celebrations and consequences. north koreans cheer what they call a successful test. tens of thousands of north koreas have gather together for solidarity. millions gather and listened to speeches. korean workers party secretary

said the test was called a self-defense measure against u.s. hostility. he said if u.s. officials continue to increase pressure north koreans will respond with high level counter measures. another official threatening the military is capable of attacking u.s. bases in and around the peninsula and on the u.s. main land. secretary of state john kerry said u.s. officials are not about to back down. they will work together on new sanctions. >> this week's test was an enormously provocative act that warrants a strong, a swift and a credible response from the global community. >> pon encouraged members of the security council to act as one and take appropriate measures as soon as possible. the u.s. already has sanctions on north korea in place. state department spokesperson victoria newland said u.s.

officials are now investigating those penalties. but she says they're focused on u.n. sanctions because they think that would send a stronger message. police on the pacific island of guam are investigating what motivated an american man to go on a rampage. the 21-year-old man killed three japanese people on tuesday. chad desoto drove his car down a sidewalk. he hit a number of pedestrians and then rammed his car into a store. then desoto got out and started stabbing people with a knife. he stabbed one of the victims as she tried to protect her child. officers arrested desoto on the spot. he has hardly spoken so they can't figure out his state of mind. an acquaintance said desoto had personal problems with his mother and another woman. police are asking his relatives and acquaintances for help.

south african olympic and paraolympic runner has been arrested for attacking his girlfriend. his girlfriend was found dead in his home. she was found early thursday with multiple gunshot wounds. police arrested oscar. he mistook her for a burglary. he's expected to appear in court later today. he was born without calf bones so doctors amputated his leg below the knee. he went onto win two gold medals and a silver in the paraolympics. >> those are known as abe after the prime minister, and that's what people are critical about. they will launch a two-day

meeting. >> the yen has declined in value. some are saying they're being critical because that's manipulation. top representatives of economies will launch a two-day meeting on friday. the japanese delegates will defend their economic policy amid concerns about the falling yen. the finance ministers and central bankers at the meeting will find japan high on the agenda. prime minister shinzo abe has caused concern with economic measures of monetary easing. some emerging nations has said japan is manipulating exchange rates to boost exports. a group of seven officials released a statement on tuesday to ease those concerns. they said exchange rates must be determined by the market. japanese finance minister

taro aso and bank of japan governor will use the meeting to defend their policy. they will say they are trying to pull japan's economy out of deflation. well, we asked paul krugman, a princeton university professor, for his assessment of japan's new economic policies. krugman won the nobel prize for economics in 2008 for his work on trade theory. in the past, he's criticized the bank of japan saying central bankers were not doing enough to stop deflation. but now krugman is asking whether the country is headed in the right direction. >> how would you rate the new economy? >> the broad outline looks right. the idea that japan should have a short-term, fiscal stimulus to get the economy moving coupled with a change in monetary policy designed to accommodate that fiscal stimulus translated into a higher rate of inflation, to a positive inflation of a couple percent at least a year and thereby sustain the effect. that's pretty much what the

doctor ordered, i guess i would say. i think hing is the signal is being sent. people are hearing the signal that this time the boj won't do what it's done several times before, which is just as the economy is starting to recover, it will pull back. the crucial thing is not what the boj does in this moment but what people expect it will do when inflation actually starts to accelerate. will the boj be willing to let that happen for a while? it looks like it will. that's a good thing. that's exactly what you want. >> meanwhile some specialists expressed some concerns over abe's massive fiscal spending. but krugman says it's too early to discuss fiscal austerity in japan.

>> japan needs to over the long term be doing austerity, but not until you are in a situation where we know that monetary policy can offset the fiscal austerity. and you can't have that unless japan is safely off the zero lower bound on interest rates which really won't happen until people are definitively convinced that japan is going to have inflation, not deflation. and so the fiscal austerity, you'll ask me again in three or four years. abe's policies don't -- they don't solve all of japan's problems, but they're not supposed to. they hopefully will solve the problem of deflation and persistent, inadequate demand, leaving other problems still on the table. >> g20 finance ministers and central governors will be meeting in moscow on friday. krugman said they could take up the topic of decline. >> they will tolerate whatever happens. what are they going to do?

realistically, you know, mario may say he's very upset, but is europe going to impose sanctions on japan? no, it's not. and the united states, i doubt, will have much of a complaint at all because the united states has been accused of the same thing. both the united states and japan are basically pursuing aggressive expansionary monetary policies, which is appropriate given the circumstance, and one consequence of that is that the currency falls. >> well, let's get a check on the markets. the euro is trading lower. it's quoted at 123.93 to sources say traders are buying the yen after economic data showed the euro zone shrank in the fourth quarter at a higher pace than what analysts had

anticipated. let's take a look at the stock market. japanese share prices are trading lower on concerns. the nikkei is trading at 11,199. that's a loss of almost 1% from thursday's close. investors are selling export related issues as the yen is now a little stronger following an overall weak trend over the last few months. in other markets the kospi over in seoul is trading modestly lower at 1,978. let's look at australia's benchmark. that's trading lower at >> six out of ten young people are out of work. the unemployment rate among people 15 to 24 years old, 61.7%

last november. this is the first time unemployment has been above 60%. the overall jobless rate reached a record high of 27% in the same month and that's up 0.2% points. the country is now undergoing fiscal rehabilitation aided by international bail out. it's showing some signs of improved condition. it's gross domestic product shrank 6% in the three months through december compared to the same period last year. french officials have suspended operations at a food processing firm. they suspect them of selling horse meat labeled as beef. consumers in 13 european countries have been affected by the scandal. buyers bought horse meat from

romania and sold it as beef. french authorities found import documents identifying the meat after they claimed they didn't know it was meat. the price was clearly much lower than beef. the managers had their license suspended on thursday for ten days. authorities think more than 750 tons of meat was mislabeled over at least six months. police in britain arrested three men on thursday in connection with the scandal. the head of american airlines stress the positive impact of a merger with u.s. airways. the two air carriers are set to combine in autumn this year creating the world's largest airline. american airlines to executive thomas horton and douglas parker met reporters. that's after the two firms officially reached an agreement. >> by combining the strengths of

both companies we'll be delivering the most value to our owners and the greatest benefits to our customers and our people. >> american airlines operates about 3,500 flights a day in about 50 countries and the ranked third in the u.s. in terms of the number of flights. u.s. airways has 3,000 services per day mainly domestic flights and ranks number five. they are expected to take the u.s. airways name. realignment has been under way in the u.s. airline industry since the global finance crisis in 2008. this includes the united continental merger. the three leading airlines will now dominate the u.s. market. that's the latest in business. here is a check on markets.

palestinians have struggled for many years. many are unemployed and have fallen into poverty. prime minister shinzo abe says japan will cover nearly $40 million to help. abe made the commitment to the prime minister sayad when they met in tokyo. abe says he hopes for swift reassumption of peace negotiations between palestinian and israeli leaders.

he said officials in his administration are ready to contribute to the peace process. fayed says he's grateful for the financial assistance and the support at the united nations. arab league officials said they support new dialogue between the syrian government and opposition forces. opposition leaders recently agreed to talk with the administration of president bashar al-assad. he said he met syrian national coalition leader and other opposition leaders on monday. >> the chairman of the coalition has offered to enter into a dialogue with the government, not as a whole but of selected people whose hands are not soaked with blood. >> he said opposition leaders are considering the proposal seriously, and he believes it's an important step. the arab league chiefs warned that syrians are struggling to secure food and shelter amid the

prolonged fighting. he said the international community needs to cooperate to stop the violence. myanmar was a bloody battleground during world war ii. historians and archeologists had little opportunity to explore that wartime history during decades of military rule. but democratic reforms have created a more open attitude. now an effort has begun to search for the remains of japanese soldiers. nhk world has more. >> reporter: the former japanese army invaded india across the border with myanmar in 1944. 137,000 japanese soldiers died in myanmar during world war ii. remains of more than 45,000 of them have yet to be retrieved. finding the remains has been complicated. for most of the post-war period, myanmar was under strict

military rule created from the leftover war complicated by government and ethnic minorities kept large areas off limits. but they have led to the lifting of many restrictions on access to former constricted lawns. wednesday they held a meeting in thailand. they represented myanmar's main ethnic group. they promised to cooperate on the issue of wartime remains. >> translator: the belated search for the remains of the former japanese soldiers should proceed as soon as possible. japanese people should take the initiative. >> translator: we would like to cooperate fully for the sake of

every japanese who wishes to have the remains of their loved ones retrieved. >> reporter: myanmar has indicated a more open attitude toward legacy issues from world war ii. last year, they had permission to look for spitfire they believed were buried by the british army. myanmar has also joined forces with thailand to reconstruct a link by the japanese army. many prisoners of war and laborers are believed to have died during construction. democratization is having an unexpected consequence, giving access to war blocked off for nearly 70 years. nhk world.

♪ well, people have been using an unconventional instrument to produce this haunting sound for more than a century. it's called a musical saw. you play it with a bow. the result, as you can hear, is distinctive. and that helps it reach a new audience that usually misses out on music. students in shiga prefecture attended a concert in december. the students were all hard of hearing, but that didn't stop them from enjoying the music.

>> kunio inoyama often performs for the hard of hearing when he is not teaching economics at a university. >> translator: i want to help people who have never heard music before feel its joy. >> inayama first learned about the instrument about 30 years ago after watching a comedian play a tune on a saw. he taught himself how to play one, too. now he can play more than 200 tunes. he and a manufacturer have developed a flexible saw especially for music. one day, he performed in front of an elderly woman. she was hard of hearing but her reaction astonished him. >> translator: i noticed that she was quietly singing along. i was surprised that she could actually hear the music. >> reporter: that was how he

came to realize that the hearing impaired can actually hear saw music. so he began performing at nursing homes. but how is it possible that people who have severe trouble hearing can hear the sound of the saw? we asked a specialist. >> the saw music produces what is very close to a pure frequency. it has no other complicating frequencies. >> what we usually hear in music are several different frequencies mixed together. for example, the violin. it creates a jagged sound wave. that means there is more than one frequency. meanwhile, the saw makes more refined sound waves.

this tells us the structure of the music's frequency is simple. they call this pure frequency. people with hearing problems have trouble picking up complex sounds. they do better with simple sounds. that's why the hearing-impaired students invited inayama to perform at their school. ♪ ♪ [ applause ] >> everyone became wrapped up in playing saw instruments.

>> now that they know they can hear the sound of the musical saw, i hope they will form a club. they looked so happy. i'm glad i could pass along the joy of music. >> inayama has since traveled to thailand to play for hearing-impaired students. his mission is to bring the pleasure of music to anyone whose world is muffled or silent. >> lights made prominent that the new theatre in kabuchi is ready for performance on tuesday. the theme is moonlight. the intensity of the mood

lighting will change during the course of the season. >> translator: this new theater may attract new kabuchi fans. >> the new kabuchi theater in tokyo's ginzo district replaced one in the same location. the lights were switched on by the designer who created the display. the lights will be on between 6:00 and 9:00 p.m. until february 22nd. it will reopen on april 2nd. people going to see those lights today are hoping for dry weather. our meteorologist joins us with an update in world weather. >> well, it's turning wet across precipitation. it's not going to be be too heavy but because we're not

going to see some. dry conditions should return for the pacific. heavy snow will continue in northern japan after 40 centimeters of snow is likely. much of china will stay dry even rain showers in the south will be dissipating by this afternoon. thunder showers and mostly dry. a high of 35 degrees here. 32 in around north america, rain is continuing in the florida peninsula. rain will continue for the next couple of days.

the eastern half of the great lakes region low pressure affect southern quebec as well as new england states. out towards the west another area of snow is affecting the central rockies including denver. the main story will be a significant cooldown. for example in chicago you saw 4 degrees during the daytime hours on your thursday. cooling down to minus 3 on your friday and below zero on your saturday as well. even miami very hot on friday but going down about ten degreeses on sunday. social security quite frigid for

this location. heavy snow and windy conditions but a mixture of rain and snow in western continent tapering off throughout the day. down towards the south a series of low pressure system is moving across the east over the mediterranean bringing nasty weather. wet and windy conditions across turkey. 9 degrees for both london as well as paris. 3 in berlin and cold in moscow at minus 4 degrees. that's it for now and here is your extended forecast.

and that's all for this edition of "newsline." i'm catherine kobayashi in tokyo. do stay with us.