stabilizing syria. arab leaders backed a plan aimed at bringing peace to a nation scarred by conflict. arab league representatives are throwing their support behind a blueprint to end the killing in syria. the six-point plan calls for a cease fire and withdraw of weapons.

the meeting was to show that the union is still divided but security threats in the iraqi capital. yujiro futori reports. >> reporter: for the first arab league summit since the hussein. bomb sniffing dogs and security ca cameras were secured around the capital. all the main roads were blocked off. even under tight security, at the opening of the meeting tensions were heightened after landing near the air rain league leaders arrived at the presidential palace.

however, summit rak, and libyan moammar gadhafi were conspicuously absent. in their place, new leaders attended the summit as a result of democratic movement during the past year. topping the agenda was how to deal with the government clamping down on governmental forces. a rift has emerged between nations pushing for democracy and those fearing protest movements. >> the air rain league should take a firm response they should

explore ways without for reason intervention. >> reporter: after seven hours of debate, the leaders expressed their commitment to help settle the unrest of syria. however, they failed to agree on the appropriate steps to cope with this situation. the summit in baghdad was meant to give the impression that the arab world was recovering and being reunited. however, the leaders failed to produce substantial results and create a road map for stabilization. nhk world, baghdad. japan has called on china to put additional pressure on north korea to cancel its planned rocket launch in april. japan's bureau chief suzuki met

in beijing. woo is trying a special envoy of the nuclear program. during the meeting, they shared concern using long-range missile technology. wu said china is doing all it can to promote a nuclear-free peninsula and establish stability in the region. >> translator: if north korea goes ahead with the launch, it will be a clear violation of u.n. security resolutions, banning all testing of ballistic missiles. so we have been strongly urging the north not to make such a violation. >> he said the diplomatic efforts declined to comment on whether the chinese counterpart acknowledged it would violate the u.n. security council

resolutions. philippine president aquino has urged north korea to cancel the planned rocket launch. he expressed grave concern that debris could land on his kournlt free. north korea has said the second stage of the rocket will fall into the ocean northeast of luison islands in the philippines. >> where no one is exactly sure of the trajectory of the missile. similarly, the debris of the launch may potentially land in our territory. please use this provocation not only in the korean peninsula but in our entire region. >> the president said that use of ballistic technology in any launch violates any u.n. security council resolutions. the philippines has diplomatic relations with north korea but has condemned pyonyang.

all fighting has been stopped along the border and will now enter into official cease-fire talks in sudan. recent fighting erupted on monday and lasted for three days. this heightens fear of an all-out war. nations call for both sides to exercise restraint. the military halted all offenses. they planned negotiations for foreign troops. south sudan gained independence from south sudan after more than two decades of conflict. however, dispute over oil revenues and border demarkation has sparked new violence. the international pressure on iran is threatening one neighbor's energy plan. pakistan wants to build a natural gas pipeline from iran. but it's struggling to finance the construction.

pakistani officials say they will now approach russia for help. iran has already begun building its part of the 780 kilometer pipeline but the project stalled in pakistan amid strong opposition from the united states. the u.s. government argues that the pipeline would help fund iran's nuclear development. >> pakistan is visiting moscow early next month to have discussions on this project of russian and companies including gas. >> a major chinese bank has shown interest in backing the project but it appears to have back pedalled. while many people have different perspectives on the state of the global economy. some say signs point to a recovery.

others say they are not so sure. joining us with the details, what are the -- what's the oacd saying? >> the people who work there are definitely in the group expecting an improvement and that would be for the global economy and for the first half of this year. still, it expresses caution about the high prices of crude oil. the oecd released the latest assessment on thursday. it says europe's outlook remains weak due to its debt problems but the u.s. economy will show strong growth. the report forecasts an improvement when compared to the second half of last year. now, for here in japan, the oecd revised the previous prediction in november as the yen has rekrer retreated from record highs shown recently. the japanese economy has likely

grown 3.4% in annual terms in the first three months of this year. but for the april to june period it says growth will slow to 1.4%. meanwhile, the report warns rising prices of oil could push-up the general price levels across oecd countries by a quarter of a percent. it says high oil prices could drag down global economic growth by up to .02 this year as well as next year. now time for a check on the markets. overnight, wall street ended mixed with the dow jones industrial ending higher while the tech heavy nasdaq and s&p 500 ended lower. now we'll go to the tokyo stock exchange for more. here you have the latest key economic data from here in japan. tell us about that as well as the market reaction. >> very good morning to you.

because clee, we have the unemployment rate, cpi up 0.1%. that's the first time in five months. industrial production fell 1.2% month on month and that's the first declee in three months. later today we'll have new housing starts numbers and construction orders. let's have a look at the opening levels for the nikkei and topix. both indexes trading lower. the nikkei may trade in a tight range. the fiscal end being the last day of the business year. most japanese companies have gone through the usual repatriation or window moves. profit taking also after recent gains with the yen a little bit stronger actually following weak economic data in the u.s.

now, housing, jobs and manufacturing data are gauging the pace of a recovery in the u.s. economy. so we're going to be watching those closely. we just got production numbers domestically for japan which show that all three major japanese automakers increased production boosted by government subsidies for buyers of fuel-efficient cars and the generally weaker yen that we've seen so far this year. >> ramin, speaking of domestic demand, next week we're going to have the business survey. what's expected there? >> that's going to be a major focus from next week and, of course, a lot of focus there on large manufacturers. the business is expected to improve and from the december

numbers that's largely on the weakening yen. let's have a quick look at the currency levels there. currently 87.17 to $19 yen. we're still seeing a little bit of yen strength there short term but we'll see jernly this year we've seen a reversal of that strong yen from last year and that's expected to improve the survey. i'll have all of the numbers when we come back on monday. back to you. >> all right. thanks a lot for that. from the tokyo stock exchange. now, as he just mentioned, japan's unemployment rate was -- did improve slightly in february. the internal affairs ministry says the seasonally adjusted jobless rate stood at 4.5%. that is down 0.1 percentage point from january. now, the number of people without jobs was about 2.9 million while people with jobs, that stood at over 62 million.

separately, the labor ministry says job availability also improved. that marks the ninth straight month of increase. 75 positions were available for every 100 job seekers. the labor ministry went on to say the overall job market is showing signs of improvement but a mismatch between supply and demand remains in the disaster-hit northeast. all right. tokyo markets are down this friday. let's take a look at south

korea. >> that's the latest in business. question will go to bangkok to find out what is making headlines in the region. >> the leaders of far emerging economic powers, including india and china, have held a summit in new dehli. there is a new development in developing countries. fumi oechlt sugayo reports. >> reporter: india, south africa, and china met thursday on the agenda was a plan to establish a new world bank style situation to finalize infrastructure projects in developing countries. the leaders agreed to continue conversations with a goal of the world bank and national monetary

fund of europeans. the plan they have seen is an attempt to have a bigger voice in global finance. a joint statement issued after the meeting also mentioned issues such as iran's nuclear program and the violence in syria. the brics said they should be revolved diplomatically. nhk world, new delhi. >> and turning now to indonesia where the latest source of dissatisfaction with the nation's energy policies, it has been rocked with plans with a massive increase in fuel prices indonesia taxes mostly run on old-polluting engines and

drivers are being and the government is trying everything possible to reduce its dependence on increasingly exports of gasoline. indonesia sits on huge gas reserves said to be five or six times bigger than its reserves of oil but the rickshaw program faces fierce resistance from drivers. only one in ten has made the shift to natural gas. opponents complain the infrastructure is totally inadequate. there are only ten natural gas fueling stations across the entire country. >> translator: if the government asks us to convert to gas, they have to provide more natural gas fuel stations. these days, there are long cues to get gas. sometimes you have to wait an hour or two to refill. >> indonesians are already angry about plans to raise the price

of gasoline and of the fuels by more than 30%. southeast asia's largest economy produces its own oil but not enough to meet the needs of its rapid growth and to make matters worse, prices are surging in tensions with iran and sanctions against its oil exports. the government has pledged to make the available to try and encourage more road users to make the switch. and that's going to wrap up our bulletin for today. a strong focus on seafood,

the trop restaurants in hong kong like to use shark fin and drive be a loan knee. one of the most important sources of japanese abilone was and it knocked out the seafood industry there. producers are working all out so they can resume shipments to this important market. nhk's world kazutosh ireports. >> reporter: this restaurant is famous for its japanese is known for it is taste but also its appearance. because it has a shape. >> translator: abilone produced

in japan has a rich flavor. from other countries it never tastes as good. >> reporter: but experts of abilone say that supplies have dropped by a quarter and the price has risen. this has led to more people buying cheap abilone from the middle east and china. >> translator: japanese abilone is too expensive so customers have started buying other abilone. >> reporter: the district of ohumato city has been exporting abilone to china for more than 60 years. he has been in the abilone business for 40 years. >> translator: this one has the perfect shape.

like a treasurer ship. >> reporter: it's the finest in shape, color, and size. the tsunami last year destroyed the processing plant. all of his abilone was swept away. >> translator: everything was ruined in that instant there was nothing left. all of our product was gone. >> reporter: the head of the abalone plant, ten days after the tsunami he and the employees started the long, hard work of clearing away all of the mess.

>> translator: everyone worked together to dig out the plant. >> reporter: they were set on rebuilding the facility before november. the start of the abalone season. the new plant was finished in november just in time. the abalone are being used again. many fishermen have to use other boats for the abalone. the shellfish are dry for three months. in february, the dried abalone was finished.

in hong kong they have been patient for the abalone from japan to arrive. >> translator: i hope japan recovers quickly from the disaster and can export lots of abalone. everyone here is waiting for them. >> translator: we want to rebuild our abalone business is if he work as hard as we can we will definitely make that happen. >> reporter: he is now looking forward to transporting his abalone to hong kong again. well, there is a tropical storm in southeast asia. that's affecting conditions out at sea and on land. let's go to rachel ferguson to get the details on that. >> good morning, catherine. yes, we have the first tropical

system of the season. it's moving close to southern vietnam at the moment, inching closer every day. it's moving very slowly at the moment. this is t. of course, you can see in this mass of cloud. it's really come together in the last 24 hours or so. it's moving slowly, 65 mile an hour gusts and it means that the heavy rain is going to come down in the same place over the course of several days. so as we head into the next 72 hours, you'll see the southern coast here is getting about 300 millimeters plus in the next three days. that's going to be some very significant rainfall. even after it makes landfall, which it's expected to do local time, that heavy rain will persist as it moves inland. certainly a very high risk of flooding and landslides. we'll keep you updated on this throughout the day. other areas in eastern asia here getting significant rainfall,

you can see from eastern china back through and towards the south, some heavy rain here. thunderstorms along the river could get pretty nasty and we've been seeing accumulations of about 100 millimeters a day in some areas. over the last couple of days, when you add that up, the increased risk of flooding here. as the tail end of that system sweeps across the korean peninsula, it's going to come into western japan on saturday and in fact japan has another storm system to deal with. a storm coming from northeastern china heading towards hokkaido. before that happens, a pleasant day across japan on friday. tokyo getting up to 19 degrees. at 12 in seoul. that system already affecting the peninsula. 13 in beijing after a week of temperatures around the 20-degree mark. back down to regional averages.

a very hot day in bangkok. scorching at 36. let's go out to north america. a series of storm systems has been pounding the northwest for the last week or so. unfortunately, it is not set to have a break just yet. over the next couple of days we'll see a parade of lows moving in. it's going to bring significant mountain snow as well as very heavy rain at the coast. now, this model is showing you in the next 72 hours a very wide area from northern california up through washington state seeing more than 100 millimeters of rain. actually, some places are set to see more than double that. 250 millimeters in places, particularly southern oregon into northern parts of california. so moderate to major flooding is possible as well as some strong winds that could cause structural damage, especially where the soil is saturated. severe weather today in the

midwest. that's going to be heading towards just south of the great lakes. a rush of humidity coming up from the south and it's helping to bring those severe storms that can contain a large hail as well as tornadoes quite far north. something else to watch out for today. 28 degrees in oklahoma city. 28 for houston, texas, and 25 in denver keeping the heat here. however, it's going to be much cooler towards the north. 9 in vancouver and 11 in winnipeg. just 4 degrees in toronto. heading into europe, not much change here. unstable, wet, and cooler out towards the east. finally getting some welcome rain just south of the iberian peninsula, which is good news since it's been so dry for the last several weeks. i'm going to leave you know with your extended forecast.

unstable, wet, and cooler out and that's all for this edition of "newsline." thanks for joining us.