hello and welcome to nhk "newsline." i'm keiko kitagawa in tokyo. turkish media is reporting that the gunman from a new year's shooting has been caught. police found him in the city with what is believed to be his family. the man is suspected of killing 39 people after opening fire on a crowd celebrating new years. authorities launched a massive hunt. they identified the man from security foot an and said he had

come to turkey from central asia. they have detained eight others in connection with the attack. the islamic state militant group said it was revenge for turkey's involvement in syria. >> translator: members of the group from the u.s. and turkey have no intention of returning home. i have no regrets for joining the islamic state group. if released, i will go pack to fight shiite muslims. >> the group attracted extremists from around the world after it took over large swaths of syria and iraq in 2014. but it's been losing ground. iraqi forces backed by the u.s. and others have retaken a lot of iraq and are getting closer to taking control of mosul's eastern side.

but they're expected to face fierce resistance as they reach the city's west. but they will be susceptible to ambushes in narrow alleys. it could take several more months for them to take full control. just eight people have as much as the poorest half of the populati population. the world's richest eight have $426 billion stressing that's the same as the poorest. six of the eight are americans including bill gates and facebook ceo. the report contends multinational corporations and the super rich are fueling the inequality. it says they drive down wages and hide money in tax havens.

the report calls for action to reduce the gap. it says even people in rich countries can no longer tolerate it. they point to britain's decision to leave the eu and donald trump's victory in the u.s. presidential election as evidence. he says unraveling the agreement will lead to consequences that are much worse. in a statement obama reminds the country the agreement took years of work. he adds a diplomatic resolution preventing iran from obtaining nuclear weapons is far preferable to war. iran reached the final agreement with the u.s. and other world powers in mid-2015. it was implemented in january

last year. ong monday the u.n. atomic agency says iran has a deadline to remove the equipment. donald trump will become the next american president on friday. in his campaign he said he will walk away from the deal or renegotiate it. iran says renegotiating it is not an option. the international monetary fund is significantly lower for mexico in 2017. what are you seeing? >> officials are making a prediction for the current year. they say the u.s. expand slightly and mexico's growth will be slower. this stems from the impact

the u.s. president-elect. the imf attributed the downward revision to automakers canceling plans to build plants there. but the imf said trump's proposed spending will help the u.s. economy. it revised upward its growth forecast for the u.s. by 0.1 percentage point to 2.3%. it added its economy will expand 2.5% in 2018. the imf noted possible risks, like the spread of protectionist trade policies and will continue to look into the potential effects of trump's plans. the imf has revised japanese growth to 2.8%, citing the weaker yen. global leaders will gather in

switzerland. government leaders and ministers from more than 70 countries will take part along with some 1800 business executives. chinese president is scheduled to give a speech on the first day of the four-day event. he will put pressure on trump o who has repeatedly made protectionist comments. measures against terrorism and how artificial intelligence affects the global economy. now let's turn to markets. tokyo share prices open lower as investors are avoiding risks and the incoming u.s. administration. the nikkei 225 trading lower this morning.

18,000, 928. the final sector is leading the declines. exporters are lower on a stronger yen. let's take a look at that. the dollar mostly held above 114 yen overnight but did dip when markets opened. the euro made a similar move against the yen opinion that's trading at 121 exactly. political uncertainties are driving traders to the yen which is seen as a safer asset. also in focus, the british pound. sterling fell against the dollar to its lowest level in three months on monday on reports that prime minister may will outline plans for a hard brexit in a speech on tuesday. let's move to currencies or markets open this hour in the asia pacific. we are seeing a mixed picture. australian shares down .3 of a

percent. china markets open in less than half an hour. more than 800 businesses and organization from about 40 countries are participating. on the first day ministers and business leaders attended a conference. saudi arabian energy minister announced a massive investment plan. he said the country will spend up to $50 billion on clean energy over the next seven years. the japan pavilion features an underwater drone designed to investigate seabed resources. on display is a robot that clears sand from solar panels. let's take you to germany where a new service is encouraging more people to make the switch to solar power.

nhk world explains. >> reporter: an engineer lives here with his family. >> translator: we have 35 solar panels. >> reporter: he's been generating and storing solar power for his home with panels and batteries he bought last year. the cost came to about $26,000 with the government covering nearly 10%. when it's sunny and the panels generate excess electricity, it's stored in the battery for a rainy day. solar energy know meets about 80% of the family's electricity needs. he says the cost of generating energy at home is less than half of what electricity companies charge. >> translator: we save some

$1500 a year on electricity. it's not only economical but good for the environment. >> reporter: the village is home to a battery manufacturer that's enjoying brisk growth. the name sonnen means sun. six years ago the company had just five employees. now they are 160. they use lithion ion batteries made by sony. it has sold more than 10,000 units in germany. it sells it to households needing power. customers batteries are connected to a network allowing for automatic adjustments of

supply and demand. when there's not enough solar flrj, the company taps into renewable energy such as wind power. >> translator: a revolutionary change is under way. people are sharing energy instead of buying it from large power plants. mostly in southern germany are on the network. sonnen has introduced the service in other countries such as italy and austria. it's planning to enter the u.s. market too. a system for storing and sharing solar power is opening up new possibilities in renewable energy. >> i will have more business headlines for you next hour in business. here is another check on

markets. it comes as asserting itself in regional waters like the disputed south china sea. the chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said the situation had been improving before abe's

trip. >> translator: these kinds of activities are very unsound. >> reporter: china claims almost all of the sea despite conflicting claims by neighboring countries and an international tribunal's against it. the impeachment trial of south korea's president is under way. the woman accused of colluding with park geun-hye has appeared as a witness. choi soon-sil gave her first testimony on monday at the constitutional court. she admitted to visiting park's office but denies any wrongdoing. choi says she doesn't remember how often she visited and said she only went there to help the president with personal matters. but she did acknowledge

receiving drafts of park's speeches via e-mail and editing them. she denied making illegal gains through government sponsored culture and sports events. she maintains she did not influence the appointments of senior government officials. she is in custody as she undergoes her own criminal trial. tokyo and washington are making changes they hope will deter crimes by u.s. base workers here in japan. they've signed a pact limiting the scope of legal protection afforded to them in the country. the agreement follows the arrest of a civilian base worker over the killing of a japanese woman last year in okinawa. people in the southern japanese prefecture have been demanding a change. under the japan/u.s. status of forces agreement, the u.s. military has the primary right to exercise jurisdiction over civilian employees accused of crimes while on duty. but on monday, the two countries signed a supplementary pact to

limit categories of civilian workers and set stricter criteria for companies contracted by the military. >> translator: it is our hope that the management and supervision of the u.s. civilian component will be further enhanced and in turn will help prevent recurrences of incidents and accidents involving the u.s. civilian component. >> this agreement underscores the commitment of the united states government to ensure that u.s. forces are prepared and ready to meet our treaty commitments in the defense of japan. >> but the governor of okinawa says improving the implementation of the agreement is not enough. takeshi onaga says his will continue to call for a drastic review of the agreement itself. the governor plans to visit the u.s. late this month to meet republican congressmen and experts close to the incoming

president. he wants a review of plans to relocate a u.s. air base within his prefecture. he wants it moved out all together. tokyo's governor says a plan to move the capital's wholesale food market will need to wait until more testing is done. the proposed site, which used to be home to a gas plant, has been plagued by toxic chemicals. in 2014 the tokyo government began to test groundwater at the site in the city's district. last august the eighth round of testing revealed that some water samples had nearly twice the permissible levels of toxic chemicals. the ninth round, completed at the end of last year, found extremely high levels of the chemical benzene which is associated with gas production.

that was intended to be the last test but more will be carried out before she makes a decision. >> translator: i want to hear from more experts. at the current location of the market there are sushi restaurants and sellers will very high quality products. customers who are used to those standards will need to support any plan to move the market or else it will be very difficult to actually do so. >> she says it's not possible to remove all the risks. they should order tests from more than one firm to verify the results. a japanese mini satellite was released into space on

monday eving from the international space station. it's performing an experiment. the satellite arrived at the space station in december. it's only ten centimeters long. the engineers equipped the satellite with new technology. it prevents the craft from becoming space junk. this will enable it to descend gradually over a month as its sail encounters resistance from the air. the developer designed the satellite to reenter the atmosphere and then up.

in some parts of asia baby eels are called white diamonds as they become increasing rare their prices are soaring. smugglers are hauling in big profits and japan is the biggest market. our next report looks at the trying to straighten ut the trade. >> custom agents in taiwan have to keep their eyes peeled for more than the usual contraband. they're on the lookout for endangered fish too. in late november they caught eight people carrying more than 100 bags of baby eels. worth about $500,000. taiwan prohibits the export of baby eels to conserve dwindling stocks but experts say the majority of local catches are smuggled out mainly to hong kong. exporters there can easily relabel them as hong kong produce and ship them to japan. eel farmers are becoming increasingly dependent on imports. prices have soared more than three fold in recent years and that's hurting farmers who used

to buy his eel fry from hong kong. >> translator: here i paid them $1.4 million. the price keeps soaring. it's tough. we can't keep up. >> he used to ship most of his produce for the traditional eel feast day in july. that's when consumption of fish peaks and so do the prices. but he has decided to forego that period and has changed his farming schedule. he's now buying baby eels when demand from other farmers drops. he says it will put a dent in his profits but he hopes it will contribute to proper management

of dwindling eel stocks. >> translator: i can buy baby eels at half the price because market supplies are leftover. so i don't have to worry about too much of running the farm. >> restaurant owners are also worried about eel trading. some are changing their business styles to help straighten out the market. this man used to buy three times as much eel as usual for the mid-summer feast but he stopped doing it and he doesn't advertise the event either. the quality often drops in the peak season. he's been buying less so he can serve customers only the best. his restaurant runs out of eels before the evening. he's willing to take on these painful reforms if they'll help pass on the culinary tradition to future generations. >> translator: we cook and sell an endangered species. i think we need to take a bigger responsibility. >> an international conference on wildlife conservation is taking a new step. member countries have agreed to

study the global trade of eels. experts say they might bring about rigid restrictions in a few years if trafficking doesn't improve. time now for the check of the weather. our meteorologist robert speta has more. >> the temperatures have really been dropping down but it's the persistent snowfall. we have been seeing out here just causing all sorts of problems across much of the hokkaido and also here in the central. this photo just showing you these road workers hard at work. one of my friends car there. there is not reserved to one

specific location. you're definitely going to be running into that type of scenario. krou can s this is also running the risk of roof collapse in a few of these areas and people having to go out and shovel off the roof and two deaths were reported here on monday because people sliding off the roof while clearing them. still the threat in the mountains here. good news i mentioned earlier, there were four people missing heading into the country there. they've been rescued. we're getting clearing conditions, some more good news especially for the people who do not want anymore of this snowfall that's been persisting since last wednesday. we have high pressure moving over japan today. that's going to be keeping things on the clear side and some sunny skies working its way in. there is a little bit of a low

across the sea of japan. maybe some rainfall out there especially near the coast. tokyo this rough weather has been and will continue to be off towards the west, on the west side of the mountains. partly cloudy. by friday it will be a bit of a change up. we'll talk about that later on. this is what we're talking about the dry air working its way in staying chilly. sunny weather out there for you but you're running the risk of fire weather danger. i want to bring your attention to this. we have this stationary front that's been sitting in place. this is almost seasonal. the thing is you get the waves of energy along it and it brings

the threat of severe flooding. some are up and over three millimeters of rain in the past week. showing you some video with the result of this. look at that. that's just scary. this rock slide taking place out there. this was in a few locations there east of peru. east of lima. about 150 millimeters was seen into lima. hundreds of homes were flooded and level three warning. the second high has been issued out there. this is still a pretty serious situation. more rain in forecast especially in the mountains just east of the capital. i do think lima, you'll get a bit of improvement here. if you go inland still scattered showers for midweek. i'll leave you now with your extended outlook. ♪

newlyweds usually receive blessings from family and friends to launch them into a happy new life together. but in one village in japan, it's the groom who gets launched. a local ritual after he married his wife. it's called bridegroom throwing.

people around here have been celebrating weddings this way for more than 150 years. it originated as an act of revenge after local women left her hometown to marry a man from a different village. today it's a way of ensuring the new couple a lifetime of luck. >> translator: i'm so happy to be a part of this ritual and get thrown around in a place i love. the snow was soft and i made a comfortable landing. >> the new bride said that she wanted to share this experience with her husband. she said they would work together to fill up a happy household. that wraps up this edition of newsline. thank you for joining us. "newsl.

thank you for joining us. " thank you for joining us.

♪ michelle: welcome to a very special new year's edition of "focus on europe." i'm michelle henery. we are wrapping up 2016 by taking a look back at some of our best reports of the year. and what a year it was. we've seen just how divided this continent is. it was a shock to many europeans when britain voted to leave the european union in the brexit referendum. the fishermen in cornwall, however, are elated. >> bye-bye, brussels. now we will be able to spend our own money on what we want to. michelle the fishermen of norway : would like to do just that.