hello and welcome back to "newsline," i'm shery ahn. let's get started with the head lines. russian president vladimir putin has ignored criticisms from the west, and signed an agreement to annex crimea. and some survivors of the disaster in northeastern japan are trying to preserve damaged buildings so they can pass along their experiences. vladimir putin has heard threats after threats about his plans to redraw russia's

borders. but the russian president has ignored the warnings. he signed an agreement to annex the autonomous ukrainian republic of crimea. he says it's an integral part of russia. nhk world's craig dale reports. >> reporter: a crowd in red square cheered on vladimir putin as he spoke about a move that's frustrated and infuriated western leaders. the president shouted glory to russia, as he talked about his plan to annex crimea. >> translator: after a difficult, lengthy, tiring sale crimea and sevastopol are returning to their home harbor. >> reporter: earlier in the day, putin asked lawmakers to adopt a draft bill that would allow the crimean republic to join the russian federation. he said international law is on his side, and he stressed historical bonds.

crimea became part of the soviet union in 1921. then in the mid 1950s, it was integrated into ukraine, still under the soviet umbrella. but after the ussr collapsed crimea remained with the newly independent ukraine. [ chanting ] ethnic russians make up the majority in the republic. they voted overwhelmingly in a referendum on sunday to split from ukraine after months of political unrest there. they are celebrating putin's decision to move the process along. >> translator: it's great that he supported us as a president surely everyone here has been supporting this for a long time. >> reporter: a number of crimeans boycotted the referendum and western leaders dismissed the result. they slapped economic sanctions on key russian figures in an effort to stop the annexation bid. now, they're threatening further penalties. >> we're talking about russia putting itself on a path that

undermines long-term confidence and creates obstacles for its full participation in the global economy. >> reporter: french foreign minister laurent fabius announced another consequence. >> translator: we have decided to suspend russia's participation in the group of eight. the other seven countries will unite without russia. >> reporter: u.s. president barack obama and other group of seven leaders will meet next week in the hague to discuss the increasingly tense situation. ukrainian officials say russian forces shot and killed one of their soldiers in crimea on tuesday, and wounded another. the interim prime minister says the conflict is moving from a political to a military one. and he's calling for international dialogue to prevent an escalation. but vladimir putin is showing no signs he wants to talk. and with russian officials openly mocking the current economic sanctions, western leaders may have to take a tougher approach if they want results.

craig dale, nhk world. one leader considering how to respond is japan's prime minister. shinzo abe used a diet speech to criticize russia. >> translator: russia's move violates ukraine's national unity, sovereignty, and territorial integrity. japan will not overlook this attempt to change the status quo through the threat of force. >> abe said japan will continue to work with members of the group of seven, and other countries, in considering additional sanctions. japanese officials announced an initial set of sanctions on tuesday. these include freezing talks on simplifying visa procedures and postponing discussions on a new investment pact. red cross officials from japan and north korea are set to resume talks on repatriating the remains of japanese people who

died in what is now north korea during world war ii. the japanese side is aiming to make progress not only on that issue, but also to restart government level talks on the abduction of japanese citizens by north korea. nhk world's takafumi terui reports. >> reporter: officials from the japanese red cross left for the chinese city of shenyang on wednesday morning. sources say more members are likely to join the north korean delegation than at the previous meeting two weeks ago. >> translator: last time we talked about adding the government officials handling this issue to our discussion. that has now happened for both countries. i hope we can make practical progress through dialogue. >> reporter: the director of the japanese foreign ministry knows

the decision was also on the flight. alongside the red cross talks, he's expected to hold unofficial discussions with his counterpart from pyongyang. japan has been pressing the north to reopen investigations into the japanese nationals it abducted. government officials say north korean agents kidnapped at least 17 of its citizens in the 1970s and '80s. five of them were returned in 2002. japan has maintained that the rest of the abductees must be returned. but north korea has so far refused to comply. and prime minister shinzo abe's cabinet has placed a high priority on the abductions issue. >> translator: the basic stance of the japanese government is to aim for a comprehensive settlement with the north on various issues. including the abductions, and

its nuclear and missile programs. this administration has a particularly strong will to resolve the abductions issue. >> reporter: north korea agreed to japan's request to allow the parents of one abductee to meet in a neutral country with a granddaughter they only became aware of in 2002. some japanese officials now say north korea may be moving towards a more positive outlook. takafumi terui, nhk world. let's now get the latest business stories from ron madison. some japanese business leaders worry that rising tensions over the situation in ukraine could hurt economic ties between japan and russia. but people in both countries are still keen to do business with each other, despite all the politics. about 1,000 government and business leaders attended the japan/russia investment forum in tokyo. they want to boost japanese investment in russia. three russian cabinet ministers were supposed to take part but they canceled.

they said they needed to be in moscow on tuesday for a speech by russian president vladimir putin. japanese industry minimum strer motegi was also a no-show. the government's chief spokesperson says that's mainly because of developments in ukraine. >> translator: the forum coming at a time when international communities face a complicated situation. i hope the forum will lead to further expansion of business and investment between japan and russia. >> one japanese businessman told us that the crisis could make his company think twice about investing in russia. but an official from russia's special economic zone of samara believes the current situation will soon be resolved. he says he expects russia's ties with japan actually to get stronger. more people in europe and china are buying japanese products, and that helped to reduce the size of japan's trade deficit last month. finance ministry officials say

the february deficit was 7.89 billion dollars. that's a pretty huge decline from the $27.5 billion dollars logged in january. still the february figure marks japan's 20th straight monthly trade shortfall. exports surged more than 9.8% from a year earlier in yen terms. there was pretty strong demand for cars and related items in europe and china. exports of plastic to china also surged. in terms of imports, japan bought more liquefied natural gas, electrical parts like semiconductors that helped to boost imports 9% in february. it's the 16th straight monthly rise. the pace was slower than in previous months. on to the markets now. investors still cautious before the federal reserve concludes its two-day policy meeting a bit later on in the day. here's how the majors are looking. tokyo's nikkei rose to its highest level in a week. many other markets, they were a bit on the weak side, though. the nikkei, in fact, added nearly 0.4%.

it finished out the day at 14,462, trading was a bit choppy. short-term traders moved the markets today. investors bought pharmaceutical issues to try to get higher dividends before next week's ex-dividend date. the shanghai composite with declines of nearly 0.2%, 2021 at the close. property developers remained under pressure as investors were concerned about the risk of possible defaults by small developers. and the weakness of property shares also being felt in singapore. the straits times index closed lower by just under half a percent there, 3,079. capital land dropped as the sale of its stake in an australian property developer appeared to disappoint investors. well, more people from other countries are visiting japan now. the number of foreign tourists hit a record high for february. officials at the japan national tourism organization estimate 880,000 people visited japan last month. that's up about 21% from a year

ago. and the second straight monthly rise. the officials say the weaker yen, and a decline in anti-japanese sentiment pushed up that number of tourists from mainland china by 71%. many of them came during the lunar new year's holiday. the number of thai travelers rose 72.4% year-on-year. also more vietnamese people visited japan for a rise of 70%. and there was more than 25% gain for australian tourists in february. many of them came for the skiing here. the officials say they want to build on this momentum so they're pushing seasonal attractions like cherry blossom viewing and summer activities. google has unveiled an operating system for wearable computers. the u.s. internet giants says it plans to develop wristwatch-type devices complete with software by the end of this year. google executives said that they will offer the operating system called android wear for free. the software is based on the popular operating system for android.

they said among other things android wear is capable of understanding voice commands. google added that the software also simplifies data communication between wearables and other devices such as smartphones and televisions. the company aims to tie up with electronics firms, including south korea's samsung electronics, and taiwan's htc to design the smart watches. many people worry about elderly relatives who live alone. they fear that their parents or neighbors could get sick or injured with no one around. some japanese developers are experimenting now with water meters as a way to help. >> reporter: gujo city is in the mountains in the center of japan. its population is rapidly aging and declining. isao is 85 and in good health. he lives alone and does all the household chores by himself, including taking a bath. since june last year, he has been part of an experimental project that uses water meters

to monitor his activities. a flow meter has been installed outside his house. every time water is used the meter notifies a database server over a mobile phone network. the server sends a message to his family, and the mpo every morning letting them know he has used his first water of the day. if there is no water used for 12 hours, the server issues a warning. his daughter, who lives far away, gets these e-mails in the morning. >> translator: we have to use water every morning. so it's very reliable. >> reporter: in the event of a warning, a local npo volunteer rushes to the scene.

>> translator: my life hasn't changed at all. but i'm grateful that i'm being watched over. >> reporter: the monitoring system was thought up by a local npo. takeshi is the npo's executive director. he works for the city water department. that gave him the idea of using water meters to keep an eye on the city's seniors. the data from the meters can even help identify health problems. this is a chart showing daily water use. it shows consumption during breakfast, lunch, tea, and dinner peaking with the evening bath. suno says any sudden change in this pattern could signal ill health. >> translator: if he hasn't taken a bath for awhile, for example, he might be suffering from dementia. or if he goes to the toilet more

frequently, he may have developed diabetes. >> reporter: the npo plans to expand the monitoring service for the elderly to 100 houses in april. early this month it invited other local npos to hear about the system. the development of the system is supported by an i.t. firm in tokyo. the firm is upgrading the system to cope with the rising number of users in the hope it can expand. elderly residents being monitored are shown on this map. if something goes wrong, the color turns yellow, and an explanation pops up. >> translator: it's a matter of life and death, so we have to perfect the system. that means many people monitoring, ready to rush to help if anything happens. >> reporter: monitoring technology has advanced very quickly in the last few years. this new approach bolts that technology on to relatively old

infrastructure to provide security to senior citizens and their families. >> okay. that is going to do it for biz this hour. let's see what's going on in the markets. the u.s. state department has told the syrian government

to suspend operations at its embassy in washington, as well as at consulates in the states of michigan and texas. special envoy for syria daniel rubenstein says his government cannot allow president bashar al assad's regime to conduct diplomatic operations in the u.s. he says in the three years since the conflict started in syria, assad has refused calls to step aside. rubenstein says the syrian leader has directed a war against his own people and created a humanitarian catastrophe. but he stressed the u.s. will maintain diplomatic relations with syria. he said u.s. ties with the syrian people would endure long after assad leaves power. the special envoy's statement came after syrian embassy officials suddenly announced it has suspended consular services. they offered no explanation for the move. the crisis in syria continues to deepen. the u.n. has appealed to the international community to support refugees caught in the middle of the violence. they say more than 2.5 million

people have fled to other countries. residents of northeastern japan are debating how best to remember the past. they have different opinions about structures that survived the earthquake and tsunami three years ago. some survivors are deciding on their own to safeguard what they can. nhk world has one man's story on today's edition of "the road ahead." >> reporter: this man has lived his entire life here. it was a community of 23,000 in iwate prefecture. but the city he knew is no longer here. the tsunami swept away most of the districts. the waves topped his three-story

retail business. he had to be rescued from the roof the next day by helicopter. >> translator: my store is about one kilometer from the sea. it shows how far inland the tsunami reached. >> reporter: his parents and his brother died in a nearby community home with hundreds of others. the home is long gone, demolished along with other structures that remained after the disaster. some wanted to keep them. but city officials decided to take down every building in which people died. now, his building is the only one standing in his area.

yonezawa is determined to preserve it. he hopes it will help people remember the destructive power of the tsunami. he shares his experience with anyone who is interested. he has put up a sign to let people know how high the tsunami reached. >> translator: i climbed up here and while i was up here, the water came to this level. it came up to here. >> reporter: yonezawa thinks walking through the building allows people to understand more vividly what happened on that day. >> translator: i hope some of the buildings will be preserved so that we can visit and learn

and pass on those lessons. i am grateful to people who are willing to conserve them. >> reporter: yonezawa's daughter was born just a month before the disaster. he hopes the remains of his store will also help him pass on what he learned to her generation and the generations after that. >> translator: i want my daughter to be able to come here and look at this building. to visualize how high the tsunami reached. and to imagine how terrifying it was. i want her to be prepared, and to be able to protect herself. that's my greatest wish. >> reporter: the damaged structure needs to be reinforced in order to withstand future earthquakes.

but he does not expect funding from the city. they wanted him to demolish the building. so yonezawa is thinking of turning to crowd funding to raise money, as well as awareness, around japan, and across the world. nhk world. let's now bring in our meteorologist robert speta for a check of the weather. robert, it was a bit cloudy in tokyo today. what's the forecast for the week? >> shery we are going to be seeing some drastically changing conditions. not really for the better. the cloudy skies out there today are just the start of it. it's out ahead of a storm system coming in from the west and even not just that but we've also been seeing some hazy conditions across much of japan and that's making for some darker skies out there. i'll show you some images from earlier on today. just one image, that is. out of tokyo, and you can see

that reducing visibility, if anybody has some itchy eyes today, or any respiratory issues, have a hard time breathing, this is what caused it. it's the yellow sand we've been talking about all week here. and that is really just dominating much of the country. now, like i said, the weather will be changing. what's going to be happening is that we are looking at, welch rainier weather and windier weather throughout the day here on thursday. and that's coming in from the west. we have a developing low pressure area right here. it's that stationary boundary. that's already bringing some showers. over the next 24 hours, in and around the yangtze river basin you're going to see about 50 millimeters of total rainfall falling out here. and then that's going to continue to track off towards east, going into thursday. first across the southern japanese islands, and western japan by thursday morning. and then eventually across the most of japan throughout the day here on your thursday extending out through the evening hours. there is a risk of some severe thunderstorms out of this. especially across the coastal areas on the pacific coast. we have a strong southerly winds pushing in to this. and what we are going to be

seeing is, well winds in and around about 70 to 75 kilometers per hour. not just on the pacific coast, but also coming in behind this. along the sea of japan coastline. further more you're going to see snowfall in higher elevations towards northern honshu, in and across hokkaido. if you have outdoor plans on thursday i would suggest just staying indoors and trying to avoid those as those rain showers continue to kick up. and temperatures are going to be cooling off, as well. the good news is that by friday into saturday we're going to start to see a warming trend not just for japan, but also across much of eastern asia out here. let's see what's going on over towards the americas now where, well across the eastern seaboard, you are also going to be seeing a warming trend. that's the good news. because you had some snowfall earlier this week into washington, d.c. well, that's going to melt off. we have a low that is developing. it's going to be rather strong, moving across southern portions of ontario, the western great lakes. with that some windy conditions, and also some snowfall, about 10 to 20 centimeters across

southern ontario over towards quebec, as this pushes off. also have this cold front attached to it. it's a dry cold front. what i mean by that, it is not going to be bringing very much precipitation. but still looking at the windy conditions and even the risk of fire weather into parts of texas and across the deep south. down there -- or excuse me up towards the south -- northwest that is, you are looking at some rain showers. separate storm system over here. snow in the higher elevations to be had. let's see what's going on in europe, as well. where, well, this has been the outlook, thus far this week. it's been warm and calm in the southwest. and you're still seeing temperatures really above average out here. and wet and windy in the north. this jet stream, that dip in the jets, though, that is going to start to lift here going into thursday and what we are going to be seeing is some improving conditions in warsaw, even over towards eastern europe, western russia you have been seeing that foul weather. that's going to improve later on this weekend, as well. and temperatures will slowly be on the rise. not the case for the british isles. a separate storm system is moving in here for you, widespread rain showers, also windy conditions and some snow

over towards the scandinavian peninsula. let's take a look at your three-day forecast across the alpine regions and over towards the mediterranean and even paris, you're going to see a little bit of a cool-off. but take a look at munich. this is 23 for your high on thursday. let's see your average, though, 9 is typically for this time of year. here's the extended forecast.

and that's all for this hour on "newsline." i'm shery ahn. thanks for watching.

>> the prime minister of ukraine says the situation in crimea has gone from a political crisis to a military one. he says the death of ukrainian soldier tuesday amounts to a war crime. one of the most wanted man in russia has died. that is the leader of the an islamistls, militant group claiming responsibility for a series of deadly attacks. the head of the international monetary fund is in court in paris today. as dean lagarde is being questioned in a crop -- christine lagarde is being questioned in a