear of iran. >> reporter: as the rug market ok r ctors in china. sellers the two countries have friendly relations. he and his partner are working on carpets that are fo chinese customers. he plans to expand to china by making rugswith colors and designs that the chinese like.

he exports to china in the past two years. so predict that the persian rug market in china will soon become the world's largest. tnstofo chinese people, persian rugs are a symbol of the upper class unlike thchp meicar carpets. >> reporter: he plans to display his goods at ecaet exhibit in march in shanghai to seek new customers. iran's industry plans to expand in southeast asia and other onie that's the report from nhk world. >> just beautiful. the european union is coidin lifting economic sanctions against myanmar in

april in recognition ofth moves. eu development commissioner will visit myanmar on sunday. he plans to meet the president and the opposition leader aung sasuky they have been stepping up reforms, like allowing aung san suu kyi to run in parliamentary bi-elections in april and releasing many politic prisoners. they say all economic sanctions may be lifted in april, depending on the outcome of bileio and release of more political prisoners. the eu foreign policy chief katherine ashton is scheduled to visit in april. the eu hopes to improve relation with myanmar, following recent announcement by e s.t ll send an ambassador to the country. >> mo tn 60,000 households

were set to evacuate after the disaster at the fukusha iii. eyeceived claim forms from tokyo electric power company. half of them have sent the forms back. now nearly a year since the accident, the compensation process is ineffective or too slow. today's nuclear watch focuses on coenti fvictims. first we hear of one family who isn't happy with the compensation they received. >> he and his family were forced to leave their homes after the nueaacdent last march. his home is ten kilometers from the disabled plant. before the accident, hepent nearly $400,000 renovating the building. now he cannot visit his home without permission fm authorities. >> translator: i love my house, but i'll have to abandon it and move somewhere else soon if i

can't cultivate my fields because of radiation. >> translator: his family received compensation from tepco, but tepco turned down compensation from the house and land. >> translator: tepco's compensation policy is so cold-hearted. i hate it. >> earlier, we spoke with nhk world's reporter covering the compensation issue. we provided simultaneous interpretation. >> translator: tepco said it will review the evacuation areas one year after the accident. they are planning to regroup the areas according to the levels of radiation in three categories. residents could return to one

area and where they cannot return for a long time. tepco is waiting for the outcome of the government review and says it will come up with a specific standardin april at the earliest. the evacuees need a sizable sum of money to rebuild their lives among uncertainty. it is quite natural they demand early compensation for lost housing and land. to meet their needs, the government has set up a new organization, the center for settling disputes for nuclear accidents. the lawyers and judges listen to the claims of both victims and tepco and show a settlement plan to both parties from the parties in review to get compensation quickly. the center has received 800 applications for review. the number is increasing. such mediation has no precedent.

it is time consuming. there are four cases where settlements have been reached. tepco will honor the compensation plan, but when a compensation which was shown last month, it rejected the plan partially. the process needs to be faster and more effective. some people decide not to claim damages because if they start new jobs, they get less compensation. this man was running a restaurant in the no entry zone. he resumed business last july where he is taking shelter. he wants to get compensation for lost profits, but he was surprised when tepco told him that the profit he earned with his business will be subtracted from the total compensation. he cannot understand if he gets

less compensation if he gets more. he is hesitant. >> translator: i think the government wants us to stand on our feet as soon as possible. this policy is a complete contradiction. >> reporter: the victims were deprived of living by the nuclear accident. some have been decided not to resume their business soon after learning they would get less compensation if they find new source of income. tepco should not stick to the conventional way of payments in order not to discourage people. tepco should pay out quickly to get rid of fears and have people resume a normal life. they need to make it easy for the victims to find homes and jobs.

"newsline" is the place to turn to for japan post march 11th. we have two seeihave two segmen. "nuclear watch" on the crisis and the "road ahead" on the efforts to rebuild. don't miss "nuclear watch" and "the road ahead" on "newsline." let's go to patchari raksawangong in bangkok to see what is making headlines in the region. >> more than three days after an earthquake hit the philippines, thousands are looking for food and emergency supplies. the 6.7 magnitude struck near negros island on monday. 26 people were killed and 70 others are missing. thousands have been displaced and forced to live in tents with

limited provisions. >> translator: we don't have food. we don't have food and water. >> with supply routes cut by damaged infrastructure, quake-hit residents are looking for food and water. soldiers and rescue workers continue to search for survivors, but hopes are fading. turning now to singapore where working level talks on japan's possible bid to join the trans pacific partnership, that is the tpp, to place on thursday. the tpp is a free trade agreement among nations around the pacific rim, including some nations with the united states and australia. japan is the world's third biggest economy. it has to get approval from all nine countries that are already

members or are negotiates to become members of the tpp. only then could it begin formal talks on entry into the tpp. senior officials from the japanese government met with singapore representatives for about three hours. japan explained its policy of trying to boost economic growth through high-level cooperation with countries including the tpp. singapore welcomed japan saying it would strengthen the group. singapore was a founding member of the tpp and is one of the biggest advocates. japan has secured the support of four nations, including vietnam. it is set to hold conversations with malasia later in the month. i'm patchari raksawangong in bangkok. china is strengthening the

military. it is trying to explain the reasons for intensifying the military activities to the international community. the national institute for defense studies released on friday a report on china's rapid military build up. the report says china wants to pursue economic development and military strategy through maritime tactics. it maintains the country is deploying ships and aircraft with good maneuverability to the china sea. the report shows that china is cautious over a u.s. defense strategy which places importance on the asia pacific region. the brief adds it wants to boost military operations. it concludes that chinese policy could move in one of two directions. the country could pursue a hard line stance or use its growing power for stability with

international partners. russia has defended an incident in which the war planes flew close to japanese air space. the planes were practicing patrolling and aerial refuelling. five airplanes were spotted on wednesday near japanese air space. japanese's self-defense force took to the air and responded. an a-50 aircraft has an early ash warning control system. japan's ministry said it is the first time the airplane has flown near japan. russia's defense ministry said their planes flew over the pacific north of the peligo, but did not interfere with the air space. let's go to sayaka mori with the world's weather picture.

>> hello. time now for your weather update. let's begin with east asia. thundershowers will raise the risk of flooding and land slides. it will be a great concern in the central country because the major earthquake hit this area on monday. meanwhile, a wintry mix will linger in southern china and snowshowers will linger in the interior areas. heavy snow across japan. an additional 20 centimeters is expected widely and 60 centimeters into saturday morning. more than 80 fatalities have been reported. ongoing snow could raise the risk of avalanches. it is a different story for the pacific side. it will stay largely dry. highs will be rising through 8

degrees in tokyo. still cooler than average. 3 in beijing with sunshine and 8 degrees in chengeng. heading over to the americas. a series of low pressure systems will produce stormy conditions in british columbia and the pacific northwest into friday. down to the south, rain in texas and oklahoma will move toward the east. the deep south will start to see thundershowers on friday. and up to the north, a line of snowshowers will move to the south and effect the great lakes area. including toronto and chicago. and as the cold front moves through, cold air will flow in from the north pushing down temperatures. we are expecting only minus 19 degrees in winnipeg for the high on friday and minus 1 in chicago. however, the eastern seaboard is still on the warmer side. 11 in d.c. and 14 degrees expected in atlanta. out toward the west, heating up

to 27 degrees in los angeles. definitely feels like summer here. finally, let's go over to europe. it is still stormy in the east and mediterranean. this low pressure system just to the west of italy will produce heavy snow in central italy on friday. it is expected to impact the balkan peninsula on friday. snowy and winter weather in norway will continue throughout the day. meanwhile, we have been talking about very cold temperatures across most of the european countries. this is what is happening. this stubborn and strong high pressure system is pushing the jet stream further south allowing colder air to come in from the arctic. it will stay here for a while so those cold conditions will continue into the weekend. expected highs on friday are looking like this. only minus 7 degrees in vienna and minus 15 in kiev.

rome dipping into the single digits with 8. however, lisbon with a seasonal 15 on friday. temperatures will start to drop over the weekend. here is your extended forecast.

our lead story this hour, the eu is trying to prevent greece from defaulting on the huge debt. the finance ministers are trying to reduce spending. a new package was passed on

thursday, but they need deeper cuts to bail out the funds they need. finance ministers of 17 eu nations met. the chair of the group is calling for greece to ratify the austerity plan by sunday and find a further 325 million euro spending cuts by ne after the talks, jean claude juncker said that the financial ministers will approve extra funding for greece as early as wednesday. greece needs more money from the eu and the international monetary fund to cover government bond payments worth 14.5 billion euro. the payments are due march 20th. that's all for this edition of "newsline." i'm catherine kobayashi in tokyo. do stay with us.