welcome to "newsline." let's get started with the headlines. ukraine's president has submitted draft amendments to the constitution that he hopes will kol many the fighting in the country's east. chinese forces participating in a giant u.s.-led naval exercise for the first time even as tensions simmer in asia. a survivor of a ship that sank in southern japan during world war ii hopes to pass on

stories of hundreds of young victims to future generations. the ukrainian president hopes showing consideration for pro russian residents could help resolve the country's crisis. he's calling for the russian language to be given more status. poroshenko submitted draft amepdmentes to the constitution. they deal with a key prart of his peace plan. in february they abolished a law allowing regions to make russia an official language. it was one of the factors that sparked the revolt in the east. poroshenko declared a cease-fire last friday. but fight being continues between government forces and pro-russian militants. he is hoping to diffusie tensios but another move could aggravate the situation. he is going to sign an agreement

with the europe man union. it has been at the hard of the conflict in eastern ukraine. poroshenko told members of the council of europe that he wants to build a strong democracy that's respected among european nations. he will sign the agreement with the eu on friday. the pact center on trade liberalization. it will pave way for ukraine to obtain eu member shchlt russia is expected to protest the move. u.s. president obama has taken steps to help stop the sigh vince in syria from spilling over into iraq. he asked congress to increase support for moderate opposition forces in syria. officials with the obama administration requested $500 million for equipment, supplies and training. the to sis tans would be for opposition forces. once they have been screened. the u.s. government has been calling for the departure of the

syrian president. the u.s. has been engaged in operations to support the opposition forces. this is the fourth time it has openly been said he plans to trade them it would be used to counter forces. earlier this month, the group seized the second largest city. it's trying to overthrow the government. officials at the u.n. drug watchdog say illicit drug use is a problem. they say the amount of land dedicated to opium production is at a all-time high. officials from the u.n. office on drugs and crime issued the statement in a report. they say more than 240 million people used an illicit drug in 2012. and around 27 million of them were addicts. they say opium production areas have been expanding in he have began stan.

they say last year almost 300,000 heck tors of land was under population worldwide. that's the highest since they started to make estimates in 1998. it says the number of new psycho active sub stanlss not covered by international restrictions more than doubled between 2009 and 2013. the you be officials warned that trade is growing rapidly. the world's largest naval drill is under way in hawaii. it has been held every two years since 1971. for the first time china is taking part. the country's participation c e comes at a time of tensions over disputes at sea. rr a group of krien ease ships have arrived in pearl harbor. not only flying its own flag but

also the colors of the u.s. china has sent four vessels, a missile destroyer, a frigate, and a ship. u.s. navial officials greeted their first chinese counterparts. chinese and other country's fleets got into formation ahead of the drill and conducted fire exercises. the naval drills are to foster cooperation among participants that is critical to security. 22 countries are taking part this year. >> translator: by visiting each other's ships, sailors can increase their understanding of one another. i think it has laid a solid foundation. >> reporter: china's participation comes at a time of growing tepgs over disputed

islands. in may a chinese vessel rammed a vietnamese fishing boat in the disputed south china sea. two sides have repeatedly collided. nations neighboring china are increasingly wary of china of its building up its military capabilities. a former president of the national defense academy says that china's participation in the exercise is only a small step towards easing tensions. >> at least both sides of showing gesture that they are not being hostile to each other, participating in this multi-national exercise. both sides, particularly chinese, are trying to see how they can cope with future tensions. it will be more tensions in the future. as i said, the chinese intention

is to drive the american presence in the rest of the pacific away from the area. the added motive behind the u.s. invitation of chinese ships is to see what kind of capability chinese ships have. china has its own group to see how the u.s. naval operations may work. how they will operate their ships. what the chinese and u.s. ships, they are trying to figure out how they can fight. >> reporter: over the next month, it still remains to be seen what drills china will be invited to and how much cooperation will be achieved. the leaders of japan and china have found themselves at odds many times recently. a visit to beijing by one of japan's cap net ministers may be

a sign that things are about to jaw. the land minister is a member of new komito. he met the dong. he is the first japanese cabinet minister to hold talks with a chinese vice premiere in nearly two years. relations soured when japan's government nationalized islands in the east china sea in september 2012. japan controls the islands. china and taiwan claim them. let's get the latest business stories. >> thanks. government officials in japan are busy looking through a new batch of economic indicators. first let's look at consumer prices in may. those figures were up again. in fact, they showed the biggest jump in 32 years. officials say the cost of basic goods and services rose 3.4% over the same period last year. consumer prices have been

climbing for 12 months. the sales tax hike in april was a major factor for the latest increase. they say families of two or more people spent a little more than $2,600 on average last month. this is down 8% from a year earlier. may marked a second straight month of decline due to the impact of the higher tax. spending on repairs and maintenance of home equipment fell for the first time in nine months plunging nearly 26%. in the labor market, the number of jobs increased in may. the raise yo of job offers to job seekers edged up. it's the highest level since june 1992. and the unemployment rate declined slightly to 3.5%. that's the lowest level since december 1997. shareholder meetings in japan are in full swing. on friday, there were more than 900 of them chlts that was the biggest number for a single day

this season. officials at the tokyo stock. change say 917 companies held their shareholders meetings. a growing number of businesses made proposals to appoint outside board members to increase management transparenty. among them, nintendo, which took the step for the first time. they say 74% of the companies on the first section would have outside directors if their shareholders agreed. many firms raised dividends as a result of their strong earnings amid the economic recovery. more than 54% of the listed firm s had more than $69 million. that was a record amount in yen terms. investors in asia adjusting their positions as the end of the fiscal quarter has approached. many major indexes finished lower. the health. u.s. economy is a concern.

japan's bench mark had a sharp decline. the lowest close in just about two weeks. a stronger yen prompted traders to sell stocks after the recent market strength. in indonesia the index closed lower just over a half a %, 4845. market sentiment is being dragged lower about uncertainty about the president election early to next month. a key index in the philippines declined. investors booked profits after the befrm mark rose for a fifth straight session to post this year's high on thursday. new york stock exchange officials will be getting ready for what could be the biggest stock offering by an i.t. company. alibaba will list on the exchange. they unveiled the decision in papers filed with the securities

and exchange commission. they kept it guessing where it would list on the shares. they were founded in 1999. the group operates the business to business trading website alibaba.com. it's doing business in more than 190 countries and regions. they are expected to go public in early august. u.s. media say its initial public offering could be the largest ever by an i.t. firm. prime minister abe will tackle one of the biggest challenges for japan's economy, the declining pop ooh lace. he says he's determined to stop it from falling below 100 million for the next half century. he promised more help for parents by expanding after school childcare services and offering special assistance to those having a third chiel. many japanese are reluctant to have children or get married because they feel they don't have the luxury to do so.

>> reporter: this woman lives in tokyo with her husband and 4-month-old son. she works for a food company. but she's on parental leave until next year. she thinks balancing parenting and work will be tough. she says she and her husband want a second child. but she's worried they would struggle to cope. she has to go on a long waiting list to get her son into a public nursery. the government cut child allowance two years ago. school fees are rising. and that's hurting parents who shoulder much of the coast. only households in three other developed countries pay a greater share of the bill. >> translator: we have to pay our mortgage and we would need more money for tuition. i'm worried how we can manage our spending.

>> reporter: japanese families are bringing in less than they used to. those with children earn 10% annually than they did 15 years ago. she says it may be bert to give one child proper care and education than to stretch things thin for two. >> translator: i hope the government will foster an environment in which women feel secure enough to have children and won't have to worry about the cost of raising them. >> reporter: another factor in the birth ray is the increasing number of people who choose not to mary. many say they don't earn enough money to raise a family. this man is a social worker at a non-profit organization. after graduating college, he hopped around between jobs in

convenience stops and supermarkets. he was 31 when he landed his current job in april. he now earns $1,900 a month. he says that after tax and living expenses, there's nothing left for savings. he says he wants to get married one day but he doesn't feel financially stable enough to make such a big commitment. >> translator: i don't have any savings. i'm stretching my earnings out only enough to cover my own living costs. i'm just not sure if i can have my own family. >> reporter: it's not only this man who is hesitating. official figures show that around 10% of men in their 30s who earn less than $30,000 a year are married. a government survey suggests half the unmarried men feel they can't afford to build a family.

one expert says the government's new initiatives are helpful but it needs to go further. >> translator: we need measures to boost the incomes of young couples. increasing the number of nurseries, making it easier to take parental leave and endorsing flexible working hours are also important. >> reporter: japanese people are having fewer and fewer babies. abe is promising to act swiftly to reverse the slide. but first he must convince people his government to offer the support they need. >> that is going to do it for business. let's get a check of the markets.

people have gathered this week to remember a painful period in the country's history. the battle fl okinawa happened 69 years ago at the tail end of world war ii. fighting between u.s. and japanese forces raged for months leaving 200,000 people dead. many civilians lost their lives. nearly 2,000 tried to evacuate but drowned after u.s. forces sank their ship. the story isn't well-known. survivors have been trying to change that.

>> reporter: this man has long wanted to have been visit the memory museum. he and the empress went there on friday for first time. they offered prayers for nearly 1,500 people who died when the cargo ship sank. in august 1944, this ship was carrying ee vac ease from okinawa. they were following a government order to leave the islands before they became a major battleground. but u.s. forces torpedoed the ship. two-thirds of the victims were younger than 15 years old. japanese military commanders banned the news from being made public. many didn't know about the sinking until after the war.

this man is one of the survivors. he gave the couple a tour of the museum. >> translator: i want everyone to know that war is terrible and that even little children suffer. >> reporter: this man was four at the time. he was on the ship with his parents and eight siblings. his sister was the only other family member to survive. >> translator: i used to have many siblings. but i cannot remember anything about them. it saddens me. >> reporter: he says he remembers holding on to something to stay afloat and the sting of the saltwater in his nose and mouth.

fishermen saved him. he learned later that his father had passed him to them then drowned. >> translator: i want to cherish and make the most of my life that my father saved. and i want to help others. >> reporter: he has been visiting schools to share his story with children. survivors of the sinking are getting older. he wants to keep their memories alive and warn people about the cost of conflict. >> translator: in war, soldiers fight. but many more children lose their lives. none of you want to die, do you? please build a nation that won't

engage in war and that you can be proud of. i also want you to bring peace not only to japan but the rest of the world. >> translator: i feel sad to know many people died in the ship that sank. >> translator: i think wars are really horrible. i hope the world will be free of war. >> reporter: 70 years after surviving a tragedy at sea, he is determined to continue raising awareness for as long as he can. he hopes one day children everywhere will be shielded from the brutality of war.

heavy rain and flooding made it difficult for world cup fans in brazil. jonathan oh is here to tell us more. how bad are conditions there? >> thankfully, it looks like the conditions are improving. but whenever you have around 26 millimeters of falling in a short period of time, that's when you run into flooding problems. take a look at the satellite here. calm and all of a sudden you see clouds popping up. that's when you see the rain falling. that produced the following results. look at this video where thousands of soccer fans on thursday made their way to the usa versus germany match. most fans had traveled around the world to attend the game. despite having to use a train or walking through the floods to get to the game, many were determined to make it. other parts of brazil saw

flooding since the tournament began. this is the first time rainfall had an impact on fans making it to the stadium prior to a game. to explain to you how weather works in brazil, whenever you are closer toward the northern edge of the country, you are close to the equator. you are close to the rain forest. when heating takes place, you have afternoon thunderstorms. sometimes they come in bursts. as we look into the weekend, the games are located further south. we have a low that may be developing. there is a risk for showers. but so far anywhere from partly to mostly sunny conditions with warm temperatures hofering around the 30 degree mark into saturday. let's look at what's happening in the americas. a we are watching in the deep south where moisture and warm oir are creating the possibility of thunderstorms. looking out for that. we are also watching for a low pressure system over the rock i

cans. this is a slow mf moving system. the concern is not only will the potential for severe weather be there because the cold air will clash into the warm air ahead of the system. we are looking at anywhere from wind gusts up to 90 kill om terz and possibility of hail but also heavy rain as this is going to slowly drag itself toward the east. a high pressure system off southern california is going to create some gusty conditions. the desert southwest has fire danger weather. rain and thunderstorms from denver to houston also to atlanta and miami. the northeastern portion of the united states will see dry conditions. let's look at europe. we have been watching for the balkan peninsula that has been hammered with large hail and severe weather for the past few days. it looks like that once this low crosses over the area, the high pressure will take over for a couple of days hopefully bringing relief when it comes to the rain. we are watching for another low

crossing over the british isles and moving into western europe. you will be the next weather maker. look out for rain. by next week, central europe and balkan peninsula will have to look out for this weather system. let's wrap things up with a look at asia. the rainy season continues to dominate the weather picture for western japan into china. a record 237 millimeters fell over a 24-hour period. it looks like the rain will be a big part of the story for tokyo, western japan, south korea and central and eastern china will also deal with rain. in fact, also looking out for some monsoonal rains and a low pressure system into the philippines where about 113 millimeters of fell over a 24-hour period. flooding and land slides a concern down there. saturday, more rain. seoul, tokyo, high in the mid to upper 20s but a chance for rain. that extends into manila. have a good day wherever you

are. here is your extended outlook.

children at an elementary school in northeastern japan are back in the swim in their own pool for the first time in over three years. the swimming lessons were not held there since the tsunami in march 2011. all 80 students at the elementary school splashed in the water on friday. the tsunami flooded the first floor of the school building and left cracks in the pool. work to restore the pool was completed in april this year. >> translator: i'm happy to be able to swim in our own school pool again. >> it was the first time the students in grades one through four got to use the pool. . after the disaster, people had to take their swimming lessons at other schools. that's all for this hour on "newsline." thank you for watching. gg99ññww

>> welcome to the "france 24" newsroom. forging closer ties. ukraine signs a landmark trade pact with the e.u. russia warns the deal will have consequences. i'll string moderate levels. -- bolstering moderate levels. president obama calls for $500 million to train in opposition as militants continue their fight for a unified islamic state. algerian football fans have been going wild with joy after their team qualify for the first time ever for the last 16 of the world cup in brazil.