glad to have you with us on this edition of "newsline." . it's tuesday, april 23rd. boston bomber u.s. judicial authorities on monday charged the surviving suspect in the boston marathon bombings. dzhokhar tsarnaev could face the death penalty. he was injured during arrest and is unable to speak.

officers are asking him to respond to questions in writing. his 26 year old brother, tamerlan tsarnaev died in a standoff with officers. the brothers are ethnic chechens. they are trying to find out if they were planning further attacks or if they had accomplices. three people were killed and more than 170 were wounded in the marathon bombings. boston residents came together at the site of the bombings exactly one week later. more than 1,000 people gathered near the marathon finish line to mourn the dead. ♪ and the home of the brave >> people sang the national anthem, and they observed a moment of silence. >> i would like to understand what would drive a person to that kind of hatred so that perhaps we can prevent that kind of hatred in the future. >> mourners stopped to leave flowers.

some were runners. some were friends or family of the dead or wounded. people across the country stopped at the same time to remember the victims. canadian police say they have foiled a plot to attack a passenger train. they say they have arrested two men who were planning to derail a train in the toronto area. >> on april 22nd, after an extensive and complex criminal investigation, named project smooth, two individuals were arrested and charged for terrorism related offenses. >> police say the fbi assisted in the investigation. they say the men, age 30 and 35 had received guidance from al qaeda. investigators have not disclosed the nationality of the suspects, but say they will not canadians. rescue workers in china are trying to reach survivors of a deadly earthquake before time runs out. the magnitude 7 tremor shook the

sichuan province on saturday morning. it killed 192 people and injured more than 11,000. 23 others are missing. nhk reports. >> reporter: aid workers are trying to rescue people trapped under collapsed houses and buildings. the chance of survival of such victims is said to plummet after the third full day. but providing assistance in the mountainous regions is difficult. >> translator: many mountain areas were hit. taking the injured to hospitals takes two hours. >> reporter: the original tremor and aftershocks have caused landslides, block roads to the areas. nearly 10,000 troops are doing rescue work on foot.

the large rock made impossible. people who managed to evacuate are still far from safe. this village is an hour's drive from a county near the quake's focus. the earthquake crushed roofs and walls. no electricity or water is available. residents have received few relief supplies. >> translator: i need food for my baby. only bottled water and instant noodles were distributed today. i gave ours to my child. >> reporter: villages have set

up makeshift tents in the fields. >> translator: the elderly have nothing to eat. children and sick people have nowhere to live. the government has to do something. >> reporter: as the crucial 72nd hour approaches, government rescue teams are urgently trying to reach villages that are cut off from the outside world. nhk world, china. the world health organization experts have been trying to work out how the latest strain of bird flu is spreading. they say it's still unclear whether there has been human to human transmission. w.h.o. officials launched a talk on saturday. they said they don't yet know why there are clusters of h7n9 infections.

>> right now we do not see evidence of sustained human to human transmission. of course that is one of the things we will always be looking for. >> they have not identified how several members of two shanghai families were all infected together. the inveigators id 30 of 32 opletued sfath directr indire con with rds.che ficials have confirmed 105 cases of h7n9 infection. 21 people have died. u.s. and south korean troops have been carrying out exercises to prepare for any future conflict. the annual drills have angered north korea. now the media are getting an

inside look at the operation, which is called full eagle. the troops showed part of an exercise to journalists in the southeastern city of poe hung. they're preparing for the possibility that an enemy attack would destroy ports. the u.s. and south korea plan to continue the annual drills until the end of this month. north korean leaders said last week they would agree to dialog with the countries if they suspended the drills. south korean officials are still concerned about a possible missile launch by pyongyang. >> translator: north korea doesn't appear to have removed its ballistic missiles from the eastern coast. >> analysts say the u.s. and south korea opened the exercise to the media, apparently to show they will not tolerate north korea's provocative words and actions. and the latest action involves

the north's nuclear program. authorities in pyongyang held a special cabinet meeting on the matter. they confirmed the government's policy of speeding up nuclear development. state run media say prime minister and officials attended the meeting. some experts believe the country has reserves of as much as 4 million tons of the material. prime minister agreed to getting the materials necessary to restart a nuclear test reactor. north korean crews disabled the unit five years ago as part of an international deal. they are also planning to build new reactors. leader kim jong un said his country will increase development this this area. his administration established a nuclear ministry in line with this policy.

china's military chief of staff has suggested the north korean may soon follow through on their plans. their general said they may carry out another nuclear test. he shared his concerns that north korean scientists would carry out another underground nuclear test. he said chinese and u.s. officials would work together on the issue. he said stability in the region is in everyone's best interest. delegates from 190 nations are in geneva. the delegates are laying the ground work for a review

conference scheduled for 2015. the japanese foreign minister said they are facing new challenges such as north koreas nuclear test. he said it's essential to promote nuclear disarmament and nonproliferation. delegates from the middle east and north africa criticized israel for refusing to hold a meeting. delegates at a treaty review conference agreed to hold the meeting. representatives say israel's boycott is preventing the discussions from taking place. the u.s. defense secretary has announced an arms deal that will strengthen israel's military edge in the middle east. chuck hagel says a package will

include transport aircraft and an advanced radar system. he met with the his israeli counterpart. he said israel will buy the b22 osprey plane. israel will also buy an aerial refueling jet. the aircraft would make it easier to conduct long distance raids on iran. israeli leaders have threatened military action to stop iran from developing nuclear weapons. hagel said there's still time for can diplomacy and sanctions. but the arms sale will increase israel's long-range capabilities. he's already enacted the first two. now he's focusing on the third. we are joined from the business desk. gross strategy, doesn't sound like an easy task considering

the state of japan's finances. >> japan has massive debt. when talking about growth the question is raise what had is the government going to do with the money that it owes. they will first work on the primary balance. as they aim to turn its primary balance deficit into a surplus by 2020, prime minister abe has ordered them to come up with a clear road map to tackle the problem. they want to include this in the government's mid to long term economic and fiscal policies to be compiled by around june. the prime minister made the comment at a meeting of council on economic and fiscal policy held on monday.

it came after council members from the private sector said in the meeting that the government's effort to make the finances healthy are essential. they said this is to ease concerns that the bank of japan is taking over the country's debt as the central bank boosts purchased. the members urge them to use funds from the private sector as well as to promote reforms on medical nursing systems. bold monetary easing measures by japan's central bank are starting to have an effect on the country's constitutiinst investors. the yield falls on japanese government debt. officials reveal how to plan to manage funds for fiscal 2013 which started this month. they say they will boost their investments by $10 billion. much of the increase will likely be in foreign bonds that offer high every yields. company officials say they will

refrain from purchasing additional japanese bonds. they indicated they may even sell some if yields continue to drop. let's get a check on the markets. u.s. markets gained following positive earnings reports. the dow jones ended at 14,567. that's a gain. nasdaq closed at 3,233. that's up more than .8 of a percent. let's go to ramin. how are stocks starting off this tuesday? >> very good morning to you. really earnings was a bit of a focus and earnings from the likes of texas instruments as well as caterpillar boosted sentiment in the u.s. markets. we saw gains in energy and commodity related shares and prices as well. they were some of the best performers on the dow.

let's have a look at the opening levels. both indexes in the negative. 13,537 for the nikkei and 1,143 kicking off for the topix. investors in tokyo should be look out for shares in the tech sector after caterpillar rose 3%. executives at the firm said that demand would pick up in china as well as emerging markets. housing data in the u.s. also weighed down touch on the dollar and that's after existing home sales fell in march. that also put a halt to any further advances in the dollar yen up to that elusive 100 yen level that everyone has been looking out for. >> haven't seen that level yet. maybe investors waiting for further data or words from the upcoming boj meeting this week.

>> exactly. fundamental news and central bank news may be one focus through and the central bank of japan meets this friday. no one is expecting any further measures from what it took earlier this month. after a look at the dollar/yen at 99.19 to 21. euro/yen 129.55 to 60. people really betting the yen is going to weaken further because the measures by the bank of japan to keep rates low in japan means that major japanese constitutions such as nipon life insurance means they have to

search for earnings and that means shipping to overseas assets. that means selling the yen to buy those donominations. back to you. >> thanks for that. i'll leave you with a check on some other markets.

millions of people and the world remember the worst time of life. the picture of the lady running in pain after napalm bombing. she continues to tell her story to push for peace. nhk went to hear her speak in tokyo. >> reporter: kim has spent years talking about a moment of her life that is one of the endearing memories of the vietnam war. >> that day changed my life forever. >> reporter: it was june 8th, 197 2. kim was 9 years old, naked and running down a road in southern

vietnam. she'd been burned by napalm bombs. >> my clothes were burned off. and my skin was on fire. and someone began screaming, too hot! too hot! >> reporter: the associated press picture captured worldwide attention. some say it helped end the vietnam war. the bombing and the photograph changed kim's life. >> the officer would come and pick me up from my school to do a lot of interviews with the foreign press. >> reporter: after the war, the communist government used her as part of its campaign to paint the u.s. and south vietnam forces as cruel.

kim says she felt like a bird in a cage. so she escaped, defecting to canada in 1992 with her husband. four years later she traveled to washington, d.c. to attend a ceremony commemorating the vietnam war. she says she forgave the u.s. veteran who ordered the bombing that left her badly injured and killed some of her relatives. with conflicts going on in different corners of the world kim hopes her story will promote peace. >> i don't really want to present my life as just an example for the people who still have hatred, hostility.

>> reporter: government leaders in vietnam now welcome refugees and their relatives. they invite vietnamese living abroad back to show them how the country has changed. officials have spent years criticizing people who fled during or after the war. but they changed their approach because they wanted to tap into the talents of ex-patriots to further boost the economy. kim appreciates this policy shift and says she no longer dwells on the past. >> i pray for my people, vietnam people all the time. and i'm so happy that they continually changing. the new generation, they learning a lot. and the country need to be

changed. >> reporter: because of the bombing and because of that picture, life hasn't been easy for kim. she says she wants to draw on her experiences to help create a better world. >> if everyone can learn to live with love, with hope and forgiveness, if everyone can learn that, we don't need war at all. right? and the challenges for everyone is that little girl can do it. so everyone can do it too. >> reporter: she's told her story for three decades. and she's determined to keep telling it to people around the world. nhk world, tokyo.

time now to get a check on the weather. the sun's out but it was quite chilly. >> it's a chilly morning. we have a high pressure system dominating much of the country creating clear skies and less winds. so those conditions are ideal for creating overnight cooling. looking dry in the morning hours, however, things will turn wet and windy across the west. a new system is approaching from the west. rain will become quite heavy across the pacific coast. the cue shoe rye john may see up to 120 millimeters of rain in the next 24 hours. watch out for flooding. also waves could hit as high as 4 meters. wet and windy conditions are on the way. across the korean peninsula rain will be heavy across the korean peninsula. and rain is in the cards for you

in northeastern china as well as korea. we are seeing rain intensify across china. up to millimeters, we may see showers continuing throughout the day. that could hamper the recovery efforts unfortunately. across indochina peninsula, rain will be falling, temperatures will be chore offing hot, 34 degrees. you may see some late season snow and at 13. that's five degrees colder than average. in north america heavy snow is falling from ontario down towards colorado. winds are blowing quite strongly. now most of snow should be dissipating, but the western part of the great lakes region

should continue to see snow into tuesday. also heavy rain is in the cards for you, on the cards for you for places like indiana, illinois and missouri. this area was hit by extremely heavy rain last week. that could raise the risk of flooding even further. across the east coast turning dry across the florida peninsula. but wet and windy conditions are on the cards for you in the northeastern parts of the u.s. out west, looking dry, but we have a red flag warning posted for the southwest. so outside burning is not recommended. temperatures will be on the warmer side in los angeles, but very chilly in denver. as well as oklahoma city. temperatures will rebound into friday. 18 degrees in denver.

22 degrees in oklahoma city on your friday. finally in europe then, wet and windy conditions will continue across the north. we have a 100 kilometers winds in northern part of the uk. things are starting to improve. so that's good news. temperatures will be on the rise. 18 in london, in vienna, 19. i know many people, including boat owners are enjoying the arrival of spring. i want to show you this video. spring has finally arrived in austria, and boat owners are making the most of it. they've been preparing their vessels. when the weather is fine, they spend as much time as they can on the water. now the good news is that we're going to see temperature rise. and sunny skies to continue. here's your extended forecast.

that's all for this edition of "newsline." i'm catherine kobayashi in tokyo. thanks very much for joining us.