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. u.s. president barack obama vows to make people's lives better in his state of the union speech. 10 months before midterm elections. u.n. officials are struggling to break a deadlock in peace talks between the opposition and the syrian government. and later on nuclear watch, engineers float a remote

controlled device to take a look inside one of the reactors at fukushima daiichi and trace the source of contaminated water. u.s. president barack obama laid out his plans to bolster the economy by bringing more jobs back to his country. he also called for a wage increase in his state of the union address on tuesday. the hour-long speech was largely focused on domestic issues, and his priorities for 2014. nhk world's norickco hoe kaud today has more. >> reporter: in his sixth state of the union address, obama started off by urging the republicans and the democrats to overcome their division and work together in congress. >> when that debate prevents us from carrying out even the most basic functions of our democracy, when our differences shut down government or threaten the full faith and credit of the united states, then we are not doing right by the american

people. let's make this a year of action. >> reporter: he then asked congress to pass a bill to raise the minimum wage to $10.10 per hour. he also asked business leaders in america to raise their wages. >> do what you can to raise your employees' wages. of course, to reach millions more congress does need to get on board. join the rest of the country. say yes. give america a raise. >> reporter: he called for ending incentives to companies which ship jobs overseas, and lower tax rates for businesses that creates jobs at home. he also said new partnerships with europe and the asia pacific will help exporters to sell more made in the usa goods abroad. obama stressed that it was time to fix, a broken immigration

system so that more skilled and educated immigrants can leave legally and contribute to the u.s. economy. and experts on u.s. politics explains that obama's shifting focus on domestic issues, because of the upcoming midterm election in november. >> this is a crucial year for obama. in order that he can make sure that his legacy is placed intact. the economy is stable, but it hasn't made impact on the ordinary americans, and the inequalities is widening. he needs to pass some significant laws, for example, the immigration reform. >> reporter: on the security front, one of obama's focuses was america's controversial intelligence gathering techniques. the u.s. national security agency was criticized by other nations for carrying out

wiretappings on phone conversations domestically and abroad. >> i will reform our surveillance programs, because the vital work of our intelligence community depends on public confidence, here and abroad. the privacy of ordinary people is not being violated. >> reporter: obama also defended easing economic sanctions on iran and asked for the time and space the u.s. needs to continuing ongoing nuclear negotiations with the country. >> if this congress sends me a new sanctions bill now, that threatens to derail these talks, i will veto it. for the sake of our national security. we must give diplomacy a chance to succeed. >> reporter: on the asia pacific region, obama reiterated the importance of his allies. >> and we will continue to focus on the asia pacific.

where we support our allies, shape a future of greater security and prosperity, and extend a hand to those devastated by disaster. as we did in the philippines. >> he has made sure that people understood that the philosophy is primary, instead of military action. i don't think he can lose interest in asia. it's the most important partner in -- in terms of really economy. maybe not so much in security. >> reporter: obama will start a two-day road trip with stops in four states to talk about his economic themes and priorities. nhk world. the man mediating peace talks in geneva says negotiators

aren't finding much to agree on but he says they're willing to keep trying. the u.n.'s lakhdar brahimi cut short tuesday's section. he told the delegates to take time out and think about how the talks should proceed. the opposition parties say president bashar al assad has to step down. they want a transitional government that can build a democracy. the government's delegates said syria would become a hub of terrorism if assad steps down. the negotiates also clashed over aid for civilians in the besieged city of homs. opposition leaders want a quick delivery of relief supplies. government officials say the goods could fall into the hands of terrorists. the talks are scheduled to continue through friday. the president of ukraine is facing a political crisis after the resignation of his prime minister and cabinet. protesters in the country remain in the streets demanding more concessions. and world leaders are now watching the situation closely.

nhk world's yuji osawa has the latest. >> reporter: members of ukraine's parliament voted to amend a controversial anti-protest law adopted less than two weeks ago. opposition leaders welcomed the move. but they are still pressing authorities to free detained protesters and political prisoners. they also want to revise the constitution to limit the powers of the president. the government is urging protesters to withdraw from squares, roads and government buildings. but some are digging in and preparing to take on security forces. >> the fight needs to continue because president cannot treat us anymore with the forced concessions. >> reporter: the daughter of former prime minister you'll yeah tymoshenko read a estimate from her mother encouraging and supporting the demonstrators. tymoshenko played a central role in yew train's orange revolution

in 2004. she was jailed seven years later for abuse of power. >> do not stop going forward. get a full and complete victory. if you stop now, without a full victory, then all sacrifice will be in vain. >> reporter: world leaders and diplomats have weighed in. u.s. vice president joe biden has been calling president yanukovych to urge him to focus on ties with europe. this week eu commissioner traveled to kiev for talks with yanukovych. but, russian president vladimir putin criticized the move, calling it foreign interference. >> i'm not sure that ukraine would need such interimmediacy. i think more mediators mean more problems.

>> reporter: opposition leaders say they'll keep up the pressure on the president. demonstrators remain defiant in the streets. and there's no sign of an end to the clashes. yuji osawa, nhk world. japan is out with the latest assessment of its economy, and ron madison is here with the details of that. ron? >> yeah, we've had a string of positive assessments on the state of the economy, including from the central bank. also, a slew of economic data has been coming in on the positive side, as well, gene. now japanese finance ministry officials say the domestic economy continues to improve. they've upgraded their economic assessment for a fourth straight quarter, brisk personal consumption is cited as the main reason. top officials of the ministry's 11 bureaus across the country report on regional economic trends in the october to december period. and they concluded that overall the economy is recovering. previously they said the economy was recovering at a moderate

pace. many officials said personal spending grew during the three months. they pointed to brisk sales of cars and home appliances. ahead of the consumption tax hike in april. they also noted that the output of steel for car production, as well as construction materials, showed increases. on the labor front, they reported that more jobs were available in the auto, construction, and real estate industries. now ministry officials say they do expect the recovery trend to continue. they caution, though, that the impact of that tax hike and global economic trends need to be carefully monitored. all right let's get a check of the markets now and see how things are looking this tuesday. here we go. markets are fairly mixed at this hour. london is up by 0.2%. frankfurt gaining about 0.3 prs. while paris' market is pretty much flat at this time. the turkish central bank's rate hike has been easing worries a bit over emerging economies. economic sensitive sectors like miners are leading the advances in markets that are gaining right now. earlier most asian bourses

advanced. tokyo's nikkei snapped four sessions of declines climbing 2.7%. hong kong's hang seng index bounced back from a five-month low that it hit on the previous day. in malaysia the bench mark index there up nearly half a percent after the market closed. the country's central bank announced it would keep the key rate unchanged at 3%. here's the picture in currencies right now. dollar/yen at 102.74 roughly. market players turning their attention to the outcome of the federal reserve's policy meeting which is due out later on in the day. traders pretty keen to see whether the fed will continue to reduce the current size of its asset buying. meanwhile euro yen at 140.52. the turkish lira fell from a two-week high it hit earlier on wednesday. the decline was due in part to selling by corporations. many japanese automakers are looking at foreign markets to expand their business. toyota motor group's global production topped 10 million units last year, becoming the world's first automaker to reach

that figure. toyota executives said the group assembled more than 10.1 units worldwide, up a little more than 2% from a year ago. the rise was driven by the group's outside outside japan. it was up about 6% at 5.8 million units. key factors behind the increase are the u.s. economic recovery trend, and also an upturn in chinese demand. but domestic production, it actually dropped about 3%. 9 end of the government subsidies for buyers of eco-friendly cars was partly to blame there. other major japanese automakers showed a similar trend. honda's overseas production jumped more than 12%, nissan, up more than well 6.6% to be exact. suzuki rose by 2%. the output outside japan posted record highs but their production at home fell sharply. the carmakers are now facing a challenge of preventing the

domestic auto industry from hollowing out. in earnings news today, major cameramaker canon says it expects moderate growth this business year. it predicts solid sales of business equipment. executives at canon expect sales in 2014 to grow about 3% in yen terms to $37 billion. they're projecting a rise for two straight business years. now for 2013 the firm says sales rose about 7% to $36 billion meanwhile its operating profit increased about 4% to right around 3.3 billion. the executives say copy machines boosted sales while demand for digital cameras declined in the european and chinese markets. they say the weaker yen helped to push up overall sales. that is going to do it for biz tonight. let's close things out with the markets.

the north korean ambassador to china is once again saying south korea should cancel a joint military drill with the united states late next month. the south has already rejected the suggestion. ambassador ji-jae ryong spoke to reporters in beijing. it's highly unusual for a north korean ambassador to hold a press conference. he said that improved bilateral relations would lead to peace and security on the korean peninsula, and in the region. >> translator: we again propose the halting of all military and hostile acts involved south korea and the united states.

>> ji expressed hope the south will accept a proposal made earlier this month by the north's national defense commission calling on the two sides to stop what he calls mutual slander and militaries who tillties. but he defended the north's nuclear development program saying his country has been forced to turn to nuclear deterrents to protect its autonomy and right to exist. ji also called for an unconditional resumption of the six-party nuclear talks which have been suspended for more than five years. a senior u.s. defense official says the american military may lose its technological superiority over china within five to ten years. frank kendall pointed out china's military investment is increasing, while the u.s. is making cutbacks. >> the budget is smaller than ours, but their costs are smaller than ours. our budgets are going in thes on direction. >> reporter: kendall is in charge of buying weapons for the pentagon. he said the u.s. lead in

technology is being challenged in ways he has not seen for decades. particularly in the asia pacific region. kendall said he is comfortable with the military balance in the region now, but he said he may not be able to say the same thing in five or ten years' time. local residents and people in charge of a nuclear facility north of fukushima daiichi held their first evacuation drill since the 2011 earthquake and tsunami. they based the exercise on a nuclear disaster hitting the plant. the scenario assumed that radioactive substances were elised from the plant after a major earthquake knocked out all of the power. the facility is about 100 kilometers north of fukushima daiichi. participants included about 800 people from the miyagi prefectural government. seven municipals and emergency responders. officials with the nuclear regulation secretary were also linked through video.

they shared information about which residents needed to be evacuated or ordered to stay indoors. the town held the drill where all residents within 30 kilometers of the plant were ordered to remain indoors and seal off their homes from radioactive particles. >> translator: i was calm because i knew it was a drill. but i worry how i would react if a real disaster strikes. i'm not sure i could move like i did today. >> new government guidelines have increased the number of people around the onagawa plant who will need to evacuate from 18,000 to over 200,000. but the municipality's safety plan is behind schedule. they have yet to guy the required evacuation measures. managers of japan's crippled fukushima daiichi plant watch contaminated water build up every minute of every day. all they do -- all they can do is remove as many radioactive

substances as possible and then store the water in tanks on site. but that's not sustainable. so, they're trying to block the flow by going to the source. the problem is, workers must constantly inject water into three damaged reactors to cool molten fuel. the water mixing with radioactive materials and becomes contaminated. then it leaks out and taints the groundwater that flows beneath the compound. plant managers are trying to pinpoint the leaks. but high radiation levels are getting in their way. our latest installment of nuclear watch looks at how engineers found a way around the hazard. nhk world reports. >> reporter: a team of engineers enter the reactor 1 building at fukushima daiichi in november. the engineers took a small boat with them. they plan to float it around the reactor containment vessel to

trace the source of contaminated water. months earlier, representatives of major institutions such as strategy, kyushu institute of technology and university of tokyo came together to collaborate on the project. they had a budget of about $3 million. they fitted the boat with a camera capable of transmitting video. and they attached a specially designed cable to control the device. radiation would have blocked the radio waves used in remote controls. they plan to drop the boat into the area surrounding the containment vessel, and record video. but they had limited time to do the work. because of high levels of

radiation. so, they needed to carefully drop the boat through a complicated piping system. then, they'd be able to do the survey. once they ran test after test they got the go-ahead to do the real thing. the team set up at fukushima daiichi. they had to walk in an area where the radiation level is five millisieverts per hour. they can only stay here for 15 minutes. so the engineers worked in shifts.

the engineer places the boat alongside the containment vessel. they use the remote control to move it along. the boat sent back a radiation reading of 2,000 millisieverts per hour. anyone exposed to that would die in a few hours. the device transmitted these images, showing water flowing down the side of the containment vessel. the camera captured another leak nearby. contaminated water was gushing out of a broken pipe. experts analyzed the video. and were shocked by what they saw. >> translator: it will be extremely difficult to pinpoint the leaks. it will all depend on our

ability to develop new robots. >> reporter: the space between the metal containment vessel, and the concrete is only five centimeters. that makes it hard for engineers to get a picture of the crack, so they can figure out how to fix it. managers fukushima daiichi need to find out where radioactive water is coming from in order to proceed with the decommissioning process. but they are facing an uphill battle. one that underscores the tune in at these times for our program, radioactive water, fukushima daiichi's hidden crisis. a tropical cyclone is heading to australia. on our meteorologist robert speta has more on that. >> gene, let's talk about this.

and you think it's the tropics, it's january, you got to remember in the southern hemisphere. we get the tropical cyclones. typically starts around november, ends there in march. this is going to be the first one for queensland. at least here in the 2013-2014 cyclone season. right now actually a tropical low. it's expected to continue to intensify up to a category 1 tropical system on the bureau of meteorology scale if it does make it to that just prior to landfall we'll call it cyclone dillon. right now winds 45 gusting to 85 kilometers per hour expected to intensify. anywhere in the orange next 24 hours you can start to see those gale force winds basically right around townsville in kan as it does continue to come onshore. there's the risk of flooding coming along with this as it does continue to push out across much of queensland. let's look farther towards the north and in the northern hemisphere, january and february, typically not

considered tropical season. especially not in the atlantic. but in the western pacific it happens every now and then, and right here see that spin on the satellite picture? this is a tropical depression, expect it to become a tropical storm here sometime on thursday. and it really is going to be bringing some heavy rainfall. gale force winds up and down the philippine coastline by friday. i think the rain is the big problem out of this. it's not going to be as long-lasting as what we were talking about last week. still 250 millimeters there in mindanao. remember this is the area that got hit with severe flooding just last week and just two weeks ago. so you don't want any more rainfall. really serious situation to watch here throughout the rest of the work week. let's see what's going on farther towards the north. we have japan's dominated by high pressure right now. that's going to move east. we have a low coming out of china. that's going to bring some rain showers across most of japan. temperatures warming up with it, though, so the thing is you're going to start to see this rain, it's going to bring in warmer

temperatures, and there's a risk of avalanche out here in some of those areas that have been seeing the snow. up to 14 in tokyo. shanghai at 18. most of china clear and sunny skies expected there for you. over towards the americas we're still talking about that ice storm in the southeast. that's continuing to pull off towards the east. just creating havoc -- traffic nightmares for a lot of you out here across much of alabama over there towards georgia. that's going to continue to move east. high pressure working its way in behind it. meanwhile to the northwest, well you're looking at a snowstorm coming onshore. some areas on the higher elevations could see up to about 50 centimeters. in the valleys, anywhere you see here in the red, freezing rain is going to be a big problem with this one. so just nasty weather to go around much of the northwest. rain showers right near the coastline. main reason is the jet stream that's running through here. it's separating that warm air from the cold air. which is dominating much of the east. just temperatures out here absolutely frigid. but in the west, believe it or

not, it's warmer out here in some places than it is in georgia in alaska. temperatures out here well above average, because of that ridge in the jet stream. take a look at this. anchorage, up to 1 degrees. nome which is over here along the bering sea, up to 1, as well. so you're above freezing here throughout the rest of your work week. but that's a look at your world weather. here's the extended forecast.

that's "newsline" for this hour. i'm gene otani in tokyo. from all of us here at nhk world, thanks very much for joining us. until next time, good-bye. ÷g99ç

>> welcome back to the "france 24" newsroom. here are the top stories for you this hour. u.s. president barack obama tells congress he is willing to go it alone in his annual state of the union address. he says he is willing to use executive orders to get past partisan gridlock blocking legislation on capitol hill. the government in ukraine could decide to grant amnesty to jail activists. pressure from the opposition has led to the resignation of the prime minister. for the protesters, that is not enough. the un security council hands european trips the right to use force in central african republic. the u.n. says 10,000 troops are needed to store order