hello and welcome back to "newsline." i'm shery ahn. let's get started with the headlines. official chinese media reports explosions in the volatile western region of xinjiang have killed more than 30 people. police in taiwan say a university student who stabbed passengers on a subway train planned the attack for a day when he had no classes. and more than a month after the south korean ferry disaster, some students are working to

make sure the tragedy is never forgotten. a website affiliated with china's communist party says explosions in the xinjiang uighur autonomous region have killed at least 31 people and wounded 94. the state run xinhua news agency reports the blast occurred after two vehicles crashed into a market. xinhua says explosives were thrown out of the vehicles and towards shoppers in the regional capital urumqi. a resident near the scene spoke with nhk near the phone. photos reportedly taken near the scene have been posted on the internet. state-run tv says president xi jinping has called the attack a

violent terrorist incident. and says she instructed authorities to severely punish those responsible. the xinjiang uighur autonomous region has seen several protests and attacks in recent years. the region is home to the muslim uighur minority. some members of the community are frustrated with the political and economic gap between them and hun chinese. protests in urumqi against the central government in july 2009 turned into a major riot. about 200 people were killed. in april 2013, 21 people died in the clash between a uighur group and public security forces in southern xinjiang. two months later a group of uighurs armed with knives attacked public facilities and killed 35 people in the eastern part of the region. a bomb attack at a station in urumqi in april this year killed 3 people and injured 79. the bombing took place just after president xi visited the region.

local authorities say members of the east turkistan islamic movement carried out the attack. the move wants independence for the region. chinese authorities say the organization was also behind an incident that saw a car plow into pedestrians in beijing's tian men square last october. five people died. the chinese government is now keeping a closer eye on the uighur community. authorities in taiwan are trying to understand why a university student went on a deadly stabbing spree on a subway train. this video was reportedly taken by a passenger. a man is seen thrusting an umbrella toward the attacker who's wearing a red shirt. four people were killed and 21 others were injured. police arrested the man shortly after the incident. they say he's a student at a university in central taiwan. the man reportedly told investigators he became tired of his life about a year ago. he said he began planning the

attack last week and decided it would be on wednesday as he had no classes that day. police say they will increase the number of officers patrolling the subway. prosecutors in south korea are trying to track down the de facto owner of the operator of a ferry that sank last month. the sewol sank off the southern coast. the deaths of 288 of its passengers have been confirmed while 16 others are still unaccounted for. substantial overloading and a failure to properly secure cargo are believed to be key factors behind the accident. the president of the ferry operate eor chonghaejin marine company has been arrested. prosecutors are seeking an arrest warrant for yoo wung ub n byung-eun. yoo failed to report the court

over the allegations. prosecutors on wednesday raided a compound near seoul that belongs to a religious organization linked to yoo. his whereabouts remain unknown. on thursday prosecutors sent investigators to question people who may be harboring him. their names were found on lists seized during the raid. prosecutors have confirmed part of the ferry operator's revenue was diverted to yoo. they will examine the flow of the money as they try to clarify what led to the operator's lax safety standards. as the investigation continues, some young people in south korea are trying to turn the tragedy into hope for future generations. nhk world's anna jung explains. >> reporter: high school and university students in seoul urge people to understand the importance of safety. each person writes a pledge on a

postcard. it will be mailed to the writer on april 16 next year, one year after the sewol ferry tragedy. kim young ouk, a 20-year-old graduate student, started the campaign. he thought south koreans could make their society safer by involving young people, the country's future leaders. >> translator: the people of our country were shocked because the victims of this accident were young people. adults are feeling a lot of guilt, but i want both adults and young people to work together to create a safe south korea. >> reporter: many people in seoul have taken part in the campaign. during the four-day effort, more than 3,000 safety promises were collected. >> translator: adults are

bitterly disappointed that it took this type of accident for young people to understand the importance of safety. but i'm very grateful that they're taking action on their own now. >> reporter: most of the victims of the ferry accident were high school students from the city ansan. students from the city are starting a campaign to remember the young lives taken by the accident. on this day, student council leaders from all 24 high schools in ansan gather for a meeting. among them is a student of the school that the victims attended. they have been meeting almost every week since the accident. >> translator: some people are still unaccounted for. so all the students decided to wear ribbons to keep the missing in our thoughts. >> reporter: they have embraced what they can do so no one ever

forgets the tragedy. >> reporter: we were confused about how to proceed because we didn't know what was factual and what was not. we felt we needed the facts before we could go ahead. >> reporter: after the accident, their school canceled the sports festival. the money budgeted for the event was used for the campaign to mourn the students who had died. this month they marched through the city holding yellow placquards with the words "please don't forget." the students held a candle light vigil to grieve for the victims and pray for the missing people. more than 3,000 people attended. >> translator: i think about the society i'll live in as an adult. my children will be free from harm and worries about such accidents. >> reporter: amid the grief,

young south koreans are trying to make sure people learn from the accident so updates you on happening across the peninsula. wednesday and thursday here on "newsline." u.s. president barack obama has deployed dozens of military personnel to help nigerian forces locate more than 200 kidnapped schoolgirls. the islamist extremist group boko haram abducted the teens last month. it's part of an ongoing terror campaign that's exacting an ever increasing toll on nigerians. more from nhk world's craig dale. >> reporter: debra peter's smile belies the pain she's endured at the hands of boko haram. the 15-year-old nigerian met with members of the u.s. congress to describe the day the islamist militants killed her father and brother for being christian. >> shoot my brother twice. then when they shoot my brother, that's when my dad died. >> reporter: peters is from the village from boko haram

kidnapped more than 200 schoolgirls. the lawmakers who heard her story say the u.s. must do everything possible to help free the teens. >> we have technology and other things available to us that other countries don't have. >> reporter: president barack obama agrees. he's deployed approximately 80 military personnel to chad, nigeria's neighbor. they'll support the operation of reconnaissance aircraft. boko haram militants grabbed the girls last month. the u.s., britain and france have been providing expertise and equipment to help with the search. at the same time, nigerian authorities have been responding to security threats on other fronts. they blame boko haram for back to back bombings this week in the central city of jos. at least 118 people died. dozens were wounded. >> my body really, really hurts. >> reporter: the militants are also suspected of killing dozens

of people in attacks on at least two northern villages near chibok. nigerians have grown tired of the group's five-year-long fight to create an islamic state. they say security forces are failing to do their job. >> you know, police and army checkpoints everywhere. and yet, you know, you hear increase of bombing, kidnapping. >> reporter: some analysts say that's because the military has been compromised. >> the nigerian military itself is politicized. the nigerian military itself has become infrainstructed by boko haram. >> reporter: the says the resulting intelligence leaks has made the search for the missing schoolgirls even harder. these demonstrators in ivory coast are aware of the challenges. they say the campaign against boko haram requires a pan-african response. >> translator: no african

country is spared. these countries need to get involved to prevent what's taking place in nigeria from happening elsewhere in africa. >> reporter: they say africa needs to help africa if it's ever going to stop what many in this region call a menace. craig dale, nhk world. let's now turn to ron madison for the latest on the direction of u.s. monetary policy and other business stories. >> thanks, shery. policymakers at the u.s. federal reserve have engaged in what they call prudent planning. they talked about ways to increase short-term interest rates and the effects that might have. but they said that did not imply they would raise rates any time soon. the policymakers met over two days at the end of last month. the minutes show they outlined several approaches to raising short-term rates when it becomes appropriate to do so. some members said discussing steps toward changing monetary policy would provide clarity and credibility with the public. the policymakers had been pumping tens of billions of

dollars into the economy every month. but they started to scale back that stimulus. the minutes show they want to be sure they can control rates once they start to rise, but they did not reach any conclusions. factory workers in china are keeping their lines humming. manufacturing has risen to a five-month high. some are wondering now whether the economy may be stabilizing. the hsbc flash china purchasing manager's index comes out every month. a figure above 50 separates monthly growth from contraction. the index rebounded from april to hit 49.7. that was higher than market expectations. still, though, the index has been below 50 since january. investors are pretty relieved that the u.s. fed's policy is likely to stay the course. also they took some positive cues from that chinese data. most asian markets finished higher with tokyo outperforming the rest of the region. sydney and jakarta also showing pretty strong gains. seoul's kospy recorded this year's high. in tokyo the nikkei average with

quite a jump. up more than 2%. 14,337 at the close. biggest one-day advance since miz-april. weaker yen lifted overall in sydney the stocks climbing the most in 3 1/2 months rising more than 1%. 5,479. china's domestic investors not all that convinced about the strength of their country's economy. the shanghai composite erased all other earlier gains. finally finished lower by about .2%. 2,021. meanwhile the gas sector maintained sharp rallies on news beijing reached deal with moscow on new supplies of natural gas. shipments of televisions within japan in april plunged to a ten-year low for the month. officials at an industry association say tv manufacturers shipped 309,000 units. that's down almost 20% from last

april. the officials say companies reduced shipments in response to weak demand as consumers in japan went on a shopping spree ahead of a rise in the con sumgts tax on april 1st. but the officials say the decline was within expectations. manufacturers hoping to stimulate demand by marketing smaller, 4-k ultrahigh definition tvs at lower prices. visitors to japan know that they're going to have to shell out a bit for accommodations travel. and pretty much anything they want to buy. but in the first three months of this year, their spending actually hit a record. tourists from china spent the most. japan tourism agency officials say the spending added up to more than $4 billion. that's up 49% from last year. it's the highest quarterly total since they started keeping track of the figures four years ago. the average visitor spent nearly $1,500. that was another record. those from china spent more than $2,400. tourism to japan is increasing

at a faster pace this year. 1.2 million people visited in april alone. the highest monthly figure ever. japanese leaders are seeing potential in a largely untapped resource. they're working on different levels to support entrepreneurs and the hope is new ideas will give rise to new companies and help give the economy a boost. nhk world's akiko okomoto has the story. >> reporter: aspiring entrepreneurs flock to this net working event in western japan. about 100 attended. 20 of them competed in the speed pitch contest. >> translator: i want to start a business to educate people about disaster prevention. >> translator: i want to start a business to deliver popular designer clothing to young women. >> reporter: presenters had 90 seconds to convey their ideas. young entrepreneurs and other attendees judged the contest.

the city of osaka awarded the winner with one month of rent free office space. osaka has long been a home base for major electronic firms such as panasonic and sharp. but some have relocated. replacing them hasn't been easy. so municipal leaders hosted this type of event 200 times last year. they are now starting to link up aspiring se ining entrepreneurs investors and companies. >> translator: if osaka were to become like silicon valley, with google and big companies support these entrepreneurs, it would boost the city. >> reporter: local governors need to create jobs and to boost tax revenue. many companies that have

supported the regional economy have lost competitiveness. officials in wakayama prefecture offer a $10,000 grant to people who move to the area to start a business. wakayama representatives frequently host seminars in tokyo and other big cities to invite people to move to the prefecture. the steel industry in the region has weakened, and with the population in decline, it's hard to find people to take over in the farming and fishing sectors. shinseki onishi took advantage of the program and started a business last year. he produces and sells homewares and other items made from locally grown wood. >> translator: through my products, i want to show how great life in the countryside

can be. >> reporter: wakayama officials want to create jobs and add 1,000 households to their population by 2024. but in the past two years, they've only managed to help establish ten entrepreneurs. >> translator: the startups of the people we support are small in scale. we can't expect them to create jobs in just a few years. but we would like them to do so in the long term. >> reporter: some experts say local areas must focus on building a network of venture capitalists and startup specialists. >> translator: most venture capitalists are in tokyo, and there are no networks for entrepreneurs in local areas. regional leaders need to think about networking with firms. marketing specialists outside of their areas. >> reporter: most agree if they

do that, they'll build more attractive places to work and live. it's a tough challenge, but one they need to meet if they want to thrive. akiko okamoto, nhk world, wakayama, japan. >> that is going to wrap it up for business hour. i'll leave you with the markets. organizers of theorld cup in brazil are coping with more

labor strikes with just three weeks to go before the first kickoff. in sao paulo bus drivers have gone on strike for a second day. the city will host the opening game. but drivers dissatisfied with a pay raise proposal walked off the job on tuesday. they blocked traffic on many bus terminals on wednesday. and in some areas they used buses to block streets. reports say the second day of the strike affected more than 300,000 people. it caused heavy traffic congestion as more cars than usual were used by residents trying to get to work or school. bus services are expected to resume on thursday. drivers and management have agreed to take part in talks mediated by the city. earlier more than half of rio de janeiro's police force staged a 24-hour strike. they're demanding wage increases of 80%. police in at least six other states also went on strike. police officials say there hasn't been a noticeable increase in crime, but some

union leaders have hinted there may be more strikes and demonstrations during the world cup. let's now bring in our meteorologist robert speta. robert, this morning i step out of the house in tokyo. beautiful, sunny skies. suddenly, a thunderstorm caught me completely off guard. what's going on with the weather? >> yes, shery. actually, i was one of those people as well. went outside during the morning hours. it did seem rather decent. by the early afternoon hours we saw some of those storms flare up. even some hail out here. i actually got some photos o f that. definitely did come down. the thing is as we go ahead into friday, some of the ingredients in place as well, we could see those storms flare up again. hopefully it won't be as caught off guard on this. because what we are seeing right now is that storm system, remember, it brought that steady rain earlier on this week. the gusty winds across much of

japan. it's now pulling off here towards the northeast, but it's still pulling in this very cold air behind it. especially in the upper levels. during the daytime we start to see this surface heating. that just makes the atmosphere very unstable. we could be seeing, well, more storms on friday. some of those producing hail and even some damaging winds. so really want to watch out for that. by saturday and sunday, some improving conditions. we do have a high pressure coming in from the west. that's going to be bringing some much sunnier skies out here. already doing so into korea, northeastern china. southeastern china, not the case. actually, widespread heavy rainfall out here. even over towards northern portions of taiwan. taipei, 417 millimeters in the past 72 hours out here. this is what it looks like on the ground. you've been seeing that very significant flooding. well, unfortunately some people did -- were caught off guard by this. a few campers there in southwestern taiwan had to be rescued because it cut across this river after it started to rise following that tremendous

amount of rainfall. all due to the rainy season. we are still going to be seeing more showers as we head into friday. some areas just south of shanghai as much as 150 millimeters could occur on friday as well. this is going to be gradually lifting off towards the north going into the weekend, though. so i do expect some improving conditions out here. let's see what's going on in the americas now. also talking about some severe thunderstorms. first i want to show you this image out of idaho. a tornado there for you on the ground. well, it wasn't just that. widespread reports of hail from the ohio river valley, extending back towards the west into colorado including denver. actually, some hail accumulation was seen out here. some pretty heavy stuff coming from these storm systems. that threat is still here on your thursday through friday. extending out through the ohio river valley into the northeast, back towards the west. also the high plains are going to be seeing some thunderstorms out here including those of you in denver. it's not over yet. you still have these thunderstorm watches in effect out here. eventually that's going to continue to work its way off

there toward the east. down in the south things remaining hot and actually dry into the southwest. new mexico, arizona, you're still under these fire weather warnings and watches. those fire bans continue to remain in place. now into europe, western europe, this low pressure area continuing to bring some thunderstorms out here. southern portions of the uk continue to see those rain showers. actually, a severe weather threat there over towards much of france into western germany as well. a few of these could even produce some tornadoes. we're talking about damaging winds, even hail. winds up to about 100 kilometers per hour in some of the stronger cells as this does continue to fire up. back here towards the east, though, i want to mention the balkan peninsula. we are seeing improving conditions following last week's floods. but you don't need any more rainfall. there is an upper level low. that's going to bring some scattered showers here for you. then wrapping things up here into northeastern europe, look at that, moscow all the way up to 27 here on your thursday. here's the extended outlook.

and we have breaking news out of thailand at this hour. thailand's army chief announced a short while ago that its military committee has taken control of the government. the general announced this on tv just after 5:00 p.m. local time. local media described this as a coup d'etat. the country has been under martial law since tuesday to try to restore order. supporters and opponents of former prime minister yingluck shinawatra having holding demonstrations for six months. once again, we have breaking news out of thailand. thailand's army chief announce add short while ago that its military committee has taken control of the government. the general announced this on television just after 5:00 p.m. local time. local media described this as a coup d'etat. the country has been under

martial law since tuesday to try to restore order. supporters and opponents of former prime minister yingluck shinawatra have been holding demonstrations for six months. for those of you just tuning in, we have breaking news out of thailand. the army chief there announced a short while ago that its military committee has taken control of the government. the general announced this on television just after 5:00 p.m. local time. now, media there describe this as a coup d'etat. the country has been under martial law since tuesday to try to restore order. of course, we'll update you on this story and more at the top of the hour. thank you very much for watching. w?q?q?q?q?q?a7guc

>> headlines this hour. a military coup in thailand. it army chief calls necessary after six months of political deadlock and protests. of political deadlock and protests. two car bombs go off in china and 30 people -- over 30 people are killed. in the u.s., a girl is reunited with her family 10 years after being