welcome to nhk world news news. i'm gene otani. health workers and hospitals across the united states and japan are facing challenges in dealing with ebola patients. 1 world leaders have discussed political issues at the summit in myanmar. japanese lawmakers are

pushing for tougher penalties on chinese fishermen that suspect are poaching corral. officials are the world health organization are calling for more aid to help in the fight against ebola. they've released updated numbers on those that have died or been infected be by those in we have west africa and say the disease continues to spread. 14098 are suspected of having the virus. the report shows the number of new cases is decreasing in hardest hit nations of liberia and guinea. it's further spreading in sierra leone. mali has reported new cases bringing the total to four. all of those victims have died. a report says variations in the report the virus is spreading make it difficult for officials to grasp the full pictures. medical workers in the u.s.

and japan are trying to raise awareness about hazards in treating the virus. >> reporter: thousands of nurses across the u.s. moved off the job this staged rallies. they're calling for better measures to protect medical professionals from the deadly disease. american health authorities say a total of nine have been treated for the disease in the u.s. eight have recovered. a liberian man visiting the u.s. died at the hospital in dallas, texas. officials say he infected two nurses who were caring for him. nurses went on strike in washington and 15 other states. at this hospital, they staged a 12 hour strike appealing for their occupational safety. >> absolutely unprepared.

this issue has been going on for months now. we have not received one interactive training, not one drill preparedness, disaster drill. not one inservice, no demonstrations. >> preparedness has become a top priority for medical workers in japan. they recently held a drill at the hospital in tokyo designed by the local government. doctors and nurses simulate add tre treating an ebola patient. they wore protective gear and shoes to protect themselves from the patient's blood and bodily fluids. >> translator: we saw what was sufficient and insufficient when conducting the drill. >> reporter: right now some

facilities are far from being ready. officials say it's proving difficult to secure medical staff. they say installing and maintaining dedicated facilities is too expensive. for the time being they'll transport to neighbor ago prefectures that are capable of dealing with ebola. medical workers in the u.s. and japan know an outbreak of a deadly disease can happen at any time. they say they want to be protected and kept safe while they are on the job. noriko, nhk world. the ebola outbreak in west africa is casting a dark shadow over the lives of many people and entire communities. those who are the most vulnerable, the children, are no exception. a united nations official says the spread of the disease is having an enormous impact on the education and future of the

region's children. nhk reports. >> reporter: she works at the unicef regional office. together with local government, she has spent years working to improve the quality of education in west and central africa. she says the ebola outbreak is major threat to shoociety as a whole. >> in three countries it's prefound. it's not only epidemic but whole education system, whole health system and education system affected. because of the state of emergencies in liberia and sierra leone, all the schools are closed at moment. >> reporter: to help children catch up with classes they've missed since outbreak,

governments have started to give lessons over the radio. unicef and government organizations are working to improve the content of this radio programming in an attempt to motivate the children to keep on studying. >> they've started for program in primary school. another for ebola messages and life skills the to fight against ebola. this is really an interesting initiative because radio can reach the children, all the children, even children who are not in school. >> reporter: she hopes that the

international community will ramp up support for education by providing funding, human resources, and equipment. she touched on other great concerns regarding children. she says kids infected with ebola and adults overrun by the disease are left behind. >> ebola treatment units do not have child friendly places for children's care, so they often are left on their own if parents are dead. they'll be looked after -- children will be looked after by their relatives. ebola gives a fear. people are afraid. am i going to get ebola from that child? traditional social protection system in africa might not work for ebola orphans. that's really a serious problem. >> reporter: she says the longer

it takes to contain the outbreak, the more difficult it will become to get social support system back on track. she warns that both the local and international communities must act now to protect rights and lives of these threatened children. nhk world. myanmar is hosting a second day of high level meetings surrounding the association of southeast asian nation summit. we report now from the capital. >> reporter: thursday's east asia summit was expected to cover a range of topics from economic growth to regional security. the flash point issue of maritime disputes in the south china sea remainses in focus.

tensions between some countries and china worsened this year as beijing tried to increase control over contested waters. leaders at the summit wednesday agreed to speed up talks with china on a legally binding code of conduct to resolve disputes. china reiterated that territorial disputes should be resolved by the parties concerned saying the situation is on the whole stable. u.s. president barack obama is thought to have shown support. some members want u.s. to counter balance the rise of china. obama seemsing key to underline the china to asia pivot even though some say his authority is weakened by setbacks in the american elections. abe called for base of rule of law among heightened tensions.

myanmar is said to issue a statement as the chair country thursday night to close the meetings. please stay with us for updates. lawmakers in japan's main ruling party are trying to stop what they support is coral poaching. they're concerned of chinese boats they believe are stripping the seabed near the japanese islands. they're pushing for higher fines for illegal fishing. nhk world has more. >> reporter: this was the scene in the early hours of wednesday. it's nothing new. coast guard personal have been telling chinese crews to leave around 100 times a day for over a month. the captains just ignore them.

authorities in tokyo have been monitoring more than 100 chinese vessels near the islands. they suspect the crews are stealing coral. they've repeatedly asked the government to stop them. coast guard officials have arrested six captains since last month. lawmakers in the liberal democratic party approved the bill to raise the maximum fine to around $260,000. that's seven and half the current penalty for any foreign boat in the waters. it applies to any that operates without permission in the exclusive zone. the lawmakers want a higher fine for any crew that refuses to let the japan coast guard come a board. they want to raise it tenfold to around $26,000. the lawmakers want to get the

bill passed during the current session. they expect to get cooperation from their coalition partners and main opposition party. the suspected coral poaching is also worrying leaders in the united states. >> these elicit activities threaten at the rest yal fresh water and marine species including coral. >> reporter: u.s. government officials are trying to crack down on international poaching and smuggling. in february they compiled a national strategy to fight wild life trafficking. in june, they hosted an international conference on protecting the resources and creatures in the oceans. analysts say u.s. leaders are also concerned the coral poaching issue could harm relations between japan and china. japanese prime minister shinzo abe and chinese president xi

jinping held their first summit this week. nhk world tokyo. space experts are celebrating after a robot launched from a european probe made a historic landing on a a speeding comet. the status of the philae unit is unclear. engineers are not sure if if harpoons designed to anchor it are working properly. >> we are sitting on the surface. philae is talking to us. more data is to come. >> the unmanned space probe rosetta was launched in 2004 and traveled 6.5 a billion kilometers and caught up with the comet three months ago. the philae lander touched down wednesday after a seven sour descent from the spacecraft. the scientists once lost signals

from the lander. they say the probe may not be secured firmly. they say they're receiving signals. the comet is said to contain substances dating back 4.6 billion years ago. scientists hope this will provide clues to the comcomet. the team investigating this summer's conflict in gaza. officials with the u.n. human rights council are looking into fighting between israeli forces and palestinian hamas militants trying to determine whether either side committed war crimes during the 50 day conflict. government leaders say they will not cooperate with the inquiry. they've accused the human rights council for showing hoss stillty towards israel. they claim the findings of the probe have been predetermined.

netanyahu denounced the council in september during his u.n. general assembly speech and accused it of protecting the rights of terrorists. the main u.n. body has set up its team to investigate including the tax on the facilities. spanish prime minister has criticized a recent referendum on catalonia on independence from spain. he says he won't hold talks with the regional government which is calling for a legally binding vote. >> translator: the government will be attentive and talk. what i will never hold dialogue is on spain's unity and national sovereignty. >> he said the catalonia government conducted the referendum in defiance of constitutional court season. he called the vote a failure saying two-thirds didn't both tore take part. 2.3 million out of 6 million eligible voters cast ballots.

80% voted in favor of independence. there are concerns in spain rising momentum could spill over the other regions. experts are ix mixed on whether to raise japan's consumption tax. ron is here with more. >> that's not making things easier for abe. he's weighing whether to go ahead with another tax hike. he's looking at a range of indexes before making a decision. economists and representatives from lay a boar unions took part in a a second round of hearings in tokyo and presented mixed views on the tax. government officials plan to raise it from 8% to 10%. >> translator: we should go ahead and increase the tax. the declining birth rate, aging population and advances in medicine are all contributing to a fatigue in our health care program. of we need to raise more money.

>> translator: i don't think it's a good idea. if we want to increase funds for social security, then it's better to accelerate the pace of economic growth and improve our finances. >> and there will be other people offering their opinions on the tax until next tuesday. japan's finance minister says the government has to do more to help people who are struggling. he has suggested new economic measures that will focus on low income earners and small firms. he also spoke at an upper house financial affairs meeting and indicated abe is prepared to give instructions to draw up a range of new initiatives. >> translator: we expect we'll get the instruction on the 18th. we're planning to work out appropriate measures after seeing initial gdp july through september quarter. >> he also said the economy is

continuing to recover. he said some aren't doing as well as others and government needs to help them. gdp figures are due out monday. investors are buying up european shares after seeing corporate easternings reports. benchmarks look like this. modest gains for london, frank further nearly 1%, paris up seven tenths of a percent. tokyo nikkei up a third straight day hitting the highest level in seven years. chinese shares were under pressure amid a batch of economic data. the dollar is little changed against the yen 115.57. analysts say market players are waiting for data on the third quarter gbp due out monday. many are are waiting to see if abe will postpone a tax hike

367. want to look at the british pound. the selling was prompted by the bank of england's quarterly report announced wednesday. they slashed impact for growth and inflation. china's economy is losing momentum. growth in the fact ri output has slowed for the first time in two months. the pace of spending by consumers a has eased up too. officials say industrial output in october increased 7.7% from the same month last year. that's down 0.3% from the previous month. analysts blame the result on the stagnant real estate market. they say that's weight on production of steel and cement. retail sales were up 11.5% from a year ago. the growth has been slowing five months now and is at the lowest level since february 2006. analysts say this is also because of the problem in the real estate market that's reduced demand for construction materials and furniture. he point to weakening demand for

cars. the head of japan's largest business organization called on politicians to show more leadership in the transpacific leadership trade talks. the leader delivered the message to japanese and american business people in tokyo. he exchanged information on trade and other issue at the japan business conference. he wants the pace of tpp talks to speed up. >> translator: it's regrettable the tpp negotiators are unlikely to reach an agreement by the end of the year. i hope japanese and american politicians will show leadership so a deal can be reached as soon as possible next year. >> u.s. ambassador to japan caroline kennedy stressed the porngs of corporation between the two countries dealing with a range of issues like global security and climate change. business leaders will issue a

joint statement when the conference wraps up friday. executives have unveiled high speed technology that's bound for britain. they've showed off a new generation of train carriages that link london with other parts of the uk. the executives revealed the rolling stock at their train yard in south western japan. they're building the carriages to replace the aging trains on a 30-year-old high-speed rail route. they'll build 866 carriages for the line. they'll also maintain them for 267 years. engineers equip the model with a diesel engine allowing it to run on stretches of rail that doesn't have electricity. it can travel at speeds of 200 kilometers per hour. executives are planning full county jail production at a plant build in britain. they're aiming to have them ready for service in 2017. >> translator: hitachi has refined technology and has a

high level of safety for trains over a long period of time. we hope to expand in europe as well as around the world. >> hitachi officials say in 2013 they brought in $1.5 billion in revenue in their rail business. they're aiming to boost that by 40% in fiscal 2016. that is going to wrap it up for biz tonight. let's check in on the markets.

heavy snow continues to fall with very cold temperatures in north america. our meteorologist jonathan oh is here with the details. >> hello gene. we have been talking about this cold chill that has been plunging into north america the past few days. it's still having a pronounced effect on the weather there the rocky mountains all the way into the eastern seaboard. i want to show you what it looks like on the ground level when it comes to snowfall over in wisconsin where a blast of cold air has been bringing cold winds and also some heavy snowfall along with the moisture in the mid western u.s. 25 assent meters fell in ash land, wisconsin wednesday. the snowstorm slowed daily routines as people shovelled snow and navigated icy roads in the process. i think we'll still deal with cold weather as we progress through the next several days. notice the high pressure system, how dominant the feature is expanding from the rocky mountains along the cold front. that's the outer boundary of the

cold air. that extends past the carolinas. that's the case in the next several days. this system is not moving anywhere. the low pressure system is producing snow. we are going to see white stuff falling in quebec and maybe northern portions of the new england states as we go through thursday. i want to show you what you can expect as you're waking up. look at this. negative 24 degrees for the morning low in denver. negative 10 in winnipeg. very frigid temperatures. we are expecting the highs to be topping off at negative 8. that's very cold for denver this time of year, colder than what alaska is experiencing at 9 degrees or so. negative 8 in winnipeg, 0 in chicago with snow as we go into thursday. now unlike the north american region, we are seeing a lot of wet weather as opposed to snowy weath weather. in europe, a large low pressure system is driving in moisture.

seeing possible thunderstorms in athens and peninsula. another system coming on the contin continent. we have a high pressure system that should keep the area relatively dry. we could see sprinkles in that region. mainly wet for south and western portions. wrapping things up with a look at east asia. i want to direct focus to japan. this is main weather features. we have a high pressure located over in the peninsula, low pressure in japan. this allows the high pressure to rush into the low and create windy conditions. 126 kilometers per hour gusts expected as we go to friday with waves aalong the western side of japan up to 7 meters. in the process, snow expected. 20 to 40 centimeters up in the higher elevations and mountains.

meanwhile, staying dry in china. we have a system disturbance down toward the philippines that's bringing enhancing the rainy season. it's going to be a bit wet for the country as we go throughout friday. look at this. 31 degrees thunderstorms in manila. 34 bangkok. colder with the high driving in northerly winds 12 in beijing, 10 seoul. tokyo high of 16 degrees with partly cloudy skies. hope you have a good day wherever you are. here's your extended outlook.

that's "newsline" for this hour. i'm gene otani in tokyo. gg99ññç

>> the doctor who conducted sterilization procedures that left 14 women dead in india is now under arrest. he had been in hiding since saturday, saying he is a scapegoat for the government-backed surgeries that went horribly wrong. mexico is rocked by another day of angry protests. to astrators set fire southern state congress over the presumed massacre of 43 students . a shaky landing for the european robot lab that made an historic touchdown on a comment -- comet wednesday. it is now reportedly working well although