welcome to nhk world "newsline." i'm gene otani in tokyo. here's a look at the stories we're following this hour. members of a group of south korean tourists die hiking the japan alps after the weather takes a turn for the worse. militants disguised as police have stormed the prison in pakistan, freeing more than 200 prisoners. the pakistani taliban have

claimed responsibility for the attack. and investors are bracing for the latest u.s. economic data in a policy decision from the u.s. central bank. the former senior fed official offers his predictions. a group of tourists from south korea spent a terrifying couple of days many the japan alps. the climbers got in trouble on a hike and had to be rescued. authorities say three of the group's 20 members died of hypothermia, and a fourth has suffered cardiorespiratory arrest. the climbers started their trek on sunday in nagano prefecture. strong winds and rain hit the area. the group made an energy call for help. rescuers found them on a mountain trail on tuesday morning. three were in critical condition but died. the rescuers went searching for a missing member of the group. they discovered him lying on a mountain slope. police say he'd fallen a hundred meters. they plan to take his body down

from the mountains on wednesday. tourism officials in nagano say climbing is booming in south koreans. they say as many as 500 tourists from the country stay overnight each year at one of the lodges in the japan alps. they appear to south korean climbers because there are no mountains of that scale in their country. they also present unknown risks and the dangers were greater for the stranded climbers because they did not have a japanese guide. the japanese climber and her husband met the surviving party when they arrived in a hut. >> translator: they could not make themselves understood in japanese. it was very difficult to get their message across. >> winds of up to 55 kilometers per hour were believed to be blowing near the peak. the air temperature dropped by as much as 15 degrees celsius.

wet clothing would have caused the body temperature to drop further. an official of the japan mountaineering association says climbers who are not familiar with the terrain need to be extra careful. >> translator: foreign climbers tend to stick to their plan, even in bad weather because they have traveled all the way to japan. but, they should consult local guides about the weather in the area where they intend to climb. over 200 inmates have escaped a pris indian northwestern pakistan after armed militants launched an attack on the facility. >> reporter: police are imposing

a curfew in the area surrounding the prison and authorities have launched a massive manhunt for the escapees including dangerous terrorists. nhk's misaki suta reports. >> reporter: militants armed with rockets and hand grenades launched a well-planned assault on monday night. they breached the prison's exterior walls then entered the compound. >> translator: the terrorists set off numerous explosive devices on the ground last night. >> reporter: security forces returned fire. the resulting gun battle continued for three hours, into the early hours of tuesday morning. police say more than 200 inmates got away. among them are around 30 hard core militants who were jailed for involvement in heinous attacks. a spokesman for the pakistani taliban told nhk that the group carried out the plan in order to free its members.

the prison break comes a week after syria's attack in the southern town of sakou. a militant group linked to the taliban stormed the compound of the services intelligence. one of the country's most powerful agencies. prime minister took office in june. he campaigned on the promise of promoting dialogue with militants in an effort to improve security. but the issue of drone attacks targeting insurgents are an obstacle to negotiations. the pakistani taliban says national intelligence agencies back u.s. drones and has rejected talks with the government. the administration has been unable to pave the way to security. instead it has allowed a string of attacks on high profile facilities. as instability continues, public

discontent is growing. the u.s. air force general overseeing the pacific region has voiced concerns over china's aggressive moves to assert territorial claims. u.s. pacific air forces commander general carlisle spoke to washington on monday about chieb china's addressive actions, including territorial dispute, especially in the south china sea. he says the attitude runs the risk for creating the potential for miscalculation. many are looked in territorial dispute with an increasingly assertive china. the obama administration place emphasis on the asia pacific region. as part of the pivot to asia, the u.s. navy has deployed a new type of high-tech combat ship to singapore. the pentagon is working to increase rotations of u.s.

troops through asia much as it rotated troops through europe at the time of the cold war. he also explains china's moves were prompting washington to expand its own ties in the region. he says and example is the recently expanded talks between washington and manila on military cooperation. muslim rebels have attacked an oil tanker truck in the philippines. the attack sparked a gun battle with the military that left at at least three insurgents dead. the break away rebel outfit opposes peace talks between the government and the main insurgency group. the islamic freedom fighters fired on an oil tanker and planted two explosives along the highway on tuesday. government troops closed the highway for several hours as they battled the insurgents and diffused the bombs.

the islamic front has been fighting for autonomy for more than 30 years. the conflict has killed an estimated 60,000 people. last october the president's administration said within three years it would establish an autonomous government. for the muslim minority in the south of the country. however, the breakaway group is opposed to the peace talks. opposed to the peace talks. it is run by a hard line leader who was expelled from a larger group in 2011. and that wraps up our bulletin. lawmakers in the u.s. are weighing in on territorial disputes in the south china cities. they've adopted a resolution condemning leaders for increasing tensions. members from both the democratic and republican parties introduced the resolution. senators adopted it unanimously. they noted that chinese government ships are navigating more frequently near the islands and through other areas.

japan controls the islands. china and taiwan claim them. the resolution said in january crews of chinese warships locked weapons, targeting radar on a japanese south defense forces ship. the resolution urges chinese officials to exercise restraint. it confirms that the u.s. will oppose any action. last month, u.s. president barack obama discussed the dispute with chinese president ping. she was adamant in defending china's stance. commanders at a u.s. base in japan have taken shipment of another squadron of plane with apache safety record. they unloaded 12 osprey aircraft at a base in western japan. they'll test the planes for a week and then send them further south for their permanent distinction. a ship carrying the tilt rotor aircraft arrived at the air station.

they will test fly the ospreys for about a week. local government officials agreed to the deployment, but they want u.s. commanders to let them know when and where the planes will fly. they're urging the americans to shorten the testing period. the marines will then deploy the aircraft to futima aircraft station in okinawa. the aircraft was put into service in 2007. they can take off and land like helicopters and cruise like planes. but ospreys have been involved in a number of accidents. >> translator: we will try to get the understanding of local residents, and we'll ask the u.s. military to consider conducting test flights outside of okinawa. >> u.s. commanders are also considering a plan to deploy more of the planes to tokyo. they are thinking about

replacing the transport helicopters they use now with ospreys. a chinese food worker has admitted to poisoning frozen dumplings. he has appeared in the trial which triggered a major scare over the safety of chinese food products. in 2008, ten japanese became ill. after eating dumplings made by a company in the chinese province of herbei. chinese authorities indicted a former employee of the company in 2010. they accused him of injecting a pesticide ingredient into the food. prosecutors say that he held a grudge against the company and was allegedly unhappy about his working conditions and wages. they also said four people in china were sickened after eating the dumplings. lu apologized to the victims. analysts say the case took an unusually long time to come to trial. they say chinese authorities

probably hope that the delay would allow public sentiment to calm down in both countries. the european union's foreign policy chief is trying to get opposing groups in egypt to come together for talks. but as katherine ashton met with ousted president muhammad morsi, his supporters continued to fight against the rulers who replaced him. ashton is making her second visit to egypt in two weeks. she held talks in cairo with interim president monsour. she said she met with morsi for about two hours at an undisclosed location. it is believed to be his first meeting with a western official since being placed in the tension. >> we talked to him in depth. he has access to information in terms of tv, newspapers, so we were able to talk about the situation.

and we were able to talk about a need to move forward. but i'm not going to reveal anything further about our conversations. >> military leaders overthrew morsi at the beginning of the month and installed a new government. his supporters have turned out for repeated protests. they're demanding that he be reinstated. security forces moved in again over the weekend to clear the streets. 80 people died in the violence that followed. the morsi supporters say they're not going anywhere. bridging the divide between egyptians won't be easy. both members of the interim government and their opponents expect the other to compromise. we spoke with foreign minister fahmi, and we also talked to a leader of an egyptian students group here in japan who is critical of the military for ousting a democratically elected president. foreign minister fahmi says the interim government is not targeting morsi's power base,

the muslim brotherhood, by trying to stop the unrest that's playing out across the country. >> we're not taking a position against the muslim brotherhood. it is, however, against those using violence. violence cannot be condoned. i think the setback to democracy occurred, but it didn't occur -- but it occurred because the president refused to respond to the people's demand to call for early elections. what do the people do? they wanted early elections so that they could express themselves again. that's a call for a democratic practice. he refused to do it, and we have no other way to call for early election. >> but those who have supported the democratic transition in egypt have been criticizing the military for pushing morsi out of office. some of that criticism is coming from outside the country. members of the egyptian students association in japan have held protests in tokyo and other cities. most of its 300 members are

graduate students studying in japan. al nobi is one of the leaders. >> -- democracy -- first is democracy. as i said to you, now the moment is not freedom for morsi, but freedom for egypt itself. not morsi. we have a corrupted regime, where 50 years with president mubarak, and we could finish the regime, we are to start new era, and we had started to stop corruption, with a better economy, better life, better social life for the people, and better in everything, in all aspects of our lives. we had this dream after we finished mubarak regime. >> israeli and palestinian negotiators are meeting in washington to discuss the long-awaited resumption of peace talks.

israeli prime minister, a close aide to president mahmoud abbas are leading the delegations. the talks began at dinner hosted by u.s. secretary of state john kerry. the envoys will negotiate specific conditions and dates for resuming peace talks. kerry and the chief delegates are expected to hold a news conference after the two-day meeting. >> many difficult choices lie ahead for the negotiators and for the leaders as we seek reasonable compromises on tough, complicated, emotional, and symbolic issues. >> israel's construction of settlements in the occupied territory is among the many thorny issues they have held up the peace process for nearly three years. japanese prime minister abe has asked a government panel to

work out specific measures to rebuild the economy, and at the same time cut the budget deficit. he issued the instructions at a meeting at the council of economic and fiscal policy on tuesday. the panel is discussing medium-term, economic, and fiscal policies, as well as guidelines for the fiscal 2014 budget. >> translator: it's necessary to implement concrete measures so that people can actually feel the economic recovery. >> at the meeting, private sector council members said the government needs to raise the consumption tax in order to achieve the goal of cutting the primary balance deficit in half by march 2016. they also noted it's necessary for the central as well as local governments to curb spending. these members also urged the panel to set strict budget guidelines for the next fiscal year and hammer out bold steps to stimulate domestic demand.

the council plans to come up with recommendations as early as next week. the second round of free trade talks is now under way among asia's biggest economi economies -- japan, china, and south korea. at the start of the talks in shanghai on tuesday, china's assistance commerce minister expressed hope that the three countries will be able to conclude an fda agreement soon. the remarks demonstrated china's interest in strengthening economic ties with japan and south korea. it also appeared to show that beijing was prepared to set aside strained diplomatic relations with tokyo. officials are expected to consider lowering import tariffs on agricultural and industrial products. they will also discuss how much of a product can be made up of imported components and still be considered domestically made. in a separate session, tokyo is expected to demand that japanese companies investing in china be allowed to compete with china's state-run firms under the same conditions.

this month, china made major concessions to a similar demand from the u.s. investors are bracing for two crucial announcements coming out of the u.s. on wednesday. the latest numbers for gross domestic product and the federal reserve's decision on monetary policy. nhk asked david stockton, a senior fellow at the peterson institute and former director at the fed for his view on what we might expect from these announcements. >> first, i'd like to ask you about the outlook of the gdp coming up, and what is your prospect. >> i think we're likely to see a weak second quarter figure, somewhere probably at 1% or below, at an annualized rate. that comes on the heels of half a percent in the first quarter. the economy in the first half has certainly underperformed its potential by quite a bit. >> we're expecting the next

monetary meeting coming up the same day. do you think those numbers will affect some of the fed's decisions? >> it will be some influence on the decision. they are reading the data, as many economists are here, as being relatively soft. in terms of gdp. on the other hand, the labor market is performing quite well with payroll employment gains running around 200,000 a month over the past six months. that's a pretty solid performance. i think ultimately, while gdp will certainly be a factor they're going to consider, they're going to be looking more forward than backward. the weakness in the first half will likely bother them less if they see signs over the next month or so that the economy seems to be picking up from the first half softness. >> what will gdp be expecting from this monetary policy meeting? we've been hearing there might be some changes.

>> so i think this meeting is likely to be pretty quiet. and i would not expect any major announcements of policy change and i wouldn't expect too many changes in the fmoc statement, which will be released on wednesday. if there's any change, i think it's likely to incorporate what chairman bernanke talked about at his press conference, which he indicated at that time that he saw likely that the qe purchases would end in the middle of 2014 when the unemployment rate was running about 7%, according to their forecast. so there's some chance that that will actually be incorporated in the fmoc statement. other than that, i think this is likely to be a pretty quiet meeting. so i still think the most likely time for the first tapering will be september. i think that's where the voters are at this point. there are some people who wanted for some time to end qe immediately and certainly president george of the kansas

city fed has been dissenting on that for some reason for quite some time. and there are others that are probably nervous about beginning to taper now and would prefer to do it later. i think if the later market continues to show gains in jobs between 175,000 and 200,000 over the next couple of months and if the economy looks like it's rebounding from the doldrums that it hit the first half of this year that were likely attributable to fiscal policy then tapering in september seems like the most likely outcome. if that doesn't happen, if there are any significant setbacks, especially on the labor market side, i think we could easily see the tapering put off until december. at this point, i still think september looks like -- until december, i still think september looks like the most likely outcome. and here are the latest market figures.

heavy rain in the philippines. meteorologist robert is here with the details. robert? >> today, we are continuing to watch a tropical depression just towards the west of luzan. it's rolling out here very slowly towards the west. we can see it on the satellite imagery, the south china sea, very disorganized at this time. so expect it to become a tropical storm sometime on wednesday, but really going to stay on the weak side. what we are seeing, though, you'll see on the satellite imagery, actually, the clouds moving from west towards east.

that's pushing onshore in portions of southern luzan, along the western coast. you can see rain accumulations up to 150 to 200 millimeters going through the next 24 to 48 hours. there is the risk of flooding out here, and even landslides as this continues to push through the area, enhancing the monsoonal flow. similar conditions at the endo-peninsula. so we want to keep an eye on that. farther towards the north, though, the same frontal boundary that has just been really bringing some tremendous amounts of rainfall across south korea, northeastern china, even out there towards southwestern china, still in the area here, into the next 24 hours, you could see about 100 millimeters of rain, even out towards the the west into portions of south korea. also into northeastern china and southeastern russia. just this entire area out here is still going to be seeing the heavy rainshowers. and it's a continued risk of flooding with this as the boundary does continue to persist. south of that, though, we do

have while this high pressure dominating portions of eastern china, even over towards the southern japanese islands, keeping things dry and keeping things warm. shanghai with a high of 38. you are going to be seeing afternoon thunderstorms pop up here. but, wow, look at that, about 10 degrees higher than down here towards manila, where we're seeing 29 on wednesday. now, let's look over towards the americas, what's going on here? well, the severe weather spot is right there in the center of the screen. it is this large area of thunderstorms pushing out there from kansas into oklahoma, extending out through arkansas and missouri. expecting about 40, 80 millimeters of rainfall with this going through your day on tuesday into wednesday. before it starts to weaken out, as it moves into kentucky and tennessee, pushing off there towards the east. so that's the good news. it does look like the worst of this is starting to get over with as it pushes off there. but then, we have this cold front pushing in out of canada. and that's going to trigger up some thunderstorms into the western great lakes over towards chicago as well.

you have flying plans out of o'hare, keep an eye on that, especially by wednesday evening. you have the daytime heating with the cold front pushing through, it will trigger up some thunderstorms. now, let's look over towards europe. and while you can see here on the satellite imagery, very out-of-season frontal area. a tornado there towards northern italy, but now pushing off here towards the east. it does look like going through the day on tuesday, the worst of the weather is going to be in romania, bulgaria, even out there towards the baltic states as this does continue to push through and eventually off towards east and western russia. the black sea, as well, you'll see some heavy rainfall from this as it does continue to push through. so we want to continue to keep an eye on it. i do think this cold front that brought all of the severe weather, and even the tornado in italy, it's weakening out and the worst of it is over with. now, this high pressure ridging in. that is the topic, because it's bringing in warmer air from the south. we're going to start to see temperatures about 10 degrees above average for some cities

out here. amsterdam, 31 on friday, even paris could get up to 35. 11 degrees above your average to start off your week. that's a look at the world weather, here's a look at the extended forecast.

that's "newsline" for this hour. i'm gene otani in tokyo. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com .

hello from above. the tokyo sky is garnering much attention in japan. just look at this view or lack thereof. it was unfortunately cloudy on the opening day. but not to worry. we'll enjoy this tower with not just the ear, but the eyes. what, you ask? this soup curry is the key. >> translator: the