athens at theross cross roads. they head to another round of parliament elections. a veteran judge will lead greece to a vote. the new prime minister of the caretaker government for the next month. then greeks will choose a new government that could affect their place in europe. greece's highest administrative court swore in the new prime minister. he is expected to work with a

small cabinet. the key issue is the austerity program. the party opposes austerity. it is expected to increase the number of seats in parliament. the democracy party came out on top. scrapping the austerity package to bring greece out of the eu. there is no way of changing the terms of the bailout. >> the commitments taken by greece and all of the member states should be kept not because european union or euro area wishes it to be like that, but because there is no other alternative that has less pain

and less difficulties. >> barroso says they must implement the package of tax increases and spending cuts. he asked to consider the impact of the elections on the other countries in the eurozone. eurozone leaders have been pushing for austerity issues for some time. angela merkel spoke to nhk world during an interview. >> translator: i would like to see greece remain in the eurozone. i heard that 80% of people in greece want their country to remain a member nation. in order to achieve that goal, the eu needs to express a solidarity with greece, but at the same time, austerity measures which were agreed upon must be i amemplemented.

>> she met with president hollande this week. however, they admitted to differences on how to boost the economy. during the interview, she pointed out the differences that germany and france must play with the eurozone issues. she will coordinate views with a summit in late june indicating that could get over their differences. let's see how investors are feeling about this. ai has the latest with the market moves. ai, we just heard merkel giving her opinion on greece and the eurozone. >> they are worried the attempts will not be enough. they are worried about greece leaving the eurozone. the dow jones industrial average closed lower for the fourth

straight day on the concerns. the nasdaq and s&p fell on the same day. let's see how tokyo stocks are trading. ramin mellegard has the latest. ramin, good morning. economic data is providing some positive in the u.s. as well as here. tell us about it. >> reporter: exactly, ai. economic data before the markets open here. we had first quarter gdp data out of japan, rising 1.4% on an annual basis. that is a strong reversal from the contraction that we had for the previous quarter so quite positive there. in the u.s., we had industrial production data for april which showed one of the biggest jumps since december of 2010 and housing starts. it is a crucial fact. housing starts rising indicating

some of the best growth there for the last four years. markets are down in the u.s. and europe. let's see how things are kicking off in tokyo. a bit of a mixed picture. nikkei in the positive territory. topix trading lower. nikkei has been trading below 9,000 for four straight days. you can see again, it is below 8,800. it has traded below yesterday. blue chips are trading low. we have seen sony down around 35% since the highs we set in march. other sector stocks such as the brokerages have been down 20% for the same period. eurozone events making things a risk factor. that is a reverse from what we

saw earlier in the year. as the euro falls, the dollar has gained. inversely, dollar denominated commodities have dropped off. oil and gold as we can see there is at a five-month low. oil prices trading lower. the lowest since we have seen since november of last year. that may be a boost for transport shipping and other related sectors. folks focusing on the glowing growth in china, u.s. and europe. ai. >> ramin, i have more on the gdp in a few minutes. the yen is strong in the midst. where do we stand? >> reporter: let's have a like at the yen. it is holding strong against both the dollar and the euro. those are factors playing into the lower prices in exports. it looks like investors are

focusing on the three "es" ai. economic and euro. that is taking stage here. you can see 102.29-2. some of the events in europe really the major focus for inve inve investors as i mentioned. back to you. >> thank you, ramin mellegard. as he mentioned, the capital released the gdp figures. revising figures. the japan economy posted an increase for the third straight quarter. the cabinet office said on thursday that the gdp grew 1% in the january to march period. this translates into an annual growth of 4.1%. personal spending rose 1.1% due to higher auto sales.

this boost was supported by government subsidy for buyers of eco-friendly cars. nine countries involved in talks on a free trade deal in the pacific region agreed to speed up the negotiations. chief participants in the united states and the eight other nations wrapped up the trans pacific partnership on wednesday in texas. >> we have made better than expected progress here this week. we plan to move full steam ahead and hope to take another major step toward conclusion of the agreement at this round in july. >> the chief u.s. negotiator said the countries reported their individual consultations with japan, canada and mexico about their participation in tpp talks. they all agreed to continue the consultations.

the discussions on tariffs are stalled. it remains unclear if the negotiations will be concluded by the end of the year as the u.s. hopes. more business for you next hour. i'll leave you with the latest market figures. japan and china have agreed to work together on maritime issues in a bid to avoid further

conflicts in the east china sea. it follows disputes including a 2010 collision between a chinese trawler and the japanese coast guard. it came among talks in eastern china on wednesday. around 50 officials from both side took part. both sides claimed sovereignty over the islands in the chinese sea. they were concluding a treaty on the gas fields in the same sea. reporters were barred at the president of the chinese government. the nhk world reporter says that china is wary of domestic public opinion. radko mladvic is on trial in

the haig. prosecutors argued in the opening statement that mladvic's involvement in the ethic cleansing is clear. they video of the attrocities during the war. he is accused of ordering the killing in 1995 of 8,000 muslims in eastern bosnia. mladvic refuses the acceptance of the tribunal. he states he is innocent. let's get more details from the story from the thailand

bureau. >> now threatens to deal a blow in the long-running territorial dispute. india and vietnam launched the venture last year. the state-run oil company suspended the project. the oil fields are part of the territory, but china called for the project to be halted. china claims most of the south china sea as its own. several other countries made claims to sovereignty there. vietnam says production was suspended because they could not fix equipment to properly drill into the sea floor. vietnam hoped india's involvement would counter the presence of china. unless the project is restarted, the vietnam position may appear weakened. myanmar admitted to trading arms with north korea over the past two decades. it confirms long ususpicions ha

ties. we have more from yangong. >> reporter: the announcement seems designed to show li that this is not the arch rival. during the talks, the president admitted to secret arms deal with them in the past. he said his country would abide by the u.n. security council relations. they denied speculation he was

walking with pyongyang with nuclear weapons. this will be followed closely by the united states. last year, while on an historic visit to myanmar, hillary clinton visited the country and asked to cut all ties with north korea. myanmar reforms brought about sanctions to the country. some say this is aiming for the improving relationship with the international community, especially the united states. reporting for nhk world, now back to you. >> that will conclude our bulletin from bangkok. she works in paint. the brighter the better. has a passion for flowers and fruit and brings freight containers to life.

those are the strokes of this week's "road ahead" of a sp owner bringing color to a troubled town. >> oranges and apples. the cheerful cafe is an oasis of color. in a town turned gray, this is a temperature praytemporary mall. a shop designer has come to town. now she is from western japan. she oversaw the cafe renovation. her mission is to brighten up the disaster area one shop at a time. >> translator: i want customers to feel excited as they see the colors. i want staff to feel good when they see them.

>> reporter: other shop owners are interested in using her talents. they gather at the cafe. the city used to have five shopping centers. the tsunami wiped out all of them. the store owner set up the site in the autumn using freight containers. they called it mall of the future. a declaration of the positive spirit. that spirit caught her attention. she relocated to the area and offered her services. she says it is not just customer satisfaction she is after, but customer inspiration. >> translator: there are still many people feeling deeply sad. i hope they will be able to forget their troubles at the shopping center for just a moment. i want them to feel joy here. >> reporter: this is her next project. it's a clothing store.

in business for more than 50 years, it's badly in need of a post-tsunami facelift. the team gets to work. she directs a group of eight volunteers. the paint and other materials were provided free of charge mostly through internet donations. first, the base coat goes on. with the canvas in place, the arti artistry begins. snaking lines and splashes of color. two weeks later, the job is almost done. the final brush strokes. this metal box has come to life. the motif for this design is a

tree reaching up to the sky festooned with colorful flowers. >> it's very pretty. >> translator: it cheers me up. >> reporter: the shop owner is delighted. >> translator: i had no idea that it could turn out this well. it is not just an ordinary picture. to me it says stay strong or smile. i think it conveys a lot of messages. >> translator: it may seem like a small thing, but i think it's important to inject some color into this gray region. we want this to be a place where people can take a break from it all. >> really pretty there. her team has already completed renovations of a third shop. they plan to work their magic on eight more by autumn. japan's ground self-defense forces have shown proof of a new

vehicle. the vehicle will be deployed to nuclear accident sites. the vehicle unveiled on wednesday is completely air tight. it is equipped with an air filtering device. an outside sensor collects data in contaminated areas. it can be immediately sent for analysis to assess crisis situations and draw contamination plans. three vehicles have initially been deployed at an expected cost of $9 million each. the gsdf plans to deploy dozens around the country. people in japan's northeast e focused on overcoming the challenges of the 2011 disaster.

they have to rebuild homes and businesses and entire communities. we'll show you their struggles and their successes on "the road ahead" every wednesday at 1:00 p.m. here on "newsline." now we go straight to rachel ferguson who has the world weather forecast. >> heavy rain has been hitting okinawa for the last couple of days if not the last week or so. a stalled out front coming down from a low to the northeast. now ihas pulled away from japan, the low is, but the front is still passing through southern okinawa and hitting taiwan and southern coastal china. maybe as much as 120 millimeters of rain in the next 24 hours. taiwan and southern parts of okinawa seeing the risk of flooding and land slides on that saturated land. japan is seeing another fine day as we head into the beginning of thursday. however, a low coming across

which is an upper level low bringing frigid air to the upper levels. as it comes across, it will be colliding with the very hot air we have. the temperatures have been reaching the mid-20s. yesterday, with record-breaking temperatures. here in tokyo, that will cause some nasty thunderstorms which will last until friday evening. things are looking dry across much of mongolia and northern china. temperatures are starting to improve up toward the north. 13 in beijing and another hot day in shanghai at 31. seoul seeing showers today and 18 degrees. tomorrow should be brighter at 25 and sunny. tokyo at 25 today. another sizzling day in bangkok at 36. as we head into north america, a low moving along the u.s./canada

border here. behind that, colder air in b.c. that will produce about 15 to 25 se centimeters of fresh snow. there is also going to be thunderstorms along the rockies here. you can see the precipitation popping out and nasty thunderstorms during the heat of the day. around this low, the potential for heavy rain to develop as it pushes toward the east. conversely to the southwest, it will be dry and very hot. so there is critical fire weather for parts of utah and nevada as well as arizona. out to the east, still looking unsettled along the atlantic coast. driving up for northeastern parts of the united states. eastern canada and southeastern parts of the u.s. will continue to see thunderstorms on thursday. here are the temperatures. 39 in phoenix. you can see the heat spreading up into central canada. 31 in winnipeg for the high on thursday. into europe we go.

more wet weather coming into the british isles. hail in scotland in the last 24 hours. it will be gusty and wet here of the we have another series of systems moving from scandinavia done to the baltic peninsula. actually this low in particular heading over the adriatic sea. that will up the risk of flash flooding. that system will come in to turkey for friday. warm to the east. 25 in moscow. 22 in kiev. 12 and low teens for berlin as well as vienna. 31 in madrid. a new system bringing temperatures down on thursday. here is the extended forecast.

our lead stories this hour. a judge will lead a caretaker government in greece through the next month. there will be an interim prime minister before the round of elections. he headed the council of state, the country's highest court. he was sworn in at the ceremony in the presidential palace. he is expected to work with the small cabinet. the key issue in the elections is the austerity program. the measures are necessary for a bailout from the european union and the international monetary fund. warning to greek voters there is no alternative to austerity. >> the commitments taken by greece and all of the member

states should be kept not because european union wishes it to be like that, but because there is no other alternative that has less pain and less difficulties. >> barroso said greek leaders must impose the taxes and spending cuts. he asked to consider the impacts on other countries in the eurozone. eurozone leaders have been pushing for austerity issues for some time. angela merkel spoke to nhk world during an exclusive interview. >> translator: i would like to see greece remain in the eurozone. i heard 80% of greece would like to remain a member nation. in order to achieve the goal,

the eu needs to represent a solidarity with greece. at the same time, they need measures with the commission and they must be implemented. >> merkel met with president hollande on thursday. they agreed to improve the membership with the eu. they admitted to the differences of opinion on how to boost the economies. merkel pointed out the roles that germany and france must play with the issues. the chancellor said she will coordinate views at the eu summit in late june indicating that could get over their differences. and that concludes this edition of "newsline." i'm catherine kobayashi in tokyo. do join us again.