welcome to nhk world shoe shoe. international aid workers are struggling to help survivors of the deadly typhoon that hit the philippi philippines.

-- it's been six days since typhoon haiyan ripped through the central philippines. international aide workers and relief goods are arriving on the scene, but many survivors still have no access to food, water, and medical care. the philippines emergency response authority has confirmed 2,275 people are dead, and more than 3,000 injured. the geography is making it difficult to get aid into remote areas. the central part of the country is made up of many small islands. some desperate survivors are resorting to violence as they seek food and water. the deteriorating security situation is also hampering relief efforts. some desperate survivors are resorting to violence as they seek food and water and that's

also impeding the rescue efforts. nhk world's charmaine de owe gracias investigates. >> reporter: they say the typhoon toppled most of the buildings and telegraph poles in the city. officials say 7,500 structures collapsed during the storm. the city is still without power. every night, it is plunged into darkness. >> translator: there is no food and water. food is what we need most. >> reporter: the largest hospital in the city is still trying to issue services. the typhoon wiped out its back-up generator. relief efforts for the island are being hampered by security fears in the main city of tacloban where the airport is

located. people have been looting stores and fighting over food. reports say some inmates escaped from a prison. residents who spend their nights in complete darkness fear for their safety. some are using water proof sheets in place of collapsed roofs. others have been relying on water seeping out from broken water pipes. authorities are struggling to work out the best way to get food, water, and basic medical care to these desperate survivors. charmaine deogracios, nhk world, leyte island. rescue workers may be struggling to do their job, but that's not deterring the international community. governments from around the world are sending people and supplies to help communities battered by the storm. the u.s. military has dispatched 250 marines from japan's okinawa prefecture to the disaster zone. it's also committed five cargo

planes and four usa preaircraft. a japanese medical team arrived by ferry on wednesday morning. team members headed for the city of tacloban with four truck loads of medical supplies and other aid. a belgian relief team has also arrived at the city. relief items have yet to reach survivors. the main challenge is to restore transport routes as quickly as possible while protecting the safety of aid workers. the devastation and the loss of life caused by the super typhoon have left the 200,000 filipinos living in japan full of sadness. in time of need, there are places where they can turn to for solace. filipino volunteers gathered to make posters for a fundraising campaign. they attached messages of love

and hope for their brothers and sisters in time of need. many local filipinos are regular members of this church. once a month, mass is held. following the march 11th disaster in 2011, about 50 filipino survivors sought refuge at the church, a month later they returned to their country and waited to see how the situation in japan developed. this church has once again become a place where filipinos can gather to feel at ease. >> far from the philippines, somehow it's hurting, but in that pain, we're trying to do something. >> i want to do something in my own little way. i want to comfort them. because i can't be there. >> next sunday many churches in japan will be holding masses. many filipinos will gather to

pray and make donations for those suffering back home. chinese communist party leaders have promised to boost economic reforms after their four-day meeting known as the four plea numb. they say they'll make three market forces play more of a key role in the economy and aim for more equal society. nhk world reports from beijing. >> reporter: senior party officials gather in beijing to discuss long-term policies during the tenure of president xi jinping. a core solution is a proper relationship between the government and the free market. it says the market should play an important role in allocating resources. the communique also says the country will set up a central leading team for reforms. the team will be in charge of

drawing up and pushing forward reforms. a chinese economist says the proposed reforms went further than he expected. >> i think this meeting of the third plenary sessions is going to be a march session in the history that is from now to the year 2020, we are going to see some major changes in china's economy, as well as the political process. >> reporter: but the leaders confirm the leading role of state-owned enterprises in the economy, while efforts will be made to bring out the vigor of private sector businesses. as for social reforms, the leaders promised to tighten control over corruption and to ensure independence of the judiciary system. during the meeting, many people came to the capital to express

their frustrations to party leaders. the future of china's prosperity lies in how party leaders can implement reforms and dispel the frustrations of ordinary people. nhk world, beijing. >> but president xi has left many questions unanswered about china's economic reforms. ai yu chee da spoke with a research director to get his take on what chinese leaders need to do. >> important structure reform menus were postponed in the former administration, so the menu's very, very known. fwlsh a and the other thing is, it's expected that the communique should be very am bbiguouambigu

strong, from the rest of the interest group. reform needs that priority, and it shows two priorities. one is reform of the state-owned enterprises, and the other one is reform of the local government administration system. >> i want to talk about the state-owned enterprises. you know, with so much vested interest, how can the leaders go ahead with changes? >> yeah, it is very, very difficult. no one can expect that, but they should do that. if they don't reform the state-owned enterprises, they will face a very weak economic fundamentals in ten years, and in 2020, chinese economic growth will end and they will face a very stable economic growth age. and if at that time the

state-owned enterprise lose their vigorous competitiveness, china will face a trade deficit and a fiscal deficit. that will be disaster for them. so, they should push the reform of the state enterprise -- state-owned enterprises now. >> abenomics is starting to show up in people's paychecks. ron madison is here with more on that story. >> this is going to be great news for workers who over the years have really seen their bonuses dwindle, gene. major companies offering larger bonuses this winter. it will be the highest year on year increase since 1990. the japan international foundation surveyed firms listed on the first section of the tokyo stock exchange. the results show an average

bonus estimates stood at right around $8,260. that's up 5.8% in yen terms. bonuses at automakers remark a record jump of 13%. the weaker yen boosted their overseas business. payments in the cement industry are to pose a 7.1% rise. those in the food sector, a 3.1% increase. officials say a sharp rise in bonuses in the upbeat auto industry really pushed up the overall average. the head of one of japan's major commercial lenders has appeared before lawmakers. mizuho president was summoned to the lower house affairs committee. he has been criticized for failing to cancel the loans for more than two years after finding out the money was going to gangsters. sato said his bank did not cancel the loans because they were extended through a consumer finance firm. he also said bank executives

were not fully aware of the loans. he told the financial services agency the top management had no information about the loans. sato said the incorrect report was due to in-house inadequacies and denied the coverup was intentional. >> translator: i'm taking the criticism seriously. we will do all we can to completely cut ties with crime syndicates. >> mizuho has announced penalties for sato and others, as well as past presidents, but the action is seen as too lax. let's get a check of the markets now. the u.s. federal reserve's monetary policy taking center stage in europe. reaction to comment that the central bank may trim its asset buying program sooner than expected. london is down by more than 1%.

frankfurt declining .3 of a percent. asian shares declined. shanghai lost 1.8% after china did not provide details on its economic policies. tokyo's nikkei average shed more than a .1 of a percent. in mumbai, 20,194, weight down by rising inflation figures. india's cpi rose by 10% in october. also, industrial output fell short of market expectations. moving on to currencies, the dollar is changing hands at 99.54. analysts say traders are waiting for a confirmation hearing of janet yellen on thursday. they'll be monitoring whether she'll mention anything about the fed's monetary policy. euro/yen right around 133.51. nissan motor has opened a new plant in central mexico as part of the automaker's plan to

expand production for the north and south american markets. >> today marks the beginning of a new chapter in nissan's success story in mexico. >> this is nissan's third plant in mexico and will raise its annual output in the country to more than 850,000 units. the new plant is expected to serve as nissan's new production platform for north and south america. nissan plans to take advantage of lower tariffs in mexico. japanese automakers honda and mazda are also building factories in mexico. bmw says it will launch electric vehicles with a carbon fiber frame next april in japan. about half the weight of iron but can withstand greater impact. automakers are racing to reduce

the weight of carbon fiber model. the automaker says the standard one can travel up to about 160 kilometers on a single charge. the other model will be fitted with a small gasoline engine as a generator, it will extend its range to 300 kilometers. that's going to do it for biz tonight. i'll leave you with the markets.

china, saudi arabia, and 12 other countries have won seats on the u.n. human rights council. the new appointments have prompted an outcry for some international rights groups. they say it's not appropriate to elect countries with poor human rights records at home. the general assembly on tuesday voted 14 new members on to the 47-seat geneva based council. britain, france, russia, and vietnam were among other countries to also win three-year terms. saudi arabia's relations with the u.n. have been in the spotlight. last month the country was elected as a nonpermanent member of the security council, but the next day it rejected the seat. it said the reason was the failure to impose sanctions against syria's government in the ongoing civil war. it also said the council had allowed the syrian people to be

killed by chemical weapons. on the human rights council election, the saudian arabian minister said he's ready to contribute as a member. officials at tokyo electric power company are hoping for approval to restart two reactors at a nuclear plant in central japan. regulators have agreed to carry out a key safety evaluation at the plant. nuclear regulation authority officials met in tokyo on wednesday. they discussed a request from tepco to inspect the idle plant in niigata prefecture. nra officials held off on the decision for nearly two months. they said they wanted to see how tepco handled the radioactive water leakage at fukushima daiichi nuclear plant. the watch dog's head instructed his staff to work out the specific evaluation procedures. he said his personnel would continue to prioritize the toxic

water problem at the crippled fukushima plant. workers there will soon begin a delicate task. they are preparing to remove more than 1,000 spent fuel rods from one of the damaged reactor buildings, reactor number 4. they are extremely hot and highly radioactive. on today's nuclear watch, we explain how the people overseeing the project plan to get it done. >> reporter: workers will use a specially built crane to remove the fuel rods from their holding racks. then they will insert them into special containers. the crane must do its work under the water that seals in radiation. the next step is to transfer the containers to a safer storage facility at the plant.

tokyo electric power company operates the plant. a manager says the workers are ready to begin. >> translator: the same operation has been conducted more than 1,200 times at nuclear plants, including other facilities. we're not trying anything new. experienced workers will do what they have been doing for years. but we will certainly take the utmost care as we proceed. >> reporter: but the current work is very different from previous removal efforts, because a crippled reactors are highly radioactive. he says tepco must take added precautions. >> translator: this time they have to wear gloves and

overalls. we have to consider how this might impact work efficiency. but the workers have done plenty of training, and they are experienced. >> reporter: there are other potential risks. the team must lift each container of fuel rods about 30 meters off the ground to get it out of the pool. engineers at tepco have conducted computer simulations to see what would happen if a container fell. >> translator: we've doubled the wires on the crane, so it's unlikely that the container will fall off. we'll be very careful, so we believe it's unlikely to happen. but even if a container did fall, our simulation shows that it wouldn't be a serious problem.

>> reporter: an outside expert who has reviewed tepco's plan says the campaign has done a lot of preparation, but he still cites some concerns. >> translator: there might be fragments of debris stuck between the fuel rod units and the holding racks. that could force them to halt the operation or lead to something even more serious. >> reporter: yamamoto also says care must be taken to ensure the workers are not in danger. >> translator: tepco must be extremely careful to make sure the workers' radiation exposure doesn't exceed the safety limit. the challenge will be training and keeping skilled workers. >> reporter: tepco officials estimate that it will take about

a year to get all of the fuel rods out of reactor number 4, but that's just the beginning. workers must also remove fuel rods at three other reactor buildings. radiation levels at those reactors are even higher, making the job even more difficult. features. "nuclear watch," only on "newsline." for an update on the weather in the philippines and elsewhere, we turn to rachel ferguson. rachel? >> hi, there. we've been watching a tropical depression moving across the philippines the last 24 hours or so, now heading in towards the south china sea. becoming our next named storm here before making landfall in vietnam, and that's going to be on thursday. as far as the philippines is concerned, the last 24 hours or so, heavier rain, over 100 millimeters in some places. the wind coming down, the rain is starting to ease off, as

well. there will be strong easterly winds continuing, and that will make for heavy rain in luzon. but, you know, scattered thunderstorms is what we see this time of year, so it's the normal weather pattern across the philippines. some scattered thunderstorms to continue the next couple of days there. as for the rest of eastern asia, things are looking high and dry. parts of japan over the last day or so have been experiencing heavy now along the northwestern coast. that's going to ease off as high pressure moves in. we will, though, have rain showers down towards the southern half of the country moving across the korean peninsula, as well, from thursday. ahead of that, though, a bit of a warmup, which will be most welcome, because it has been quite chilly. 14 degrees in tokyo on thursday. seoul, 10 degrees, staying dry. good spells of sunshine in beijing at 13 degrees.

down towards the south, 26 in taipei with showers and there are some scattered thunderstorms forecast for manila, 31 for your thursday. all right, on into the americas. it's been very wintery looking out here. out towards the northeast, we've been seeing snow in places like massachusetts, as well as in new york state, in d.c., as well. that's going to start to improve from thursday. we've got high pressure across much of canada and the u.s. today, making for some freeze warnings down in the deep south. your early hours of the morning, wednesday morning, very cold. from thursday, we should start to see things improving. some southerly winds managing to come up and temperatures will improve there. as for the northwest, well, you've got a small system coming in here bringing some showers for the coast and also up in the mountains. some snow showers. it's nothing very intense, but at the weekend there will be a more intense system moving in.

down towards the southeast of mexico, heavy rain. most of it falling over the water, but coastal areas will be quite unsettled. wednesday, 5 degrees in toronto, as well as new york city. 8 degrees in d.c., chicago, 3 degrees, 9 in oklahoma city. these temperatures are set to improve from thursday and then into the rest of the work week. on into europe. and things are still very unsettled for the central mediterranean. you can see this low rotating there in the cloud. it's starting to weaken off, so that's some good news, but you're still going to see another day of storms for southern italy, as well as greece, then it's slowly going to move on into turkey. as for the northwest, well, a bit of a break in portions of england and also much of central and western continental europe here, but there is another system coming down, wet and windy up there over scotland and much of ireland and that's going to descend in the next couple of

days. warm in the ibeer yan peninsula, also problems with wildfire here in the middle of november. here's your extended forecast.

that's "newsline" for this hour. i'm gene otani in tokyo.

>> widespread looting in the aftermath of the philippines typhoon, gun fights and more deaths as more are growing desperate for aid five days after one of the worst storms in history. court acquits the crewmembers of responsibility for the sinking of the oil tanker in 2002. that turned into one of the biggest environmental disasters europe has ever seen. the most expensive work of art ever sold on auction, a triptych by francis bacon goes on sale christie's.lion at