hello and welcome back to "newsline" i'm shery ahn. let's get started with the head lines. g-7 leaders are holding emergency talks on russia's annexation of crimea, with some pressing for sharper response. the chinese president has called on his south korean counterpart to strengthen cooperation between their countries. and to everyone's surprise, a dark horse athlete wins the

march grand sumo tournament in osaka. the leaders of the group of seven industrialized nations are trying to work out a way to contain russia. they'll discuss president vladimir putin's decision to annex the autonomous ukrainian republic of crimea, and they may consider strengthening sanctions, even as russian forces tighten their grip. nhk world has more. >> reporter: russian defense ministry officials say their forces have occupied most of the ukraine's military facilities in crimea. they say the country's flag is flying at almost 200 bases, checkpoints and other installations. russian forces began mobilizing in the autonomous ukrainian republic about a month ago. they started taking over facilities last week, after a

majority of crimeans voted in a referendum to join the russian federation. president vladimir putin now wants government officials to move in. he's ordered his ministers to open offices for the interior ministry and federal security service. he wants to see plans by saturday. u.s. president barack obama has been spearheading the push to punish russian leaders for their actions in crimea. he and other leaders from the group of seven nations will speak during a two-day nuclear security summit in the hague. obama wants to talk about further sanctions, should russia go beyond annexing the republic. some leaders are talking about ending their 17-year partnership with the russians, known as the g-8. >> i think we should be discussing whether or not to

expel russia permanently from the g-8 if further steps are taken. >> reporter: g-7 leaders have already seen annexation of crimea as a violation of travel law. they've slapped travel bans on russian officials and frozen the assets of some. but the heads of some european countries with close trade ties to russia worry about going any further. japanese prime minister shinzo abe is expected to announce a financial aid package for ukraine during his visit to the hague. putin appears ready to stand his ground, come what may. he suggests the global support for ukraine's interim government is trying his patience. the administration is anti-russia and could pose a threat. putin is scheduled to welcome g-8 leaders in june to a summit

in sochi, where the winter olympics were held. he says he wants the group to focus on president-day and future challenges. but with other leaders questioning the future of g-8, the russian president may find himself hosting a party with no guests. nhk world. chinese president xi jinping met with south korean president park geun-hye on the sidelines of the nuclear security summit. state-run media in china report the two leaders discussed a variety of issues, including projects commemorating their nations' history. south korean officials say xi spoke about a monument being built in northwestern china. it honors a militia set up by the korean government in exile before and during world war ii. the militia opposed japan's colonial rule over the korean peninsula. earlier this year, china opened a memorial hall in the

northeastern city of harbin. it commemorates a korean activist who assassinated a top japanese official in 1909. the victim was ito, japan's first prime minister and the first resident general of japanese occupied korea. park reportedly expressed gratitude, saying in both projects are significant, the two leaders pledged to enhance bilateral cooperation. japan's chief cabinet secretary said japan and south korea have differing views about the korean activist. >> translator: south korea and china have been taking actions together based on their own assessment of an incident that took place in the last century. i think it could undermine efforts to build regional peace and partnerships. >> the meeting comes ahead of a summit between the u.s., japan, and south korea scheduled for tuesday. u.s. officials proposed the

meeting. suga said sunday's meeting between xi and park will have no impact on the upcoming trilateral summit. the president of taiwan is trying to figure out how to respond to protesters angry about a trade deal with china. ma ying-jeou called his cap net together for an emergency meeting. the demonstrators have occupied parliament since last tuesday. on sunday, they stormed the cabinet building. police managed to force them out, but about 100 people were hurt. representatives of taiwan and china signed the agreement, the trade agreement, last june. the protesters fear it will threaten small and medium-sized businesses. but ma says increased investment from the mainland will create more jobs. he has rejected demands to cancel the deal, and he has refused to meet with the protesters. china state media says the crew of a chinese plane has spotted objects floating in the southern indian ocean. teams from a number of countries will follow up to see if they're

related to the missing malaysia airlines jetliner. china's central television quoted the xinhua news agency as saying that the crew spotted multiple suspicious objects floating in the ocean. it said two are relatively big. and many smaller ones are scattered within a radius of several kilometers. the plane was running out of fuel, so its crew had to turn back. but they asked other search teams to head to the area. they passed along the coordinates to australian authorities who are orchestrating the search operation. the news agency says the chinese crew spotted the objects from an altitude of 10,000 meters. sources close to the search say it's usually difficult to identify floating objects from that altitude. let's now turn to the latest business stories with ron madison. well japanese consumers are rushing to buy before the sales tax is hiked from 5% to 8% next week. a surge in personal computer shipments. industry officials say domestic shipments of pcs topped 1.2

million units in february. that's up 22% year-on-year. and the third straight month of record highs. demand is also being driven by microsoft, which will end its support services for the windows xp operating system next week. pcmakers expect demand to plunge once the consumption tax hike kicks in on april 1st. they hope new models will help to make up for the drop in sales. many markets in the asia pacific region have started off the week on a pretty strong note. manufacturing data released out of china on monday was weak. but chinese stocks performed well, because the slowdown appears to have been largely factored in the forecast. and the positive performance in shanghai lent support to the rest of the region. the bench mark shanghai composite rose 0.9%, 2,066. its highest close in about three weeks. a private survey showing that chinese manufacturing activity in march contracted for a third straight month failed to disappoint investors. some were hopeful the government may provide stimulus to prop up

the economy while others hunted for bargains following the recent market weakness. here in tokyo the nikkei average climbed 1.8% roughly to 14,475. the index rebounded from a sharp loss at the end of last week. export related issues were in demand as a weak yen lifted overall sentiment. and in taiwan the taiex index rose 0.3%, 8,605. investors speculated that government-backed funds were buying stocks to help support the market. still many investors were cautious about the violence between taiwanese police and protesters. the operator of the tokyo stock exchange has consolidated derivatives trading and shifted it to osaka. the aim is to make trading more competitive as the business expands worldwide. the japan exchange group has launched the osaka exchange for government bond futures and other derivatives. the latest move follows the consolidation of osaka's stock trading operations to tokyo last july. the operators wants to separate

the markets for stocks and derivatives in japan's two major cities. osaka exchange officials say they will develop new products, and extend trading hours. they say they hope to boost transactions by 50% in two years. well economists predict that a bank of japan survey out next week will continue to show positive business sentiment among manufacturers, and nonmanufacturers. but with the sales tax looming they think that sentiment may not last in the coming months. the central bank will release the results of the tankan survey on april 1st. the researchers at 16 institutions say the measure of business sentiment among large manufacturers will likely range somewhere between 17 to 20 points. that would be an improvement from the 16 points registered in the december survey. the economists expect improved sentiment for the fifth consecutive quarter in the next survey. they say nonmanufacturers and small to medium-sized firms will also be more optimistic. some experts think overall figures will even reach the

highest levels since 1991. but they say personal consumption and production may drop off after the consumption tax hike is implemented in april. they predict the outlook for the next three months is likely to worsen. japanese government officials are trying to find ways to deal with the nation's aging population and low birth rate. members of a government panel will also discuss accepting more immigrants to try to solve these problems. analysts at a national research institute say japan's population could fall by 40 million to about 87 million in the year 2060. government officials worry that could shrink the country's economy. they set up a committee under the council on economic and fiscal policy to look in to these issues. a key item on the agenda will be raising the nation's birth rate. japanese women give birth to an average 1.41 children during their lifetime. economists at the cabinet office predict that even if the birth rate rises to about 2.0 by the year 2030, that wouldn't be

enough to put the brakes on japan's population decline. they predict that the number of working-age people between 15 and 64 will likely drop severely. members of the government committee plan to study the experience of other countries that have used immigration to deal with shrinking labor forces. some retail managers in japan are refashioning their approach to fashion. people throw away 1 million tons of used clothing every year. only about a quarter of that gets recycled. now some managers are changing strategies and changing opinions . >> shoppers at the europe based h&m retail chain may have noticed something new during the past year. this box is for recycling clothes. customers can drop off items that they don't want anymore. the store accepts damaged clothes. and even clothing from other brands. customers can receive a coupon worth about $5 for every bag

they bring in. >> here's your coupon. thank you very much. >> translator: i used to throw all my old clothes away, because no one would take them. >> reporter: during the past year, the company has collected about 320 tons of clothes at its japanese stores. it's recycled about 95% of the items. company officials are hoping that the program raises awareness about environmental issues, and they say the coupon system has helped sales. >> translator: producing consumer goods impacts the environment. we want to take responsibility for that by working with customers on the recycling project. >> reporter: the company sends the used clothes to a warehouse north of tokyo. the facility belongs to the japanese subsidiary of a leading textile recycling company called soex. the firm is based in germany.

the subsidiary sends clothes from japan to four different locations for sorting. they include india, where labor costs are low, and dubai, which serves as a logistics center connecting africa and asia. some of the facilities receive as many as 500 tons of clothes each day. workers sort the items based on more than 400 criteria, including size, design, fabric type, and degree of damage. they rely on high turnover and cutting-edge technology to keep costs down. then they ship the clothes to 70 different countries. the items are matched to particular markets based on local tastes, weather conditions, and economic situations. one of the countries is the west african nation of togo. at this secondhand market shirts from japan are popular with

shoppers because of their high quality. >> translator: we want to accommodate the varied needs of consumers in each country. >> reporter: officials at the japanese subsidiary of soex say they've been receiving many inquiries from clothing companies that want to set up recycling programs. on this day, they meet representatives from a firm that runs a fashion label targeting young women. >> translator: it is part of our corporate policy to be conscious about environmental issues. >> translator: we need a broad-based system for collecting used clothes. and we need to let more customers know about recycling. >> reporter: japanese shoppers have shown that they are willing to recycle their used clothes. it appears that more and more shops will be there to help them. >> okay. that is going to do it for biz this hour.

let's see how things are looking on the markets.eld a ceremony o to mark the 70th anniversary of fighting between japan and britain. soldiers from the two nations battled for control of a northeastern part of the country during world war ii. the ceremony in imphal on sunday was organized by a local group working to maintain historical records of the period. >> we should not forget that one of the harshest battles in world war ii was fought here. >> the japanese ambassador to

india thanked the group and local residents for looking after memorial tower for the deceased and other facilities. around 30,000 japanese soldiers died in the battle of imphal. the failure of the japanese imperial army's campaign to gain a strategic foothold against the british army stationed in the area hastened japan's fall in the region. members of the organizing group say they plan to tour the battlefields in northeastern india through june, and hold memorials. they hope many people will visit the former site, including relatives of those who died there. tokyo electric power company officials have restarted most of a water decontamination system at the fukushima daiichi nuclear power plant, after a six-day suspension. they halted the system after finding that the performance of one of the lines had dropped sharply. crews re-activated two of the three lines that make up the advanced liquid processing system, or alps on monday. previously untreated water

became mixed with treated water in parts of storage tanks and the operator had to stop all the lines to remove the contaminated water. they say the line in question apparently began to malfunction after workers replaced filters that separate metals from the water in early march. the cause of the trouble remains unknown, and the faulty line remains shut off. alps is said to be able to remove almost all types of radioactive materials from waste water. it's considered the key to dealing with the massive volume of contaminated water at the plant. officials hope to have the system in full operation as early as next month. the alps system has been hit by a series of problems, and the latest may cause a delay in the water decontamination schedule. the march grand sumo tournament wrapped up on sunday. the competition ran for 15 days. our sumo reporter hiro morita

joins us with the latest. great to have you back. so how did things go in osaka? >> thanks for having me back, shery. we all thought that the oak zune ma grand champions were on a collision course for the emperor's cup but a surprise candidate passed them by. heading into the final day of the spring tourney mongolian ozeki champ kakuryu was the sole leader with just one loss. all he needed was one more win to clinch the championship. kakuryu had already beaten the two yokozuna and a victory here would give him his first top division championship. he faced off against, he started off with a tough charge but he was able to hold him off. he gets a firm hold and rallies. kakuryu takes the match, and he is the champion!

>> translator: i finally clinched the victory. i think it's because with experience and diligence i have worked so hard to develop. >> kakuryu's back-to-back records of 14 wins and one loss convinced the sumo elders to promote him to the highest rank of yokozuna. when the afoishl announcement is made on wednesday, kakuryu will become the 71st yokozuna grand champion. now here's what happened to the other grand champions. hakuho was undefeated until injuring his right hand. after that, he lost his final three matches. harumafuji was trying to redeem himself after sitting out the previous tourney, but lack of training cost him, and he lost three of his last four matches. besides kakuryu, goeido, went home with a distinguished prize for excellence. goeido was fighting on his home turf as he hails from osaka.

with the huge fan support he upset one yokozuna and two ozeki to rack up 12 victories. if you ask me who the fooistiest rikishi is there's no question it's yoshkoze. he won 10 bouts by coming out with all guns blazing. goeido earned the outstanding performance award. yoshikoze received the fighting spirit prize. last week i told you he withdrew from the tourney after suffering a leg injury, but he came back, determined to win one more match. he had seven wins after 14 days, which meant the egyptian still had a chance to win the majority of his matches in osaka. he took on the final day and

wasn't able to use his ferocious attack as much as he wanted to but he muscled his stocky opponent in spite of fighting with bad wheels. a very impressive win and a well-deserved more wins than losses in a 15-day competition. and that pretty much sums up the spring tourney. i'll be back with more sumo talk in may. when the summer tournament gets under way in tokyo. and let's now bring in our meteorologist. great way to kick off the week here in tokyo. sunny and warm. how long will this weather lasts? >> temperaturewise, it's staying like april through the rest of the week. i heard that cherry blossoms will likely start to bloom this week in tokyo. the nice weather is bringing some nice weather is occurring for the rest of japan, as well,

but warm weather is actually raising the potential for avalanches for northern parts of the country, as well as in mountain areas. nice weather for the korean peninsula, as well, and the northern half of china, as well. the rain is developing over the south of china. rain will likely spread to the south of the korean peninsula, and western japan by tomorrow evening. now, temperatures are going to be quite warm for most of the continent, as well as japan, over the next couple of days, going up to 25 degrees in beijing on your wednesday. that's about 10 degrees higher than average. tokyo at 20 degrees. that will be continuing in to your thursday. now let's continue to talk about the heavy rainfall for the philippines. we are watching a tropical depression over the past several days, it has dropped about 400 or 500 millimeters of rain for the east coast of the mindanao over the past several days. now the system is now located to the west of the country, still packing a lot of energy to create heavy rainfall for the west coast of the country, and

in the northeast monsoonal flow so heavy rain is occurring over the north coast as well. flooding and landslides will be a very big concern for the next couple of days there. a landslide occurred in washington state on sunday. this is the scene, just to the north of seattle. a massive landslide peeled away the side of the mountain just north of seattle on sunday. 18 people remain missing after a massive landslide. three people have been confirmed dead. at least eight injured, in the landslide. responders have stated any rescue attempt is still too dangerous at this time due to the instability of the mountain site. now it looks like rain has set up over the northwest at this moment. however, another batch of heavy rain will likely move in to this area by tomorrow on tuesday. so, at the risk of flooding and landslides will get even higher after the next several days, i'm afraid. now it's looking quite dry for most of the continent but some rain is falling over the

southeast coast of the u.s. and temperatures are going to get very, very low in the north and east. look at this, only 2 degrees for you in chicago. with dusting of snow. meanwhile, new york city at 3 degrees. that's about 10 degrees lower than where they should be this time of year, and 6 degrees for you in washington, d.c., which despite the sunny weather and subzero figures at night for these locations. so please bundle up. now across europe then, looking quite messy in many places. there are a couple of storm systems, one here is starting to affect the british isles, the iberian peninsula and france with rainy weather as well as gusty conditions. about 140 kilometer hour winds have been reported in ireland. this system will likely move across the east as we go into the next couple of days and rain could change over to snow in some locations, in france and the iberian peninsula. and another batch of nasty weather over central mediterranean and central europe. winds of 90 kilometers per hour

and snow fall will be happening over the alpine region. so a lot of messy picture for most of europe. temperatures are going to be dropping in many places for the central and eastern -- or western part of europe. only 11 degrees in paris, as well as berlin. but across the east, very warm and nearly 20 in kiev. here's the extended forecast.

and that's all for this hour on "newsline." i'm shery ahn. thanks for watching. úçaóñóa7guc

>> is in the face for the ruling socialist in the first round of nations.municipal the far right party national front takes a record number of votes in the local polls. the crisis in ukraine looks set to dominate today's nuclear summit in the hague. this as nato's top military commander warns a sizable portion troop buildup on the border of ukraine. and ships and planes from several nations are combing a loan corner in the southern indian ocean. mounting evidence of floating debris could bring a breakthrough in the search for the missing