glad you could join us. it's tuesday, may 14th. i'm catherine kobayashi in tokyo. western leaders have tried for years to imagine a syria that looks different from the one they see now.

now two of them say they're planning for a democratic syria without president assad. president obama and david cameron say they'll do what they can to strengthen opposition groups. obama hosted cameron at the white house. they discussed a proposed peace conference on syria. obama said it's essential to bring representatives of assad's government and opposition forces to the negotiation table. >> together we're going to continue our efforts to pressure on the assad regime, to strengthen the moderate opposition and to prepare for a democratic syria without assad. >> russian leaders have long provided support for their allies in syria. cameron traveled last week to visit with president putin. john kerry held separate talks in moscow with russian foreign minister. they agreed to set up talks between the government and the opposition by the end of the month. but u.s. state department

officials say the conference is unlikely to take place until at least next month. twice already looks set to do so again. sharif served as prime minister in the 1990s, he's expected to return to power after his party won the most votes in a general election. election officials say they've counted nearly 60% of the vote. sharif's party has secured many seats. former cricket star turned politician ran at the ad of the pakistan movement for justice. his party won 23 seats. pakistanis passed a democratic landmark just by voting.

this is the first time one elected government will make way for another. sharif has begun discussions with his aides to form a new government. now people are waiting to see how the outcome will affect pakistan's rule in u.s. led anti-terror operations. president obama released a statement praising the efforts to successfully mplete the election process. he said his administration looks forward as working with the new government in creating a more stable, secure and prosperous future for the people of pakistan. sharif has voiced opposition to drone attacks. he says the attacks are offensive to his government's sovereignty. the former prime minister of bulgaria is making plans of his own. he's looking for coalition partners afteris ruling center right party came out narrowly ahead. they have almost finished counting the votes. they said the citizens for bulgar

bulgaria's european development took about 30% of the ballots. the party lost up to 10 of its 117 seats. bulgarians propested earlier this year about theoari cos of electricity. earlier this year he resigned. opposition parties gain ground in the run up to the election but they fail to unite in their bid to remove the ruling party from power. rescue workers at a factory collapse in bangladesh have ended their search for survivors. they ended their tuesday on

tuesday morning after 20 days. thousands of factory workers were involved in last month's collapse of the eight story building. 1,127 people are confirmed dead. more than 2400 people were rescued. police officers arrested the factory's owners, managers and others connected with the accident they are charged with forcing employees to work in a dangerous environment. workers complained building was unsafe. they have turned out at protest after protest demanding safer working conditions. we've heard from toyota and sony. let's turn to business. >> they're not alone. at the end of this earnings report season many japanese executives will feel solid at the first quarter results. that is not all of them.

the bosses at electronic's firm sharp will post their first net loss. they expect to announce on tuesday a record loss for the fiscal year ending in march of around $5.3 billion. that's $880 million more than the previous forecast. sharp forecasts have returned to the black in the current year. executives predict they will turn an operating profit of more than $780 million and a net profit of $49 million. the company is planning this year to set up a division to promote new business projects in the field of medical equipment. u.s. consumers opened their wallets a little wider last month. officials have revealed a slight increase in retail sales. they reported retail sales of

$419 billion up 0.1% from the previous month. some analysts were convinced the figure would drop after a decline in march. people bought more cars and auto parts bringing that sector up 1%. building material sales climbed 1.5%. consumers shopped for more clothing and appliances. drivers enjoyed cheaper gas prices but gas stations saw a 4.7% drop in sales. u.s. markets ended mid. the nasda ended almost unchanged rising just a touch to 3,438. for more on how stocks here are trading, let's go to ramin at the tokyo stock exchange. good morning. what are you seeing over there this tuesdaymorning? >> very good morning to you. let's go to the openinghe

nikkei and the topix. in the positive for may 14th herentokyo. u.s. retail sales data has come out better than expected. here in japan let's shift the focus here. the index is getting closer to that 15,000 level as theen weakens. many reporting hherperang profits as we have been reporting due to the weakening yen. we're talking about sharp this morning. sharp shares have been rising

over the past six sessions and going to keep an eye on it today. the company is likely to announce a plan for a management reshuffle today. that's going to be a big focus for sharp as they may replace the current president. big focus on sharp. >> where do wetand on currencies? >> the weakening yen trend has been a big focus. let's have a look at some of the pairs for this tuesday here. dollar yen, 101.62 to 65. after a jump above 102 yen following the u.s. retails sales data. it's the first time we've been at these levels since october 2008. the momentum looks to have faded a touch. euro yen 131.93 to 98. investors keeping a close watch for germany ecomic stiment fires whichreue out later today on tuesday.

two pieces of news that the federal reserve and analysts will be looking at. positive start for the nikkei d topix. back to you. >> thank u. i'lleave youit check on somether figes.

japanese prime minister shinzo abe seems to be beating the odds. a new poll suggests he's maintaining his popularity about five months after his liberal democratic party took power. that's something his predecessors had trouble doing. still many remain undecided or opposed to one of his key initiatives, revising the constitution. nhk surveyed people. 65% said they back abe's cabinet. compare that to the recent prime ministers from the former democratic party government. after five months in office, 31% of people surveyed supported the previous cabinets.

a third of those who support prime minister abe's cabinet said it appears to be better than others. a fifth said it has the ability to act. the survey asked if the constitution should be amended. the results were pretty evenly mixed. 31% of respondents were in favor. 26% were opposed. 36% couldn't decide. the liberal democrats want to revise the constitution and rename the self-defense forces as a national defense force. 27% agreed with the idea. 26% disagreed. the biggest group was the 40% who said think couldn't decide. the ldp wants to modify article 96. 35% disagreed. 20% were in favor, 39% said they couldn't decide. government leaders around the world have reopened their constitutions with varying

degrees of success. german leaders have revised theirs 59 times since world war ii. the americans have made six amendments in that time. japanese leaders have made none, but prime minister abe said he's determined to write a new page in history. nhk has more. >> reporter: general douglas macarthur took charge in tokyo after the war, shaping changes, economic, social and political. his aides oversaw the new constitution. think wanted to disarm japan and prevent any future aggression. but many japanese say their leaders need to rewrite the constitution to express the will of the people. calling for the document to be

amended ever since the party was founded in 1955. prime minister shinzo abe says he needs to reopen the constitution to change the nature of how japanese defend themselves. he wants them to be able to exercise collective self-defense, to meet their obligation does their allies. but first, he wants to make a change that will make all changes easier. right now any revision requires at least 2/3 of the members of both houses of the diet and a majority of voters in the national referendum. abe wants to ease the 2/3 requirement to a simple majority. >> translator: amendment of the constitution has been one of our main goals since the foundation of our party. it was our pledge in the recent lower house election. and will be again in the coming upper house election. >> reporter: members of the japan restoration party are on-side. but abe's coalition partners are

cautious. he has to keep them happy with an election expected this summer in the upper house. he says lawmakers need to be careful as they deliberate any changes. >> it's pretty much dependent on the supporters of the new coming party. so it's not easy forhem depart from a new coming party to go to a party. >> reporter: to do what they want, abe and his party will have to hmm double the seats that they hold in the upper house. they'll tart out by trying to bring their coalition partner on-side. then they'll have to convince the public. nhk world, tokyo.

japanese foreign ministry officials say a diplomatic rift between china and japan dented tourism figures last year. they say the number of chinese visitors fell sharply after the japanese government purchased the skew islands in september. japan controls the east china sea islands, china and taiwan both claim them. 1.1 visas went to chinese visitors. the number of people from china had started to rebound from the effect of the 2011 disaster. they say more relaxed visa rules saw numbers rise significantly for the first eight months of

the year. septber d th've en at t least 50% down year on year ever since. fans of japan's national sport are getting their fix of shoving and pushing and slapping. the 15-day may grand sumo tourney is now under way. our play-by-play sumo announcer hiro morita is here with some insight. >> reporter: sumo tournaments are held six times a year in japan. the may competition is the third one of this years. this time around, four fresh faces have joined the division. hakuho is a favorite. the mongolian is trying to win back-to-back titles. he's won theost in sumo history. he faced a veteran on day two of this tourney. he's able to defend off his opponent for a moment, but he calmly slaps him, and his fall down.

hakuho's titles puts him in fourth place. he's after sashoryu, and if he keeps the pace, he has a good chance of surpassing the record held by taiho. he's hoping to redeem himself after finishing with a dismal nine wins and six losses in march. he needs to place well and ideally win the cup in each and every tournament. on day two, he stood across him hoping to score a huge upset. they both lose balance at the get-go, but he doesn't flinch and pulls off an upset. hakuho swed whs boss, but fuji is off to a rocky start. let's take a look at how they

got to the sport's highest rank. currently there are 635 professional sumo wrestlers. among them, only 42 compete in the top division. they're categorized in five different ranks. another symbol of strength and success in professional sumo. that's why they're obliged to keep on winning, period. besides the two, a couple of up-and-comers are getting attention this time around. they are goeido and a newly promoted wrestler. goeido is 27 years old, he's been fighting at the third highest rank for seven consecutive tournaments. he won ten bouts in march. if he caput gether a sin of double-digit winning records,

he will likely earn the promotion to ozeka in 2013. shimane native to reach this rank. recently he's enjoyed his rank htinaggressively with his physique. here he is competing on monday. they lock up. a fierce attack. he forces the wannabe out. his day two opponent was kotoshogihu. he refuses to ease up and easily takes the match. finally, let's go over how the top ranked are performing two days into the may tourney. here are the top dogs.

hakuho is for hes in the driver'seat harumafuji is 1-1. after withdrawing from the march competition, he must win at least eight matches to retain his ozeki status. otrwise, he'll be demoted. goeido's record is even. he wants to bounce back from his two early losses. and that's all for today's sumo sum-up. it's still early in the may tournament, and anything could haen in the cour of e next 13 days. i'll be back with a full recap at the end of the competition. so i'll see you then. it's time to get a check on the weather. we've been keeping an eye on the storm.

>> yes, good morning, kathryn. we have a cyclonic storm to talk about. it's still over the bay of ben gall. and it is likely to move toward bangladesh, myanmar border, possibly making landfall around thursday. lack how far the system is from the islands. it is already affecting these islands with some stormy weather. so you can imagine the strength of this. it will be maintaining its intensit but after it makes landfall it will be decreasing into a deep depression. gusts of 85 kilometers per hour. it's moving at the speed of 10 kilometers per hour. a slow moving system. it's going to be packing a hefty

amount of rainfall to the already saturated land. so the main threat will be flooding, landslides as well as mud slides. and the storm surges will also be creating flooding in the low-lying areas. could be some devastating storm. and also we do not advise you to venture out into the oceans at this time. now over towards the bigger picture in eastern continental asia we've got rein in china as well as korea today. heavier rain lies here in southern china where they really don't want rain any more. hunan province is likely to see more. scattered thundershowers and heavy rain patches will be found in the philippines, but here across yeah pan, about 60 locations in this country saw temperatures rising in the summer, midsummer temperatures i should say. puck she ma reaching to 27, tokyo 28. nagoya saw an end of sumr temperature. the official announcement of the blooming of the cherry trees was announced yesterday. scorching hot in bangkok at 37

degrees. we move over to north america. we've till got sominshows and some snow to talk about in the eastern canada region. and back behind that, due to the very cold air blanketing the area, we've got frost warnings and freeze advisories. we have a system creating thundershowers. we have a cold front sagging down to denver. so that region could possibly see some thundershowers. the warm air is creating this kind of temperature. denver at 31 degrees. if you recall yesterday, that was 17 degrees in chicago. now a high jump to 3degree a quick look here in europe. still a messy picture here across the british isles.

it will be quite severe across northern regions here as well as southern norway. and down towards the lower countries as well. wet and wendy across the turkey region with athens reaching to 25 degrees and moscow, take a rook at that, 30 degrees. a rare sight fhi the year. i'll leave you now for your extended forecast.

>> those higher temperatures are giving an early boost to something that's associated with summer here in japan. for centuries japanese have heard the tinkle of wind bells and thought of a refreshing breeze on a hot summer day. this shop in the western city uses recycled glass bottles to make the bell. the item went on sale in april.

the owner has sold 20% of his stock because of the unseasonably warm weather. and that is all for this edition of "newsline." i'm catherine kobayashi in tokyo. thanks for joining us.

captioning sponsored by macneil/lehrer productions >> brown: president obama called targeting of conservative groups by the i.r.s. "outrageous," and vowed to get to the bottom of the scandal. good evening. i'm jeffrey brown. >> woodruff: and i'm judy woodruff. on the newshour tonight, we examine the allegations the agency singled out groups with the words "tea party" or "patriot" in their names. >> brown: then we get the latest on the trial of the philadelphia abortion doctor found guilty on three counts of first-degree murder. >> woodruff: we talk to marcia coyle about today's unanimous supreme court decision, upholding monsanto's patent on soybean seeds.