we will be back at the top of the hour with more news. captioned by the national captioning institute --www.ncicap.org--

hello and welcome to nhk "newsline." i'm ross mihara with the stories at this hour. lawmakers are getting ready to vote on a new formula for

getting an international baitout. they threw out the european union plan that included a levy on bank accounts. government leaders need to raise $5.8 billion euros to qualify for a bailout worth $10 billion. they accepted an eu plan that involved taking money from people's bank accounts. lawmakers flew that plan out. the government leaders want to raise the collateral by reorganizing major banks and creating a fund without using people's savings. they want to have the lie and's biggest bank absorb the rest. members of the staff union are protesting in front of the parliament building. they say breaking up the bank would destroy 2,000 jobs. even if lawmakers approve the new plan, eu officials may reject it. leaders in germany had doubts about the way leaders intend to raise the money.

analysts say the negotiations will be tough. cyprus' finance minister tried to get help from russia but he's on his way home empty handed. he spent two days talking with his russian counterpart bloomberg quotes him as saying he hadn't been able to get the support he wanted and he said he still has a chance to get the russians to ease the conditions on existing chinese president xi jinping is building friendships abroad. he's begun his first diplomatic tour with a visit to moscow. he'll then head to africa, where chinese leaders want to boost their influence. nhk world's takafumi terui has the details. >> reporter: this is the first of what will be many trips abroad for china's new president. xi jinping arrived in moscow to an official welcoming. he said before leaving beijing

he wants to coordinate policy with russian leaders on global and regional issues. the chinese president met with his counterpart, vladimir putin. his three-day visit will also include a tour of the russian defense ministry. leaders of china and russia take an approach different than the united states on issues related to north korea, syria and iran. all of those nations have close relations with either china or russia. president xi's next stop on his tour is africa. in south africa, he will attend a summit of the brics group of emerging economies, including brazil, india, russia and the host nation. he wants to bring the block closer together so it can exert more influence.

in tanzania, in the republic of conga, president xi will work on the natural resources needed to feed china's economic engine. analysts say the chinese leader is being strategic with his first trip abroad. they say he is trying to strengthen ties with russia and emerging economies to give china more global influence in a world where the united states plays a leading role. takafumi terui, nhk world. investigators looking into this week's cyberattack against south korean broadcasters and banks are withdrawing a claim they made early on. they initially said a malicious code came from an internet address in china. now they say that's not the case. a computer virus triggered a massive failure at three broadcasters, including kbs and three major banks. it disabled more than 32,000

computers. investigators said a day later the virus that hackers sent to a cooperative bank originated from a chinese ip address. they now say the internal ip address used by the bank happened to be the same as one allocated to china. members of a task force say they still suspect the malicious file originated abroad. they believe the bank's ip address was misused to spread the virus. a senior south korean government official has reportedly said investigators strongly suspect north korea is behind the cyberattacks. diplomats want to investigate what is happening inside north korea. they set up a commission to look into allegations of abuse. representatives from japan and the european union jointly sponsor the measure at the u.n. human rights council. north korea's not a member of the council. delegates approved the measure unanimously. the three members of the commission will look into north

korea's network of political prisons. japan's ambassadors cited the abduction of nationals. >> japan strongly believes that a commission of inquiry to investigate such human rights violations from an independent and impartial standpoint will provide the council with concrete outcomes to help international community in addressing this situation. >> north korea's u.n. ambassador in geneva criticized the measure. >> those human rights abuses have totally nothing to do with the dpk. >> the u.n. special raconteur said north koreans face grave, widespread, and systematic violations of human rights. people in china can be sent

to re-education camps for up to four years of hard labor for even minor offenses. it's known as re-education through labor. there are believed to be more than 300 of these facilities around the country with tens of thousands of inmates. until recently, little was known about the system but now chinese are starting to speak out against conditions they call inhumane. seven years ago, this woman spoke about her protest to the authorities. she wants to continue to protest the local authorities, claiming she had been driven off her land illegally. five years later, she was seized by the police and sent to a correction facility without any

trial. she was sent for one year of reeducation through labor. after being released in 2012, she committed suicide. she left behind two daughters. they say their mother was driven to despair by all she went through during the year of hard labor. they told nhk that she took her life last autumn by swallowing pesticide. >> translator: my mother just wanted to set the record straight. we're sad and angry at what happened. >> reporter: the harsh conditions in the reeducation facilities are a bitter memory for this man, too. in 2010, he was summoned to appear at the local police station.

without any warning, he was detained and sent to a reeducation facility. he was kept there for 17 months. >> translator: everything is hard after coming out of the labor camp. >> reporter: he was detained only because he criticized city government in an online chat room. >> translator: i was thrown into the reeducation facility without due legal procedure. it felt like i was snared in a trap. >> translator: life in the labor facility was extremely harsh. far worse than he could have imagined. he says he was forced to shave his hair off, and barely allowed to speak a word. he was put to work for very long hours assembling electronic equipment. >> translator: i had to work ten hours a day.

i had no hope for the future. and it went on like that day after day. it was extremely painful. >> reporter: since his release, he has remained angry with the way the local government officials abused the system. so he filed a lawsuit demanding compensation. the trial was picked up by chinese media, and this lead to a growing campaign as people called for the re-education through labor system to be abolished. the central government appears to be aware of how unpopular the system has become among the general public. reports suggest that the system might soon be suspended or at least reformed. he has a lawyer representing him in the trial. he thinks human rights will

never improve as long as the reeducation system remains in place. >> translator: this old system symbolizes the fact that it is ruled by law, not by police. if they can scrap the system, i think the government should do that. >> reporter: the reeducation through labor facilities are used as a way to clamp down on public dissent. but now the system itself has become the target of public criticism. with more people willing to speak out, this could be a chance for china's new leadership to spell out their position on human rights issues. nhk world, shanghai. syrian president al-assad is vowing revenge on the people he blames for a suicide bombing.

the explosion killed 49 people including a religious leader that was a staunch supporter of the assad government. the bomber blew himself up at a moss income the capital da mat cuss. the state-run news agency says one of the victims was a sunni muslim preacher who backed assad's fight against rebels. the bombing. he said he wouldn't let the deaths go in vain and urged his supporters to carry on their fight. leaders of the opposition free syrian army say assad is making false accusations. government troops are losing ground to the rebels. analysts say assad is speaking defiantly to try to boost their morale. four years on from the end of fighting, slis ree lafrpga i getting on. many are getting valuable help from the international community.

>> reporter: more than 20 years of fighting between the majority government and minority insurgents drove hundreds of thousands of sri lankans from their homes. now, though, the end of the war has allowed nearly 300,000 displaced people to return to the north of the country. it's a region that saw some of the worst violence. it's not just a simple matter of moving back in, of course. with housing and infrastructure destroyed in the war, long-term support is required to rebuild and get life back on track. to take one example of help from abroad, the japan international cooperation agency donated 60,000 palm tree seedlings to sri lanka last year. the war damaged countless trees in this area. many have died completely. we.

>> translator: we palm leaves for the roof and can sell the coconuts. we can also use them for cooking. it's a blessed tree. >> reporter: they are also directing their efforts to repairing water wells. last year, a new well was dug here, and now an arrange of crops are able to get enough water to thrive. the organization has been providing cement and other materials to help local residents rebuild at least 150 wells by march next year. >> translator: i want to use the water for farming. once the well is finished, i can grow far more vegetables. >> translator: as parents and children work together, they discuss what they can do to make their lives better in the future. benefits like this are important

in the projects we run. >> reporter: supporting those still suffering in the aftermath of the civil war is also a priority. this man lost his wife in fighting four years ago. his son has also been missing since then. he asked the government to investigate, but there's no information on his whereabouts. >> translator: my son must be somewhere. i believe he's still alive. >> reporter: with at least 600 children still missing after the violence in the last years of the conflict, japan is helping out there too. each has provided financial support to unicef workers in their search for the missing children. the country is at last on the road to recovery.

japanese government officials are moving ahead with plans to relocate a u.s. military base in okinawa prefecture. they formally applied with the government to begin reclamation of land for the proposed base. the officials submitted the papers outlining the reclamation project. it calls for the construction of two runways and facilities for the marine corps futema air station. >> translator: we officially obtained consent from local fishermen this afternoon. so we immediately submitted our application based on the agreement to the prefecture. >> japanese and u.s. officials agreed to move the air station from the densely populated area to a coastal area. but the plan has been stalled because of opposition. okinawa governor and local mayors want the base moved out

of the prefecture completely. >> translator: it's virtually impossible. i've been telling central government officials that they'd better change their plan and decide to move the base outside of okinawa. it would be the best and quickest way to settle the issue. my view remains unchanged. >> they will decide in the next eight months whether to approve the application after more inspections and hearings are held. prime minister shinzo abe promise barack obama last month he would see to the quick relocation of the air station. a group of victims of one of the biggest food poisoning cases ever in japan has received some disappointing news. they've been trying to get compensation but a court in

western japan says too many years have passed since the poisoning occurred. nhk world has the story. >> reporter: this woman has suffered from asthma and joint pain for more than four decades. she's 59 years old. she's asked us to hide her identity. she's one of dozens of plaintiffs in a case against a japanese company. >> translator: the tainted cooking oil ruined all my dreams. i wish i were healthy again. >> reporter: the oil poisoning incident is one of japan's biggest food poisoning cases. it happened at the height of the country's economic development. a company called kanemi soko produced cooking oil in the 1960s. the oil was tainted with toxic substances. including dioxins and

polychlorinated biphenyls, pcbs. symptoms of this poisoning vary and take time to pinpoint. thousands of people complained of health problems from skin disorders to numbness in their limbs. the woman we spoke to says she took a test three years ago. and was officially recognized as a victim. >> translator: the victims are people like us. who have done nothing wrong. we have nowhere to lay our blame. >> reporter: 59 plaintiffs, including victims and relatives of victims, are taking part in this lawsuit. they demanded compensation of about $115,000 each. judges proposed an out of court settlement in january of about

$3,200. the plaintiffs said the offer was too small and rejected it. the court handed down its ruling on thursday. judges said kanemi soko was responsible for the poisoning but they said the plaintiffs ese their claim was made more than 20 years after the incident. >> translator: i'm disappointed and angry at the ruling. >> translator: the ruling virtually tells the people that they should have filed suit before they were recognized as victims of kanemi oil poisoning. the verdict demands something that's impossible. >> reporter: the plaintiffs say they'll appeal. this is years after they were poisoned. they'll have to wait longer to find out whether they'll get any

compensation. there is a subculture in japan that has become mainstream. businessmen can regularly be seen reading munga comic books on the train. the two art forms have also spread overseas where they've developed a strong fan base. in recent years though business hasn't been going as well as in the past. the people attending the 12th annual animae fair in tokyo hope to change that. nhk world has more. some color full characters have gathered. exhibitors from all parts of the world are here to show they're different approaches to animae. many share a common complaint, that business has taken a turn for the worse.

in 2005 our partner company overseas made more than $326 million. in 2010, it made less than $180 million. >> there are various reasons for the business slowdown. first, less programming. they enjoyed successes with hits like pokeman. but in recent years there hasn't been any global blockbusters. nowadays just getting a broadcast slot is a challenge for japanese animators. >> are there any rooms remaining for the japanese animae to be aired? >> as i'm sure you all understand, it all boils down to ratings. if the ratings are there, they will keep the shows on.

>> people who work in the animae business have been working on crafting the work from movies and television. they're seeing more of their work being stolen by people who share it on the internet. the animae industry is being hit hard by piracy websites. >> translator: it is said that internet piracy increased from around 2005 and 2006 and dvd sales and tv ratings went down. >> reporter: innovators from the u.s. came up with one solution. in 2008, they partnered up with producers at a japanese tv network. the idea was to stream online

animae with subtitles for subscribers. this year, the number of paying members has grown to more than 200,000 around the world. >> we're known for streaming animae simulcasts. we have 43 simulcasts for the winter season. we make that content available up to 60 minutes after japanese broadcast. in up to four languages. >> reporter: using this as a model, japanese animae companies have launched a number of web businesses. distributors from the company of the late manga artist are working with several producers at several production companies to launch a free website catering to north american audiences. classic animae masterpieces can be watched free of charge, and fans are offered the chance to buy rare dvds, if they participate through crowd funding. >> they can use their own passion for the show to help collect other people like them to support the show monetarily directly themselves. and then that's the way we can get these classic shows legally into these markets that may not be able to get them. >> reporter: this company was

established by three of the biggest animae production companies and advertisers. paying members can watch the latest and greatest animae and buy official merchandise. they're expecting to net about $18 million in the first year. >> translator: we think business will pick up within five years. first, we'll focus on english. if we do well, we want to add more areas and languages. >> astro boy became the first popular animae hero when he flew across japanese television screens 50 years ago. times may have changed since then. but the heroes are still soaring. only now, they're trying to find their way across the internet. akane nakajima, nhk world, tokyo. check out the latest market figures.

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