. hello there and welcome to "newsline." it's thursday, may 7th. i'm catherine kobayashi in tokyo. u.s. government officials say they plan to sell osprey transport aircraft to japan's self-defense forces. they say the planes will boost japan's ability to work with the american military. the sale needs the approval of congress before it can go ahead. government officials told congress about the plan. the deal is worth an estimated $3 billion. japan's ground self-defense force hopes to take possession

of 17 aircraft by 2019. the u.s. says the planes will enhance japan's ability to carry out humanitarian relief. the announcement comes after japan and the u.s. agreed on new defense cooperation guidelines. officials in tokyo and washington say the aim is to strengthen the alliance and enable japan to play a more active security role. children in nepal could face another challenge after surviving last month's powerful earthquake. officials say the quake damaged or destroyed thousands of schools in the country. they say the prospect of many children returning to classes any time soon is slim. more than 7,700 people in nepal and neighboring countries died in the quake. it damaged or destroyed some 360,000 buildings. that includes 1,500 schools. more than 5,000 have closed temporarily. officials at a school in a

kathmandu suburb say that bureaucrats have done nothing but visit and take photographs. they say they haven't heard from the government about a timeline for setting up tents or makeshift classrooms for the 300 students. >> translator: i want to reunite with my friends. >> translator: i like school because i can learn a lot of new things there. >> officials at nepal's education ministry say they hope to reopen the schools on may 15th. south korean lawmakers are seeking to prevent several modern industrial sites in japan from being included on unesco's world heritage list. this comes after an advisory body to unesco recommended 23 such sites be added. the advisory body is the international council on monuments and sites.

the sites date back to japan's industrial revolution in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. the world heritage committee will screen the recommendations and make formal decisions in july at a meeting in germany. a south korean parliamentary committee passed a resolution on monday criticizing japan's efforts to have the sites registered. the committee's chairperson has sent letters to each of the world heritage committee member nations. it says the sites should not be registered because many koreans were forced to work there during world war ii. japanese government officials are refuting that argument. they say they'll try to win understanding from the south koreans. south korean government officials are asking japan for talks on the matter. they hope to have the discussions by the time the world heritage committee meets in july. the u.s. federal reserve has been keeping its key interest rate at near zero to prop up the u.s. economy but the fed's chair has warned about the effect of

the loose policy on u.s. share price. ai uchida joins us now from the business desk. good morning. so tell us more about what janet yellen has to say. >> she did say the risk to panel stability at this point is moderate. specifically, she explained that the fed's not seeing rapid credit growth or broad-based pickup in leverage but share prices are renewing their highs and the fed's going to be keeping a close eye on the situation. >> i guess i would highlight the equity market valuations at this point generally are quite high. now they're not so high when your compare the returns on equities to the returns on safe assets like bonds, which are also very low, but there are potential dangers there. >> investors have been listening closely to yellen these days look for any hint in a hike in the key interest rate. the chair told the audience the

fed needs to be mindful in the timing of a rate increase but it's she did say the fed will not take the market by surprise when the near zero rate policy comes to an end. the warning did lead to a selloff on wall street and the dow jones industrial average was down .4%. and the nasdaq down .4%. ramin mellegard joins us from the tokyo stock exchange. we have had a few days off this week in japan. investors will be playing catch up this morning. >> very good morning to you, ai. investors playing catch up and the saying sell in may and go away is playing out in the u.s. european and asian indexes while tokyo has been closed. a lot of nervous investors out there. looking at the nikkei and topix, the nikkei is down now over 120

points. we'll see how that goes throughout the morning. and last friday we closed out trading on a cautious note and for the week last week the index was down 2.4%. and considering the stock market losses in the u.s. and europe that is playing out right now. rising crude oil benchmark prices and higher bond yields also seem to be the driving forces for market players. and oil, having a look at that rose to its highest level in a year this week. oil inventories fell for the first time in 17 weeks. and a private sector jobs data was down for a fifth straight month. we should be aware that further negative sentiment in asia the shanghai composite fell more than 4% on tuesday and 1.5% on wednesday. strong profit taking kicking in after the index rose 18% in april. the hang seng the kospi and

sapsx had down days on wednesday. >> you did touch on a falling dollar as well as higher bond yields. where are they now? >> the dollar/yen and other pairings are a big focus. looking at the dollar/yen, the dollar is lower after some weak u.s. economic data. amentioned the private adp jobs data and the trade data on wednesday. the rise in crude oil price may widen the u.s. trade deficit as the u.s. imports much of its oil. by the same token, the recovering oil price since the lows at the beginning of this year meant a rise in eurozone inflation. and germany ten-year government bond yield hit this year's high around 0.6%. so the yield gap is shrinking to its narrowest since late march. and also want to touch on

earnings in japan. a lot of companies will be reporting earnings and one of the big names, nintendo. we'll keep track of how a lot of shares trade and a lot of the asian indexes later in the morning. that's all for me. back to you. >> ramin mellegard from the tokyo stock exchange. the greek prime minister and european union president have been tackling a stumbling block. they have been talk on the phone on pension reforms. both sides want to show that talks for a bailout plan are making progress. the meeting took place ahead of the meeting on a greek bailout. talks have been stalled. that's blocking greece from getting a 7.2 billion euro bailout. fear is growing that the country may default on its debts. on wednesday the european union, the european central bank and the international monetary fund

announced their joint statement. they stressed they are working together so that the meeting of the your roan zone finance ministers can come up with results. but euro group president -- said there will be no agreements on monday. he says the officials have plenty of issues to be solved. the neighborhood just got a new look thanks to the opening of a large-scale retail and dining complex. now local business owners hoping to take advantage of that debut by making even bigger changes. >> reporter: the center of attention is a life-sized statue of one of japan's best-known movie stars, godzilla. it's part of the new building featuring a hotel, dozens of restaurants and a 12-screen cinema.

business owners in the district are hoping that the complex will bring more people to the area. during the past 30 years, visitors have fallen by half. this man works for a local shop owner's association. one change he's noticed is an increasing number of -- on the street and not all are honest. police have reported a steep rise of at one bar, a group of six people was told to pay $10,000. there were originally charge was $35 for 70 minutes. they were drinking with bar girls who apparently ordered more than 100 glasses of wine at $75 a glass. the bar staff blamed the customers for not checking the price.

police say that in the past month alone, they have received 300 reports of similar cases. that's about ten times more than the same period last year. >> translator: it's because there aren't many customers. the touts feel desperate and become aggressive. >> reporter: business owners in the district want to revive the neighborhood by making it safer. so they're taking advantage of the opening of the new building to introduce new measures. one of them is the idea of a concierge. the concierge at the new hotel will provide guests with information about restaurants and bars that can be enjoyed safely. the committee has created a guide book for just that purpose. it lists only businesses they've checked and approved.

the shops must adhere to certain conditions including no touts, no ties to crime syndicates and a transparent pricing system. the idea is to draw customers to good shops and drive the bad ones out of business. the concierges need to take responsibility for the places they recommend to customers. so their going out and personally visiting all the bars and restaurants. >> translator: do you get any foreign customers? >> they can come with a japanese friend. >> translator: this is quite a fun place for foreigners. >> translator: can they come in by themselves? >> translator: i think so. only one or two of us speak english so they would have to use body language. >> reporter: they are visiting

all types of bars and restaurants. >> translator: we want to be able to show people that they can have a good time at the places we've checked and approved. >> reporter: the guide book already includes 120 bars and restaurants, all approved by the committee. their effort to remake the district is well underway. >> and that's the latest in business for this hour. here's another check on markets.

people around the world are excited about the potential of drones, but there are growing concerns over the unmanned aircraft. manufacturers are highlighting the improved safety features at one of the world's largest trade fairs for drones. more than 500 companies are showcasing their latest technologies at this exhibition in atlanta. this drone has a sensor to prevent collisions. the aircraft automatically changes direction when it approaches an obstacle. a swiss manufacturer covered the propellers of its drone with sturdy carbon fiber. company officials say the craft stay balanced even if it subtly changes altitude. >> i think there's a case to be made for some base layer of safety. and i think everyone could agree to that. >> people are finding more applications for drones. u.s. retailer amazon plans to

use them to make deliveries. there are also problems. drones were involved in 274 accidents in the u.s. in the five years through last august. one crashed in january on the grounds of the white house. authorities closed off the surrounding area for security reasons. calls for stricter regulations are growing. the u.s. federal aviation administration in february issued rules covering the use of drones for commercial purposes. they set limits on the times, altitude and range they can be flown. the drone makers want a more flexible regulatory framework. officials at amazon say the regulations do not take in consideration technological advancements. and the japanese government has also begun to consider regulating the use of drones. this comes after one was discovered on the rooftop of the prime minister's office last month. officials have already proposed laws to set no-fly zones around key facilities and oblige drone owners to register when they purchase the craft.

the u.s. secretary of state says washington plans to reestablish a diplomatic mission in somalia. john kerry made the statement during a surprise visit to the east african country. kerry is the first u.s. secretary of state to visit somalia. state department officials say they discussed support for the fight against islamic militants and how to hold presidential and parliamentary elections democratically. >> the united states is prepared to do what we can to help bring somalia the peace and prosperity and security. >> a government was established in somalia in 2012 after more than 20 years of civil war. but the country's political situation remains unstable. al shabaab militants continue to launch terror attacks. in other news, french aviation investigators suspect the co-pilot of an aircraft that crashed in the alps in march had earlier practiced making sharp descents.

all 150 people on board the germanwings jetliner died in the accident. the german aircraft was flying from barcelona to dusseldorf when it slammed into a mountainside. the co-pilot, andreas lubitz, is suspected of deliberately crashing the jet. the french accident investigation agency, the b.e.a., has published an interim report. the document says the flight data recorder shows that during the outbound flight from dusseldorf to barcelona, the selected altitude was changed several times between 30 meters and 7,600 meters. the report says the cockpit voice recorder indicates the altitude change occurred over a four-minute period and lubitz was alone in the cockpit at the time. the investigators have said lubitz used the automatic pilot to lower the plane to an altitude of 30 meters from 11,500 meters before the crash. he then repeatedly increased the aircraft's speed before crashing it into a mountain.

like father, like daughter. not many people know it, but one of japan's famous wood block artists passed on his talent and style to a daughter. a new animated film describes her life in the floating world of edo culture. marie yanaka has the details. >> reporter: the innovative technique, the unconventional portrayal, such audacity is the artwork of oy kushki. the daughter of one of the artists of japan and though not as famous, said her talent outshines that of her father. the picture shows the magic of the red light district. illumination and shadow create an otherworldly effect.

>> translator: the facial suppression expressions are ambiguous so the user can let their imagination run wild about what the people are thinking and sing. he supposedly told others his daughter's depictions of beautiful women were even better than his own. >> reporter: the film is titled -- it depicts the life of townspeople in the edo period. oy's father was one of the most well-noun artists of the area. [ speaking foreign language ]. >> reporter: oy inherited her father's talent and daring personality. at the film's premiere, the

director said his primary goal was capturing the feeling of the manga on which the movie was based. >> translator: she died a while back and i was never able to meet her. i wish she could have seen this film. maybe she is watching from somewhere. >> reporter: sugiura was both a manga author and scholar who specialized in edo period customs. she also had an affinity for ghost stories. this is one of her works that blurs the line between reality and fantasy. to summon up the edo environment in modern times she incorporated images in her manga. with the release of the film, the works of their peers are reaching new audiences.

30,000 of the pieces exist, but only a dozen or so by oy. oy may have put her own ambitions aside to help her father in his later years. >> translator: some people believe that many of the works attributed to the father are the oy's creations. whether that's true or not, just the fact it is even suggested means she must have been an artist of great ability. >> reporter: the approach crossed the oceans and strongly influenced the impressionist artists. the creators of the new anime also felt her influence but they had to try a number of approaches to express that era to today's audience. [ speaking foreign language ].

each image of the snowfall scene was drawn by hand expressing the movement artistically. >> translator: artists and their teams printed layer on top of layer to produce any one picture. that cooperative technique is a lot like the process of making animation, so i think it's fair to say that animation originated from -- >> reporter: from pop culture to revered art, manga and anime, the great wave shows no sign of receding. marie yanaka, nhk world. it's time now for a check of the weather. people in parts of central europe have been dealing with severe weather and many are trying to recover after tornados hit the region. meteorologist robert speta joins us with the latest. >> yes, what we have been looking at the last several days

is this frontal area pushing through the low countries and now in eastern europe but you are 100% correct. behind it, we were looking it he severe storms that flared up on tuesday and wednesday. we even had several tornadoes out here. let's go to video we had out of this area. take a look at this, this is just a scary-looking cloud. that is coming from me here and we had this starting to wrap up. it was a very serious tornado that rode through here. it left some devastation of its wake. this is amateur filming of this tornado passed through the country side. the cameraman was safe, still, one person did die from this storm. dozens were injured. it caused millions of euros in damage in this town about 7600 people. cars were flipped over. trees were uprooted. numerous buildings were damaged because of the high winds. emergency officials are now starting to pick up the pieces out here. you are looking at some improving conditions, but the storm's not over yet. it's still pushing off here toward the east and parts of eastern europe, you are going to be looking at winds that could be gusting as high as 70 kilometers per hour and 30 millimeters of rainfall.

i think the tornado threat is over with but still unsettled. back toward the west, the across parts of the british isles over through the scandinavian peninsula you will be seeing fairly gusty winds until this storm starts to taper off there out toward the east and then not really much of a break as far as the time period. because as we look ahead into the weekend, we have another storm system moving through western europe and that's going to bring another round of some blustery conditions. the good news is all those low pressure areas start to suck in the warm air in the south out of the saharan, look at temperatures on the rise across the mediterranean. rome with a high of 30. athens with a high of 33 on your thursday. see what's going on now in eastern asia. we have going on here is actually fairly active tropics. it's the middle of may. and you would think the tropicals wouldn't be flaring up but that's exactly what we're seeing. we have another storm starting

to develop off here toward the east. that would likely be called dolphin once it starts to form up. what i want to take your attention to is over here toward the west, our sixth named storm system of the year. now, a typhoon. winds of 126, gusting to 180 kilometers per hour, moving away from yap after pushing overhead here on tuesday night into wednesday morning. but as it tracks off to the northwest it will likely going to be making landfall somewhere off the east coast of luzon here heading through the weekend. definitely going to be seeing some high winds out of this, likely could be some damaging winds, especially around that center of circulation as we go ahead in the saturday and sunday, but also the heavy rainfall, which is going to be kicking up from this i think flooding is going to be one of the major issues and even the threat of some land slides. so, if you are out here this coming weekend, definitely want to keep a very close eye on it. back toward the north, a low pressure moving through southeastern china, that's going to bring some threat of flooding out here for you and back toward the east, some unsettled weather across much of japan, at least through your day here on thursday, should start to taper

off as we go ahead through your friday. here is a look at your temperatures. tokyo, a high of 25, staying on the warm side there, seoul, 23. do want to wrap things up here in the americas, we got some rather unsettled weather there in the central u.s. it is tornado season and that is definitely staying true here, what we have is severe weather, tornado watches are in effect. we are looking at some damaging winds, even large hail, as this pushes through. behind it, temperatures are cooling off, cold air masses, setting in, cheyenne in wyoming, maybe even some snowfall this coming weekend. i will leave you now with your extended outlook.

and that wraps up this edition of "newsline." i'm catherine kobayashi in tokyo. thanks for joining us.

steves: the dramatic rock of cashel is one of ireland's most evocative sites. this was the seat of ancient irish kings for seven centuries. st. patrick baptized king aengus here in about 450 a.d. in around 1100 an irish king gave cashel to the church, and it grew to become the ecclesiastical capital of all ireland. 800 years ago, this monastic community was just a chapel and a round tower standing high on this bluff. it looked out then as it does today

over the plain of tipperary, called the golden vale because its rich soil makes it ireland's best farmland. on this historic rock, you stroll among these ruins in the footsteps of st. patrick, and wandering through my favorite celtic cross graveyard, i feel the soul of ireland. >> "latin view" was made possible through generous support from the following organizations: source one management, american facility services group the national hispanic business information clearinghouse, and western union. ♪

hi, and welcome to the show. i'm sherri vasquez and this is "latin view." when it comes to this country's growing hispanic population, youth is a major factor. the u.s. census estimates there