hello there. it's friday, may 17th. i'm catherine kobayashi in tokyo. a japanese politician may be getting more than he imagined. earlier this week he said wartime brothels were necessary to provide respite for soldiers. they forced women to work in them. a state person said his comments were outrageous.

he said the system helped maintain discipline. he upset others with comments he made to senior u.s. military officers in okinawa. he said marines should use prostituted to reduce sex crimes. >> the mayor's comments were outrageous. we hope japan will work with its neighbors and other issues arising from the past and cultivating relationships that allow them to move forward. >> he admitted he may have lacked what he called international sensitivity.

japanese officials have with held information about why they are in pyongyang. government officials have recognized that 17 japanese citizens were kidnapped in the 1970s and '80s. the senior diplomat for north korea says he wants to keep informed. glen davies made the remark after meetings in tokyo. he said denuclearization is the top priority in dealing with the north koreans, but that they are ready to support their japanese counterparts to solve the abduction issue. a spokesperson says his government received no prior notice about the visit. >> translator: it is important that the international community work together to deal with north korea.

in that sense, the visit will not help. >> he attended summits in 2002 and 2004 as an aide to the former prime minister. militants have targeted foreign forces in afghanistan in a car bombing. they killed 12 people including afghan civilians.

they wounded more than 35. afghan officials say a suicide bomber drove a vehicle toward a convoy of foreign troops that set off explosives. reuters reports a spokesperson said they were targeting u.s. military advisors. the attack came during a visit by u.s. defense secretary chuck hagel. all nato led international forces will finish their missions in afghanistan by the end of next we're. security concerns are mounting as foreign troops have already started withdrawing from the country as part of a planned hand over of security to after began forces. the malaysia prime minister

is trying to restore confidence. >> reporter: the ruling has been at home of the country since its independence in 1957. the coalition has held onto its power once again but is facing many challenges. it warned the number of largest parliamentary seats. they are opposed to policies which favor in elevation as well as alleged corruption in the government. the lineup was announced on wednesday.

lawmakers perform poorly. six chinese lawmakers set on the previous cabinet. now there's only one. he's making efforts to calm fears that the political opinions won't be reflected in the government. the prime minister appointed a bank executive and ended corruption but politicians of the cabinet. the opposition is on the offensive. the party increased their number of seats in the election.

they're holding protest rallies. >> we are here because of our rights. we want our righteous government. >> reporter: many fear the rift will get deeper under the new administration. just as people are getting excited about the u.s. economy they have been slapped with some discouraging news. good morning. investors have been foolish in the last few weeks. what now? >> one of the pieces of data you're talking about was in housing which is seen as a key driver of the u.s. any deceleration rises eyebrows.

commerce officials disappointed investors with april's report. they noted just 853,000 housing starts. that's down 16.35% from march. they were cheered by a hefty rise in building permits. it rose 14.3% from march to more than one million units, the highest in almost five years. another piece of data from the u.s. the labor department said the consumer price index dropped 0.4% in april from the previous month. the decline is for a second consecutive month and the sharpest since december 2008 on a month to month comparison. a major factor behind the drop

is fall in gasoline prices. u.s. stock markets lost ground on thursday. the dow jones ended at 15,233 down just about 0.3%. for more on how stocks are trading let's go to ramin. good morning the you. some concerns creeping back about economic data but japan has had some key figures before markets open this morning. >> good morning to you. a lot of economic data going around. we talked about the u.s. but let's focus on japan's data. we had machinery orders from march. they are on the screen. quite a big gain.

let's have a look at the opening levels. both indexes are there. it's still in the positive for the week so far even including the losses we're seeing now. that's after the triple digit gains on monday and wednesday. the dollar yen will be the driving force as investors focus intently on central bank whether in japan or in the u.s. with the federal reserve regarding monetary easing policy measures. in case of the u.s. federal reserve, the focus is whether they will begin to scale back with some of the bond buying program that's been in place. >> if the fed changes its policy that will be a boost for the dollar. >> exactly.

it would mean the economy is improving the fed wouldn't need to pump so much cash into the u.s. economy which would be favorable for the u.s. dollar. dollar/yen 102.19 to 23. it weakened after jobless claims in and the weak housing data you also mentioned also pushed down the dollar. some traders bought back the u.s. currency after the head of the regional district said the fed could scale coundown this summer. euro has been crushed slightly this week after we had the gdp data that came in below forecast.

the dollar yen is a big focus on how stocks trade. a bit of a negative start. still positive for the week. >> thanks a lot for that update. world leaders are in the minds about the easing steps. >> translator: funds are spilling into europe because of the boj's injection that's raising liquidity. euro zone nations are benefitting from the inflow. >> he said weaker yen has made japanese exports more competitive prompting a recovery. he warned the yen's plunge against the euro has raised prices of european exports in japan. japanese leaders are working on plans for a wave of development

in africa. they are organizing an aid. the jap need government will host the tokyo international conversation on japanese development next month. they will bring together african leaders, business executives and representatives of international organizations. japanese prime minister abe is expected to announce measures to encourage businesses to make more investments. members of his government want to improve roads and customs facilities and borders and they want to sure up the infrastructure that delivers electricity. they are expected to send former employees to serve as advisors to african leaders. the japanese want to help ease shortages of food. for example, they want to help

farmers grow more rice. they hope to double the output in subsaharan africa in five years. that's the latest. i'll leave you with a check on markets. the u.s. and iran have been

add at odds for decades. the 1979 hostage crisis, human rights issues, tehran's weapons program. now wrestlers from the countries find themselves grappling for a common cause. their aim is to keep wrestling in the olympics. nhk reports from new york. >> reporter: new york's grand central station was the scene of a historic wrestling match on wednesday. iran and the united states have been at odds for more than 30 years, but now the two countries are teaming up to ensure wrestling can remain an olympic sport. the reason for this friendly match was the possibility of wrestling being dropped from the 2020 olympic games. both the united states and iran are big wrestling nations. in february, the two countries agreed at a conference to make

efforts to save wrestling as an olympic sport. >> i would like to invite you to new york city on may 16. >> i would like to visit new york city. >> on may 16th, the u.s. and iran match, in the center of new york city, times square, okay? >> yes. >> okay. >> reporter: wrestling is very popular in iran. the country's athletes have practiced the sports since ancient times and it's considered there to be the origin of all combat sports. iranian wrestles have won several titles in international events including six medals in last year's london olympics. >> translator: it's so sad. all my life, i have considered

wrestling a national sport in iran. >> translator: if wrestling is eliminated, iran has little chanf winning any olympic medals. the federation must do all it can to stop its being dropped. >> reporter: amid the sense of crisis, members of the national team have been busy tuning up for the friendly match with the united states. this wrestler won a medal at the london games. he says he cannot forget the cheering of the sellout audience in london. he is determined to keep the sport in the olympics. it is the goal of all wrestlers. he voiced his desire ahead of his first visit to united states. >> translator: we will raise the

flag of wrestling in the u.s. to say that wrestling is the first sport of our country. no one can eliminate it from the olympics. >> reporter: and this week, iran's national team arrived in the u.s. >> international federation needed some help, needed some help not just from the americans, but from iranians, from the russians, from wrestling countries all over the world. >> reporter: hundreds of people, including many iranians already in new york cheered loudly as iranian and u.s. wrestlers grappled on the mat. seven bouts were carried out. and now it's his turn. he took advantage of his opponent's mistakes and achieved

a victory. >> spectacular. great crowd, great event. and we're hoping to save the olympics. i think anytime you can work together in anything it helps. >>. >> translator: i want to thank the americans who organized this match. i think many people now understand how great this sport is. >> reporter: despite their differences, the united states and iran sometimes managed to work together. they will find out if their efforts prevail when the ioc announce their plans in 2020. nhk world, new york. u.s. consumer prices posted

an 80 year old japanese adventurer has finished day one of his attempt to scale mt. everest. he set out from the 5,300 meter high base camp on thursday with his son and other climbers. he told nhk by telephone before departing that he did not mind dying to achieve his goal. he andfor t about eighand a half hours to get past the ice fall and arrived at camp one. it's about 6,000 meters. he said the ice fall is difficult as usual but his condition is better than when he was 70 or 75. he said i was able to enjoy the climb. he plan does ascend about 500 meters a day. if everything goes smoothly, he'll reach the summit next friday. one of the world's largest diamonds was sold for $26.7 million at an auction in switzerland. it was a record price for a colorless diamond. >> sold! number 9107.

thank you very much. >> it took two years to cut and polish the stone. >> 101 karat diamond. it was auctioned on wednesday. a pink diamond holds the record for the most expensive stone sold at auction. well, people in myanmar and bangladesh are dealing with heavy rain and flooding. this is after the cyclone hit their coastlines. what's the latest there? >> the first tropical cyclone of this season has hit bangladesh as a cyclonic system. it has left quite some damage. let me first show you what

now tropical cyclone smashed parts of myanmar thursday with fierce rain, storm surges and winds. many houses have been ruined. many people have been killed as they fled the cyclone in overcrowded boats that capsized. destruction has been widespread. river ferries and boat services were suspended. but conditions are improving in the two countries as this cyclone is pulling away. can you see that's cloud masses moving all the way towards the north. and it is still bringing some widespread rain, however. so we cannot complete lay stop talking about this. it is a remnant low pressure system right now. and also it is going to be helping to produce the rain clouds over south china into the weekend, which is very bad news.

we have a stationary boundary that has already been forming across this area in the ongoing previous rainfall. made the ground very well saturated. so any additional rainfall could trigger flooding. unfortunately due to this system, we're likely to see more heavy rain to come in those areas. as of now, we're talking about southwestern islands of japan, including thunderstorms and sudden bursts of showers. we did see thunderstorms across japan yesterday. however, that has pulled away. and we're going to be seeing a lot of sunshine across tokyo with temperatures at 23 degrees, hong kong 30. and also seoul at 27 degrees. well above your average range as well as beijing. so have a nice warm day out there. here across north america, the main topic here is the tornadic touchdowns reported in

northern texas in the town of granbury. at least six people have been killed with a hundred people injured in a town that only holds about 8,000 residents. so you can imagine the catastrophe in the hospitals there. it was an e 4 tornado, which is the second highest on the scale of 5. that system that produced that kind of severe weather is now moving towards the arklatex region. and we cannot rule out the possibility of another tornadic activity to be occurring there. but more hail and storm gusts. now into the middle atlantic region where we probably see the strong thunderstorms as well as due to the collision of the two air masses, colorado, kansas, nebraska, these are another area where we probably see some pop-up thunderstorms.

denver at 29 degrees, san francisco on the cooler side, quite windy at 18 degrees. and we're looking at new york, washington, d.c. in the 20s. i'll leave you now for your extended forecast.

one more story before we leave you. tea masters performed ceremonies in seoul to help deepen understanding of the traditions. the event was hosted by the

trilateral cooperation secretary yat. a chinese practictioner throw away her first batch of tea to ensure the second brew had a rich aroma. >> translator: knowing foreign cultures will help improve ties between the three nations in other fields as well. >> secretary general of the organization said the event wads held despite the postponement of a trilateral summit usually scheduled at this time of year. he added he hopes to continue promoting culture exchange regardless of the political situation. and that's all for this edition of "newsline." i'm catherine kobayashi in tokyo. thanks for joining us.

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