♪ north korea hits back at the united nations in back and forth criticism. officials in pyongyang have rejected a statement of condemnation from the u.n. the north koreans fired off what they called a rocket last friday. it blew up less than two minutes after takeoff. the security council agreed on monday to issue a presidential statement that strongly condemns the launch. north korea's foreign ministry issued a statement of its own. it criticized the u.n. for accusing north korea of conducting a missile test

disguised as a satellite launch. the foreign ministry statement says north korea rejects the council's violation of the north's legitimate right to launch satellites. north korea blamed the united states for halting food aid. u.s. officials promised the aid in february. in return, north korean officials agreed to suspend their missile and nuclear programs. the statement says they nor longer bound by the agreement. it also says north korea is now able to take retaliatory steps but does not give any details. political analysts say the measures could include more uranium enrichment, a nuclear test or other provocative acts. iran has marked its national army day with military parades in tehran and other places. iranian president mahmoud ahmadinejad said the country's army will retaliate for any act of aggression. nhk world has this report from

tehran. >> reporter: president ahmadinejad issued the warning during a speech at the military parade near tehran. it was apparently directed at western countries and israel. ahmadinejad said foreign interference will bring nothing but destructive in the region. he added that the enemy will regret any act of aggression towards his country. the u.s. and european nations are tightening sanctions against iran over its nuclear programs. israel says it will not rule out an attack on iranian nuclear facilities if necessary. iran and some western nations agreed last week to continue nuclear talks to achieve a diplomatic resolution. but with no tangible result in sight, israel is criticizing iran for buying time. it's unclear whether the talks will help ease military

tensions. mojibate sanite, nhk world, tehran. tokyo governor shintar shintaro ishihara says the metropolitan gft will proceed with the purchase of the senkaku islands. the 79-year-old politician and novelist exerts a strong influence on public opinion. ishihara spoke to reporters in washington on tuesday, one day after he announced the plan in a lecture at a u.s. think tank. he said the tokyo government was negotiating the purchase of three of the disputed islands with the owners. chief cabinet secretary fujimura responded to the plan by suggesting that the central government could buy the privately held islands. ishihara said the tokyo

government will proceed with negotiations with the owners, regardless of the central government's policy. he urged the japanese government to act much more decisively. >> translator: china says it's unreasonable that sdwrap ajapan actually controlling the islands, and it will take bold action to change this. it's very scary. a virtual declaration of war. >> china's foreign ministry has denounced tokyo's plan saying any unilateral action by japan over the islands will be invalid. ishihara noted that china has vowed to take action to breach japan's effective control of the senkaku islands. people in tokyo had mixed reactions to ishihara's remarks. >> it's a good idea. the situation would be more stable if tokyo bought islands instead of having them owned by individuals. >> i'm against taxpayer money being used to buy them.

the money should be used on other things. >> a chinese government says any unilateral action on the senkakus won't be effective. they reiterated the claim that the islands are chinese territory and that their country has sovereignty over them. now this issue dates back decades. japan's claim to the senkaku islands can be traced to 1895. china began asserting rights over the territory in 1970. that followed research showing the waters around the islands are rich in natural resources. chinese activists illegally landed on the islands in 2004. six years later, a fishing boat from china rammed a japan coast guard patrol ships near the senkakus. coast guard officials said chinese vessels violated japanese territorial waters in

the area. japan's central government is trying to maintain control of the senkakus. officials released names last month for four of the islands. china's leaders countered by handing out a list of the senkakus' chinese names. territorial disputes are a source of friction between china and the philippines in the south china sea. amid the growing tensions, the philippines has kicked off one of his largest military exercises with the united states. nhk world's charmaine deogracias reports. >> reporter: some u.s. troops and military personnel are taking part in 12 days of war games. the exercises kicked off on monday and are designed to strengthen ties and improve joint military capabilities to protect philippine borders. the drills include landing practice on the western island in the south china sea.

in addition it the bilateral naval exercises, the capital manila will host an earthquake simulation with six southern nations, including japan, for the first time. >> this will undoubtedly constitute -- or contribute to the nations in the region having increased level of trust and cooperation to ensure regional stability. >> we continue to work together for a secure and stable asia-pacific region. >> reporter: this year's exercises have been marked by political tension. following a naval standoff between the philippines and china. on tuesday last week, a philippine navy ship and chinese surveillance vessels faced each arth the disputed scarborough shoal off the philippine island of luzon. diplomatic efforts have failed to resolve the eight-day standoff. on tuesday, the philippines said it would call on china to

jointly take the issue to the international tribunal on the law of the sea in an effort to quickly and acefully resolve the issue. the philippines has far fewer naval vess and aircraft than china. officials insist the joint military exercises are not a show of force directed at china. but regional experts say the message of the war games is clear. charmaine deogracias, nhk world, manila. on to other stories we're following -- wall street investors pushed leading u.s. indices higher overnight. ai uchida joins us with the latest business news. what was behind the gains? >> both the dow and the nasdaq rallied overnight. the dow having reached back above 13,000, in fact, on a smooth spanish bond auction. strong earnings from american companies. that also helped, too.

let's see how stocks are kicking off here in tokyo. we go to ramin mellegard at the tokyo stock exchange for that. good news coming back into the markets. how is the nikkei trading? >> very good morning, ai. let's go straight to the opening levels for the nikkei and the topix. we can see there for both indexes, the nikkei and the topix, trading higher at the first few minutes of trading. well above 100 points for the nikkei. all eyes were on the results of the short-term spanish bond auction on tuesday which came out better than a lot of economists had expected. and also strong earnings in the u.s. from companies there boosted the markets. including the world's biggest beveragemaker, coca-cola. active sales in emerging markets as well as china. but we also had from the tech sector, results from yahoo! which showed a 28% jump in profits and also traded higher

in the after hours markets as well. a couple of bumps, though. we had results from intel and that traded lower in the after hours markets there. we're going to keep track of all related shares here in japan as well. and also further componentmakers, for instance, which go into products which apple makes. and apple also did see a rebound following recent declines so that is heavily weighted on the nasdaq which gained considerably on tuesday. now from the banking sector, we were following goldman sachs. it did say net profits fell around 23%. that's going to be a focus as well for securities and brokerage firms here in japan. but also continuing on banks, we do have the g-20 meeting convening in washington on thursday. again, a lot of focus there on whether lending facilities will be increased for the likes of the imf to help out the cash-strapped weaker eurozone economies as well as some of the banks involved in that. now the yen has weakened a touch

as well. let's have a look at the fx and currency levels. currently you can see 81, 8 to 14. dollar/yen around the upper 80 yen levels this time yesterday. you can see there the yen has weakened. and also the euro/yen currently around the mid-106 levels. that's also a little bit of a relief following the short-term spanish bond auction. ai? >> speaking of the spanish bond auction, ramin, does spain still remain a market focus? >> yeah, definitely. we had the short-term bond auction as we just mentioned. but coming up on thursday, it's going to be the the ten-year spanish bond auction and so far, we've seen longer term bond yields. we'll see how that affects. it's given a boost to global stocks. we'll see if that continues. the nikkei is well over 100 points up so far in the first few minutes of trading. back to you. >> i see, ramin.

thanks for that update. ramin mellegard from the tokyo stock exchange. the international monetary fund says the global economy will remain fragile in 2012. it says this is mainly due the possibility of renewed concerns about european debts and the risk of soaring oil prices. the imf says the global economy is to expand by 3.5% this year. that's a slight increase from its january forecast of 3.3%. by country it raised its forecast for the united states to 2.1%. japan was revised slightly upward to 2%. the eurozone was graded by 0.2% making the region's growth forecast at minus 0.3%. the fund expects spain's economy to also shrink by 1.8%. a british luxury fashion brand worn by winston church

hill and margaret thatcher may soon have a new owner. the people designed the first waterproof fabrics and raincoats. but the 161-year-old company has gone under. aquascutum filed for bankruptcy protection after several years of poor sales. the company is under the control of an administrator. aquascutum was founded in 1851. it won widespread recognition for its waterproof coats. members of the british royal family, prime ministers and other dignitaries wore its high-end products. the administrator says he will look for potential buyers who can appreciate the firm's brand power and tradition. all right. more business news for you next hour. i will leave you now with a look at the latest market figures.

a robot will be sent into the damaged fukushima daiichi number two reactor for the first time since last year's earthquake and tsunami. tokyo electric power company will use a robot mountd with five cameras, a dosimeter and an audio recorder. a worker in an adjacent building wilma nufr the robot through a cable link as it checks for damage to the suppression chamber and containment vessel. this will be the first inspection of the suspension chamber since the nuclear accident. a manhole will also be checked and radiation measurements taken

in the area. any damage to the suppression chamber and the containment vessel will have to be repaired before the vessel is filled with water to retrieve the melted fuel rods. removing these rods will be a crucial step in decommissioning the reactor. different voices are weighing in on japan's debate regarding the restart of nuclear plans. only one of the country's 54 reactors is online. it goes offline in early may. government officials are looking into restarting units located about 400 kilometers west of tokyo to keep up with summer electricity demand. but two governors in the west want them to hold off. the central government wants two reactors at the ohi plant in fukui prefecture to go online soon. kyoto and shiga prefectures neighbor kuhui. their governors have proposed the central government speak independent advice from nuclear experts before making a final decision to restart the

reactors. the governors say a third party panel should verify the region's power supply and demand estimates for the summer. they also want the government to show why the reactors must be restarted before an official inquiry into the fukushima disaster is complete. >> translator: we want the central government to clarify its views and the steps it's taking. >> translator: we will see how they respond. and then we'll make our decisions. >> central government leaders say the ohi reactors meet the new safety standards. they maintain reactivating them is necessary to avoid power shortages this summer. people in japan's northeast are focused on overcoming the challenges of the 2011 disaster. but it won't be easy. they have to rebuild homes, businesses, entire communities. we'll show you their struggles and their successes on "the road ahead" every wednesday at 1:00 p.m. japan time here on

"newsline." former freedom fighter tar mattan ruic has won the presidential run-off election in east timor. they turned to a political outsider to try and improve their fortunes a decade after independence from indonesia. nhk world satoshi reports from the capital delhi. >> reporter: former independence fighter taur mattan ruak won 61% of the vote. he beat the head of the largest opposition party. popularly known as lu olo. ruak has no political experience and ran as an independent. by contrast, lu olo had a strong campaign organization and came out on top in the first round of voting in march. ruak is a popular hero who left east timor's struggles for

independence. his victory also reflects this satisfaction with the status quo. east timor lacks any notable industry except agriculture. 40% of the population lives in poverty. frustration with established political parties is growing. that left many voters to cast their ballots for the outsider. the tenth anniversary of independence is approaching. u.n. peacekeeping forces that have -- the reconstruction are expected to leave by year end. the people of east timor have entrusted ruak with the task of ensure their country can stand on its own two feet. >> translator: i want the new president to help the poor and create a better life for us. i want him to create jobs and

enable children to go to school. >> reporter: ruak now faces a challenge of maintaining security and improving lives without relying on foreign aid. satoshi iinama, nhk world, delhi. julia gillard says most of her country's troops will leave afghanistan by the end of next year. this is almost a year earlier than initially scheduled. in a speech in canberra, gillard said she would bring up australia's troop withdrawal plan at next month's nato conference on afghanistan in the u.s. city of chicago. >> i am now confident chicago will recognize mid-2013 as a key milestone in the international strategy. a crucial point when the international forces will be able to move to a supporting role across all of afghanistan.

>> australia has about 1,500 troops there and had originally planned to complete the withdrawal by the end of 2014. gillard said improved security in the southern province where australian troops are stationed has made it possible to pull them out earlier than planned. let's go to saka mori for the world weather forecast. >> we had a brief heavy showers in tokyo yesterday but things are clearing up, and we are experiencing a sunny morning. but there is a slight chance of a light shower again. but overall stays dry under a high pressure system nationwide. just a few showers in hokkaido. meanwhile, stays dry across the korean peninsula, but showers will develop across the southern end of the peninsula tomorrow. out towards the west, a low pressure system is moving into mongolia, producing a wintry mix. and down towards the south, yet again right across southeastern

china. the rainy season but the precipitation amount is significant. an additional 100 millimeters is expected in the next 24 hours. the risk of flooding and laslides a raising even more. wnowthia, seasonalnndochi and t tokyoongt of tordore g but thexcti i anymore. hey r deep south. tar t rtre lakes

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government could buy the privately held islands. hihara said the tokyo government will proceed with negotiations with the owrs regardless of the central government's poly. he urged theapes geren to act much more decisively. >> translator: china says it's unreasonable that japansacal cos and it will take bold action to change this. it's very scary. a virtualecraon of war. >> china's foreign ministry has deundtokyo's plan saying ov t ian will be tiony invalid. ishiharaoted that chinaas vowed to take action to breach japan's effective control of the senkaku islands. and that wraps up this edition of "newsline." i'm kathrcatherinkoyain tokyo. do stay with us. we'll be back with more updates at the top of the hour.