show of support. iran renews its pledge to stand by syrian president bashar al assad as his security forces try to stop opposition fighters from overthrowing his government. when times get rough you find out who your friends are. one of his country's few remaining allies is sticking with him. the syrian television showed him meeting with a top iranian

national. he met with saeed jalili who vowed continued support. he spoke after a day -- about a day after his prime minister defected and joined opposition forces. assad last appeared on state run tv on july 22nd. news about the syrian president has been scarce since mid-july. that's when fighting between government troops and opposition forces escalated in damascus. both sides have been receiving outside assistance. the iranians are vowing support for assad. while they have been providing the president with weapons and funds since uprisings started in march last year. he was ambassador to iraq until

he defected in july. he says the killing of syria's defense minister in an explosion last month was a big blow to assad and the leadership of the president's security apparatus. >> translator: assad doesn't trust the political people around him and he worries about his life. that's why he's moving a lot. like between the capital, damascus and northwestern syria. i went to a meeting of syrian, iraqi, and iranian high-ranking officials just after the anti- government protests began. iran urges that civilian protests be suppressed and offered its full support to the syrian government including supplies of arms and funds. >> reporter: he says these supplies are sent to syria have

from iran and anti-government forces need more help but political support from qatar and saudi arabia is not enough. he says the opposition fighters need more weapons and funds. japanese and north korean red cross officials plan to meet in beijing this week. they will discuss returning the remains of japanese nationals who died in north korea at the end of world war ii. the state-run korean central news agency said the delegates will meet for two days starting on thursday. the japanese red cross society says three officials from each side will attend the talks. the meeting will be the first of its kind in ten years. japan's health and welfare ministry says more than 34,000 japanese nationals died in north korea at the end of world war ii. some died in battle with former soviet troops. others died from starvation or during the cold winter on their way back to japan. the remains of more than 20,000 have yet to be collected. some japanese government

officials say the talks are a sign that kim jong-un is trying to make policy changes. others say north korea is looking for an opportunity to resume dialogue with japan with a humanitarian issue that's easy to handle. they will also assess if the time is right to resume intergovernmental talks. russian prosecutors have demanded a three-year prison sentence for members of a female rock band. the women sang a protest song against president vladimir putin at a church in february. the flee-member band was charged with hooliganism. they performed the song in a russian orthodox church in moscow before the presidential election. prosecutors said on tuesday a loud performance at a church undermines social order and is against social norms. the defendants said they were simply expressing their opinion.

the church is demanding severe punishment. u.s. pop singer madonna defended the band. she said what happened to them is unfair. human rights groups have expressed anger over the case. anti-government protesters have been given large fines since putin's return to the presidency in may. a new law outlines penalties for defamation of political figures. russian space officials are trying to recover from another bad break. they were unable to put two communicati commune satellites into orbit. they were unable to put russian and indonesian satellites into orbit around the world. it launched monday in kazakhstan. the russian space agency is believed to have lost nearly

$900 million over the past three years. critics are demanding the head step down. nasa's space probe curiosity is exploring mars. indian space officials are trying to find out more about the red planet. they are planning to send a satellite to orbit in the coming years. the launch is set for november 2013 at the earliest. it is expected to reach mars orbit in 300 days. it will make a geological survey of the planet and look for signs of life. the mission is seen as india's attempt to increase its international image. it launched a lunar probe in 2008 and put communication satellites into orbit around the earth. this news just in, japan's

current account surplus shrank in june for a 16th consecutive month. the account is a broad measure of the country's foreign trade including income from foreign interests and dividends and exports and imports. the current account surplus stood at $5.5 billion. that is down 20% in yen terms from a year ago. but the decline is narrower than last month. this is due to the trade balance which returned to a surplus of $1.4 billion. exports were down 1.5% and imports also fell 1.2%. japan's financial regulators have urged the tokyo stock exchange to prevent system failures from happening again after a technical glitch left traders unable to buy or sell

derivatives on tuesday. they want to report on measures to preventing a recurrence. on tuesday morning a technical problem stopped trading of futures contracts for government bonds. the stoppage lasted about an hour and a half. the exchange says a data processing device broke down and a back up machine failed to take over automatically. they will need more time to identify the cause. in february the tokyo stock exchange experienced a failure that prevented trading of 10% of stocks. japan will host the annual meetings of the international monetary fund and world bank in october. that will be for the first time in 48 years. just prior to the convention, the government will hold an

international conference on disaster preparedness. the government will invite participants from 188 imf and world bank member nations for the meeting. the delegates will include finance ministers and central bank governors. the conference is scheduled for october 9th and 10th in sendai. it was hit hard by the earthquake and tsunami in march last year. japanese government officials want to inform about the recovery efforts and share the country's experiences of last year's disaster with other nations. another focus of the disaster conference will be the situation in developing countries where investments on preparedness have a low priority due to the huge costs. debates will be held to explore how to achieve disaster preparedness and economic growth at the same time. you can't see them but chances are that microscopic materials called nano particles are part of the world around you

grinding materials to the that no level can bring out new properties that are usually inaccessible. a 90-year-old japanese company has build a big business around these materials. the mill stone grinds grain into flour. it has been a part of everyday life since the dawn of civilization. it has now evolved into a super machine, an ultra fine friction grinder. in the process of making corn soup the outer skin of the corn kernel is normally removed and discarded. but this can crush the kernel into a smooth paste. that means the entire kernel that can be use. it is rich in dietary fiber. the company that developed the grinder says that their product

makes food taste better than food processed with blenders. that's because the resulting product has a higher concentration of sugar. the corn on the right as a sugar level of 6.9% but it's 10.4% for the corn on the left processed by the ultra-fine grinder. the device is used by food processing companies and major restaurant chains in japan and abroad. >> translator: until several years ago people questioned the value of nano grinding food but they started to realize the benefits of the technology. it creates new tastes and textures. companies trying to differentiate themselves from their competitors are adding our microfine grinders to their production process. >> reporter: there is another reason why this is popular in

the food sector. unlike ordinary grinders it does not absorb moisture. it makes for more stan tear grinding conditions. processors don't have to worry about food waste being left behind and causing bacterial contamination. the secret is hidden deep within the structure of the grinding wheels. the wheels of conventional grinders are highly porous masuko's have no pores. the tweels have to spin quickly. ordinary wheels can crack. but the pore-free versions are strong enough to withstand the pressure, making nano grinding possible. grinding seems like a simple process but it's opening up a state-of-the-art world.

pulp, the fibrous material in making paper turns into gelatin when ground into nano sized particles. it happens when the bundles of fiber are unravelled one by one and solidified into a new material. it's as hard as steel. it doesn't expand or contract with fluctuations in temperature. development is underway to manufacture lightweight and recyclable parts for automobiles. >> translator: sticking to one goal, continuously trying andhi. that's the only way for us to survive as a manufacturer. >> reporter: finer grinding through this kind of machine can lead to more innovative materials. the company's president says

that not only major japanese automakers but companies and universities abroad are using the equipment for research. people who work in japan's printing industry are worried their jobs can be making them sick. an nhk investigation uncovered concerns that certain chemicals could be behind a spate of bile duct cancer cases. now government scientists say researchers suggest these substances could be indeed harmful. nhk worked with university scientists who investigated a high occurrence of bile duct cancer among workers in osaka japan. medical experts have diagnosed 13 employees with the disease since the 1980s. the workers are responsible for washing ink from printing machines. seven have died. a mother of one of the deceased says she wants the truth. >> translator: i can't stand it. i want to see a thorough investigation.

>> researchers at the health, labor and welfare ministry suspect two chemicals in cleaning agents cause the cancer. they've been studying whether the substances are carcinogenic. >> translator: we usually left the bottle of the cleaning compound open so we could use it quickly. i remember the strong smell in the factory. >> government researchers have carried out a new investigation of printing companies nationwide. they found 24 workers with bile duct cancer, 14 have died. a reporter broke this story for nhk and spoke to gene otani. >> why did these cases of bile duct cancer attract your

attention? >> this type of cancer is found in people over the age of 60 in the tube that carries bile to the duodenum. but i found five workers between the age of 20 and 50 had bile duct cancer. we discovered ten workers at the company had the disease. after carrying out further studies they found the incidence of the cancer is more than 600 times the average of the japanese men. >> how do the scientists know the chemicals in the cleaning agent harm the workers? >> the chemicals are used in the printing industry. they are also used not just in the printing industry but also used for cleaning semiconductors, metals and dry cleaning industries.

scientists think once people inhale the chemical, the substance change the nature of an ensubsidize called dst. the government scientists have yet to reach a conclusion but it is highly likely one or the two chemicals or both are causing these bile cancer cases. >> this is used in many industries, semiconductors and cleaning. japan has regulations to protect people from these agents. how can this kind of thing happen? >> right, gene. there are two too many chemicals on the market for authorities to track. these substances are everywhere from agricultural products. we use 600,000 chemicals in japan alone. the government checks to see

whether something causes cancer on less than 1,500 of them. the united nations has not acknowledged the two chemicals in question as causing kansas. >> only a thousand out of 60,000. what can government do better to protect people? >> look at the european union ambitious and ongoing effort to regulate chemical. they are aiming to register all chemicals you buy by the year 2018 and create a unified system to manage the data. the chemical substances are a part of our daily life. but we cannot let them harm us. leaders in japan and elsewhere have to look to their counter parts in the eu to find ways to toughen up regulations. team misawa may not be familiar to most people around the world. but in areas hit by last year's

disaster here in japan, it's a household name. today we take you to see the team at work. >> reporter: travel to miyagi to help survivors. they hold event for children in the area with an american support group. in misawa city. more than 10,000 americans live there. most are military personnel and their families who live and around the air base. she he has been in japan for 25 years. he broadcasts radio show for

americans about japanese news. after the devastation americans at the base try to help in the crisis area. simon was an interpreter. victims told him their stories. so he had a good understanding of what they are going through. when they received supply he saw how grateful they were. that inspired him to keep on helping. >> of course they cleared it. but now we need to build new houses and new businesses and get people back to work. people care whether it's american or japanese or whatever. people care and we haven't forgotten and we want to continue to help. >> reporter: three months after the disaster, simon organized

team misawa that organized children to raise fund and find volunteers. the group planned online auctions. every item is a donation. this cake sold for $225. with generous donation like this, the group raised about $5,000 in april alone. >> we had people stateside participating in it as well. so if we did it just locally only a few people could participate from around here. but since we do it online people back stateside that want to participate can do as well. >> reporter: in late april simon's group organized this event to introduce american culture to the children in the devastated area. they ate cakes made by people at the air base. about 50 japanese showed up to

find out about american culture. >> delicious. >> translator: i am grateful they prepared this for us. >> because i speak japanese and know the people who are helping and need help i can share the need with aricans who still want to help. >> reporter: simon is getting more americans to pitch in. without a doubt american and japanese are forging closer ties. torrential rains from a typhoon and season monsoons have left at least 53 people dead, in the central philippines. typhoon saola brought incessant downpours, widespread flooding and landslides a week ago. heavy monsoon rains continue to pound the capital, manila and other parts of the country. the marikina river in the

northeast of the capital has flooded, inundating houses and stores in the suburbs. disaster management officials say about 270,000 people are taking shelter at schools, gyms and other facilities. they say the heavy rains are likely to continue through wednesday. now we find out just how heavy the rain will be from rachel ferguson who has the world weather forecast. >> taking a look at what is going on down here with the philippines. we were just talking about how yesterday -- i should say yesterday, typhoon sao lachla a brought flooding so the rain is falling on saturated land. in the next 24 hours we could see 150 millimeters of rain or so. in the last 24 hours, some places picked up more than 480 millimeters of rain. nearly half a meter.

the worst of it is over. but in the next 24 hours you are likely to see anything from 80 up to another 150 mill meeters in -- millimeters in some places. we have a strong southwest monsoon at the moment. and this system which is really pulling up a lot of energy through the philippines through northern parts of indochina in through this system. let's update you on what is going on. this tropical storm has reached typhoon status. it has just been sitting very, very slowly spinning in the east china sea. now it's starting to impact mainland china. the eye of the storm getting ready to move into the province over the next couple days. we'll see the storm -- yes it will weaken from hurricane status. but there will be a lot of tropical moisture continuing to

fall toward the shanghai region and spreading inland for the next 48 hours. you could see 200 millimeters plus and that will affect highly populated areas. we'll keep an eye on the progress. we have another hurricane to talk about. this is ernesto. it will be hitting tuesday night local time in the next couple hours. as it heads across land, it is going to lose a little bit of steam and become a tropical storm once more. but it will head out into the gulf of mexico and it will be a hurricane before it makes a second land fall in southeastern mexico on friday. the winds are sustained at 130 kilometers an hour and there is going to be significant rainfall continuing with this system. across the yucatan peninsula and impacting belize.

you could see up to 150 millimeters. in the mountains it will be closer to 300. that is where there is the highest risk of landslides and mud slides to occur. looking at the u.s. and canada. we're going to continue to see rain and thunderstorms in the southeast. nothing too severe. but it will be unstable. and rain moving through the plains, welcome rain here but nothing too significant. it is going to remain hot for the southern plains. we have intense heat moving into the desert southwest and there are watches in places like southern california and arizona. i'm going to leave you now with your extended forecast.

and that's all for this edition of "newsline."

i'm catherine kobayashi in tokyo. do stay with us. we'll be back with more updates at the top of the hour.

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