responsible manner of the international community. but he did not include japan in what he considers the coordinations of that effort. >> yun said the government will cooperate with the other members of the program in an effort to deter provocations by pyongyang and specifically said seoul will seek help from key countries to include the north to be a part of the international community. the countries include the u.s., china and russia as well as the european union and the association of southeast asian nations. japan is a member but yun did

not mention this. relation haves been strained due to territorial and historical issues. a top u.s. diplomat says china's unilateral establishment of an air defense identification zone over the east china sea is raising tensions with its neighbors. assistant sk tear of state daniel russel spoke on wednesday before a subcommittee on asia and the pacific. he described china's move as a serious step in the wrong direction. >> we neither recognize nor accept china's declared adas. >> russel says the islands are under the administration of japan. he says unilateral -- china's declared air zone covers the senkaku islands. they're claimed by japan but claimed by china and taiwan.

it says there's no issue of sovereignty to be involved. analyst's review russel's remarks as a warning to china which claims most of the south china sea and say china could set up a defense zone there as well despite on going territorial disputes with several southeast asian nations. the speed of military expansion in asia is outpacing that of the west. they warn increased capabilities and tensions in the regions could raise the potential for accidental conflicts. london-based think tank iiss launched the annual assessment of global military capabilities. they say asian defense spending was 12% higher than in 2010. the largest spenders in asia were china, japan and india. china's budget dwarfed its neighbors accounting for more than japan, south korea, taiwan

and vietnam combined. the report points out leaders in beijing are investing heavily to expand naval capabilities and to develop new and innovative technologies. >> china is the most prominent of these examples is the aircraft carrier -- commissioned in 2012. now currently building two more aircraft carriers and will likely there a fleet of three, maybe four which allows one carrier on sea. since late 2008, early 2009 we've seen the chinese deploy a regular flotilla to the indian ocean. >> the report also notes tensions have become more acute among asian countries rising substantially between china and japan. >> there is a very emotional sense of competition between china and japan currently. that is now transforming into a sense of military competition,

albeit with japan ended by its constitution and china still having to deal with a variety of different contingencies around its borders. there is now really for the first time in about 60 or 70 years a form of bilateral military competition, albeit a low lying one. >> they say the two countries need a mechanism to enable their militaries to communicate to reduce the risk of incidents at sea and in the air turning to crises. the chinese ambassador to the united kingdom says the country's military spending is moderate compared to other world powers. ambassador lieu somehow min emphasized that china is a large country with lengthy borders to defend. he says his country has 20 neighboring countries on land and sea. he pointed out china's defense budget is still small in comparison so its economy. >> economy is growing at two digital growth for the past 30

years yet a defense budget taking share of the gdp are decreasing. so what's important, you have to realize or to know that per capita military expand tour, china is the lowest among the big powers. >> liu said it's natural for china to increase overseas activities as its interest in businesses grow abroad. the national police agency has announced that con men in japan swindled their victims out of a record 48.6 billion yen or $480 million in 2013. in about 12,000 fraud cases during the year, the total amount of swindled funds increased by more than $120 million from the previous year.

police officials are working to stop the spread of such crimes and suggest a variety of cautionary measures, but they still haven't found a workable solution. nhk world's norika okada tells us more. >> reporter: telephone fraud has become a major issue in japan. nearly half of the victims are elderly women. swindlers on the phone posing as the sons or grandsons of potential targets made off with around $170 million last year, up 53% from the year before. this type of crime had decreased at one time, but it began a resurgence four years ago. this woman in her 70s lives alone near tokyo. last year she received a phone call from a man who claimed to be a city hall employee. he told her that her medical expenses over a certain amount

will be refunded. she gave him her bank information and received a phone call on her mobile phone from a person who claimed to be a bank employee. she was asked to go to a nearby atm to make a cash transfer. the caller kept her on the line as she made the transfer, and she did as she was told. eventually she transferred nearly $5,000 dollars into someone else's account. >> translator: i was confident that i would never be a scam victim, but i now realize that i was wrong after what i have experienced. i now feel that i should have talked to someone about what was happening from the outset. it was too late when they convinced me. >> reporter: many elderly people become targets of fraud. >> translator: a man on the

phone called me grandma. i asked who it was. he said it's me, grandma. so i said i didn't have a grant son. then he hung up. >> translator: a fraudster said he needed at least 5 million yen, so i asked a friend to lend me the money. then my friend told me it's a fraud. don't be swindled. >> reporter: the national police agency is very concerned about the situation. their analysis shows that young people can easily commit this type of crime using mobile phones. they say they are cracking down on these scam artists and are doing all they can to prevent them from swindling anymore people. norika okada, nhk world, tokyo. the japanese government is doing everything it can to prevent itself from slipping back into an economic slowdown when tax rises in a few months.

ron madison is here with more on that. >> there's been some concern about whether the economy can shoulder the weight of the new tax. the government is hoping provisions in the budget can help mitigate the burden. the supplementary budget for fiscal 2014 has been enacted. the government is hoping the $54 billion budget will cushion the consumption tax hike in april. the bill was approved in the upper house with a majority vote by the ruling coalition and other parties. the economic measures include cash handouts for low income earners including families with small children. support will also be given to evacuees of the 2011 fukushima nuclear accident so they can return to their homes. about one quarter of the budget or $14 billion is al signed to projects aimed at boosting japan's global standing. that's in line with the government's growth plan. the projects include improvement in infrastructure in preparation for the 2020 olympics in tokyo and those to promote research and development of innovative

drugs. prime minister shinzo abe was happy to see the smoothen actment of a bill in a time he says is crucial in order to achieve a virtuous cycle for the economic recovery. >> translator: now the government will work hard to swiftly implement the budget so people in every corner of the nation can feel the benefits of economic recovery. >> earnings news now, japanese electronics giants sony has sharply lowered its earnings forecast for fiscal 2014. the move comes despite strong sales and overall operating profits. sony executives say sales through the nine months up to december increased by 16.4 billion to $58 billion. profit jumped more than 70% to $1.4 billion. strong sales of smart phones and home gaming con soles helped to boost sales. the weaker yen improved the profitn't of overseas.

they had previously forecast a profit of nearly $300 million. the turn-around is mostly due to sony's measures to deal with the struggling tv and pc businesses. officials say the company will take a one-time write-down in its accounts as it restructures pc operations. sony has also announced a plan to set up a new company with japan industrial partners to run the vie oh brand pc. on the tv business the team plans to spin it off to a separate entity to achieve further streamlining. >> translator: we'll focus our resources on growing segments, games, network services and mobile products. in the meantime we'll execute drastic measures to restructure our tv and pc segments that are struggling. >> executives also announced

they will cut about 5,000 jobs by the end of fiscal 2014. there will be 1500 workers in japan and 3500 overseas. let's get a check of the markets now. european equities are higher as upbeat earnings results are providing some cheer. london is now up by three-quarters percent. among earnings related names french telecom maker alka tron lucent shows the cost cutting measures are helping to boost profits. sydney led the way following positive data about the domestic economy. hong kong's hang seng snapped three straight days of declines. tokyo's nikkei failed to hold on to earlier gains. moving to currencies, the euro remains under pressure against the dollar. euro-dollar is around 1.3528. all eyes are on the outcome of the european central bank policy meeting due out soon.

analysts say the folk cows will be whether mario draghi gives any signal about the future of the bank's policy. dollar-yen is right around 101.50. the british pound is staying in a tight range against the u.s. dollar. many economists forecasts the bank of england will decide not to change course at today's meeting. the peso rose after the key rate stayed at 3.5%. they say the scope for keeping interest rates unchanged is narrowing given the pickup in inflation. the consortium in charge of a panama canal expansion project has ordered its workers off the job. the group is involved in a dispute with the canal's operator. the workers are building a wider shipping lane next to the original canal. construction began in 2007 and is expected to be completed next year. a spanish-led consortium is in charge of the project. officials with the group say they've suffered $1.6 billion in

cost overruns. they say a faulty topographical survey conducted by the panama canal authority is to blame. the two sides had been engaged in negotiations over the issue. the talks broke down after the authority refused to make up the money. that is going to do it for biz tonight. let's get a check of the markets now.

the african country of burr keen nah fast sew is one of the poorest in the world. sports sometimes provide a welcome break. until now people there had never really taken to the game of baseball. they're more interested in soccer. but a young player is showing so much potential he's dreaming of a pro ball career in japan. nhk world's matsumoto has the story. >> reporter: six years ago neighbors of a japan overseas cooperation volunteers started teaching children baseball in ba keen know fast sew. 16-year-old racine know sanford is strong and agile. he stands out among the country's young baseball

players. >> translator: baseball has taught me many things. i'm not just learning technique. there's a spiritual side to it as well. >> reporter: las seen know lost his mother at the age of 4. his father works outside the country. the young african lives with his grandfather and takes care of the goats. >> translator: my grand some seems very gentle, but he's very strong. i pray for him to become a great baseball player. >> reporter: last summer he tried out for a team in a professional baseball league in japan. though he demonstrated his pro wes, he didn't make the cut.

>> translator: i realize that i wasn't playing at a high enough standard and i didn't have enough experience. >> reporter: on his return home, las cena started to practice much hard tore get ready for another tryout. the japan overseas cooperation volunteers help him train. the daily one-on-one session lasts for two hours. late last year lassina received great news from the team he tried out for. they would accept him as a trainee because they think lassina's projects are good. with his powerful swing lassina showed how much he had improved.

>> reporter: after the game lassina talked to his friends about his ambitions. >> translator: i'm so excited to train in japan. i'm going to try my best to become a professional player. >> reporter: lassina is coming to japan all the way from africa in the middle of this month. he's following his dream of becoming a professional baseball player in japan. his challenge is about to begin. nhk world, bra keen know fast sew. japanese scientists say they have discovered a gene linked to male infertility. the finding could provide clues as to why some couples cannot have children.

the discovery was made by a team from japan's national institute of advanced industrial science and technology along with other institutes. the gene is called galntl-5. the scientists found that sperm movement was reduced by 80%. they also found that sperm lacked the necessary proteins for motion and fertilization. they also checked the sperm of infertile men and found that in some samples the newly discovered gene mutated and became dysfunctional. researcher nobody yosh she tack saki says the gene could be used as a marker in selecting sperm form in vitro fertilization and says help scientists understand the mechanism of infertility.

there's a storm in western europe, and our meteorologist robert speta has been following the situation. robert? >> gene, what we have been seeing is one storm after another battered the western coastlines of europe here from the british isles down through france, into spain and portugal as well. you have been seeing absolutely atrocious conditions, not just on land but in sea. this is video from northern france, a spanish vessel that came resting ashore after large waves and winds, up to 100 kilometers per hour pushed it onshore. the entire crew was rescued by helicopter. that's the good news. as you can see, it's starting to snap on the rocks. a pollution alert was put up for the coastline as well because it was carrying fertilizer and that fuel that was aboard. that's what we're seeing out here. it's one storm after another. the next one is coming in right after this one. by the weekend we'll be bringing

these winds out here. take a look. up to 120 kilometers per hour, waves about seven meters high. you can see in southern portions of the u.k. up to 40, possibly isolated areas could see 60 millimeters. this is on top of what's already been falling. you don't need anymore. meanwhile across the higher elevations towards the alpines you could see heavy snowfall. we'll continue to watch this. this is going to be foul weather through the next several days. you can take a look at many cities here seeing the rain showers. in the east, kai eve minus two, moscow minus three. it's sunny but staying very chilly for the most part. talk about chilly weather, let's see what's going on over towards japan. the sea-effect snow continuing to come ashore. this will be tapering off thursday evening into friday. we have a change in the weather pattern. it won't be the sea-effect snow by the weekend but a southerly

storm. we talked about this. when the storms come in from the south and go south of japan, around the mountains, that brings the risk of snowfall to tokyo. right now this low is moving over eastern china, already bringing traffic disruptions to portions of eastern china. through friday it will be moving over the southern japanese islands. okinawa, about 80 millimeters of rainfall. it has a lot of energy. take a look at this. it pushes northeast and over tokyo, the dark areas in the purple, that's showing heavy precipitation. temperatures will be cold enough. there's a high risk of some pretty decent snowfall coming out of this. going into the weekend, just be careful if you plan on commuting, if you plan on flying into tokyo, definitely a slow-go at the airport. high of 8 on friday. rain showers in shanghai, high of seven. hong kong and taipei into the mid 20s here to start off your weekend. as we look towards the americas, it is not warm, that is for

sure. watching this arctic air, this high pressure move in from northern canada. temperatures out here absolutely frigid. we are seeing a cold front push across portions of florida. you can see some rain showers and even some sleet mixed into that. a new low from the west could bring a meter of snowfall in some of the higher elevations out here. lower elevations still looking at heavy rain. very messy across the rockies. once again it is the temperatures with this. denver minus 11, chicago at minus 12, new york at minus 3 here on your thursday. here is the extended forecast.

the pope's harley-davidson motorcycle bearing his autograph will be auctioned off in paris. organizers plan to give the money raised to charity. the u.s. manufacturer gave the custom dinah super glide to the pontiff last year at an event at the vatican to mark its 110th year in business. pope francis signed his name, francesco, on the gas tank. the motorcycle was then donated to a charity organization in rome. the organizer says more than 30 bidders have applied to take part in the auction. the charity will use the proceeds to renovate a soup kitchen and a hostile for the homeless. that's "newsline." i'm gene otani in tokyo.

thanks so much for joining us. until next time, good-bye.

>> here are the headlines. controversial amendments to internet law approved in turkey. the opposition has slammed it as censorship. the winter olympics in sochi are the most expensive ever, but for many of the locals have yet to see any benefits. of france crushes three tons illegal ivory. it is the first stockpile description of the band elephant tusks in europe -- of the banned elephant tusks in europe.