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. january 8th is believed to be the birthday of north korean leader kim jong-un, but the date was met with little occasion in pyongyang. some leading american scholars and filmmakers are criticizing a plan to build a new u.s. marine base in okinawa. and scientists from japan,

china, and south korea are working together to trace the source of tiny pollutants that's making the air hazardous to breathe. north korea's young leader is thought to be celebrating his birthday. but it seems to be a low-key affair. foreign observers have not detected any official ceremonies to mark the occasion. kim yong un is believed to have been born on january 8th. his exact age is not known, but he is thought to be 31. the north has not officially acknowledged the date as kim's birthday. but foreign officials in pyongyang say people on the streets seem to be aware of when their leader was born. associated press footage shows no special decorations in the capital. citizens seemed to be going about their lives as normal. >> translator: i went to work at the factory as usual. i finished my shift and i'm on my way home. >> former nba basketball star dennis rodman is visiting pyongyang. he and his american team practiced with north korean

players for an exhibition game said to be in honor of kim's birthday. the u.s. administration is insisting that rodman's trip is a private visit. meanwhile the state-run news agency reports that north korea's parliament is preparing for an election. deputies for the supreme people's assembly will be selected on march 9th. the announcement came nearly a month after the north executed kim's youngle on charges of treason. professor of tonguk university in seoul has spent more than 20 years looking at north korean politics. he gave us further insights on the latest developments in the country. >> translator: the execution of kim's uncle, chang song-thaek, seems to have prompted changes in the power structure. kim jong-un is likely to build a new leadership by promoting those who are close to him.

he seems focused on conducting a reign of terror for the time being. purgers have been executed behind the scenes, so they don't rattle the public. kim gave a new year's speech reminding people of his light grandfather, kim il-sung. he knows his grandfather is popular with the people. and he wants to generate the same kind of popularity for himself. kim also spoke about building a strong economy, improving people's lives, and having better relations with south korea. he gave the example of a new ski resort. it's been constructed in a very short time. and he's tried to use this to show how decisive he's being on the economy.

china and north korea used to have a very close relationship. but that's changing. their ties are much more conventional nowadays. when north korea conducted its third nuclear test, china backed the u.n. resolution to apply sanctions. north korea's leaders showed some frustration of their decision. they're also dissatisfied with the lack of progress on a special economic zone with china. north korean leaders traditionally visit china when they assume power. but right now, kim needs to consolidate his power at home further delaying his visit. >> >> north korean authorities continue to dispatch workers to chinese industrial zones after the purge of chang song-thaek. chang led efforts to forge economic ties with china. the north still hopes to rebuild its economy with cooperation from its powerful neighbor. an nhk crew shot this video last

week in the tumen economic development zone in china's jilin province. north korean women walk between their dormitories and workplaces early in the morning. about 1100 north koreans work in four manufacturing facilities. the number has almost quadrupled over two years. the women are tired on three-year contracts. each worker earns about $280 a month. north korean authorities reportedly take most of it, dispatching workers to china is an important source of foreign currency. the u.s. army will send an additional 800 soldiers to south korea next month. pentagon officials say the move is part of the u.s. military rebalancing toward asia, and the pacific. officials say the battalion will be deployed on february 1st, equipped with tanks and other armored vehicles. they said they are sending the troops from an army base in the u.s. state of texas, and will replace them in nine months with another battalion. the u.s. army has about 20,000

soldiers stationed in south korea. the army deployed a new helicopter unit there last year for enemy surveillance. army chief of staff general ray odierno said the rebalancing of troops to the asia pacific region is based on a u.s. national defense strategy laid out in 2012. leading american artists and scholars are voicing their opposition to a plan to build a new u.s. marine base in okinawa prefecture in the southern part of japan. filmmakers oliver stone and michael moore, and linguist noam chomsky, were among 29 prominent figures who signed the document. they say they oppose the plan to relocate the marine corps

futenma air station within okinawa. they want authorities to return the land to the people but they oppose plans to build a new base in the same prefecture. the air base is located in a heavily populated area of okinawa. the people living there have been campaigning to move it off the prefecture. but the japanese government has decided to move it to another location in okinawa. the group's statement says it's unjust that okinawa is 1% of the country's land mass, but it hosts more than 70% of u.s. military bases and facilities in japan. they say the situation runs counter to the u.s. declaration of independence, which denounces the presence of armies without legislative consent. scientists in japan, china, and south korea, are working to the to better understand how tiny, but dangerous particles, move around east asia. they're tracking pollutants known as pn 2.5. they launched a joint study last year as the air in chinese cities worsened. this year they plan to

simultaneously monitor the levels, and composition of the pollution in their countries. sciences in japan started taking observations with a device they installed on a rooftop. last year they found traces of neodimian in the air. japan does not mind the rare earth mettle. scientists determined that levels went up after readings rose in beijing. one of the world's largest mines is 600 kilometers northwest of the chinese capital. it produces rare earth metals. the composition of these metals is similar to substances found in the air in beijing. >> translator: focusing on the neodimmian may help us understand in detail how the pollution crosses over to neighboring countries. >> the scientists will conduct their research for two weeks in winter and two weeks in summer. jobs are still not coming back in europe. ron madison is following that story.

ron? >> the situation does remain very tough there. high rates in places like spain, portugal and greece really keeping that eurozone rate in the double digits. the european union saying now that the unemployment rate in the common currency bloc has stayed at a record high in november. the eu statistics office said on wednesday that the jobless rate for the eurozone was 12.1% in november. that's the highest level since the euro was introduced in 1999. among the countries the rate for spain is staying at 26.7%. meanwhile portugal showed a slight improvement. it was down just 0.1 percentage point, though, to 15.5%. the jobless rate for greece, the latest one that we have, was for september, and that was 27.4%. that's up 0.1 percentage point from august. let's get a look at how european shares are faring now after the release of that data. markets are looking like this. all down right now. we're seeing london is lower by

0.4 of a percent, frankfurt declining about 0.2 percent, as well. similar declines for the paris market. investors are apparently taking profits as well following tuesday's strong performance. in asia most markets closed higher on signs of a brighter u.s. economy. tokyo's nikkei rebounding from two straight sessions of losses. china's shanghai index coming under a bit of pressure today. that was on selling due to upcoming new share listings. on to currencies, dollar/yen is currently trading at right around 104.74. analysts say more investors are hopeful about the u.s. economy. the next focus will be the minutes from the federal reserve's latest policy meeting, as well as employment data due out later. meanwhile, euro, again, roughly 142.27. japanese electronics maker hitachi will reshuffle its top management. the corporate executives explained that they will go ahead with downsizing and restructuring of subsidiaries. hitachi's board of directors decided on wednesday to replace

chairman karamura with the president. and the current senior vice president will become president and chief operating officer. they will take up their posts on april 1st. >> translator: i think it's very important we should move forward and do more to respond promptly to the markets. and take measures to deal swiftly with changes. >> he became the chairman in april 2009 after hitachi suffered its largest ever net loss. he's been pushing for structural reforms to rebuild its finances. well the people over at canon like the picture that they're seeing with exports. they're banking on the yen remaining weak for some time and they hope to make more money selling their products abroad. sort of wrapping up their production lines here in japan. right now, 42% of canon's global

production comes from japan. in the next year, managers plan to raise that to around 50%. they'll make more high performance cameras, and more printers. they've seen domestic and overseas demand recover for both of these product lines. executives say they may invest more in their plants if things keep going the way they are. the yen surged to record levels against the dollar, and other currencies, after the global financial crisis. and managers moved some of their production bases out of japan. now, nearly 60% of canon products are made overseas. also, managers at japanese air conditioner maker daikin industries want to fake advantage of the exchange rate. they're planning to move some of their production lines in china back home. analysts are watching to see whether other japanese manufacturers will follow suit. a major japanese lex tronicsmaker is ready to deliver a telecommunications satellite to turkey. mitsubishi became the first japanese firm to win a satellite contract from the country in

2011. a ceremony to commemorate the satellite delivery was held on wednesday, at a domestic mitsubishi plant. visiting turkish prime minister recep tayyip erdogan attended. it's one of the two satellites that mitsubishi was commissioned to build. >> translator: i hope the space development projects that we are promoting with japan will advance further. >> turkey aims to develop telecom satellites on its own by the year 2018. more than 10 engineers from turkey's state-run satellite firm are receiving training from japanese engineers. in the past, contracts for turkey's satellites have been awarded to france. the foreign ministers of japan and spain say they want to strengthen economic ties between their two countries. fumio kushida and jose manuel garcia met during the first visit to spain and france.

he encouraged more japanese countries to invest in france and spain. in october pledging increased economic ties as well as boosting cooperation in the fields of security and culture. he said japan is trying to fulfill the goals of the statement, and garcia-margayo voiced his support. the two agreed to speed up talks to reach an economic partnership agreement between japan and the eu. they also agreed to cooperate in developing renewable energy. electronicsmakers are eyeing wearable computing devices. panasonic has unveiled a brand-new device that can control home electrical appliances. the pendant-type gadget was shown to the media in las vegas. that's where the world's biggest consumer electronics show got under way. >> the device recognizes a human voice. panasonic executives say it's

the world's first technology for controlling home appliances by direct human communication. manufacturers are racing to develop new wearables. sony has unveiled in las vegas a device that can be attached to the wrist for health management. all right. that is going to wrap it up for biz tonight. let's see how things are looking on the markets. every morning, investors turn their attention to asia.

the tokyo market leads the way. and markets around the world follow. >> from the decisions that could change the course of an economy. >> to the latest business trends. >> up to the minute market reports. >> and analysis by specialists from around the world. >> get all the latest business news and insight every day here on "newsline." nearly 900 people across japan have reported health problems after eating frozen food products now being recalled. this comes after some of the products were found to have been tainted with pesticides. food processor is recalling more than 90 kinds of food made by a subsidiary. nhk has learned that 897 people in all but one prefecture had fallen sick after eating the recalled foods. they reported vomiting, diarrhea and stomachaches.

a pesticide has been detected in nine different products. levels are said to be up to 1.5 billion times the allowed limit. people can easily buy the chemical in gardening shops. it's used to kill mice, aphids, and other insects. police sent investigators to the factory over the weekend. they suspect someone may have contaminated the foods before packaging, possibly on several occasions. a woman in a city devastated by the 2011 tsunami in northeastern japan is restoring a little bit of life before the disaster smeep and her colleagues have collected thousands of photographs from the debris. many are pictures of people lost in the disaster. and are the only images of them that exist. so the woman has made it her

mission to get the photos into the hands of their owners. >> reporter: the people of ofunato in northeastern japan suffered badly during the tsunami more than two years ago. more than 400 people died, and around 4,000 homes were destroyed. even now, many locals live in temporary housing units. >> translator: it looks like him. >> reporter: fudgenyo oikao works for a local welfare organization. >> translator: when i walked around the site looking for the owner, someone said it was you. >> reporter: she has made it her task to return photographs to their owners. >> translator: my colleagues and i are curving as many of the photos as possible.

>> reporter: first they clean the photos, usually covered in mud. after the pictures have dried they are sorted and stored. so far, 450,000 photographs have been recovered. the staff hold regular exhibitions hoping the owners will turn up but about 40,000 photographs have not been claimed. >> translator: at this stage, it's really hard to find the owners of the remaining pictures. >> reporter: she has a personal reason for her mission. >> translator: this was the front door. >> reporter: her house was completely destroyed in the tsunami two years ago. she lost everything. >> translator: i have no hope

about my future. and how i was going to carry on with my life. >> reporter: by chance a friend came across a family photo and gave it to her. it was a portrait of the whole family, taken on her son's birthday 15 years ago. after the disaster her family had to disburse. ever since she and her husband have been living in a temporary home. but the photo gave her hope that one day the family would be together again, and pose for another picture. >> translator: it made me so happy. i wanted as many people as possible to experience the same happiness i felt when i got the photo back. >> reporter: today, oikawa

visits the family of a man who died in the tsunami. his wife and son now run the japanese pastry shop he had owned. >> translator: this belong to you? >> translator: oh, it's my husband. i'm so happy to see this. looking at this again, i realize what a nice picture it is. he always smiled like that. it makes me want to keep on working for his sake. >> translator: i truly believe that these special photos and mementos will give the disaster victims the emotional strength to begin rebuilding their lives. >> reporter: she says that she

won't quit her mission until she returns every last photo to its owner. it's her queue of giving disaster victims some much-needed hope and joy. snow continues to cause havoc at many parts of the united states. meteorologist robert speta is here with more on this. robert? >> well, yeah, gene, this arctic blast of air, the heavy snowfall. actually, i want to first start off by showing you a video outside of my hometown here in buffalo, new york, and take a look at that. near whiteout conditions out here. now in buffalo, it's not uncommon to see snowfall. but this is some of the worst in nearly 20 years out here. you have the whiteout conditions. blizzard warnings in effect. the windchill getting down well below zero, and definitely very dangerous weather if you are outside for an extended period of time with this. and also, travel bans have been in place for much of western new york and the airport's been closed for nearly two days now.

so, that is basically nonexistent. it's not just buffalo seeing the heavy snowfall. that's where the worst of it is. lake ontario towards michigan this is where we're getting the lake-effect snow. elsewhere you're seeing the frigid temperatures, even farther down towards the south. but it's because that cold air, very cold, arctic air, comes over the relatively warm lakes. and that creates instability and it drops that snowfall, even thundersnow has been seen out there just because of the very large difference in the temperatures. this is what's going on right now. the good news, high pressure is going to work its way in so that snow will be tapering off over the next 24 hours, out here. temperature still remaining cold. good news is that right now, look at that winnipeg minus 23. chicago at minus 2. toronto at minus 12. things will be warming up. these are your lows over the next three days atlanta from minus 9 up to 2. you're not even going to be getting below the freezing mark and that's some good news there

for you, even over towards new york up to minus 1 for your low. a little bit above average for some of you. so it's going to be warming up in the near future. but i would still bundle up before going outside. definitely frostbite can happen in those low temperatures. eastern asia, talk about japan. look at this the low pressure area moving over japan. some rain showers coming out of this. but one thing you want to keep an eye out for, this is also going to be triggering up some snowfall. widespread precipitation, tokyo on wednesday going into thursday morning. during the early morning hours it may be cold enough, might see some of the white stuff falling from the sky, the tokyo metro area, going into thursday evening, once it gets cold again, does look like some more of that is going to be kicking up. so definitely want to be ready. i don't see any significant accumulations, but tokyo might get it. even along the sea of japan coastline, kicking up there. that's where the heavy stuff is, definitely throughout the rest of the week. take a look at your temperatures

now. shanghai at 5, seoul at minus 3. ulan bator minus 17 that's typical for this time of year by the way. and down towards the tropics into the 30s. those afternoon thunderstorms will start popping up for you. now into europe, the big talk here has been the low pressure area just west of the scandinavian peninsula. this is tapering off and the winds are calming down. you see that really loosening up here. fortunately, the weather pattern, high pressure down here towards the south. that's going to be keeping one after another, moving off here towards the north. so wet and unsettled conditions are going to remain the constant. very warm down here, though. and that's the big topic here for you, as well. seeing a cooldown by friday. but still look at your temperatures. well above average here across much of europe. that's a look at your world weather.

chinese rock singer might

have this largest stage yet on state-run television. the rocker was an inspiration to many demonstrators during the 1989 tiananmen square protests. but in the years after, he was banned from playing large concerts. chinese media reported on tuesday that he was invited to appear on cctv's spring festival gala program. the annual show airs on the eve of the lunar new year. tsui is considered the father of chinese rock music. he released a series of songs with strong political messages in the late 1980s. his music won support from students at the time of the tiananmen square pro-democracy uprising. news of the invitation quickly spread among internet users in the country. many posted messages welcoming cctv's move saying times have changed. however, some were less enthusiastic believing he would not be able to sing politically sensitive songs. fans are now focused on whether he will accept the invitation.

that's "newsline" for this hour. i'm gene otani in tokyo. a7guc

6-month resident of the european union. we will take a closer look at whether or not the struggling nation is up to the task. 2022 world cup in qatar seems ages away, but it won't be held in the summer. we will find out more about that later in the hour here on "france 24." let's look at our top news story for you. no breakthrough in talks to end the conflict in south sudan. members of residents offered here -- resident