welcome to "newsline." i'm keiko kitagawa in tokyo. u.s. president barack obama says he's reassessing relations with russia. he says american and russian leaders differ on a growing number of issues. obama spoke two days after canceling a summit with russian president vladimir putin. he says the u.s. relationship with russia changed after putin took over from dmitry medvedev. >> when president putin, who was prime minister when medvedev was president, came back into power, i think we saw more rhetoric on

the russian side that was anti-american that played into some of the old stereotypes about the cold war contest between the united states and russia. >> u.s. and russian officials have been at loggerheads over the russian decision to grant temporary asylum to the american fugitive edward snowden. obama said the snowden episode reflects one of many emerging differences. >> it is probably appropriate for us to take a pause, reassess where it is that russia's going, what our core interests are, and cal ib rate the relationships. >> obama said that the russian position on the syrian civil war is another difference. russians are siding with bashar al assad in a conflict that's killed more than 100,000 people. astronauts on the international space station are

taking delivery of supplies they need to live and work. the unmanned ship carrying their cargo arrived from japan. the konotori 4 lifted off last sunday from the southwestern island of tanegashima. it met up with the space station 400 kilometers above earth. astronauts grabbed it using a robotic arm. controllers celebrated at the tsukuba space center near tokyo. docking was complete about seven hours later. the spacecraft is carrying more than five tons of water, food and experimental equipment. it's also carrying a high-resolution camera. astronauts will use the camera to capture images of the comet ison when it approaches the sun in november. japanese astronaut koichi wakata is due to join the crew in november. he'll stay about six months. people in northern japan are weathering some of the heaviest rain they've ever seen.

two have died in flash floods and landslides, five are missing. forecasters have issued an extreme weather warning. they're urging people to watch out for more flooding. officials in a town in a prefecture of iwate recorded more than 216 millimeters of rain over 24 hours. that's the most they'd ever seen. landslides broke roads and swept through residential areas. two people died in the prefecture. weather officials are urging people to exercise maximum caution. landslides also hit a city farther north in the prefecture of akita. five people are missing. police and self-defense force personnel plan to resume search and rescue operations early saturday. >> caller: so much rain was falling. the landslide occurred in an

instant. >> translator: it's terrifying. it's the first time we've seen this kind of thing. i don't know what else to say. i could never have imagined it. >> officials are urging thousands of people to evacuate their homes in case rivers burst their banks or more land gives way. forecasters say the rain may continue until saturday evening. japan's crippled nuclear power plant is leaking hundreds of tons of contaminated water into the pacific ocean every day. fishermen nearby are worried. they were planning to take out their boats next month, but now they've canceled that plan because of the radiation. fishermen in fukushima have been casting their nets on a trial basis since june last year. they've been trying to gauge the reaction of consumers in an effort to restart full scale operations. the fishermen say levels of radioactive substances in their

hu hauls are far below government limits. but they say news of the leak will lead consumers to doubt the safety of seafood. >> translator: i'm very disappointed and angry that we're being forced to suspend our trial fishing. union representatives are asking plant operators and government officials to deal with the leak so they can resume full scale fishing as soon as possible. officials with the international atomic energy agency say japanese authorities are keeping them informed about the radioactive water leakage. they released a statement saying they're keeping track of the problem and that japanese officials had explained their countermeasures. experts from the iaea visited the plant in april to assess the situation. they urged operators to review their strategy for dealing with accumulated water. they said it was vital to have measures in place to detect

leaks promptly and mitigate their consequences. people in the japanese city of nagasaki spent friday marking the 68th anniversary of the atomic bombing. some survivors of the nagasaki and hiroshima bombings found the day bittersweet. they spent years in court to get the government to recognize them as sufferers of radiation-induced illnesses. prime minister shinzo abe told them they won. >> translator: we won't appeal the court ruling recognizes the plaintiffs as suffering from radiation-induced illnesses. >> eight a-bomb survivors won a court case earlier this month. judges ruled their illnesses were caused by radiation from the bombs. government officials had denied any connection between their illnesses and the bombings. photos unearthed in southwestern japan are shedding new light on the aftermath of the nagasaki bombing.

they were taken near ground zero soon after the blast and given unprecedented view of the damage. members of a university research team took the photos ten days after the attack. the prince had been kept at the home of the late dr. tetsuya fujita who had been a member of the team. fujita later developed a scale rating the intensity. they were taken north and south of ground zero. they showed how the blast wave knocked down trees and buildings as it spread out. officials at the nagasaki atomic bomb museum say the photos are the earliest taken for scientific verification of the a-bomb damage. they say the university team took them before japanese government officials and the u.s. military started full-fledged studies. executives at the japanese cosmetics firm kanebo are fielding complaints from more

and more customers. they've confirmed over 1600 more cases. and the total number has reached nearly 6,000. kanebo executives say more than 10,000 customers have complained of skin problems such as white blotches. they've been interviewing those customers and checking their skin. they say they've confirmed 1,641 new cases. that brings the total to 5,702. problems with kanebo's skin-whitening products are not limited to japan. people bought them in ten other countries and territories, including taiwan and south korea. company executives say they've confirmed 65 of those people have skin trouble. they recalled all of their skin-whitening products using a substance called rhododenol early last month. here's the three-day world

weather forecast. that wraps up this edition of "newsline." i'm keiko kitagawa in tokyo.

thank you for joining us.