hello and welcome back to "newsline." i'm sherry ann. let's get started with the headlines. japanese prime minister shinzo abe lays out his government's new policy package aimed at revitalizing the economy. sunni militants in iraq are pulling down and do stroying national statues as they march toward baghdad. separatists in eastern ukraine agree to respect a cease-fire declared by government leaders.

members of japanese prime minister shinzo abe's government have approved his strategy for growth. cabinet ministers have also backed abe's policies for economic and fiscal reforms. abe met with reporters shortly after the ministers gave him their approval. >> translator: the economic recovery is yet to spread to all corners of japan. that's why we should not let this favorable cycle of economy be a temporal phenomenon. we should continue to push this favorable cycle strongly so that smes nationwide can be revitalized. we will have everyone in japan to realize the economic recovery. that is the mission of abenomics. >> one of the main items in the fiscal and economic reform

package is a reduction in japan's corporate tax rate. business leaders have called for the change supporters say lowering the tax will attract more overseas investment. they say it will also help japanese companies compete internationally. the reduction would take effect in april of next year and would cut the tax rate from 35% to below 30% over several years. the prime minister is also calling for more support for people raising children. the policies are aimed at stabilizing japan's population. abe's growth strategy featured legislation to revamp the way people work. it calls for introduction of performance-based wages for certain workers. they're people with specialized skills who earn about $100,000 a year or more. the proposal for the medical services sector would allow patients to combine treatments covered by public insurance with those that aren't. japanese leaders also want to shake up farming. their strategy calls for the

reform of nationwide agricultural cooperatives that want to give local cooperatives more say over how things are run. now our senior political commentator masao nakajima joins us in the studio. the corporate tax cut a big part of abe's policies. what does he hope to achieve with this measure? >> well, japan's corporate tax rate is currently about 35%, as you said. the second highest among developed nations. the abe administration promised to lower the rate below 30% and abe believes that the tax cut will make japan more competitive and more attractive for foreign investors. you know, japanese business leaders have long been calling for a corporate tax cut to put japan on an equal footing with its international rivals. but questions remain about where the government intends to find alternative sources of revenue. some lawmakers argue that the

government needs to compensate for the job in tax revenue. they believe restoring the nation's fiscal health is also important just like abe mentioned in his strategy as well. >> now japan's declining population is a big problem for the growth of the economy. how does abe plan to tackle this issue? >> well, japan's rapidly shrinking population is likely to reduce the size of the economy. minimizing this impact is another big goal of the abe administration. steps are needed to secure enough workers to keep the economy going. abe's thinking about inviting more foreign workers as well. but a drastic easing of japan's basic immigration policies does not look like his major option yet. rather, abe promised to consider bold measures to tackle the birth rate problem. these include fiscal --

financial assistance for third-born and subsequent children. but experts say that that kind of measures are not good enough yet. for example, working motors have a hard time finding child care in japan. high housing and education costs make it harder for parents to plan for a big family. japan's long recession also decreased the average household income. many young people now do not marry because of low incomes and unstable employment. so, you know, we're just working our employment system need to be revised to make it easier for mothers to work and have more children. >> there's been a lot of talk about free trade. how does japan's agricultural sector fit into prime minister abe's growth strategy? >> well, abe's goal is to make agriculture sector more

competitive. his administration wants to allow local farming cooperatives to operate more freely. they now have to take advice from a central organization. abe wants to overhaul that system by revitalizing the leading corporate union. and abe has been saying that the free trade deal currently being negotiated as the transpacific partnership is a key to making japan's agricultural sector more competitive. but tpp members -- member countries such as the u.s. have demanded that japan open its markets wider for their products. abe recognizes the agriculture sector needs reform. as he said in his press conference. but he must also protect local farmers. the free trade negotiations itself still has a bumpy road ahead. you know, those are just a few of the points and problems in

abe's new growth strategy. >> masao, thank you very much as always. extremist sunni militants are on a mission to sweep away the established order across iraq. they're vowing to introduce laws based on their interpretation of islam and they're destroying symbols of iraq's heritage. fighters with the islamic state of iraq and levant took over the city of mosul two weeks ago. video shows militants taking down statues. they include revered cultural figures such as a musician and a poet. they say its supporters believe in a strict interpretation of islam. the ap news agency says members of the group have declared plans to introduce a 16-point islamic law. one measure would stipulate that women wear clothes that are not revealing.

a former u.s. ambassador to iraq says the turmoil could force american leaders to adjust their diplomatic priorities. christopher hill suggests president barack obama may rethink his policy pivot toward asia. >> we have urgent problems in the middle east. we have important opportunities in east asia-pacific. but i think in the competition between the urgent and the important, the urgent wins. >> obama announced a pivot to asia after the wars in iraq and afghanistan. u.s. leaders were also responding to china's rapid military buildup. pro-russian separatists in eastern ukraine are signaling they want to find a way to end the fighting. one of their leaders has met with government representatives for the first time. and he's agreed to honor a cease-fire declared by the president. the prime minister of the self-proclaimed donetsk people's

republic made the announcement after talks with former ukrainian president kuchma. russia's ambassador was also present. ukraine's president petro poroshenko declared a week-long bilateral cease-fire. he also revealed a plan for peace. he's urged pro-russian militants to stop fighting. the u.s. and russian presidents got on the phone to discuss the situation. barack obama asked vladimir putin to use his influence to help in the unrest. putin reportedly said russia supports the ukrainian leader's peace plan. vietnamese state-run television has broadcast images of a collision between vietnamese and chinese vessels in the south china sea. now what the broadcaster says chinese ships surrounded a vietnamese government surveillance vessel and sprayed it using water cannons. the images show a ship wearing a chinese name ramming the vietnamese vessel. the report says no crew machines

were injured. the incident occurred about 20 kilometers southwest of an oil rig recently installed by a chinese firm. vietnamese authorities say about 120 chinese ships have been deployed to the area to support the oil drilling operation. negotiators from china and vietnam met in hanoi last week to discuss the standoff but failed to overcome their differences. people in afghanistan may have to wait even longer for a new president. a senior member of the election commission has resigned after allegations of vote-rigging. officials are counting vote in the runoff between former foreign minister abdullah abdullah and former finance minister ash raf ghani. abdullah accused a commission of widespread vote rigging. he said members should suspend the account. he demanded the head of their secretariat step down. he announced his resignation.

>> translator: i want the national institutions to remain national. in the interests of my people i submit my resignation to the independent election commission. i officially resign my post. >> he rejected abdullah's charge of vote-rigging. he said he quit for the sake of confidence-building. abdullah says he'll meet election officials and discuss how to respond. he has not withdrawn his accusation. nearly 10,000 u.s. troops are scheduled to stay in afghanistan next year to train local security forces. the delay in the vote count could affect that plan because the afghan president has to sign an agreement. a nominee for prime minister of south korea has backed out. muntanguk withdrew his candidacy over his comments on the country's history with japan. analysts say it is the latest political setback for president park geun-hye.

>> translator: after being nominated as a candidate for the next prime minister, the country was deeply divided. people failed to come together. >> moon told reporters he wants to take responsibility for causing controversy. he was a journalist at one of the country's major newspapers. he told a church gathering japan's colonial rumph the korean peninsula was god's will and his university lecture this year also sparked controversy. he said south korea's not a weak country that needs an apology from japan over the so-called comfort women. president park had initially picked a former supreme court justice as a candidate for prime minister. he declined the offer after he was criticized for his high salary. moon was the second nominee for the post. park has been harshly criticized over her government's handling of a ferry disaster in april. the head of the mission

overseeing the destruction of syria's chemical weapons says it's reached a major landmark. ahmed says the last of the toxic material has been shipped out of the country. >> never before has an entire arsenal of the category of weapons of mass destruction been removed from a country experiencing a state of internal armed conflict. >> he said the final batch of declared agents was loaded onto a danish ship in syria's largest port. he said the next step is to destroy the weapons on board a u.s. ship and that commercial facilities in finland, germany, britain, and the united states. the original plan called for shipping out all the agents by early february. but the work was delayed because some of the weapons were in areas controlled by anti-government forces. inspectors will continue their monitoring activities. there have been allegations that chlorine gas was used in the

fighting between government fighters and opposition forces. chlorine is not classified as a chemical weapon. let's now turn to the latest business stories with ron madison. japan's mizuho bank was widely criticized for extending loans to organized crime groups. now mizuho financial group has taken steps to make sure that sort of scandal will not happen again. it's decided to strengthen the authority of independent outside board members. the decision was approved at the firm's annual shareholders meeting attended by more than 3,700 people. at the outset president and ceoyasahiro sato apologized for the scandal. he proposed measures to improve the group's monetary functions. raising the number of board members to six and giving strong authority in naming personnel and making pay decisions. hiroko ota will chair future board meetings.

nissan motors chief executive car goes ghosn said he made more than $9.7 million. ghosn revealed the numbers on tuesday in a meeting of shareholders. he earned $17,000 more than he did the previous business year. analysts say it's the third highest amount ever paid to an executive at a listed japanese company. ghosn is the biggest earner among firms who end their business year in march. he said his pay is high for japan but comparable to salaries at companies in western countries. nissan executives are forecasting they'll sell more than 5.6 million vehicles world wide this business year. that would be a record for the fifth year running. they're planning to introduce a range of new models in emerging markets. a major japanese trading house is moving to buy a water business firm in portugal. marubeni is teaming up with the innovation network corporation of japan to take over ags for

about $100 million. the trading firm and the public-private fund are expected to equally share the costs. ags is the largest private company in the water and sewage business in portugal. it also runs a water supply firm in brazil. they've been providing water-related services in five countries including chile and china. the acquisition of ags will help it to make full inroads into the water business in europe. the business is expected to expand globally as demand for drinking and industrial water picks up in emerging markets. in europe some fiscally strained countries are planning to private it's the services. on to the markets. most asian markets ended higher as investors bought back shares. tokyo's nikkei edged up just a touch. it hit a five-month high. mumbai advanced. market players were hopeful about the government's new budget plan which is slated for release next month. major indices in europe are looking like this at this hour. fairly mixed picture with london

down .3%. frankfurt flat right now. paris is down over .1%. moving on to currencies the british pound fell sharply against the dollar. traders found no signs of support for an interest rate hike in the testimony of bank of england officials in parliament. expectations were rising the boe would raise interest rates sooner than market people expected. the uk sterling is drifting lower. euro/yen is 138.79. the dollar staying tight against the yen following abe's speech. government officials in japan have found a new way to help people abroad in need. they're providing funding to japanese businesses that are making a positive difference. now they're seeing the payoff. the report from ho chi minh city. >> reporter: vietnamese cities

have transformed in recent years. with shiny high-rises, new airports and bridges. several of the country's public works projects were funded by offshore development assistance from japan and many of the contracts went to big japanese firms. but the day-to-day lives of ordinary people are often a stark contrast. polluted rivers are still a daily source of water for many and that poses a serious threat to health. some japanese entrepreneurs say they can help. yoshiharu yagyu is the president of a company that produces water purification systems.

>> reporter: he opened a shop in vietnam three years ago but he didn't have deep pockets or much experience doing business overseas so he turned to japan's government for help. >> smaller businesses cannot afford to advertise their products or services so it can be an enormous help to get government backing. >> reporter: yagyu's company is based in kagoshima prefecture in southwestern japan. the area is known for layers of volcanic ash. the company uses this ash in its main product, a coagulant. >> translator: i put a handful of this into a liquid. and it separates the substance to leave purified water.

>> reporter: the coagulant is used to dispose of factory wastewater. but yagyu started to see a limit to the japanese market. then he heard about the new government program to help smaller businesses through oda. under the new system it's not countries that request the assistance but small to medium sized japanese enterprises. they submit applications to the japan international corporation agency. successful candidates can receive up to around $1 million for research or operational expenses. >> translator: this new system will open doors for individual participation and development assistance which will in turn help to simulate the economy throughout japan. >> reporter: yagyu used his

grant to hire interpreters in vietnam, ship water purifiers, ship chemical agents, and pay for water purity tests. he believes his system will sell well in vietnam. he decided to invest his own money to rent a local factory and start production. >> translator: when i was trying to expand overseas on my own, i never imagined i would make such progress. i'm determined to succeed. >> reporter: assistance programs have to put recipients first. but proponents of this new program say it's a win/win situation, supporting smaller firms and helping host countries. >> that is going to do it for "business hour." let's get a scheskt markets.

and we're having some stormy weather here in tokyo. our meteorologist jonathan oh tells us how long this system will last. >> hello, shery. looks like we are going to have to keep an eye out as we go throughout the next few days because the unstable weather pattern continues to linger over japan and tokyo. as i show you the satellite perspective you can see the clouds bubbling up over tokyo.

i want to show you video coming out of the city where we saw heavy rain, we also saw lightning, and we had the storms roll through the area. in fact, unfortunately, in the kanto region, three people were struck by lightning because of the storm. on top of that some heavy rainfall fell. you can see the people trying to bike through the area despite the rain. here is some amateur video of some hail that also fell in the area. and while it was not significantly large hail, it still was definitely a part of the storm system that was rolling through. i want to show you also some rain totals around east asia. you can see anywhere from 50 millimeters of rain in hong kong during the past 24 hours to kagoshima up to 140 millimeters of rain. it looks like the rainy season is going to didn't to bring some rain. so as we take a look at what's happening we have this extended stationary boundary all the way down to south china. some more rain expected down there. high pressure is bringing the

colder air aloft. and so with the forcing of the warmer surface temperatures with the daytime heating we see the bubbling up of those storms. and so it looks like that's going to be in place because these features are not moving very quickly. up to 150 millimeters of rain expected for even some of the western islands of japan. also down into the indochina peninsula. so once again, coming up for wednesday, have the umbrella happy from chongqing to shanghai and beijing dealing with thunderstorms. even tokyo with daytime heating expecting thunderstorms with a high of 26. we're talking about thunderstorms over into the americas where a couple of tornado reports came out of ohio and illinois and some hail reports out of colorado. we have a low pressure system over the great lakes, an extended stationary boundary that's going to continue to pump some instability into places like texas, oklahoma, kansas, even into colorado going throughout our tuesday. some heavy rainfall reports into savannah, georgia. it looks like this system will continue to bring instability

all the way up into toronto and portions of the new england states of the united states. so it looks like that you're going to have the umbrella handy for tuesday. 25 in toronto. and also down into the deep south. atlanta 29. even unstable weather into denver. we also have a low pressure system that is skirting british columbia so that's all bringing some rain into seattle with a high of 21 degrees. we now take a look at europe. and we once again have a very active situation where we have a low pressure system east of the scandinavian peninsula that's dragging down the cold air. highs are only expected to be in the teens for tuesday. another low located down into the iberian peninsula. we also have a stationary boundary on the southern periphery of europe. and that's opening up the possibility of seeing some severe weather for the balkan peninsula as we go throughout our tuesday. so definitely want to make sure that you keep an eye out for that. definitely don't need any more rain down toward the balkan peninsula. looks like that is going to be

the case. we're also watching what's happening over into the british eye yeses. we have a frontal system moving in that may bring some scattered showers coming up for tuesday and that's something we'll be looking at wednesday as wimbledon takes place. temperatures low 20s and the clouds increase by thursday as another system approaches bringing another significant chance for rain by the weekend. hope you have a good day wherever you are. here's your extended outlook.

and that's all from me

today. gene otani will bring you more updates at the top of the hour. thank you for watching. 1uogo'ño

>> welcome back. here are the headlines and putin asksadimir perlman to cancel a resolution allowing him to centered sent to ukraine, a further softening of russia's stance on the country. u.s. secretary of state john kerry is in kurdistan, the latest stop on his diplomatic drive to try and keep iraq from splitting apart. marinefar right leader le pen may have triumphed in the eu elections last month, but she was unable to form an anti-european group in the eu parliament.