hello there. welcome to "newsline." it's wednesday, april 24th. i'm catherine kobayashi in tokyo. operation rescuers in china are still searching for people trapped under the debris from the earthquake that sichuan. the trerm killed93 -- the

tremor killed over 93 people and injured over 1,000. nhk has more from the city near the epicenter. >> reporter: soldiers and police are still looking for survivors, the crucial first 72 hours has ed passed. chances of survival are said to drop rapidly after that. landslides caused by the tremor and aftershocks have blocked roads. workers are trying to clear roads to affected areas blocked by landslides. rain has been falling. this raises the risk of further landslides and other secondary disasters. the people that manage to escape are struggling. some 400,000 people lost their homes. they are trying to do what they

can to survive in shelters. this village was hit hard by the quake. it lies 10 kilometers from the epenter. over 90% of the houses were damaged. residents responded by building huts from bamboo and straw. about 20 people are sheltering in one. but the rain leaks in. >> translator: there's not enough space for everyone to lie down and sleep. we have to stay sitting and try not to get wet. our town's ruined. >> reporter: authorities say they are trying to reach people. but support isn't getting to survivors in many areas. their living conditions are only worsening. nhk world, china.

a standoff between antigovernment demonstrators and iraqi soldiers has ended in violence. at least 23 people were killed and others wounded. a protest in the northern town turned into gunfight between demonstrators and iraqi soldiers. the demonstrators are sunni muslims. they're opposed to the shia majority. they held regular demonstrations against what they call government oppression. government officials say armed militants with links to al qaeda infiltrated and attacked an army checkpoint. but spokespersons for the demonstrators say the solers red first. there have been more and more signs of divisions among them. and they targeted worshippers at a sunni mosque in baghdad and suicide bombing and killed at

least three people and wounded 13 others. the israeli military is accusing the syrian army of using chemical weapons during its ongoing civil war. an intelligence officer says sarin gas may have been used multiple times over the past several months. the officer said syrian troops used the deadly nerve gas against armed rebels. he warned they will use more unless the international community takes a strong stance. the syrian government and opposition troops have accused each other of using chemical weapons during the conflict. the u.s. president barack obama indicated his country will take further action if chemicals are confirmed. the united nations is considering sending a fact finding mission to the country. archaeologists in afghanistan are racing to excavate an ancient buddhist settlement rich in history. it is also rich in copper. the government plans to destroy the ruins to make way for a mine. the ruins sit on one of the

largest deposits of copper in the world. a manager at a chinese state owned company want to get it out. they stumbled on the ruins once they started digging. the government suspended the project. the archaeologists have unearthed statues, paintings and other artifacts they believe date back to the 2nd to the 7th century ad. government experts say they have to stop the work by june to make way for drilling equipment. mining could begin by early next year. >> translator: managers from the afghan government and the chinese firm want to start mining as soon as possible. we've been losing profits. >> he said the mine will create 35,000 jobs and annual economic effects of $1 billion. results from the past.isons with

in 2001, the taliban destroyed giant buddhas set into cliff walls in central afghanistan. many investors are frowning as they sitting through the latest reports from apple, ink. good morning. what do investors see in apple? >> good morning. the latest financial results from the tech giant were better than most analysts predicted. still, investors see a loss of momentum because officials and apple saw their quarterly earnings fall for the first time in a decade. they say the decline in the january to march period stems from sales of lower priced products. officials said on tuesday their net profit tumbled nearly 18% year on year in the last quarter to less than $10 billion. earnings are down despite an 11% rise in sales to more than $43 billion. customers chose cheaper models with smaller profit margins.

but chief executive, tim cook, said he's optimistic about apple's future and said the recent fall in the sre price has been frustrating to him and his staff but added the company's position remains strong. apple officials said they will share $55 billion in profit with stakeholders through dividends and share buybacks. investors see this decision as a way to ease tensions over apple's lackluster performance and falling stock price. on tuesday, a hacker breached the "associated press"'s twitter account and sa sent a message saying explosions at the white house hurt barack obama. it claimed two blasts left obama wounded. it spread fast prompting investors to sell shares on the new york stock exchange. the dow jones industrial average fell more than $140 in the two minutes after the fake news broke but share prices recovered

after it was confirmed to be untru untrue. >> i can say that the president was fine. i was just with him. >> public relations officials with the associated press sd deils of the cyber-attack are unclear. they said the news agency is working with their operators of tw twitter to investigate the incident. u.s. markets, despite that flash crash did end higher tuesday helped by favorable housing data and overall earnings results. it ended at 14,719, up just over 1%. for more on how stocks here are trading, let's go to ramin standing by at the tok stock exchge. od morning! good results from apple and how about the overall data and how are tokyo stocks acting. >> despite that flash crash, a

lot of folks really focusing on apple's numbers you touched on there. they seemed to take it positively in after-hours trading, it was trading around 3% at one stage. let's have a look at opening levels for tokyo april 24th this wednesday. both index in the positive. 14,074 for the nikkei and 1,156 for the topix. we should be on the lookout for components for apple products showing smartphones and tablet devices are out-pacing pcs as a product of choice for many who want to use the web. yahoo! japan for instance has already started taking steps to introduce smartphone ready online stores ahead of pc websites. so that's a trend that we really should be watchingut for. we should also keep a eye out for financials, after u.s. stocks gains in the likes of bank america and jpmorgan led

the indexes higher there. also, we had economic data. new home sales rose by 1.5% from last month. that also helped boost sentiment as well as stocks in the u.s. yuko. >> despite the positive housing news, we still haven't seen the dollar yen getting closer to 100. >> yes. that does seem to be an illusive level, doesn't it?e dollar ihold to upper 99.60-70 levels. the euro also falling a touch there. 129.5 129.53-58 after weaker than expected consensus and some think the central bank may be ready to cut interest rates to boost growth. we'll be watching all of that as well. positive start for the nikkei and component mers of the

apples financials and some we're looking out for. back to you. >> that was ramin at the tokyo stock exchange. japanese prime minister will meet russian president vladimir putin next sunday in russia. a japanese bank is taking the opportunity to meet with a russian bank to promote business in the country. the bank for international cooperation will go with abe and expected to sign an agreement with the bank's russian partner. the officials of the two banks are likely to share information about energy development and free trade across russia will be discussed. they will work as intermediaries in both countries interested in specific projects. delegates from around 50 firms will join executives from energy, financial and trading firms will meet russian business leaders. observers say abe wants to

deepen economic ties with russia before he moves on to full-scale negotiations to settle the issue of t norern terrories.ereignty that is all for me for now. i'll leave you with the market figures. educators in singapore are transforming their classrooms as

they try to mold the next generation of leaders, crafters and workers. the future school sents around something many carry around with them. smartphones. nhk has the story. >> reporter: a group of ninth grers at a school is studying physics. the students answer the teacher's question using smartphones. the correct answers are displayed instantly. the teacher can also see at a glance how well the students understand the material. this school uses the latest it applications to make the classes more effective and more interesting for the students. >> if you have it on your phone, you have all of them in just one compact screen. >> reporter: more than 1,500

students between the ages of 13 and 17 are enrolled here. their school is one among several participating in a project called future school. it was launched by the government five years ago. >> think about what we should do in terms of introducing new ideas and teaching methods to the kids. who were born into the digital age. you want critical thinkers. you want students who are able to articulate, students who are able to express themselves and to think critically. >> reporter: singapore places a high priority on education. about 20% of the national budget is earmarked for education. by bringing i.t. into the classro classroom, the government aims to nurture talented leaders for a 21st century information society. first, the i.t. based education project encourages students to improve their ability to gather

information. the students learn how to find useful and accurate information from among the vast amount of data on the internet. next, they must analyze what they've found. the students interpret the information and reach their own conclusions. >> we have to use basic knowledge. and then use the information given in the test and put them together and give an answer, so -- >> reporter: the cutting edge technology also helps improve the students' ability to think. artificial intelligence has been gloods to briused to bring newtk to life. to answer various types of

questions from students. the children turn to newto the educational software, for the answers to a variety of questions. for instance when a student asks about gravity, newton replies with a question. it's designed to deepen understanding through dialog, instead of giving students the answers right away. the introduction of i.t. in education is also posing challenges for teachers. they often need to upgrade their i.t. skills. this institute provides budding teachers with the expertise they need to adapt to change. >> not just teaching the students to learn, but they, themselves must learn along with the students, because knowledge gets obsolete and new knowledge evolve. singapore is very much conscious

on the need to change. >> reporter: the world of technology is constantly evolving. now one of the world's most highly developed countries is making efforts to cultivate the human resources it nds to shape its future. nhk world, singapore. japanese researchers say they hatve succeeded in resech researching a disease that causes muscles to move and hope it will lead to new drugs to treat the disease. the group is led at the sent for cell application at kyoto university. muscular distrophy is a degenerative disease with no

effective treatments. the group reprograms two cells in a patient with ips cells that can grow into any kind of body tissue. the researchers inserted a gene called mod and turned them into eletal muse cells. medical experts have known people develop muscular distrophy when their skeletal muscle cells are destroyed and said their recreated cells were also destroyed easily. >> translator: muscular d distrophy has many types and there is no effective treatment and hope to identify the disease and develop now drugs. >> scientists will apply chemicals to the skeletal muscle cells and try to find out if these chemicals are effective in treating the disorder. japan's largest confectionary event kicked off last week in hiroshima.

it's not just the best occasion for sweet lovers but a place for people to compete in the skills in the sweets they take pride in. one young japanese is showing off his talent and aims to steal the limelight of the global confectionary industry. nhk has the story. >> reporter: these flowers are not real. they're actually sweets. this thunder god, also made of ingredients you can eat. you could even take a bite out of japan's world heritage site, the shrine. the national confectionary exposition takes place at this site, a nine hector site. it's held about once every four years. it began more than a century ago. the theme has always been passing down the history and culture of japanese confectionary to future generations. the event has just opened and is attracting a large number of people.

one of the exhibits that's getting a lot of attention is this art piece called the light. this work depicts a hawk. it's perched on a tree with autumn colored leaves. the bird looks ready to fly off in search of prey. the body, leaves and tree trunk are made of 30 kilograms of sugar and rice flour. >> translator: i'm impressed by how delicate and beautiful it is. >> i like the change from the autumn leaves that are red to yellow. >> reporter: the artist has already won a top prize in a japanese confectionary competition. just 30 years old, he is grabbing the attention of people in the japanese sweets industry.

>> translator: i went to a park to collect autumn leaves. i also looked up a hawk in a reference bock. i sketched feathers of the same size one by one and copied the patterns. i'm sure the leaves and hawk are life-size. >> reporter: he has made himself quite a reputation for his finely decorated sweets and seasonal ingredients. now he has a new challenge in mind. he wants to open a japanese sweets shop overseas with a friend. >> transtor:apanese confectiaries don't contain oil or fat. people in other countries were surprised they're so tasty and healthy. >> reporter: he got the idea for a foreign shop after a cultural exchange organization sent him overseas to promote japanese confectionaries. he was surprised that people in india consider sweets just a snack rather than a delicacy.

in japan, the taste as well as their beauty are all important. he wants to spread the culture of japanese confectionaries. >> translator: i want people to now what makes japan special. >> reporter: japan sold about $130 million of confectionaries last year to people overseas. 30% more than ten years ago. japanese sweets are highly praised for their detailed craftsmanship and creativity. the government is studying ways to boost the local industry and including using these sweets to promote japanese culture overseas. if that happens, these beautiful and delicious japanese

delicacies may soon be in shops all over the world where more people will be able to safer the sweet taste of japan. "nhk world" hiroshima. the wther mht not be in good taste forsome in japan, raining all over the country. >> rain is falling across central japan. the rain is expected to extend to northern japan by this afternoon. and it looks like rain is going to be heavy across the pacific coast. rain is not going to last long. by tomorrow morning, things will be clearing up. clearing up across south korea. but unstable weather is continuing in northeastern china, where we are talking out thunderstorms and il tt are going to be a concern. towards the south we could see rain intensify for southern china. this rain will come towards the south as we head into the next couple of days.

so hong kong may start to see rain tomorrow. temperatures in china will be on the rise for example in chongqing your high could be 27 degrees on wednesday. it could go up to 32 degrees on your saturday. meanwhile, 23 in beijing. it will stay almost the same into your saturday. but tokyo slightly cooler than asonal with high around 17 degrees. rain may start around noon today. now in north america, we can see thick clouds extending from canada to texas. underneath it mostly rain, which is not good news for people particularly in the midwest, because their area has been dealing with excessive amounts of rainfall since april. grand rapids, you have 250 millimeters of rain since the beginning of april, which is a record for this area. unfortunately, more rain is expected to come here. the river levels have reached the highest on record in some places so rain is not going to be good news for this area.

as we go into wednesday, most of the precipitation will travel to the east. as the system moves through, temperatures will go down. that's why we have hard freeze warnings and freeze warnings in place for parts of the plains. we can see another system moving into minnesota. that's going to produce some snowshowers. parts ofinnesota have experienced the snowiest april. so except for skiers, late season snow is definitely not good news. out towards the west, looking dry and temperatures are like summer. 29 degrees in sacramento. temperatures could go up to 37 degrees on your friday. seas seasonablebly across the east coast. 26 degrees in washington, d.c. and 23 in new york city but cooling down to 20 degrees in houston on your wednesday. finally, in europe, then, nasty weather is continuing in the north.

we're talking about strong winds as well. and to the south we are seeing some rain and a risk of hail and thunderstorms for sardinia, sicily and the southeastern tip of siberia peninsula today. we're expecting dry weather and warmer than average temperatures -- look at this in paris, your high on wednesday could be 21 degrees. that could go up to 24 on thursday. in vienna, 26 and friday, 27 in bucharest. warmer weather is ahead of you. here's the extended forecast.

that's all for this edition of "newsline." i'm catherine kobayashi in tokyo. do stay with us. we'll be back with updates at the to of the hour.