welcome to "newsline." it's friday, august 31st. i'm katherine from tokyo. police in beijing have spent the week taking calls and making inquiries about an unusual diplomatic incident. they cut off the japanese ambassad ambassador's car earlier this week. police say they've identified all the suspects. the chinese foreign ministry officials notified staff the at the jap needs embassy in beijing. embassy officials said they were told police have not arrested

anyone yet. they informed their contacts at the ministry they want to keep in close contact. the embassy staff is waiting to hear about developments in the investigation. on monday two vehicles followed, then stopped the car carrying bams d ambassador niwa. a man gt out and ripped off the japanese flag and fled. japan and china are caught up in a territorial dispute over the senkaku islands in the east china sea. the leaders of countries outside of the global power bloc are flexing their muscles at a summit of the nonaligned movement. we report from tehran. >> reporter: the meeting held every three years is attended this time by the leaders of more than 100 states around the world. most of them developing nations. the opening address was made by iran's supreme leader ayatollah

khameni. he said it was time to break away from the influence of western powers and create a new world order. >> translator: iran regards any use of nuclear weapons as a serious crime, and does not possess them. it will never abandon the right to nuclear development for peaceful purposes. nations with nuclear weapons such as the u.s. and israel are a real threat to the world. >> reporter: also among the attendees was egyptian president morsi. he became the first egyptian leader to visit iran since the two countries broke off diplomatic ties more than 30 years ago when egypt signed a peace agreement with israel. morsi's visit comes after repeated invitations from iran, which is facing increasing isolation in the middle east. president morsi's aim is to move away from the diplomatic

policies of former president hosni mubarak who strongly favored the u.s. analysts say iran hopes the summit will end its international isolation amid conflicts with the west and israel over its nuclear development and the syrian issue. the conference will continue through friday. u.s. presidential candidate mitt romney will woo undecided voters thursday night with his acceptance speech for the republican party nomination. he will speak in tampa, florida to wrap up the republican national convention. he was nominated tuesday to face democratic president barack obama in the november election. the latest abc tv opinion poll suggests the republican leading obama by one percentage points. more are supporting romney out of discontent over the country's

prolonged downturn, but respondents found obama more likeable. one in three americans say they don't know romney well. he will attempt to change all that with this speech. the chinese economy is more. the president has welcomed the most powerful leader to beijing. ramin has that story and more. >> chinese leaders are looking for reassurances from european leaders about the debt crisis, and the german chancellor slookisloois looking to reassure them. she's grown in stature aamong power brokers in europe and she traveled to beijing to calm fears about europe's debt crisis. she met with the chinese premier to discuss the economic relationship between europe and

china. he reassured merkel but stopped short of making concrete promises. he said china will buy european bonds as long as it can can evaluate the risks. merkel said the there's strong political well to make the euro a stable currency again. ceos of major german companies joined merkel in beijing and signed business deals over $6 billion. japan's struggling electronics maker sharp will keep negotiating firms with its taiwanese partner hon hai industry. they hoped to include the deal on thursday, but the two sides failed to reach an agreement. the firm canceled a meeting scheduled for friday, but sharp and hon hai executives plan to

continue with the talks into the weekend. hon hai wants to reduce the contribution because of a plunge in stock price and it includes the sales of plants in china and mexico in hon hai. let's get a check on the markets overnight in new york. u.s. stock prices ended in negative territory to keep investors on the edge. for more now and we're look the at the tokyo stock exchange and joined by our business reporter khan at the tokyo stock exchange. what can you tell us? >> it's the last trading day of the week, but markets have light to digest now. let me give you japan's latest economic indicators that came out right before the market opened. these numbers are all for the month of july. first of all, japan's industrial

production is at minus 1.2% compared to the previous month. that is worse than what market participants had expected. the actual number coming in negative. japan's jobless rate at 4.3%. that is unchanged from the previous month and in line with the market consensus. finally nationwide core consumer price sbexz excluding volatile fresh food prices at minus 0.3% in july compared with the same month last year, and the third straight month of falls and inline with the consensus. let's turn our attention to markets. we're seven minutes into trading on this friday morning, and the nikkei is at 8,918, down about three quarters of 1% and the topix down three quarters of a 1% now at 738 points, so both in negative territory.

that negative sentiment in new york is carrying over into markets here in tokyo. overnight u.s. stocks posted hefty losses. if you look at the closing levels, the dow closing at 13,000, down by april tenth of a percent. the nasdaq closed aat 3,048 down 1%. investors were more risk averse over concerns about risk prospects, and those will weigh on sentiment in tokyo. the biggest focus is going on ben bernanke's speech in jackson hole later this friday. that's at 11:00 a.m. local time, and market watchers are leaning towards new policy change given recent positive economic indicators. we have to see what bernanke has to say on the possibility of any kind of credit easing including the possibility of qe-3. you talked about sharp and we'll focus on that wm.

the share price recovered from the years trading low of 168 recently, but we need to keep a close watch on whether we see a recovery for that stock. very quickly, looking at currency markets, the dollar is trading in the mid to upper 78 range. dealers are on the sidelines ahead of jackson hole meeting. looking at the euro/yen, that trading around 98.29 to 34. they will see whether the ecb will come up with steps to tackle the debt crisis. the nikkei and topix both in negative territory. >> that was our business reporter at the tokyo stock exchange. that's all for biz news for this hour. for now i live with you a recap of the regional markets.

exports have fueled china's growth but the debt crisis in europe has jammed it up a bit. they're trying to make up for the economic shortfall by strengthening the market at hope. we have the report from beijing. >> reporter: just a 90-minute drive from shanghai, the set of kunshan is a major manufacturing hub. this private company makes row

boa rowrobots for factories. the company isn't expecting such high sales this year. the europeans are among the firm's biggest customers are hovered by a dpebt crisis, so they are buying fewer robots. >> reporter: >> translator: exports fell due to credit uncertainty in europe, and also the large construction projects are lagging. >> reporter: the chinese sell more goods to europeans than to any other foreign customers. from january to july of this year, total sales to europeans fell 0.9% from a year earlier. each day the impact of europe's credit problems weighing more heavily on chinese exporters. >> translator: as a result of debt crisis in the european union, china has been unable to

increase trade with european countries. as a result the growth of the total trade in the first half of the year was limited. >> to make up for lost business abroad, the government hopes to find buyers at home. they hope to do this to get customers to buy more goods including foreign products. china's government hopes to attract investment and business by stressing the country's economy will continue to grow consistently. >> translator: basically the chinese economy is still growing at a steady pace. that is because we're implementing several policies to stimulate domestic demand. we aim to develop more by inviting foreign investments in china. >> translator: some chinese companies have accepted that invitation. this month in beijing a japanese organization arranged a display

of japanese goods for chinese buyers. the japan external trade organization supports companies that might not be able to operate in china alone. the trade body helps them introduce high quality wares to chinese retailers. >> translator: we offer safe, reliable products from japan and brand them as a quality products. as a result chinese shoppers trust these firms for the quality of their goods. >> reporter: 130 japanese companies have tried to sell about 1,500 products to chinese retaile retailers. among the good is high end silver ware. >> even though they're expensive, i think these japanese products will sell well because the quality is good. >> to encourage chinese to buy

more products, they're injecting money into the economy. switching from exporting goods to selling at home could be the key to the nation's long-term economic success. nhk world, beijing. japan is now preparing to unilateral defer its territorial dispute with south korea to the international kourlt of justice. they both claim sovereignty over the takeshima islands in japan. a south korean documented handed to a japanese diplomats asserts there's no dispute to settle. south korean president bak

recently visited the islands causing japanese leaders to call for international mediation. japanese foreign minister gemba said south korea is failing to offer a substantive plan on the issue. they use historic evidence the eyelets belong to japan. they will not elect a trial unless south korea agrees, but japanese voters hope to win international support by showing that south korea's claims are groundless ls. international forces in afghanistan are keeping a nervous watch wonder being their ail rays and enemies. a man in an afghan uniform shot and killed three australian soldiers earlier this week. that's 15 this month. nhk world reports.

>> reporter: the latest insider attack happened in uruzgan. among who was the gaven soldier into the national base shot three australian soldiers. the attacker climbed over the fence and fled. >> he turned his weapon on isap soldiers south in gavrnlg. as a result three confirmed to be australian were killed. this incident is under investigation. >> reporter: 45 international troops have died so far this year in what's know as green on blue attacks. the total for 2011 was 35. dempsey visited a couple last week to discuss how to address the situation. after his visit afghanistan

announced it will re-examine the rigors of its 350,000 troops and police officers. international forces are scheduled to leave afghanistan by the end of 2014. training afghan soldiers and the police to take over security is an urnlt task, but frequently raising questions about the forces. they must urgently come up with major to stop sush incident, and we need a trust between their troops. protestors in the maldives are calling on their president to step down. the island nation in the indian ocean has been in turmoil since it's first democratically leader designed earlier this year. a commission set up as has to

failed to bring calm. he stepped down in february following popular demonstrations gym gens him. he maintains he was forced to resume by gunpoint. united nations oers monitored the situation. the committee released it's report on tuesday. it concluded that her resignation was voluntarily and not the result of a coup. several hundred of his sppters are rallying in mali. a boat carries people hopes to gets asiustralia. about 150 were on board and many of them are missing. private boats rescues 55 people about 350 north of

australi australian's christmas idea. indonesia search and rescue teams are looking for suhr sooifr. several ships have appear sized in the air of recent months. most areuters says nearly 1,000 people have died making the journ journey. an astronaut went on his first spacewalk. he was unable it to do the test outside the space station. they ventured outside the space station to replace a power switching unit. they tried actuals and tactics but struggled to bolt down the device w device. it lasted for eight and a half hours, two hours longer than schedule. in the end they failed to tie down the power unit. japanese astronauts spent mother

five months on the space station. he return to everett in 2010 is that space washings are not eat. >> i hope he brings us back some of the his own insights on the space whack. >> he's scheduled to stay on the space station until november. a vee lind made from debris left by last year's tsunami is winning over classical mufx yal plans in tokyo. he played the entit in a specia concert in the capital on thursday. the violin chs made by a japanese kraftssman using pine and maplewood found in iwa . it marked clause's birth. the program included a sonata

for a violin and piano that he played for wounded soldiers. ♪ >> many sauer vooifurvivors att concert. he said his thoughts are with the region. >> translator: i'm moved and feel healed despite the worry of life as an evacuee. >> translator: i remember the huge tsunami, and that makes me cry. i'm really touched by the movement of the music. people in japan's niece are focused on overcoming the challenging 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 successes on the road ahead, every wednesday at 10 p.m. on "newsline." people in u.s. gulf states continue to deal with stormy conditions. sake gives us the latest. >> isaac, which was one -- has been downgraded into a tropical depression, gut still bringing sfrong winds and drenching rain. five tornadoes touched down in thecoast. it likes it will move toward the north on friday and then missouri on saturday. it will be towards the high value afterwards. if looks like widespread thoorms will continue to our way so the risk of flooding will likely continue over the next several days. for the rest of north america,

thundershowers p and gusty conditions in quebec stadium. meanwhile, dry across the person great lakes region and continues favorable for wildfires from wince to kansas. teps will be hot in chicago with a high of 35 degrees, but it should call down by about 7 degrees into your start. might having beau asia. we may see in tokyo it's technical dried a dry and hot but they may not seen pop-up thunderstorms during the heat of this day because this low pressure system is bringing some muj from the south. yesterday it made landfall in the korean peninsula as a svr cash, but unstable weather will continue throughout her day. the ground is very well saturations so any slight amount

of rain could trigger further flooding as well as the landslide. out west this pink means that for rentz rain is kall falling in china. an additional 250 mill meertds is like in some locations over the next 24 i peopled. with you see more heavy rain on your sudden here. as for the highs cooling down, and to the north very cool this time of your. cooler air will be sinking toward the as we het into the next few days. very cool this time of year. only 23 degrees, but it should parm up at 5 disease. let's go over to europe. we can see a long bands of clouds stretching from scandinavia through central europe. under neath the clouds lots of heavy rain and south winds.

conditions are quite severe. the system will go to the east. so the northwestern balkan peninsula will turn quite well in the next 24 hours. out west looking dry at this moment, but the next sum is on its way. northern british ilels so ryan and wet weather will return. >> finally look like at your temperatures. been. cooling down to 18 degrees in london, 20 degrees in paris. despite the sunch temperatures remain on the cool side with a high of 14 degrees on your friday. here's your extended forecast.

police in beijing have spent the week takes calls and making inquiries about an unusual incident. they cut off the car earlier this week.

a man ripped the flag off the hood. police have identified all the suspects. chinese foreign ministry officials notify the staff in beijing. embassy officials say they were told police have not arrested anyone yet. the officials inform their contacts at the ministry that they want it to keep in close contact. the embassy staff wait to hear about developments in the investigation. on monday, two vehicles followed and then stopped the car carrying baambassador niwa. a man got out and ripped the japanese flag off the car and fled. embassy officials say anti-sentiment may have led to the incident. japan and china are caught up in a territorial dispute over the senkaku islands in the east china sea. that concludes this edition of "newsline." thanks for joining us.