♪ hello there. welcome to "newsline." it's friday march 27th. i'm catherine kobayashi in tokyo. french prosecutors investigating the crash of a german passenger plane say it was no accident. they say the cockpit's audio reveals the culprit was at the controls. they say it appears the co-pilot wanted to destroy the plane and took the lives of 149 people with him. >> translator: the co-pilot pressed the button on the flight monitoring system to descend.

that can only have been intentional. >> the prosecutor outlined what happened based on an initial analysis of the voice recorder. the pilot left the cockpit and co-pilot andreas lubitz took the controls. lubitz then started the plane's deadly descent into the alps. he ignored air traffic controllers and the pilot banging on the door. he also ignored an alarm that went off when the plane got close to the mountains. the prosecutor said lubitz must have been conscious as he can be heard breathing. lubitz was a 28-year-old german. prosecutors say he had no apparent connection to any terrorist organization. the germanwings plane was operated by parent company lufthansa. the ceo says lubitz had passed cognitive and technical tests as well as i mental health screening. >> translator: there were no concerns about his ability as a

co-pilot. >> officials say lubitz started flight training in 2008, but they say he was absent for a significant period of time. they did not disclose the reason, citing privacy. german prosecutors searched lubitz's apartment for clues to his motive. a man who says he knew him told nhk he heard lubitz battled depression five years ago and stopped flight training. german media also report the co-pilot may have suffered from depression. in the wake of the plane crash airlines around the globe are reviewing safety measures and in-house regulations. norwegian air shuttle decided that one cabin attendant must be in the cockpit whenever the pilot or co-pilot leaves. british budget carrier easy jet will also change its regulations. britain's aviation safety authorities have asked all airlines operating in the country to ensure that two airline staff are always inside the cockpit. canadian and icelandic airlines say they will follow suit.

in other news saudi arabia and its sunni arab allies have been striking at shia muslim rebels in yemen. the reblsz have taken over the capital sanaa and driven out the president and they're now warning the attacks will set off a wider regional war. saudi warplanes bombed position of the huthi rebel group trying to stop their advance across the country. saudi arabian officials say they're sending 100 fighter planes into the battle. and the state-run news agency says they're backed by gulf states jordan egypt, and pakistan. the air strikes targeted a missile base in the capital and a nearby air base. but it also flattened homes. and civilian casualties have been reported. a huthi spokesperson told nhk the attacks will turn yemen into saudi's enemy. iran, which is allied to the huthis, also denounced the

bombing. the foreign minister announced it is an infringement on yemeni sofrntd. the arab league held a meeting in egypt to discuss the situation. in afghanistan a growing number of taliban fighters are transferring they are allegiance to the islamic state group. nhk world's matsaki suda reports from kabul on the emerging threat in the country. >> reporter: nhk has obtained a copy of what is believed to be a public relations booklet for the militants. it is said to have been distributed in regions bordering afghanistan and pakistan since late last year. this footage was posted online earlier this year. it shows afghan and pakistani militants pledging allegiance to the group. the group responded by releasing

an audio message. it declared the creation of a province that includes afghanistan and pakistan. we interviewed members of a taliban insurgent group aiming to join islamic state militants in the eastern afghan province of kandahar. the taliban regime collapsed after the terrorist attacks on the u.s. in 2001. some members are dissatisfied with the poor prospects for regaining power. >> translator: the taliban only gave us one weapon. the islamic state militants should give us more. >> translator: the head of the militants is more influential. the militants can control afghanistan.

>> reporter: in the northern province of kunduz in february we approached members of a former taliban group who have switched allegiance. they said the biggest attraction was the overwhelming funding power. they said each member is supposed to receive about $400 a month. this is three times the amount they got from the taliban. islamic state militias are penetrating afghanistan. president ghani has expressed a sense of crisis. >> daesh is fast moving to stage 4, namely organizing orienting, deciding and acting. lest we forget this and take our eyes elsewhere, there will be consequences. why are the militants making inroads into afghanistan? an expert says the radical group wants a safe haven outside the sphere of government influence.

>> translator: the islamic state militants could send foreign combatants from iraq and syria to afghanistan to establish perpetual safe havens there. >> reporter: backed by rich resources the group is said to buy into the taliban. afghanistan was called a safe haven for terrorists when al qaeda was based there. fears are spreading that the country may be going down the same path again. masaki suda nhk world, kabul. tunisian authorities say the gunmen who attacked the national museum in tunis are linked to a militant organization that purportedly pledged allegiance to the islamic state group last september. tunisian interior minister najen gharsalli said they arrested 23 people and added they're searching for an algerian and other foreigners. they're related to another group called okba ibn nafaa.

based in mountain areas bordering algeria. the group belongs to the islamic extremist group ansar al shariah in tunisia which is affiliated with al qaeda. the gunmen killed 21 people at the assault last week at the national bardo museum. most of them were foreign tourists and included three japanese. tunisian security officials are investigate whether the museum attack and the islamic state group are directly connected. tunisians are offering prayers for the victims of the attack. nhk world's akihiro yokota has more. >> translator: it was the worst attack we've ever had in tunisia. >> translator: i can't believe that something like this could happen in our country. >> reporter: relatives of one of the gunmen gathered for his funeral. he was shot dead on the spot by security forces. his father said he couldn't see

what was happening to his son. >> translator: he didn't raise awareness as a child, but after the revolution here in 2011 he started praying with passion. still i thought he was no different than before. >> reporter: tunisia's autocratic government collapsed in the 2011 arab spring uprising. ramedi was among the many young people who hoped their lives would improve. but political instability continued, and he became disillusion disillusioned. one of his friends says islamic extremists took advantage of his disappointment. >> translator: he was a normal person, but then he started going more often to the mosque. he made some bad friends.

they totally changed his mind. >> reporter: tunisian authorities say they believe members of the islamic extremist group ansar al shariah committed the attack. this 20-year-old man said he was recruited like others to join the group. he says some people approached him at school and at the mosque. >> translator: they approached young people using lines from the koran and the words of the prophet muhammad. and they said the police and the government were doing wrong. they appealed to people's faith. >> reporter: he attended weekly meetings of the group along with other young muslims. they were taught extremist ideals and eventually some of them were brainwashed.

>> translator: the members often talked about jihad, making us think about killing foreigners and muslims considered weak in their faith. more and more people started thinking about engaging in acts of terror themselves. >> reporter: he said many disillusioned young people were attracted to extremist ideas. tunisian authorities are now beefing up security to prevent another tragedy like this. akihiro yokota, nhk world, tunis. japan's economic leaders have been focused on a goal to pull the country out of deflation. that means they need to get prices to rise. ai uchida joins us now from the business desk. ai good morning. so tell us how successful have

officials been? >> the policy on both monetary and fiscal sides have been aimed at stimulating the economy, and we have been seeing some of the effects, and that includes in the main inflation gauge, the consumer price index. now we're learning prices for daily goods and services rose for the 21 month in a row last month. even so the pace of growth slowed. and what's more the higher prices appear to be the result of a hike in the consumption tax. officials at the internal affairs ministry say the cpi was up 2% from a year earlier. it was lower than the figure for january by 0.2 of a percentage point. that was mainly due to energy prices. petroleum products for february were cheaper by a wider margin than in the previous month. officials estimate that without the consumption tax hike in april the index would have remained unchanged. the cpi doesn't factor in fresh food because those prices tend to be volatile. now let's check how people

in the market are reacting to the latest data as well as to other headlines. stock prices on wall street fell for a fourth day in a row. investors were jittery over geopolitical risks in the middle east and higher oil prices. the dow jones industrial average and the tech-heavy nasdaq both losing more than .2 of a percent. the dow jones ending at 17,678. the nasdaq 4,863. to see how markets here are reacting ramin mellegard joins us from the tokyo stock exchange. good morning, ramin. what are you seeing so far? >> very good morning to you, ai. really investors becoming increasingly concerned over events developing in yemen. and that's really being translated into shared price action here as well for the nikkei and the topix. let's have a look shall we? for friday march 27th looking at the nook sxait broader topix both starting off in the negative. let's just remind viewers the nikkei pulled back 1.4% on thursday, not helped at all by the stronger yen against the

dollar. and after saudi arabia and its arab allies in the gulf led a joint attack against anti-government fighters in yemen we're seeing further declines here. analysts say there's a flight to safety in terms of financial markets with investors shifting some of their positions into safer assets which the yen is still regarded as being one of those, along with u.s. government bonds and german government bonds as well as gold. in fact, gold rose to its highest level in around three weeks. so we're seeing a little bit of that shift as well. ai. >> ramin, so with these concerns over yemen, what is happening to the dollar and what's happening to bond yields? >> let's have a look at those because currency markets and bond markets are usually the first to react. 119.22-23 right now dollar-yen. dollar fell to a fife-week low against the yen to the lower 118 level overnight. it's come back a touch there. but apart from geopolitical events analysts pointing to gdp

data in the u.s. later today which may also be a guide for how the u.s. economy's doing. the yield on the u.s. ten-year bond initially fell on risk aversion moves. investors buying up u.s. treasuries. and that pushed the yield down. however, it went up later hitting 2% at one point. in fact also on the impact of weak demand at the auction of seven-year notes. that's also interesting. ai. >> ramin, what can you tell us about crude oil prices? because we've seen a jump around 10% just this week. so where are prices now and are there any fallouts in related sectors? >> yeah that was quite a jump wasn't it? wti crude. and right now it's $50.86 a barrel. crude futures popped up to the $51 in fact at one stage as a saudi-led air strike fueled worries that oil shipments may be disrupted. the net effect has been a big sell-off in the transport sector. so i'll track shipping and airliners here which may feel the effect but on the flip side we may see resource-linked

economies such as australia and indonesia and others getting a bit of a boost from rising oil prices which previously had dragged down a lot of those economies when oil was hitting those record lows. so we shall see. i'll track a lot of those. but right now the 'nique sxait topix trading in the negative. i'll have another update in a few hours. back to you, ai. >> sounds good ramin. we will check in with you then. ramin mellegard from the tokyo stock exchange. and i'll be back next hour with more headlines in business. here's a check on some other markets. ♪

chinese president xi jinping has welcomed his sri lankan counterpart in beijing. he's hoping the countries can develop their military relationship. sri lankan president sirisena just took office in january. he's been pursuing a different direction from his predecessor's pro-china stance and he's apparently trying to keep a balance between china and india. chinese officials welcomed sirisena on the red carpet at the great hauflt people. the two leaders held talks for about an hour. >> translator: china has always put sri lanka in an important position in its diplomacy. with neighboring countries. under the new circumstances we are willing to make joint

efforts with sri lanka to attribute a new current connotation to the traditional friendship between china and sri lanka and deepen the mutually beneficial cooperation between our two nations. >> china's state-run xinhua news agency says xi called on sirisena to promote military exchanges. sirisena showed his willingness to enhance cooperation in the defense field along with economic and trade lengths. sri lanka's former president sought to strengthen relations with china. he obtained substantial financial support for improving infrastructure. but sirisena chose india as the destination for his first official visit as president. he's pursuing a more global foreign policy than his predecessor. government officials in china have been trying to find ways to curb the problem of air pollution. they want to create urban areas that don't damage the environment.

officials in one southwestern city are doing just that by developing and promoting ecofriendly vehicles. nhk world's kunihiro yamamoto reports. >> reporter: a major maker of electric cars in america has set up a base in chengdu fush juan province. it provides both sales and after care. to meet growing demand it has also set up 50 charging stations around the city. >> translator: there are many charging stations. it's very convenient. >> reporter: this manufacturer was recently given a crucial boost. the chinese government is encouraging consumers to buy electric vehicles by offering subsidies of up to $10,000 off the total cost.

>> many companies in the field of alternative energy have set up in chengdu, and they're growing steadily. you could say the business conditions are ideal for us. >> reporter: like many cities around china pollution from car emissions is a major problem here. so five years ago the central government made chengdu a model city for promoting electric vehicles. >> translator: by cutting prices and making it more convenient to use electric vehicles in the city, we can help to boost their popularity. this will lead to more people using clean energy which will improve the environmental conditions here. >> the city also has 300 electric buses. but 3% of the total fleet. the aim is to raise that number

to 30%. 14 charging stations for the buses have been set up around the city. and there are plans to install many more. this research institute based in chengdu is developing its own electric motors with backing from the central government. last december it unveiled a new type of city bus. using small size motors means they can make the interior of the bus more spacious an important factor for a commuter bus. this bus runs on new smaller motors. that frees up more space inside for passengers. it can carry an extra 12 people. by changing the alignment of the magnets the new motors are thinner and more compact.

chengdu has about 20 car-related manufacturers. so all of the components can be sourced locally. the first of the new buses will go into operation next month with a total of 500 buses due to be built in the first year. >> translator: china is lagging on existing technologies. that's not an issue with electric vehicles. we'll never catch up with the advanced nations in producing conventional vehicles. but we will have a chance with new technologies. that's why we're putting all our efforts into this new field. >> reporter: the chinese government is promoting the use of electric vehicles. not just to reduce air pollution but also to develop cutting-edge new technologies. kunihiro yamamoto nhk world, chengdu. it's time now for a check of the weather. people in central u.s. states are now trying to recover after

tornadoes hit the region. meteorologist robert speta joins us with the latest. >> reporter: well, it really is night and day from what we were actually seeing on wednesday. now we are looking at much clearer skies out here. the conditions have vastly improved, long enough for people to get out there. but what i want to show you is what we have been talking about over the past 24 hours, especially on the evening hours wednesday locally here in the central u.s. we had these storms erupt. this was a satellite picture. visible satellite imagery is what you actually see from space. what i want to key in here is these areas in central oklahoma and you really can see is kind of what looks like popcorn on the satellite picture. that's what we call overshooting tops in meteorology. what it really indicates is these very high cloud tops and that indicates very strong storm systems. some of these out here started to rotate and we've seen several tornadoes. actually, one did cause a casualty. there were several injuries. this is a school. you can see some of the damage

taking place. there were no injuries. school wasn't in session. but you can also see numerous homes damaged out here. some of the injuries actually quite serious. now, most of these tornadoes were on the low end of the skashlgs an f-1 to ef2 tornado. but as far as tornadoes go even the low end of the scale is still going to cause some damage and you get to see it right there. we also did see numerous reports of hail as well. and that still is going to be a threat as we go ahead through your thursday night into friday. all the weather, though has shifted over here toward the east. basically up and down the eastern seaboards. from new york city extending down toward florida you're going to be seeing these thunderstorms erupt. now, as it does move head it is pulling in cold air behind it. we're seeing the threat of snowfall around the great lakes. and also temperatures are going down as we head into the weekend. washington, d.c., a 24 reported high. you actually are waiting for the cherry blossoms to start to bloom there. but unfortunately, look at this. by friday 12. then as we head into sxart

sunday the single digits. atlanta dropping down into the low teens by your saturday. let's look at the other side of the atlantic ocean. talk about what's going on in europe. big topic as far as severe weather is concerned is actually into the central portions of the mediterranean. we have a storm system out here. it is bringing some well strong severe thunderstorms. already been reported some high winds. around slovenia you could be seeing winds upwards of about 70 kilometers per hour even some hail reported with this, and it still could be seeing more hail as we look through the forecast. as it does move off toward the east it eventually is going to move into turkey but behind it we are seeing winds kick up. that's one thing i want to note. we have the recovery process going on in southeastern france with the downed plane crash back on tuesday. what we have going on is a cold front coming in from the west. that's going to kick up the winds. i don't expect a lost precipitation there. we're not going to be seeing a lot of snowfall. that was a big issue earlier on. but the winds are going to be make things hazardous for my aircraft trying to get out of that area. this is definitely something important we're going to continue to watch but back

toward the north still looking at wet windy conditions in the british isles and down toward the south actually warming up there into sxan even over toward portugal. to wrap things unhere in eastern asia i do want to mention heading into the weekend looking at some fairly decent weather across much of mainland japan. over through the korean peninsula and northeastern china -- i said mainland japan because by friday the southern japanese islands, you're going to be seeing some thunderstorms erupt here and eventually this low right here will move northeast, could see some storms by sunday. even around the tokyo area. but for saturday things actually looking rather decent. i'll leave you now with your extended outlook. ♪

♪ ♪ that's all for this edition of "newsline." i'm catherine kobayashi in tokyo. do stay with us.

xnóx

southeast asia's busiest airport says it needs to get bigger twice as big.

payday for economics. companies agree to the largest wage hikes in years. just in time shopping. chinese tourists save the day for south korean retailers. hello, you're watching asia biz forecast. i'm yoko fukushima. this week we start in the singapore. the island nation is celebrating its 50th anniversary with a frenzy