soldier near a military barracks in london in what being described as a barbaric attack. police shot and wounded those believed to be responsible.

the killing took place on a street in london. the attackers approached their victim and hacked him to death. the men were carrying handguns and a number of other weapons. dave cameron was in paris at the time. he said there are strong indications this was a terrorist incident. >> people across britain, people in every community will utterly condemn this attack. we've had these attacks before in our country and we never buckled in the face of them. >> cameron cut short his visit to return to london to chair an emergency security meeting. north korean leader kim jong un seems to be trying to mend ties with his allies in china. he sent his first special envoy to beijing to meet with a senior chinese communist party official.

he leads the korean people's army. he met with the head of the people's department. they discussed ways to strengthen ties. the chinese have provided diplomatic support to the north koreans for years, but leaders in pyongyang have tested relations over the last few months. they launched a rocket in december, they say, to put a satellite into space. but diplomats say they were testing a long range ballistic missile. chinese leaders grew frustrated with their allies and penalized them with financial sanctions. the chinese say their adamant about working within the six-party framework. representatives of china, south korea, japan, the u.s. and russia are trying to encourage the north koreans to return to the negotiating table. >> translator: china aims to promote the six-party talks on the nuclear program to realize

stability in the peninsula and northeast asia. >> state-run media in pyongyang took the unusual step of reporting on the trip in a flash bulletin. authorities even allowed crews to take pictures of him leaving from the airport. the north koreans are keeping their neighbors guessing they fired kim kyok sik earlier this monday but he was among the dignitaries seeing them off to beijing. he is said to have ordered the shelling of yeonpyeong island. kim already held that post from 2007 until 2009. he was appointed armed forces minister late last year before being dismissed last week. he's the third military chief to serve under kim jong un. such turnover is unusual, and

he's 75 years old. u.s. military commanders postponed a missile test scheduled for last month to avoid exasperating tensions on the korean peninsula. they delayed again earlier this week. finally they launched an intercontinental ballistic missile toward a target in the pacific ocean. air force personnel launched the minuteman missile from vandenberg air base. it traveled to waters near the marshall islands. servicemen conduct such tests about three times a year. defense secretary chuck hagel called off the one last month at the last minute. he was concerned it would be misinterpreted. a u.n. committee says the japanese government should work to prevent hate speech against so-called comfort women. many of the women were forced to work in brothels during world war ii. some internet users in japan

have posted hateful messages about former south korean comfort women. members of the u.n. committee on economic, social and cultural rights issued a report covering various issues in japan including the comfort women. they recommend the japanese government educate the public to prevent the women from being stigmatized. they say japan should address the lasting effects of the exploitation and guarantee the women full economic, social and cultural rights. the report was compiled before osaka mayor toru hashimoto triggered controversy earlier this month. he said wartime brothels were necessary. he didn't give any clear dates. he said he needed to see more of an improvement in the job market

before he winds anything down. ben bernanke says he will leave the easing policy as it is. he said the benefits of quantitative easing are apparent. he said a premature tightening of monetary policy would carry a substantial risk of slowing or ending the economic recovery. he also said the fed could slow the pace of asset purchases by the end of this year if employment shows sustained improvement. >> if we see continued improvement and have confidence that is going to be sustained then we could in the next few meetings take a step down in our pace of purchases. >> u.s. stock prices got a temporary boost from the fed chairman's comments but stocks

ended lower as the recent fed minutes raised speculation that the bond buying program may end soon. the dow jones lost half a percent. for more on the japanese markets let's go to lee at the bank of japan. how are stocks starting the trading session. >> good morning. investors seem to be still bull you sha ish about the marks. on wednesday the nikkei started the trading session on a strong note and later in the day the boj announced they will lever it

unchanged. they are uncouraged by the improve at the outlook. ben bernanke's testimony to congress he showed support for the bank of japan's monetary policy. as long as it's aimed at pulling the bank out of its deflation the fed can deal with the boj. the board will discuss the proposal by one of the major shareholders. they will later address this issue to sony shareholders. let's take a look at some major currency pairs. the dollar/yen is at 103.25 to

28. traders pushed the dollar to the upper 103 level overnight in new york on speculation that the fed may scale back itssing program. the euro is also higher against the yen at 132.53 to 58. it rose above 133 in overseas trading reaching its highest level in three years and four months. coming up later today we'll have chinese manufacturing data and we'll see how this may affect china related stocks here in japan. back to you. >> thanks a lot. leaders of the european union have agreed to step up measures over tax dodging. many nations are making efforts to improve their finances. eu leaders agreed to exchange

information among the member tax authority on bank accounts held by individuals and businesses. eu officials say tax fraud and invasion cost about $1.3 trillion a year. the leaders also agreed to enhance monitoring of major international businesses that transfer their profits to tax havens. the european commission will finalize the policy by tehe end of this year. >> we all want to union to push hard for a global automatic sharing of information. we'll promote this strongly like the g8 and the g20. >> officials from austria is caution about plans to share the information. they raised a skeptical view on

specific measures. banking is the measure industry for both countries. more headlines next hour in business. here is a check on markets. a german politician says it could create jobs if it switches to renewable energy. he told nhk about the decision to shut down all of his

country's nuclear reactor by 2022. he's currently visiting japan. he says scrapping nuclear reactors and turning to renewable energyould be an economically sound choice. analysts said it could push electricity pres up ve a negati negative impact on the country's economy. he disagrees. >> nuclear power plants need a huge amount of money to ensure their safety but renewable energy doesn't need that money. >> he says the use of renewable energy will create new jobs and help with the country's economic growth. he said he met with the governor of fukushima prefecture. they discussed ways to commission the plant.

the operator of a nuclear power plant in central japan that's currently offline may not be allowed to start it up again. a team of experts found that the tsuruga sits on an active fault. government guidelines ban the reoperation of reactors in such areas. >> with due consideration of the plant's seismic design, we conclude the fault is active. we take this matter seriously. >> officials for the plant's operators say the nuclear regulation authority's conclusion is unacceptable. they say they'll conduct their own survey and submit the results to the nra by june. the battle to decommission the fukushima daiichi nuclear plant is testing the skills and limits of engineers. the people who run the facility and government leaders say they'll help. they're building a replica of a containment vessel to train the

engineers and test robots. radiation levels in the plant are still too high for workers to remove melted fuel rods. so officials from tokyo electric power company say they've develop a robot to do the work. they plan to build a facility 20 kilometers from the plant including a life-sized model of the containment vessel. workers will train there to operate the robot. the leaders of the project say they hope to get under way within two years. thousands of residents are stilwaiting to go home. vast tracts of land are still waiting to be restored. and more than half of fishing ports on the pacific coast must be rebuilt. people in northeastern japan still face challenges following the 2011 disaster, but step by step they're moving forward. see their stories every wednesday on "the road ahead" right here on "newsline."

delegates from countries hoping to form a transpacific partnership agreement are entering their 17th round of talks. 11 countries are attending the talks. attention is focused on the requirement. certifying whether or not the product is produced in a ttp country is a contentious issue. the key export is its textiles products.

>> reporter: vietnam economy is growing by 5,000 a year. export of textile products including clothes and shoes are helping to drive that. many of the textile factories take orders from the united states. the trade is worth $7.6 billion to vietnam. once the tpp takes effect the buyer could triple to $22 billion but there's a problem. textil p plants in materials from china. the finished products are

exported. the u.s. insists on adopting the yarn which requires textile products to use warn produced in tpp member countries in order for tariffs to be removed. china is not part of the tpp talks. if that becomes a rule, textile products made in vietnam using chinese materials will remain subject to tariffs. vietnam hopes to boost textile exports could be dashed. alarmed, vietnam's government is trying to expand domestic production of yarn. it plans to make textile switch from foreign products. >> translator: if domestically made yarn isn't used, vietnam's

textile sector won't benefit from the tpp. we need to expand our opportunity to seize it. >> reporter: not all of vietnam ee vietnam's plants can adapt to the switch over. it might leave the government to reconsider its participation in the tpp talks. to prevent such a move the u.s. has taken he also pressed for support. the u.s. is keen to prevent china from benefitting from the tpp without joining it but its plans are shaking the businesses.

japanese people by p clothing from all over japan. the lead ersz of the world help to improve safety there. now the manager of the plant in tokyo is fighting to get a foothold in his own country. >> reporter: shoppers give some stowls a good look. they are made in a soft fabric and come in over 200 sales. since they appeared over two years ago sales have been good. shoppers bought 250 in one week.

>> translator: it feels like the unusual. i love it. >> translator: its texture is great. it's very soft. >> reporter: they're made by this factory in tokyo. it's been producing dyed fabrics for more than a hundred years. he helps run the business. he started out as an artist but later the owner, his father, gave him some managerial duties. he soon learned what he was up against. more than 90% of the clothes sold in japan are made in countries with cheap labor. >> translator: they make materials in greater volume over seas and quicker too. we have to work hard to get people to choose our products.o. we have to work hard to get people to choose our products.

>> reporter: at a textile trade show a large department store exhibitions his company to make stowls. this was the company's big chance to show how well it dyes specific fabric weaved with a variety of thread. >> translator: the color and texture are amazing and its original pattern. i asked how we could find ways to work together. with th >> reporter: with this encouragement he gathered the finest materials from all over japan and set tout make a unique product. >> translator: japanese can be proud they bought something made in their own country. the product will be competitive on the international market too. >> reporter: dyeing the light fabric requires a skilled hand. both the room an water temperature suddenly affects the way the color sticks to the

fabric. it takes an experienced dyer to manage the levels. to achieve the look the machine must be set at a slow speed. oversea factories that rely on mass production can't easily match this. he keeps the cost down by making use of his artistic background. he heads is design team himself. the female model is a company employee. the male model is him. it attracts young people to work for the company. >> translator: it's great to work somewhere where you can be

processing from the first step to the last. >> translator: in the past the textile industry was one of the main industries supporting japan's economy. i'd love to find way to appeal to more people now. >> reporter: this small local factory had been producing its own original stowls. >> good quality and beautiful as well. the weather. meteorologist sayaka mori join us with the latest. commuters in tokyo may be breaking out in a sweat this morning. it feels like summer. >> that's right. like summer in parts of japan, the korean peninsula and china thanks to a couple of high pressure systems bringing lots of sunshine and nice warm air. now, we saw 35 degrees for the high in chongqing on wednesday

and here are the expected highs on thursday. look at this. over 35 degrees in some places. 31 for you in daejeon in the korean peninsula and 30 degrees in nagoya, central japan. watch out for heat stroke. for the south of china, looking for heavier rain due to a stalled frontal line, hong kong, you had about 200 millimeters of rain over the past several days. the ground is saturated. several landslides were observed. school was canceled. but today heavy rain is expected to ease starting this afternoon, so that's good news. taiwan will remain at risk for heavy rain throughout the day. heavy thundershowers for much of the indo-china peninsula due to ample moisture from the bay of bengal and the daytime heating. in western china once again, 29 degrees in seoul in the korean peninsula and tokyo looking at 26 degrees with abundant sunshine. a couple degrees higher than average. in north america, these are the

clouds that spawned the tornado in oklahoma on monday. this is still packing a lot of energy. we may see isolated tornados in the north and heavy rain, thunderstorms as well as large hail. this system is starting to slow down and that means the nasty weather will continue for the time being. places like boston and new york city, showers may continue into your saturday. backside, on the flip side of the continent due to a wet and cool weathermaker we see dreary weather from british columbia on down towards northern california, but that weather will continue for the next several days. snow is likely maybe up to 15 centimeters in the mountains in the pacific northwest to wednesday night and 38 centimeters in the northern rockies to friday afternoon. very warm across the southeast. 29 degrees in washington, d.c. but cooling down to 14 in chicago but starting to warm up in seattle as well as vancouver on thursday.

arriving in europe then, there are two major systems i want to mention. one of two lows still siing over the scandinavian peninsula, and this warm front triggered severe weather. this is the picture from russia. a rare tornado was observed in central russia about 300 kilometers from moscow on wednesday. the tornado lasted for five minutes. it was accompanied by two centimeter hail. 15 people were injured. buildings were damaged. residents were left without electricity in the storm's wake. now that that weather will likely continue in the moscow area throughout the day. towards the south, heavy rain and thunderstorms and the risk of hail in italy and the balkan peninsula. temperatures will be very hot in the southeast. 29 degrees in athens. very cold towards the north.

here's the extended forecast. ♪ ♪

>> that wraps up this edition of "newsline." thanks for joining us.

captioning sponsored by macneil/lehrer productions >> woodruff: the devastated town of moore began the shift from search and rescue to recovery today. we get the latest from oklahoma governor mary fallin. good evening, i'm judy woodruff. >> ifill: and i'm gwen ifill. on the "newshour" tonight, we're on the ground from moore, where families are taking stock of what's left of their homes and their lives. >> there is nothing that can describe the sound of your house exploding with you in it. >> woodruff: then, with one i.r.s. official pleading the