welcome to nhk world "newsline," i'm gene otani in tokyo. here's a look at some of the stories we're following this hour. negotiators at the transpacific partnership free trade talks say their efforts to strike a deal by year end have failed. protesters in thailand insist the prime minister set down they say the dissolution of parliament is not their goal. and parents in northeastern japan now have a way to check

their babies for radiation exposure, as they continue to worry about the fukushima nuclear crisis. the people negotiating a free trade deal for the asia pacific region say they are going to miss an important deadline. ministers from the 12 countries at the talks say there won't be any agreement this year, but they'll push on with discussions in 2014. >> over the course of this meeting, we identified potential landing zones for the majority of key outstanding issues in the text. we will continue to work with flexibility to finalize these text issues, as well as market access issues. >> the ministers released a statement to say they made substantial progress during their four-day meeting in singapore. they'll meet again next month after their negotiators hold several weeks of intensive discussions. the statement says it's important to aim for a high level deal that would create

jobs and spur economic growth. japanese officials said negotiators from all countries were eager for a profitable outcome. >> translator: we'll keep up this momentum to deepen our discussions over the year end and new year period. the 12 countries are aiming for a high goal, and they share the same will and passion. >> for more on this story, we go to singapore. takuma, why did negotiators fail to reach their goal? >> the main reason is that participants, including the u.s., lack flexibility on certain issues. that's because of pressure back home. negotiators from washington and tokyo, too, didn't back down on the elimination of tariffs. u.s. congress is under a lot of

pressure from different groups, such as agricultural lobbyers that want japan to abolish all its trade barriers. if u.s. negotiators manage to make compromises, they may not be approved by congress. japanese negotiators also feel their hands are tied. agricultural organizations are refusing to drop tariffs on several categories of farm product, including rice and wheat. >> did the u.s. and other major countries manage to resolve their differences with emerging economies? >> not really. the u.s. also wanted their pharmaceutical products to be protected under intellectual property rights for a longer period, while emerging countries

opposed that. they are also divided of the issue of free competition between private and a state-owned enterprises. malaysia's chief negotiator says he's counting on other members to be open to compromise. >> we will be engaging in this negotiations so that the flexibilities will be given in order for us to deal with the concerns that we have. >> what lies ahead for the negotiations process? do you think all sides will be able to reach an agreement in the near future? >> the next stage comes in january, when member nations trade ministers meet for another round of talks. they all share the belief that the tpp can significantly boost economic growth, but some

observers are worried that their failure to reach a deal by the end of this year could break the momentum. and it's unclear how far participants are willing to go to reconcile their national interests. >> takuma, thanks. confusion continues in thailand as antigovernment protesters remain unmoved by prime minister yingluck shinawatra's offer to dissolve parliament. we're following the story in bangkok. >> protesters continue their sit-in around prime minister yingluck's office. they want to eliminate what they say is the influence of yingluck's older brother, thaksin shinawatra. she reiterated she has no intention of stepping down.

but a plea has so far proved ineffective. the sit-in around the prime minister's office continued all through the night. their leader is calling for three more days of demonstrations. >> translator: i will keep fighting until yingluck leaves our country. >> on monday, yingluck announced that she will dissolve the parliament and allow voters to decide her fate. the election is to be held on february 2nd. however, the 100,000 protesters are mostly members of the urban middle class and bangkok's elite. they are the minority when it comes to national elections, so dissolving parliament does not mean much for them. the yingluck government provides significant protection for farmers and enjoys great support from those in northern and northeastern thailand, areas left behind in the country's economic growth. the system for solidifying votes through rural areas was by

yingluck's brother, thaksin shinawatra. thaksin was ousted in a coup several years ago and lives in self-imposed exile, but the opposition claims he still influences the government. the protesters have proposed creating a council to appoint a new prime minister and other cabinet ministers, but yingluck flatly rejected the proposal, saying such a step would violate the constitution and would be undemocratic. >> translator: we'll keep turning out in numbers, and we'll definitely win. we're certainly not going to stop now. we're going to fight on. >> the thai military, which has launched or attempted to launch a number of coups in the past, has so far refrained from intervening. the antigovernment campaign may be up against the wall, as protesters see no other option than continuing their urban demonstrations. and that's it for our update.

the u.s. ambassador to japan has visited a city her country hit with an atomic bomb in 1945. caroline kennedy used her trip to nagasaki to call for more efforts to rid the world of nuclear weapons. nagasaki's mayor welcomed kennedy at the city's atomic bomb museum. the ambassador went for a tour, then met three atomic bomb survivors. she said the visit deeply moved her and referred to her father, the late president john f. kennedy. >> president kennedy was very proud that he was able to start the process of nuclear disarmament. >> kennedy then went to the peace park. she placed a wreath before a statue dedicated to prayers for peace. she and the mayor planted flowering dogwood saplings. the americans gave this type of tree to japan nearly a century

ago in return for 3,000 cherry tree saplings the japanese gave them in 1912. a representative of the japan confederation of a and h bomb sufferers followed kennedy's visit, he wants her to send a message back to washington. >> translator: because of the bombing, people were unable to live or die as human beings. i want the ambassador to tell president obama to come and visit nagasaki. >> he also emphasized that atomic bomb survivors are striving for a world without nuclear weapons. china's economy is expected to grow, albeit slightly slower than this year. more on this, ron? >> growth on this is going to be relatively brisk, but one expert says china's period of rapid

growth is moderating now, so slower growth next year, officials and company executives are scaling back investment. that spending has been a driver of the economy for more than three decades. a deputy director at the chinese academy of social sciences, that's a government think tank. li said china's gdp will end up at 7.7%, the same as last year. growth will fall slightly next year to around 7.5%. >> translator: china's economy has already passed through a period of rapid growth and is now experiencing moderate growth, higher quality, and efficiency. >> the central government will no longer compete to post higher growth. he said china needs to push ahead with reforms and noted governments are saddled with large debts and belt tightening

is one reason growth will start to slow. he said companies will also become more reluctant to invest in their plants, because they are trying to cope with excessive output and the increasing cost of borrowing funds. officials began a meeting on tuesday to finalize economic policies next year. attention now focused on whether policy makers will lower the annual growth target, which was set around 7.5% this year. moving on to the markets now, european equities are holding their ground. the federal reserves policy meeting next week is keeping investors from making bold moves. they are wondering when the fed will start reducing its asset buying program. london is up by more than a tenth of a percent. similar gains for both frankfurt and paris. in asia, tokyo's nikkei fell a quarter a percent, shanghai ended lower after china's key economic policy meeting got started. output and other indicators had

a fairly limited impact on the markets. and jakarta, the main benchmark rose nearly 1.5%, market heavyweight jumped almost 4%. the auto distributor received tail winds from strong growth in the country's car sales for november. in terms of currencies, dollar/yen is at 103.06 and euro/yen around 141.60. waiting to see if the prime minister gives any hints about the direction of the bank's monetary policy. business sentiment among japanese companies rose, marking the fourth straight quarterly improvement. the finance ministry and the cabinet office announced a survey of firms that are capitalized around $100,000 or more. the confidence index stood at 8.3. demand for housing and building materials rose as people rushed

to buy new homes. a weaker yen also helped to boost auto exports to the u.s. meanwhile, the index for small and medium-sized firms improved to minus 0.1, thanks to higher demand in the construction and service sectors. officials say the economic recovery does remain on track, with positive effects spreading from small firms to smaller enterprises. another sign the japanese economy may be picking up, consumer confidence improved for the first time in two months. the consumer confidence index for november stood at 42.5, that's among households with two or more people, it's also a gain of 1.3 points from october, when the index plunged after the country was hit by a deadly typhoon. felt the most since the march 2011 quake and tsunami. consumer confidence last montrose due to an improvement in the job market. a gain in corporate earnings and higher expectations for winter

bonuses also helped out. a drop in the price of gas and electricity also boosted confidence among consumers. the cabinet office says the latest figure was above average and appears improvement and consumer confidence is continuing. u.s. treasury department officials say they completed the bailout for one of america's most iconic companies. they announced they sold the last of their shares in general motors. the automaker filed for bankruptcy in 2009. the government injected gm with a massive amount of government funds. they pumped about $50 billion of taxpayer money into the automaker, they recovered $39 billion through the self shares. gm will rebuilding its business as a fully private company. that is going to do it for biz tonight. i'll leave you with the markets.

the head of the world's chemical weapons watch dog says he's confident of meeting an important deadline. he said workers are on track to destroy syria's stockpile by june, even if there are delays in moving it out of the country. >> there are very demanding timelines that we want to fulfill, and i'm confident that the deadline of next year, in fact, will be met end of june 2014. >> ozumchu spoke in oslo,

norway. he's there to receive the nobel peace prize. the group wants to transport the most toxic weapons out of syria by the end of the year, but ozumchu said the deteriorating security situation has made that target difficult, however, he said workers can complete the task by mid-january. the united states will provide a vessel to treat the chemical agents offshore. ozumchu says he still believes his organization will achieve its goal by the middle of next year. the israeli and palestinian and jordanian governments have signed a major water sharing agreement. the deal includes a project to help slow the depletion of the dead sea. officials from the three governments formalized the agreements on monday. the israelis say workers will join the red sea to the dead sea. the dead sea is more than 400

meters below sea level. gravity will help water flow down the pipe. the dead sea is known for its high salt content, which allows bathers to float easily. it has been receding by a rate of one meter per year. because a river that flows into it has been diverted for agriculture. the water from the red sea will be desalinated to help with shortages of drinking and agricultural water. environmentalists are worried about the impact it could have on the dead sea's ecosystem. people have mused for generations about the idea of life on mars. researchers have found evidence it might be true they say a fresh water lake could have existed on the planet for tens of thousands of years. the researchers published their findings in the online edition of the journal "science." they have studying data collected by a rover.

scientists were able to determine that an ancient lake contained little salt and it was practically fresh water. they say carbon, hydrogen, phosphorous were in the area, all elements conducive to life. it's been almost three years since the fukushima daiichi nuclear accident, but people in the area still fear the risk of cancer and other illnesses caused by consuming contaminated food and drink. more than 320,000 people in the prefecture have already been tested for internal contamination with a device called the whole body counter, but the device was designed to test adults. it can't be used for infants, because they are too small. in response to this problem, scientists developed a new testing device for babies.

nhk reports. >> reporter: tests for radiation exposure for infants began at a hospital. over 30 families showed up for the tests. >> translator: i have been so worried. i've been waiting a long time for my baby to be checked. >> translator: i don't know what will happen when my baby grows up, so i'd like this checkup. >> reporter: umi lives 80 kilometers from the nuclear plant. she has long been worriy eied a the effects of the radiation on her three daughters. the youngest is 6 months old. >> translator: i'd feel safer if my baby were checked at a younger age. >> reporter: this new device is called baby scan. it measures the internal radiation level of an infant

placed inside it. infants undergoing the radiation checkup are placed in this compartment, where they remain for four minutes. the machine has a relatively wide opening and children can watch their parents during the checkup, which helps them stay relaxed. this professor of the university of tokyo headed the research team that developed the scanner. he says the main challenge was to make it as precise as possible. >> even though the baby or the children are eating the same amount of raid active cesium as compared to parents, the amount of cesium accumulated in the body will be much less. in order to quantify the amount of radioactive cesium in your body, it doesn't make sense to

measure with the same detection as used for adults. >> reporter: the machine makes meticulous calculations and is designed to block as much external radiation as possible. it has four radiation centers, twice as many as previous models. takahara was anxious to hear the results of the scan. nonami was put into the machine. she cried a bit, because she had to be away from her mother for several minutes, but her body was successfully measured and the examination was completed. the results came in minutes later. >> translator: no cesium is detected. >> translator: we have been eating a variety of foods, so that was my main concern. i am very relieved to hear this positive result.

>> reporter: a thousand people have already made appointments to have their children examined. thanks to this machine, those most vulnerable to radiation, infants, are finally beginning to get the protection they need. nhk world, fukushima. there's a strong storm hovering over japan, and our meteorologist, robert speta, has been following the situation. robert? >> gene, you're right. this one really brought some fairly gusty winds and heavy rainfall early on today. now it's moving off towards the northeast, much of northern japan. right now what we're looking at is still very gusty winds, heavy rainfall, and even that snow starting to set up. like i said, earlier on today, it was really coming down out towards the west. let's just take a look at some of the wind reports thus far here on tuesday. up to 113 kilometer per hour

winds, this is approaching typhoon strength, or equivalent of it. 110 farther towards the north. hokkaido, winds up to 104 kilometers per hour, and that is expected to continue through the evening and into the overnight hours as that storm system continues to roll off there, so everybody felt a little piece of this storm system. it's still impacting out here 80 to 120 kilometer per hour winds. very well possible there on the northwestern periphery of this. a lot is going to change to snow. i know right now you're seeing a rain/sleet mix. most is changing over to snow, though, as the cold air starts to descend from the northwest and we're seeing the strong northwesterly winds come in. another low pressure area across korea is going to set up the sea effect now machine. from hokkaido down through northern portions of tohoku, basically ski country out here, you are going to be seeing snowfall throughout the rest of the week. farther towards the west, if you're in china, high pressure

is going to continue to dominate, unfortunately, not stirring up the atmosphere. northeast monsoon towards the south and the tropics, but nothing organized. expected in the near term portions of the forecast, but still scattered thunderstorms over the philippines and portions of thailand and malaysia, you're going to be seeing afternoon pop-up thunderstorms, temperatures still in the 30s. staying on the topic of the tropics, i want to touch on our severe cyclonic storm. now the equivalent of about a severe tropical storm if this was in the western pacific. winds right now about 110, gusting up to 130 kilometers per hour. the good news with this one, it's expected to weaken and fade out as it heads down there towards the southwest. you're still going to be seeing rain showers near the coastal areas here of india, but really this is not going to be a big weather maker out here, coastal flooding is possible, but not too serious of a storm, so

really good news with that. let's move over towards europe, where we are seeing several fairly serious storm systems, though. off towards the north, you can see the big band of cloud cover from the northern portions of the british isles to the scandinavian peninsula. that's bringing decent weather for central and western europe, while still gusty winds across scotland. you're going to be seeing some fairly continuous and heavy rainfall, plus the gusty winds. 79 kilometer per hour winds reported here in sweden. that's expected through the coming days. that's off towards the north. decent here in the central portions, but into the southeast across the black sea and heading over there towards turkey, we have a storm system moving through and this is going to be bringing in fairly heavy snow accumulations, not to mention the gusty winds, that's going to be blowing a lot of this around. you do not want it. try to stay warm out here if you can, because the next several days, you're looking at rain showers through wednesday, but

it will be shifting towards snow by thursday later on this week. that's a look at your world weather. here's your extended forecast. visitors gathered at a temple in the ancient japanese capital of kyoto. they were there to pray for good health and to get a chance to

enjoy a piping hot dish. cooks at the temple chopped up some 3,000 radishes. they then boiled them in large pots with salt and soy sauce as the only seasonings. the dish is named after this eve event. kyoto residents say the tradition started after their ancestors prepared a similar dish for a famous buddhist monk named shinron. he visited the temple some 750 years ago. every year, priests make an offering of the original dish to a statue of shinron enshrined at the temple. guests got to enjoy. >> translator: my health is suffering, so i've come to eat this in hopes it will make me feel better. >> this is one of many

traditional events that take place in kyoto to mark the end of the year. and that's "newsline" for this hour, i'm gene otani in tokyo.

>> the court here in france has sentenced a defective rest implant maker to four years in prison. his company supplied breast implants with what turned out to be substandard silicon gel. removed dued to be to an abnormally high rupture rate. 300,000 women around the world had been awaiting the results. it is one of the largest trials of its like ever known. there are two other trials pending. in the ukraine authorities have moved to take back control from protesters.