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tv   Newsline Daily  PBS  October 5, 2010 4:00pm-4:30pm PST

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hello there. welcome to "newsline." it's wednesday, october 6th, 8:00.m. in kyo. i'cathinekoyash e bankf japan has decided to further lower the key interest rate taking it down to around 0.1% for the first time in four years. the central bank took the step amid growing fears the economy may not be able to pull itself out of deflation any time soon. the boj decision came at a two-day regular policy board meeting that ended on tuesday. the board members agreed that while the economy has been recovering gradually, its pace could slow due to the sluggish u.s. economy and the soaring yen. these factors have dampened japanese exporters' outlook
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according to the latest tankan survey released last week. based on the data the boj decided to loosen its credit grip further adding to previous measures taken in august. they also decided to consider setting up a $420 billion fund to be used to keep the interest rate down and spur asset back to investment. the central bank is thinking of dipping into the fund to buy government as well as corporate bonds and other financial products. it is also planning to consider extending loans at extremely low interest rates in return for such as etcetera as collateral. two professors at britain's university of manchester, andre geim and konstantin novoselov are sharing this year's nobel prize in fphysics. the royal swedish academy of science in stockholm, sweden made the announcement tuesday. the two scientists won the prize for their ground breaking experiments of the super thin material called graphene, which
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is a form of carbon. graphene is suitable for producing transparent touch screens, light panels, and maybe solar cells. it will also likely be used in the production of powerful computers in the future. geim is 51 and novoselov is 36. both were born in russia and started their careers there. the two laureates have worked together for many years. leaders from 46 asian and european nations have ended their two-day summit in brussels by promising greater cooperation and economic integration of their regions. to close the asia europe meeting or asem on tuesday the leaders >> we need to find common ground
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and agree on coordinated action between our two continents in order to tackle the pressing issues. >> european leaders were particularly concerned about the rece recent row over the collision of the patrol boats and chinese fishing boat. european leaders who are critical of china's human rights records were worried about the country's hard line stance over japan following the incident. they expressed a sense of relief when chinese premier wen jiabao showed his intent to mend the strained ties with an informal meeting with the japanese prime minister naoto kan on monday. >> this conflict between these two major countries has to be brought to an end. it has been brought to an end. that's good news for the global world. >> a correspondent at the venue says the sentiment among european leaders indicates they shared challenges over china as
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a growing world power. in iraq a car bomb has killed a cameraman who worked for a u.s. affiliated tv station. an international media advocacy group has condemned the killing and is calling for better protection for journalists. on monday in the western province of ambar the contract cameraman for the u.s. affiliated arabic language satellite tv station was killed by a bomb placed under his car. this is the latest in a series of targeted attacks against the media in iraq. seven people have been killed since july. in the same month four people, including security guards, were killed when a vehicle exploded near the baghdad bureau of dubai based al arabia tv. in september a news anchor for state tv was shot dead while driving in the iraqi capital. another broadcaster was severely
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injured by a car bomb. iraqi police say journalists are easy targets because of poor security. reporters without borders has issued statements appealing for prompt measures. members of the world steel association have agreed to include producers in china and other emerging economies in an effort to reduce carbon monoxide emissions. these economies will join developed nations in dealing with the large amount of co2 generated in steel production. at the conference in tokyo on monday the association appointed a person from a chinese company to the vice chairman's post for the first time. that's a president of ashan steel corporation. the program director ian christmas said because china is the world's top steel producer it's vital the country be involved with climate change discsions. in thailand an explosion at an apartment near bangkok has
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killed at least three people and injured nine others. thai police say the powerful blast occurred in the province on tuesday evening, damaging a five story building. they suspect it was caused by explosives. earlier in the day the thai government decided to extend emergency rule in the province, bangkok, and two other provinces through early january. sporadic bombings have undermined the stability of the nation, even after a large scale antigovernment protest ended in may. the protesters had occupied downtown bangkok for two months. a japanese research team has discovered one of the world's largest hydro thermal fields off the southern islands of okinawa. rich metal and mineral deposits are often found near fields of this type. the research vessel chikyu or earth began exploring the seabed 180 kilometers northwest of nago
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city in september. the hydro thermal fie lies 200 meters bel the seabed and its super heated fluid has a temperature of more than 250 degrees celsius. the field is one of the largest of the 350 identified so far worldwide. it has a radius of 10 kilometers and is 100 meters deep. the discovery has raised interest among researchers as gold and silver reserves and other mineral deposits are often found in the vicinity of such sites. >> translator: finding the seabed river of super heated fluid is interesting scientifically and promising in terms of securing resources. a biotech breakthrough takes a new direction. four years ago japanese scientists developed a new type of stem cell.
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called an ips cell it was seen as a promising new hope in regeneral ra tiff medicine. that work continues but recently the technology offers hop in a ch wer field. induced stem cells can transform into a cell from any part of the body including nerves, the heart, blood, or intestines. researchers had previously focused on embryonic stem cells from human fertilized eggs but this raised ethical concerns. scientists consider the ips cell a breakthrough that can resolve these problems. next we look at how researchers are using it to find the cause of rare and unexplained diseases. >> reporter: at harvard university in the united states, researchers are using ips cells developed by professor yamanaka to find out what causes als. >> little human embryonic or human ips. >> reporter: als causes the
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nerve cells that control voluntary muscle movement to degenerate. these scientists have created an ips cell from a skin cell taken from an als patient. then they transformed it into a motor nerve cell. now the scientists can closely observe the onset of the disease. another advantage is that the cell contracts the illness in just a few weeks, making it easier to study. in real life this process can take decades. when scientists transform stem cells from an als patient into nerve cells, the result is surprising. >> and soon you're going to see that they're just going to start disappearing, blking off, boom. boom. >> reporter: these scientists have successfully recreated the process by which the disease attacks and kills the nerve cells of als patients.
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this is seen as a giant step towards finding the cause of als. four years ago yamanaka and his team became the first group to create an ips cell in a lab. since then many patients who suffer rare diseases have asked yamanaka to cure them. he believes that the best use for ips cells is to study rare diseases that are not widespread and the causes of the illness still unclear. >> translator: through talking with patients, i learned that many of them feel like nobody is conducting research into their diseases. they feel abandoned. we will emphasize research into difficult diseases, like als as
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well as other rare conditions. >> reporter: researchers have also started using ips cells to test new drugs. this venture capital company transformed an ips cell into a heart cell. now they can conduct tests outside a human body. they can determine whether new drugs they are developing have any dangerous side effects. when a strong drug is applied to a heart cell made from an ips cell, sometimes the drug's side effects come to light only after it goes on the market, resulting in a drug recall. the safety of a drug cannot be guaranteed by testing only animals. but ips cells make it very easy to check for side effects.
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this may eventually mean new drugs reach the market more rapidly. yamanaka is also working on finding ways to use ips cells to cure common diseases such as cancer and diabetes. >> translator: we've discovered a cell that has the potential for curing people with rare diseases. it's as if we've unlocked a box. as the leader of the research team, it's impossible for me not to think about how we can give this to people who are waiting for cures. >> earlier we spoke to the codirector of the harvard stem cell institute about the challenges he foresees in using ips cells. >> professor, thanks for joining us today. tell us, how revolutionary is dr. yamanaka's research?
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>> well, it's really changed the way we think about cells and what dr. yamanaka showed us is by using a very small, select number ogenes you can actually reverse that press. thcell will rewd their history entirely and revert back to a state that they were in the embryo, a state that allows them to become any cell type. it's really a phenomenal finding. it's a finding that allows us to be able to now think about taking cells from any one of us, be able to revert that cell back, so it can become a broad-based cell that can become any cell in our body, to then be used for either study or potentially for drug development or potentially to actually be used in transplantation, itself. >> ips cells may not raise the -called ethal concerns like embryonic stem cells. in your idea, what are some other kinds of concerns related to developing ips cells? >> well, ips cells at the moment have generally been produced by
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putting viruses into the cells. and with that, those viruses have some effects on the dna content of the cell. that raises the risk of cancer, and so there's been a concern that these cells would not be useful for transplantation. we just learnedver theast fedayshat ere e new technologies that may enable us to create the cells without the use of those viruses. the other issues that people have raised, that if we're going to identify how these cells work, we're going to need to put them into animal models and those animals will then be something of a hybrid between a human and an animal. that's clearly something that has a sense of a certain ghoulishness to it. but in general it has been regarded as being able to be controlled, risks are being managed, and i think in general peop recnizehat the utility of that outweighs any of the ethical concerns. >> do you think researchers
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today are cooperating with each other globally on stem cell research, or is it pretty much a very competitive field of science? >> this is a question that's often asked. i have to say there's a remarkable amount of cooperation. i think in general this is a field that is changing rapidly, has lots of wide open opportunities. people regard it as a place whersharing new iormation is crital tbe able to get things to move forward, and there's ban great deal een a gr interaction. i think there continues to be a leadership role dr. yamanaka has and will continue to have but i think he would probably share the view that we need to be doing these things in many laboratories to both validate each other's findings as well as to let -- allow things to move forward as rapidly as they possibly can. >> all right. the professor isrom the harvard stem cell instute.
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recent research indicates one out of every several thousand people is faced with mismatched gender identity. that's having the mind of a woman in the body of a man or vice versa. robert jefferson brings us part two of a series on gender identity disorder. the japanese government has sent notice to school administrators around the country to hel students dealing with this issue. xt we look at new efforts being employed in the classroom. >> reporter: children with gender identity disorder or gid need special care. in kawasaki city on the outskirts of tokyo the community and the local government have launched a new effort to break down gender barriers in the
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classroom. research recently conducted by a university has found that one-third of japanese students deing with gid can't attend school. what's more disturbing is that two-thirds of them have considered committing suicide. takomatsu is physically female. she says her school miseries finally ended when the principal made the decision to treat her as if she were a male student. >> translator: first, i couldn't understand what was wrong with me. was it that i hated wearing skirts? or that i hated my teachers? other kids had constantly bullied me since elementary school, calling me lady boy or creepy. the boys and girls bathrooms were segregated like this. >> reporter: the simple use of the toilet became one of the
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biggest problems so kobiayashi was allowed to use the facilities in the faculty room. the aim was to give everyone a better understanding of gender identity. >> i still don't like my body, but maybe i can accept my inner self now. >> reporter: this woman is leading a task force set up by the city of kawasaki. she is a psychiatrist who specializes in gid. she had lived as a man herself for 50 years until she, herself, changed her gender two years ago. >> translator: in child cases it is difficult to express their feelings or distress.
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children cannot be understood about their situation. >> one of the major problems we see nowadays is the issue of bullying. >> teachers should teach about gender identity disorder. then maybe, hopefully, children will be free from prejudice. >> reporter: the task force consists of a wide network of teachers and community counselors. the team has set up private consultation services for children.
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she advises parents on how they can best advise their children. doctor, what we're dealing with here are really sensitive issues. they involve mental health, one's sexuality, one's identity. so what sort of care is really needed to help students especially? >> children's bodies are continuously changing. then even gender identity may change. so any -- no stereotyped image should be imposed upon the children. we should be in a neutral position. >> reporter: a path should always be left open for the student to go backwas. >> yes. repter: instead of encoaging themohoos this or the other.
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>> yes. and continuous sessions with a mental health specialist is very important for that. >> reporter: doctor, thank you very much. >> thank you. >> that was our one-on-one series on gender identity disorder. now let's g ahead and take lookt thmark figes.
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hello there. time now for your world weather update. well, the weather looks promising again for japan. just a couple of showers touching the west coast. meanwhile, high pressure system really continues to dominate the korean peninsula and, in fact, much of china all the way from the northeast down towards the south, hence we do have very settled conditions. there are a couple trouble spots though. first we do have a few showers working their way across the southwest and of course down in the south we've been monitoring this very active weather system that has been with us since the week and it's now a tropical
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depression and is set to linger in the same area over the next couple days. it doesn't look like it's going to be intensifying but it will continue to produce torrential rains in the same area so lookinat heavy rain as well as guanshe and guandong provinces in china as well looking upwards of 100 mill meet neimeters in t 48 hours. the rain in vietnam is beginning to ease but the ground is quite saturated so will be very vulnerable to further flooding and landslides. do keep that in mind. let's look at your temperatures then. 22 degrees in seoul today so much milder. tokyo is 23 with cloudy skies and down towards the south lots of thunderstorms in store for manila and also bangkok. let's head to north america. then not much has changed since yesterday. we still have the very big high pressure system in control over central and eastern areas. across places like kentucky and tennessee and ohio. a little bit dry and windy as we
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head toward the southeastern corner. the rain will continue to linger for the atlantic coast. the flooding is going to be a bit of a concern and it's also been raining for a couple days down in the southwestern corner so places like utah as well as arizona looking at flooding possibilities. now severe storms still breaking out today for northern mexico and arizona. do watch out for large hail and possibly tornadoes. now the cool air continues just sort of hovering over this area and temperatures do remain on the cool side. 21 degrees in los angeles and coming down to 22 in denver as well. finally, taking a look at europe then, the severe weather, you can see it still persisting over toward the northwest, this line of clouds really affecting scandinavia all the way down into the iberian peninsula again so, yes, there will be plenty of rain along this frontal boundary as well as strong winds really affecting norway. now the heavy reine is going to be easing in the uk today.
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still quite heavy though right now down in the southwestern corner but generally on the mend here but although the winds will stay pretty strong for you. now central areas looking much calmer today down in the south this active system will continue to make its way across the mediterranean, really affecting southern italy and the balkans with heavy rain and lots of thunderstorms today and it will be moving fairly slowly so it looks like greece will continue to be very unsettled over the next couple of days. let's take a look at your temperatures then. 8 degrees in moscow today with good spells of sunshine. 10 in kiev. while it will be quite warm down in the southwest for places like madrid. here is the extended forecast now.
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taking a look at our top story once again leaders from 46 asian a european natis have ended their two-day summit in brussels by promising greater cooperation and economic integration of their regions. to close the asia europe meeting or asem on tuesday the leaders adopted the chair's statement and a declaration on the global economy. >> we need to find common ground and agree on coordinated action between our two continents in order to tackle the pressing
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issues. >> european leaders were particularly concerned about the recent row over the collision of a chinese trawler and japanese patrol boats near the senkaku islands in okinawa prefecture. european leaders were worried about the country's hardline stance over japan following the incident and expressed a sense of relief when the chinese premier wen jiabao showed his intent to mend the strained ties in an informal meeting with japanese prime minister naoto kan on monday. >> this conflict between these two major countries had to be brought to an end. it has been brought to an end. that's good news for the global world. >> our correspondent at the venue says the sentiment among european leaders indicates they share challenges over china as a growing world power. and that's all for this edition of "newsline." i'm catherine kobayashi in tokyo. tokyo. thanks for joining us.
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