hello there. welcome to "newsline." it's tuesday, may 28th. i'm catherine kobayashi in tokyo. mpblt they allowed member

countries to allow opposition fighters with weapons in their civil war. the ministers reached a decision at a meeting in brussels. the british and french have been pushing their colleagues to lift the ban. they said arming the opposition will only make things worse. they say there's no immediate plans to ship in weapons. they agree to do everything they can to control the shipments to make sure weapons go where they are supposed to. the ministers want to wait for an outcome the russian leaders are waiting for next month. they want representatives at the negotiating table.

african leaders complain help doesn't arrive quickly enough in times of trouble, rebellion or war. they say troops from the african union step in too late. so they've agreed to create an emergency military force in the hopes of more rapid reaction. they reached the decision in a summit. member nations launched the organization in 2002 to promote peace across the continent. the following year they assembled their first joint military force. but many complained such missions come too late. last year islamist militants overran much of mali. in january, french forces stepped in. one representative said member nations have to respond without depending on european or u.s. help. members have promised to contribute troops to the rap ed reaction force. researchers from the united nations say africa must tap into resources under their feet.

officials released their african economic outlook. they projected annual growth of 5.4% over nine years. and they have telecommunications have boomed with more and more people using mobile phones. the researchers said african nations will benefit from high prices for natural resources such as oil and rather earth metals. they advise african leaders to modern ease agriculture. d they said manufacturing firms need to here more young workers. the and lists warned more jobless people could lead to political instability across the region.

shmpblts. she spoke with tom donland. he flew to china to lay the ground work for the upcoming meeting. >> translator: i'm looking forward to the meeting with president obama early next month in california where we can have deep communication with each other on major strategic issues. >> the two leaders are expected to discuss trade as well as suspect the chinese cyberattacks on u.s. government targets.

they will also cover the north korea situation. heaid e u.s. government is pushing to cooperate and to manage potential disagreements. xi said he hopes the summit will inject vitality into the u.s./china relationship. north korean leader kim jong un has ordered the navy to hide all their combat vessels. state media said kim spotted sea craft anchored on a beach during an inspection. he was shown on tv in front of high speed hovercrafts. he reported le said enemies are tracking north korea's movements. last month, they observed the deployment of midrange missile

launchers to the east coast. north korean troops later removed the launchers. people in afghanistan are weighing a year of big changes. they've begun registering for a president who will replace hamid karzai and guide the country after u.s. forces withdraw. nhk reports from kabul. >> reporter: afghanistan's constitution bans any president from serving a third term. the incumbent karzai is in his second term. so voters would have to pick a new leader in the vote on april 5th, 2014. >> translator: i expect the next president to make a greater effort than karzai has in all aspects of afghanistan, especially the economy and national security. >> reporter: afghans are concerned the security situation will only worsen in the run up to the election.

in the previous poll four years ago, taliban insurgents mounted a campaign of terrorist attacks to disrupt the vote. the winner of next year's election will have a lot on their plate. among them is how to ensure domestic security after u.s. led international combat forces withdraw from afghanistan by the end of 2014. questions are already being raised about the security capabilities of the afghan military. and at international conferences on afghanistan, donors continuously press the country about corruption. fighting corruption will be extremely difficult. no major figure has announced their candidacy.

potential candidates include karzai's brother, and a man who served as interior minister under karzai, a former finance minister is also rumored to be a likely runners. abdullah was karzai's main rival in the 2009 vote. afghanistan is strategically important and rich in resources. at stake is whether its next elected leader can overcome a host of challenges to improve the lot of the nation and its people. political maneuvering among presidential hopefuls is expected to heat up soon. nhk world, kabul.

european union saying they are dumping. tell us more about that. >> some eu officials want to impose a heavy tax on those imports but others are against it. they want to settle this via dialogue. now it's up to china whether the world's second largest economy can resolve this trade dispute. china's next move will determine whether the two sides can find an amicable solution. he made the comment after an unofficial meeting with a senior chinese official. the european commission is looking to impose new tariffs of around 47% on china made solar par panels and related parts.

some eu companies are against the move. they say it could be detrimental to firms in the block that rely on solar panels from china. they suggest priority should be given to the eu as a whole. european markets ended higher on monday while markets in the u.s. and the uk were closed for a public holiday. germany's main index rose .9 of a percent. for more on japanese markets let's go to eileen lee. japanese stocks took another battering on monday. how are we kicking off this monday? >> another loss on monday. let's have a look at the opening

levels. the nikkei is down 0.16%. on monday the nikk srted the trading session in the negative territory. it fell a mere 14,000 points and ended the day more than 3% lower. in fact it lost almost 10% in just three trading sessions. also yesterday investors received the minutes from last month's bank of japan policy meeting. we showed how officials were divided over the central bank's aim of achieving a 2% inflation target in two years. now analysts say investors especially foreign investors are waiting to see whether the administrations able to deliver its detailed growth strategy. otherwise we may see the run in equities come to an end. let's take a look at currencies.

the dollar yen is at 101.43 to 47. trading is keen due to the holiday in the u.s. many analysts say there's still an upside in the dollar yen. still market players are looking for direction in the dollar for upcoming u.s. economic data such as consumer confidence and home prices both due later today. let's have a look at the euro yen. at the bottom of the screen the euro yen is at 131.07 to 20. really almost unchange ed from monday's level. it's a negative start and there's a lot of focus on currencies. back to you. >> thanks. territory but now it's trading in the positive. i'll leave you with a check on markets.

four japanese nuclear plant operators say they are preparing to restart reactors. they are hoping to fulfill new guidelines that will come into effect in july. executives are planning to reply to restart one reactor.

they hope to bring three back online. >> translator: we hope to restart reactors as soon as their safety is confirmed. >> operators will be required to introduce tougher measures against accidents and natural disasters. we'll have to study the potential height of tsunami and the possibility of a volcanic eruption and they'll have to present safety measures to deal with the risks. officials from the nuclear regulation authority will study and decide whether to allow the reactors to restart. all but two of japan's nuclear reactors are offline following the accident at the fukushima plant. the managers of a japanese nuclear lab are facing tough questions after they waited day and a half to report a radiation leak. the incident has raised questions about whether they

learned the lessons of fukushima. >> reporter: researchers at the japan atomic energy agency facility investigate the fundamental components of matter and measure interactions. on thursday, they were operating equipment that bombards gold with proton beams to generate elementary particles. the radioactive substances formed usually remain inside the gold. but a malfunction made the beams 400 times stronger. that melted the gold and row leased radio active substances directly into the air. an alarm went off, shutting down the equipment. the researchers couldn't find the reason for that alert. so they reset the alarm and kept working. in addition, they turned on the exhaust fans twice to lower the

radiation in the room. it's believed radioactive substances leaked out. facility. >> translator: we sincerely regret this outcome. >> reporter: the team was initially sent home without receiving the proper medical checkup. at least 30 people were exposed to a maximum radiation level of 1.7. that's considered to pose no health risk. it took facility managers a day and a half to report the incident to the government. >> translator: both our understanding and handling of the situation were inappropriate. even if we were trying to lower the dose inside the facility. >> reporter: people in the village that's less than a kilometer away are worried. >> translator: it's scary. >> translator: they should have notified us. immediately.

>> reporter: the nuclear regulation authority has initially classified the incident as a level one out of a seven on an international scale, saying japan atomic energy agency didn't handle the material appropriately. as a point of reference, the accidents in fukushima and cher noble are ranged 7. they need to improve safety measures. >> the fact that there was no protocol and there was no preventive equipment for preventing the radioactive materials to be released outside of this facility and that people were not prepared for public relations, for disseminating the fact that the accident happened and this should have done in a different way. especially after the fukushima

daiichi accident. >> reporter: after the fukushima accident, the nuclear industry in japan faced criticism for its poor crisis management and delayed information sharing. this latest incident suggests that the work to change what some consider a culture of complacency is far from over. nhk world, tokyo. some of japan's biggest athletes are celebrating wins or lamenting losses. the sumo tournament came to a close on sunday. here's our play by play commentator with the full recap. >> reporter: everyone was

watching two competito who both headed into the final days holding undefeated records. they were mongolia's championship and this champion. he was trying to be the first homegrown person to capture the emperor's cup. this one was going for his 25th top division title. the other wrestler was seeking his first ever emperor's cup. the defense bends but doesn't break. he stays unbeaten. on the final day hakuho still had business to take care of. he needed a victory over his

arch-rival to capture back to back perfe championships. they go chest to chest. hakuho drops his hips. his tenth perfect championship was also his 25th. he needs eight more tournament victories to write a new chapter in sumo history. so why was he untouchable this time?

one thing that separates him from the rest is his ability to incapacitate his opponent by completehu offense. here he like does fight by getting his right hand inside grip. but i yanks him by the arm and swings him to the deck. the mongolian also showed great athleticism and poise. in this bout, he got into an attacking position by slipping his right arm on his upper body while recovering from danger. at this stage, hakuho is head and shoulders above every other in every aspect. the next competition tarts on july 17 in central japan. we'll find out whether he can bounce back from his blunder and win his first championship.

well, it is now time to check on the weather. well, people on the korean peninsula are dealing with heavy rain. can you tell us more about that? >> yes. catherin heavy rain has been continuing in the korean peninsula. over 200 millimeters has been reported in some of the islands. the severe weathermaker battered eastern china on monday. this was the scene in one province yesterday. strong winds were recorded and that picked up waves and knocked down trees. again, the system is targeting the korean peninsula as well as southeastern part of china. as we go into the next 24 hours, it's going to move toward the

east. western japan, you could see showers. the eastern half of japan is looking try today but wet weather their be coming in on wednesday. now across the west and eastern china, we' see a nice respite of rainy weather today. i hope you will enjoy the dry weather. four, a new system had form over southwestern china. that's going to be working its way ease over the next couple of days. somewhere else we have been monitoring is the bay of bengal. a stubborn system has been with you providing wet weather. additional rain is not welcomed. temperatures down to 24 in tokyo. and overcast and 23 in seoul. and scorching hot in chongqing, 32 degrees for you. we could see a tropical storm

soon. and towards the north, a dynamic storm system is still affecting the mississippi valley. unfortunately, the severe weather will likely continue for the similar area into your wince. rain is going to be a big concern as well. that could raise the danger of flash flooding. now the severest weather will be found in kansas as well as nebraska into tonight. now towards the south then hot air is coming in. and high temperatures are raising the potential for wildfires in new mexico. and a system is drifting into the northwest once again. the strongest winds and rain is going to be found in the coast of washington as well as oregon. here are your highs. 15 degrees in vancouver. still on the hot side in denver

and oklahoma city as well as houston. finally in europe then, a developing low pressure system is drifting into the british isles and the western continent. the iberian peninsula will see dry weather for the next couple of days. meanwhile dreary weather till remains in central part of europe. because of the unstable weather, we are seeing lower temperatures in some places. 13 degrees in warsaw, warming up to 17 in berlin. 20 degrees in vienna, but still on the chilly side in paris at degrees. here's your extended forecast.

weave one more story before we go. russian president vladimir putin has reacted to complaints his convoy of vehicles causes traffic in moscow. he's going to commute by helicopter. government officials showed off the kremlin's new helipad on monday. they had it installed at a cost of $6.4 million. moscow residents have complained that major streets are closed during putin's 30 kilometer commute. kremlin officials said the late president boris yeltsin used to land helicopters in the courtyard, but he stopped fearing damage to the world heritage site. putin will be landing on the new helipad to keep moscow happy and the kremlin in one piece.

that is all for this edition of "newsline." stay with us.

>> ifill: we remember those who fought, served and died for our country on this memorial day... good evening... gwen raising fears that country could be pulled into the civil war in neighboring syria. margaret warner is on the ground in beirut with the latest. >> brown: we have a report from bangladesh. the workers are deman