hello and welcome to nhk "newsline." i'm ross mihara in tokyo. heavily armed police are searching door to door for a suspect in boston's marathon bombings. tactical units have surrounded at least one house in watertown. the suburb has been the focus of an hour's long manhunt. a second suspect died there following a gunfight with police. police are hunting for 19-year-old dzhokhar tsarnaev. reports in u.s. media say the suspects are brothers originally from a russian region near chechnya. they say the dead suspect was 26 years old. reports say the brothers had

been in the united states for several years. they also say the dead suspect had explosives on his body when he was captured. the manhunt kept people in the boston area on edge overnight and well into the next day. his father says he was a boxer and hoped to join the u.s. olympic team. and he said joe hdzhokhar was studying. ruslan sar any is their uncle. he urged dzhokhar to turn himself in and why he thought his nephews might have committed the bombing. >> what do you think provoked this? >> being losers, hatred to those

who were able to settle themselves. these are the only reasons i can imagine. >> he said that they moved here in 2003. he said the last time he saw them was december 2005. the manhunt kept people in the boston area on edge overnight and well into the next day. nhk world's rosa sobrino shows us how things unfolded. >> reporter: the chain of events started before midnight on thursday. police received reports of a robbery at a convenience store. then, an m.i.t. police officer was killed on campus. investigators say they believe the suspects in the marathon bombing shot him. the men then carjacked a vehicle to make their escape. reuters reports the driver was kept hostage for about half an hour. officers caught up with the suspects in nearby watertown.

they engaged in a gunfight. shots and explosions rang out. [ gunfire ] >> i heard a loud boom and then a rapid succession of pop, pop, pop. we were still going toward it and then residents from the windows, they shouted, "hey, it's gunfire. don't go that way." >> reporter: the police captured one of the suspects, but he died. >> reporter: they released a photo of the second man. they described him as armed and dangerous. the suspects match surveillance images from the scene of monday's marathon attack which

killed three people and wounded more than 170 others. both wore baseball caps and backpacks. the boston police identified the man who escaped them in watertown as the one in the white hat. >> reporter: authorities told people in watertown and some surrounding communities to stay indoors until further notice. no vehicles were allowed to enter or leave watertown. public transportation there and in other areas was shut down. police fanned out to check homes and businesses across a wide area. rosa sobrino, nhk world, boston. the finance ministers and central bank ministers of the g-20 says they will not compete to devalue currencies and they're promising to not target exchange rates for competitive advantage. they issued a joint statement at the end of two days of talks in washington. they say global market

conditions continue to improve but growth remains weak. they say they'll be long periods of monetary easing can have unintended negative effects. leaders some of developing countries had accused officials in industrialized nations of using monetary easing to devalue their currencies and boost exports. the joint statement contains an unusual reference to japan's aggressive monetary easing policy. it says japanese leaders are taking policy actions to try to stop deflation and support domestic demand. aviation regulators in the united states have taken the next step in returning the boeing 787 to flight. they will give instructions to fix the planes next week and then put the planes back in service. problems with the battery system have kept the 787 grounded since january.

former pakistani president pervez musharraf is in detention in pakistan. he gave himself up to authorities on friday, a day after the courts called for his arrest. patchari raksawong in bangkok has the story. >> pakistani authorities have arrested former president musharraf. he returned to pakistan last month from more than four years of self-imposed exile, aiming to make a political come back. the high court in islamabad ordered his arrest on thursday. the charges he faces include the illegal dismissal of judges while in office. nhk world's nazar ul islam reports from islamabad. >> reporter: musharraf, a man who once dictated power, was arrested after turning himself into the high court on friday. he seized power in a 1999 coup when he was the country's army

chief. following his arrest, he hit back on his facebook page, calling the charges politically motivated, saying he will fight the allegations in court. he resigned as president after losing support at the ballot box five years ago. after fleeing abroad, he lived in self-imposed exile until he decided to return to pakistan last month ahead of the upcoming general election. >> translator: where has the pakistan i left five years ago gone? i ask, where is that pakistan? where is that pakistan? my heart cries tears of blood when i see the state of the country today. >> reporter: musharraf launched

a new party to fight the pakistani general election due on may 11th. but recent polls show the largest opposition party headed by former prime minister and party of legend turned politician are making the running. musharraf's party has no high profile figures besides him and is struggling for support. it appears to have little prospect of winning many seats. musharraf himself was already in a tight spot. his candidacy was not approved by election administration officials, who called into question his dictatorial style of politics while in office. musharraf's arrest has raised speculation that his chances of a political comeback have faded. the former president's arrest is

shocking news for some pakistanis, but for many it's something they had expected. the arrest is widely seen as having only a limited impact on the upcoming elections. nhk world, islamabad. and next, some encouraging news for pakistan. teenager malala yousufzai who was shot last year by the pakistani taliban for supporting female education has hit the headlines for more positive reasons. malala has been named as one of the world's most influential people by u.s. magazine "time." she appears on the cover of the latest edition which features the 2013 list of the 100 most influential people. after surviving the assassination attempt, 15-year-old malala received further treatment in the uk. she went back to school there last month. >> it remains utterly poignant that she's 15 years old.

she simply is trying to get herself an education and advocate for that for girls around the world. and i've talked to a lot of parents who say malala is a real role model for them and for their girls. >> malala has been invited to speak at the united nations in new york on july 12th, her 16th birthday. and that will wrap up our bulletin. i'm patchari raksawong in bangkok. emergent economic powers still struggling with poverty. emboldened citizens still demanding democracy. the threat of violence, the push for peace, the shadow of conflict. get news and insight on south and southeast asia only on nhk "newsline." the world health organization says there's no evidence that the new strain of bird flu is spreading easily among people in china, but the

organization's top official in the country says the w.h.o. will keep a close watch on the virus' possible genetic mutations. >> we have not seen easy and sustained person-to-person transmission. this is the situation for which we are most vigilant. >> more than half of the patients infected with the h7n9 virus were found to have had no contact with birds, but he says the virus could mutate in a way that allows it to spread easily among people. a team of experts from the w.h.o., the u.s. centers for disease control and prevention and china's health authority has been visiting patients in hospitals in beijing and shanghai. they're trying to identify the source and the root of the virus. 88 people in china have so far been infected. 17 of them have died. japanese health officials say the bird flu could spread worldwide. officials at the national institute of infectious diseases studied reports of human infections and the characteristics of the virus.

they say they've seen no reports of people infecting each other but have seen the virus become more infectious. they say they cannot rule out the possibility of a pandemic. the officials say the virus may be changing in ways that make it more likely to enter people's throats and noses. they say chickens, wild birds, and pigs that show no symptoms may be spreading the virus and could infect humans. the bird flu outbreak in china is taking its toll not only on the health of the people but also on the economy. as the virus spreads and concerns grow, people are eliminating chicken and duck from their diet. this is causing serious damage to the poultry industry. nhk world's michitaka yamaka reports from beijing. >> reporter: city restaurants are losing a lot of money as many customers have stopped ordering poultry dishes. it's enough to tempt wary

diners. orders have dropped almost 50%. >> translator: we're very concerned about the damage caused by unfounded rumors. it's a very serious situation for us. >> reporter: food shoppers are also buying less poultry, both processed and unprocessed. so prices are falling. they are down by 20% to 30%. since the first case reported in beijing. the price of eggs has also fallen by as much as 30%. >> translator: for the good of my health, i'm trying not to eat chicken. >> translator: i don't know how long the situation's going to last, but i'm really concerned.

>> reporter: the spreading disease is having an impact on people's daily living. some are taking their own preventive measures. this man works for a company in beijing. he began washing his hands more often. he lives with his wife and daughter. among them they keep more than 50 medical masks. >> translator: i am very frightened about the outbreak. with the infection root and cause still unknown, i am deeply concerned. >> reporter: in regions where humans have been infected, local officials closed and disinfected markets whose vendors sell live birds. also, they have found no evidence so far that humans are

infecting other humans, but they do say that some families have more than one infected person. so officials say they can't discount the possibility that one family member is infecting others. an expert on infectious diseases says much is still unknown about the infection root pointing to the necessity of organizing efforts by the government and research labs to determine the cause. >> translator: judging from the climate season and virus type, i suspect a wild bird is one of the main sources of infection. and a wild bird-to-chicken infection increases the risk of chicken-to-human infection. at this point even human-to-human infection is a possibility.

through these cases, we need to carefully watch the situation to determine the responses. and we cannot become optimistic. >> reporter: some estimate that the outbreak has caused $2.6 billion worth of damage to related industries. minimizing the outbreaks will have an impact on the chinese economy, and preventing a pandemic are the major problems facing the authorities. nhk world, beijing. now the latest on the korean peninsula. a high-ranking chinese diplomat is preparing to leave for washington to discuss how to diffuse tensions with pyongyang. the negotiations have been stalled for more than four years. a chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said wu has been invited by his u.s. counterpart, special representative for north korea policy glen davies. the spokesperson said their discussions will focus on

maintaining peace and stability on the korean peninsula and keeping it free of nuclear weapons. chinese diplomatic sources say wu is expected to stay in washington from sunday through wednesday. so what do members of the obama administration hope the chinese will do? we asked the director of the brookings institution center for northeast asian policy studies, richard bush. >> china is sometimes able to use its influence to get north korea to the negotiating table. it is less able to use influence to shape north korea's negotiating position, and that's the problem. north korea's goals here and its negotiating stance are dimetrically opposed to those of the united states, japan, and south korea. so the question that ambassador davies will probably be asking

ambassador wu is, what evidence is there that north korea is interested in negotiating in a manner that's consistent with the six-party talks? what evidence is there that if it makes commitments, it will actually keep them? china's response will probably be it's only if we start a process of contacts and talking and negotiating that we will see what is possible in the long term. our response is likely to be, well, we have a lot of experience doing that, and north korea has repeatedly reneged on

its commitments. and it is now talking in a way that is dimetrically opposed to our goals. we can't rule out that in the next week or so something else will happen in the military sphere, but more likely over the next few weeks is a peace offensive. a sort of campaign by north korea to say that let's forget about what happened in the early part of 2013. we didn't mean it. we're prepared to talk peace. but let's do it on our terms. that is not going to be acceptable for the united states or probably japan or south korea. after years of debate and political wrangling, japan finally approved online election campaigning on friday. they agreed to revise the public office's election law. people in the country will get their first taste of online campaigning starting with this summer's upper house race.

>> reporter: the bill was passed unanimously by the upper house. from now on, political parties, candidates, and voters will be allowed to enlist public support on websites and social networking services. japanese law has long limited the number of paper documents that can be distributed during official election campaigns. the rule was meant to keep candidates with a financial edge from getting an unfair advantage. but the law enacted in 1950 did not envision the internet. so documents and images in cyberspace have been regulated in the same way. japan has lagged behind other countries such as the united states, britain and germany where there are few restrictions on internet election campaigning. >> translator: communication tools are completely different from the old days. it's good to update the law.

>> translator: i'm all for the revision. i'm busy with my job in child care and it's been hard to obtain certain information. >> reporter: the debate on lifting the ban on online campaigning began in the late 1990s, but lawmakers made little progress, due partly to political wrangling. prime minister shinzo abe has advocated lifting the ban. >> translator: we should use the internet for publicity and exchange information in election campaigns. online campaigning will help increase voter turnout. >> reporter: social media operators welcome the revisions. they say it will boost dialogue between candidates and voters and improve the quality of elections. however, critics are concerned

about the downside of anonymity. they say people could set up accounts impersonating candidates to smear and slander their opponents. south korea lifted a similar ban last year. but there are problems leading up to the recent presidential elections when questionable information was disseminated about certain candidates. the internet has become a part of our daily lives, so it's only natural it be used in election campaigns. the internet can be helpful disseminating information instantly. but there are downsides. in addition to coming up with regulations to ensure proper

use, both candidates and voters must learn how to distinguish between fact and fiction and not disseminate disputable information that could harm other candidates. nhk world, tokyo. researchers in japan are working to keep people on their feet and moving. they've been carrying out a clinical trial on a robotic system that can help individuals who have trouble walking get a step ahead. here's how it works. >> the robot is actually assistant called hybrid assistive limb. it's attached to the legs of people who have difficulty walking. various sensors detect muscle movements. the motor delivers strength where it's needed. researchers ran a pilot test at the nigata national hospital. this patient in her 60s has a degenerative disease. it could eventually deprive her of the ability to walk. she takes 69 seconds to cover ten meters even with a walking frame. no cure has been found for her illness, but house developers hope she can slow its progress by exercising with the robot. when people try to walk, their brain sends signals through the nerves.

sensors on the patient's thigh detect these impulses on the skin. experiments prove that even in a person who can barely walk the signals still get through. other sensors on the soles of the feet measure the wearer's center of gravity and his or her upper body posture. this helps the program anticipate how it will move when he or she tries to take a step. that's how the robot assists patients to walk safely and with less strain. during the pilot trial, the female patient with the degenerative illness exercised with the robot for 18 days. at the end she could cover 12

meters in ten seconds with a walking frame but without using h.a.l. in march this year researchers began a clinical trial in patients who have difficulty walking due to intractable nerve and muscle diseases. nine other hospitals are scheduled to join the one-year trial. developers hope it will identify the effectiveness and safety. >> translator: walking exercises

help brain signals properly reach the spine and the patient's muscles. i believe the use can help delay the progress in diseases. >> reporter: h.a.l. has also attracted notice of foreign institutions. doctors at a hospital in germany tested it with their patients. >> they are out of their injury for more than a year and they still gain function back, which is a very surprising result. >> reporter: h.a.l. has been a long time in the works. professor at the university of scuba invented it in 1996 to help care givers lift and lower patients. he has since been adapting it to broader applications. >> translator: this is the first robot for medical treatment. >> reporter: some challenges remain. for one, h.a.l. is expensive. a month's rental costs about $1,200, which insurance doesn't cover. when h.a.l. is recognized as a medical device, which the professor is working on, the cost will fall. in the meantime only a select group of patients are able to experience walking with an energy they didn't know they had. here's the weather forecast for the weekend.

that is all this hour on "newsline." i'm ross mihara in tokyo. thanks for being with us on nhk

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