military tribute. ♪ north korea puts on a show of power for kim jong-un in a show of respect for his late father. kim jong-un has reviewed the armed forces for the first time. he appeared before the parade. north koreans have been marking what would have been the

birthday of his late father, kim jong-il. kim reviewed the parade from a balcony decorated with a portrait of his father. he stood with his uncle and others. the north leadership has intensified efforts to award him the highest title. gener gener generalmissimo. japanese's government says about 120 pro-pyongyang residents in japan brought at least 17 million yen on a visit to north korea. public security officials say the korean residents, including officials of a pro-north korean association ratraveled to the

north near beijing earlier this month. north koreas are expected to report when they take over 100,000 yen to the north. customs say at least $890,000 were brought into the country. the public safety officials say the association was asked by north korea to donate money to celebrate kim's anniversary. >> translator: north korea is asking people to show their loyalty to the new leader kim jong-un. especially the north korean an association in japan. >> he also predicts similar requests before the birth of his son. he says the demands on a heavy burden on north korea residents in japan. while u.s. home builders are

feeling better about putting down roots. ai? >> new home building in the united states rose 1.5% in january compared to the previous month. this is a key indication of economic trends. the commerce department said on thursday that housing starts in the month stood at 699,000 units. that is a little better in the market forecast of 675,000. the increase was mainly due to a rebound in apartment construction. by region, housing construction grew 18% in the south. almost 12% in the west and just under 8% in the northeast. however, the midwest saw a sharp decline of over 40%. building permits, a gauge of future construction, were up 0.7%. analysts are focusing on whether the housing market will continue to recover as it has recently been showing upward and downward

movements. general motors announced on thursday a record profit for 2011. the u.s. automaker reported a profit of $7.6 billion. that's up 62% from 2010 and is the highest level ever. the increase is due to strong sales in north america and emerging countries. since the bankruptcy in 2009, gm has closed plants and cut jobs. the new car sales have been picking up recently thanks to a recovery in the auto market. gm's latest announcement means all three automakers were profitable last year. ford motors profit was up three times from 2010 and chrysler returned to a profit for the first time since it went bankrupt in 2009. tokyo share prices are higher across the board this

friday morning following an overnight advance in the u.s. stock market. the nikkei is moving at 9,407. a gain of 1.8% on the day. the bader topix is higher by 1.5%. currently at 812. market players say the weakness of the yen against the dollar and euro is adding to the positive sentiment. let's take a look at the tokyo foreign exchange. the yen is down against the dollar and euro. the dollar is at 79.02 to 03 yen. the euro/yen is at 103.75 to 80. market players are buying back the euro that extra support for greece will be finalized on monday. that is when the finance ministers meet again. here is a look at the long-term interest rates. this is the yield on the ten-year japanese government

bond. the appointment of the next world bank president is thought to bring tension between china and the u.s. it is set to raise clout at the institution. >> robt zelig has been head of the bank since 2007. on wednesday, he expressed his intention to step down when his term expires in june. when the world bank has been set up, all of the presidents have been americans. this is a sign of the disapproval about this u.s. centered custom as the person in this key position can exert influence on the global economy. china's deficit grew

six-fold over the previous year. this was due to the natural disasters in eastern japan and the high yen, which pushed down exports from japan while imports from china soared. the japan external trade organization said that last year's trade deficit with china stood at $22 billion. that is almost six times larger than 2010. exports to china rose 8.3% to $161 billion. however, the pace of growth slowed sharply when compared with an increase of 36% in 2010. the march 11th disaster and strong yen caused a fa in exports of vehicles, foods and semiconductors. impa amports from china increas 20% to $183 billion. smartphones produced in china are growing in popularity in japan. another factor is the surge in

the import of dry batteries and fans and other efficient products. it is highly likely that the trade deficit with china will increase further. the organization says the exports will remain sluggish because of the slowdown in the chinese economy. it adds the imports will grow steeply as japanese firms continue to increase production in china and ship items back to japan. let's look at asian markets here and elsewhere. >> that's the latest in business. back to catherine.

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42 keters north o t capital. this is a p servant at e mist. he works for the bus project he is trying to spread moac >>ralar:heeglation is where laws are made >> exactly you are quite right. >> translato mknlee limited, though. >> reporter: syadbo the importance of young people's participation in building a new.

stud enjoying a sense of freedom. istened to the news when mubarak was in powe now nsroams tell us truth so we listen to them intently. weested inolic and democracy more than ever. >> reptesyad and his friends launched the campaign x nt o. 30 provinces.visited half ofhe sometimes they travel as much as 300 kilometers a da a long distance trip exhausts them. thisvengthe team arrives at a small farmingwn the members show election procedures on the scre the audience learns that parties are listed on the ballot a

ey are supposed to pick the ones they want to vote for from thli. but the residents are unfamiliar with democracy. it's not easy to make them understand how the system works. tnstor: anybody? okay. it y to answer. what's the separation of powers? >> translator: i have no idea. >> translator: the three branches of government? th administrative and legislation and judicial must be independent. this was not observed in egypt ic led to corruption and social ills that wreaked havoc on the country. >> reporter: as the discussions continue, residents bino lk about how oppressed they were and they are under an autocratic regime. >> i was a carpenter. i lost my job when i criticized thgornnt i was accused of selling

narcotics. i complained ton assembly man, but heidotlisten. >> translator: democracy is the fodaon of stability of a nation. various opinions from e bl shlde fltein politics. that makes the nation stable. belie we are taking part in an eear bldemrac foundations in egypt. reporter: the power of yng ople brought egypt toward change. the people on the freedom bus hope to nurture theew democracy. their mission continues. reporting for nhk world, back to you. next, we go to bgko find out what is making headlines in the region. >> we begin in the philippines where the united states is pant skio station a force of u.s. marines on the island of palaoan.

it is on the edge of theou in s contested by several countries, including china. we have moren t report. >> reporter: several hi high-ranking officials have told nhk that the u.s. is looking to station soldiers on the island. this phitsilary bases or troops being stationed on its territory. so the two governments are anngo en existing framework that bring together joint military exercises and activities to legitemize the u.s. forces. a deal could be done by march by the defense ministers. america's deployment of a rapid reactionor ihe region is

seen as an attempt as efforts by china to expand the influence over the sth china sea. the bay is closed to the islands claimed by the philippines and china amongth countries. china is expected to object to a presence there. reporting for nhk world from manila. a senior official in thla h talked about the blast in bangkok with similar incidents in georgia that target israelidioms. the three explosions wounded five people, including an iranian iranian assailant. the police chief confirmed the men responsible were planning attacks in the couny. translator: as i have said before, the target was an individual israeli diplomat, not

involving the thai peop. >> he also confirmed that the type of explosive was a homemade sticky bomb, the same used in india d georgia. israel has accused iran for being responsible for all three incident tehran has denied the involvement. there is tension over iran's nuclear program and is being felt as f away as southeast asia. suspects were detained by thai authorities are thursday. a third man was detained on wednesday. an iranian woman remains at large. one impact is on the tourism industry. >> i think generally and i have been all over bangkok in the last few days, you feel safe. it is one of the safest countries in southeast asia. >> at least 14 governments,

including the united states and the united kingdom, have issued travel alerts for bangkok. myanmar's reforms are giving refugees who fled the country optimism about one day going home. that is also raising questions about the viability of a program to reset the limited numbers of refugees from myanmar to japan. interests in the program have turned out to be much lower than the japanese government has expected. we have a report from the northeast of thailand. >> reporter: behind me is the building that the nine refugee applicants of japan are being interviewed by the japanese government. the applicants from two families met with japanese officials on wednesday to find out more about the resettlement program.

so far, nine families from myanmar totaling 45 refugees have reset theresettled in japa. the number of applicants has fallen short. >> translator: there is a need to give refugees better information about the japanese-run program. and we also need to work with other entities like our embassy in thailand and the unhcr to enhance the refugee understanding of japanese culture and society. >> reporter: last month, the government of myanmar agreed to seek a cease-fire with ethnic rebel forces after more than 60 years of conflict. this is giving refugees encouragement about returning

home. japan also faces challenges to better support refugees from myanmar with issues to resettle. some have struggled with language barriers. the japanese government will decide by the end of march whether or not to continue with the resettlement program. reporting for nhk world. back to you. >> that wraps up our bulletin from bangkok. many are commuting in cold weather this morning. we have rachel ferguson with the weather picture here and elsewhere. >> we are certainly going to be feeling the effects of winter here in japan. not one, but three low pressure systems are effecting the country right now. it will result in a lot of precipitation and as you guess,

most of it will be snow. an icy arctic blast coming in. we could see snowshowers making the way to the pacific edge. what we can expect is heavy snow accompanied by strong winds. that means low visibility where the snow is blown about. also at the northwestern coast, the waves could get high. rough seas here. in terms of the snowfall and what you can expect, anywhere you see in the red could potentially see another 90 centimeters of fresh snow in the next 24 hours. that is very significant. we already had record-breaking snowfall totals across much of the country this season. this is going to be another significant amount of snow coming down just in the space of 24 hours. even down further toward the west, about half a meter of fresh snow is expected. good news for the skiers out there. it can make life dangerous and difficult indeed. as we head out to the continent,

a few snowshowers in inland china. the precipitation will be rain for parts of eastern and southern indochina. the downpours will continue on in the next couple of days. as we head to the temperature chart, things are changing in t'aipei. a few days ago, the high was 23. we are down to 14 on friday as that cooler air filters down further toward the south. 8 for tokyo. we are below zero in seoul. as we head now into europe, the story this week has been temperatures are moderating across the continent. very good news. we are seeing drying conditions as well. i want to go first of all to video and show you what has been happening in some other areas. now this is slovakia. the heavy snow and high winds

caused absolute chaos on the roads here. you can see people just caught in traffic. this is austria we go to next. fresh snow and danger of avalanche has caused chaotic situations here. it is piled up on the roofs. 70 centimeters have fallen in areas leaving some areas inn accessible. the news is right now that our storm has dipped down toward the southeast. this is the one that brought the very heavy snow, however, there is another one on the way. just descending from scandinavia. it will come across the same path across germany and across the black sea region. another round of wind and snow. it will not be as potent as the last storm, but will be bringing more winter weather conditions. fairly dry out here to the west, but northern parts of the british isles will peopfeel then

coming in. nor snow along the western coast of norway. here are the temperatures for the west and down across the south. we are seeing some double figures popping up there. temperatures are plummeting in the southeast. athens down to 8 degrees for the high. and sub zero temperatures for the highs. i'll leave you now to the extended forecast.

our lead story this hour, kim jong-un has reviewed the country's armed forces for the first time as the country's supreme commander. he appeared in front of the mass parade. north koreans have been marking what would have been the 70th birthday of his latfather kim jong-il. >> kim reviewed the parade from a balcony decorated with a portrait of his father. he stood with his uncle and others. the north leadership has appears to intensified efforts to deify the leader. analysts say leaders are using the celebrations of his birthday to strengthen the rule of his son. that's all for this edition

of "newsline." i'm catherine kobayashi. thanks for joining us.