welcome to nhk world "newsline" i'm gene otani in tokyo. here's a look at some of the stories we're following this hour. egyptian leaders are calling on u.s.-led forces to expand their attacks against islamic state militants to libya. world leaders will gather in washington to look at ways to stop the militant group from expanding. and young people in china are turning back to an older style of writing, but newer

chinese characters are catching on in hong kong. the president of egypt is asking european countries and the u.s. to join him in attacking the islamic state group in libya. abdel fattah al sisi launched air strikes there after militants announced they killed 21 christian egyptian captives. nhk world's craig dale is tracking developments for us. president sisi promised retaliation. now egypt has waded into the chaotic situation in libya, where there are two rival governments, and a tangled web of militia groups including islamist extremists. egyptian fighter jets carried out the airstrikes on monday. military officials say they destroyed training camps and arms depots for the islamic state group. dozens of militants reportedly died. the strikes happened near the city of dparna militants affiliated with the group have a presence there. they also have a present in

sirte close to where the egyptians were kidnapped. and they have a foothold in tripoli, too. now keep in mind here egypt has also been trying to stop an islamic insurgency at home on the sinai peninsula. president sisi has called the militants to carried out the killings murderers and criminals and he said he'd do what he can to bring the thousands of egyptians who work in libya home safely. egyptians have been shocked by what happened. they've watched things in libya get worse and worse since the 2011 arab spring uprising which led to the overthrow of the longtime authoritarian leader moammar al gadhafi. many experts have been flagging the need to address the crisis in libya. the country has rich oil and financial reserves but no single functioning government. militants with islamic state al qaeda and other groups have taken advantage of the instability. following the rise of the islamic state in syria and iraq militants in egypt, libya, tunisia, and algeria have pledged allegiance to the group. another concern is libya's proximity to europe. it's roughly 800 kilometers from

italy. migrants fleeing conflict in the region often filter through libya and cross the mediterranean. there are fears militants could also make that crossing. italian lawmakers are expected to discuss the situation in libya on thursday. now some have said italy should lead a coalition of european and north african nations to confront the islamic state group there. however, just to high lie how complicated the situation is one of libya's rival governments has criticized the egyptian airstrikes, but the internationally recognized elected government approves of them, and libya's air force is taking part. craig dale, nhk world. japanese government officials have announced new counterterrorism measures to assist middle eastern and african countries battling extremist groups. they include a $15.5 million aid package for nonmilitary purposes. >> translator: following the apparent killing of two japanese nationals by islamic state militants, we are going to step up diplomatic cooperation in three areas.

>> kishida says funds will help tighten border control to prevent foreign fighters from joining extremist groups. the second measure encompasses prime minister shinzo abe's earlier pledge of $200 million. those funds were earmarked to help countries dealing with refugees fleeing areas controlled by islamic state militants. the third measure will help countries such as jordan and turkey reduce high unemployment rates among youth and close the growing economic gap. kishida says state minister for foreign affairs nakayama will announce the measures later this week at a global security conference in washington. world leaders are scrambling to come up with measures to deal with the militants. nhk world's chie yamagishi spoke with an expert on american politics to learn more about the u.s. response. >> reporter: u.s. forces have been leading a coalition fighting against the group. officials say they've carried

out about 2400 air strikes over the past six months. and they say they've killed thousands of militants. president barack obama sent a resolution last week to congress. it calls for a limited ground operation. the president wants the power to authorize fighting under a specific set of conditions. the resolution rescue operations. obama's plan would limit the military campaign to three years and would not allow for continuous ground combat. a political analyst covering american politics says the u.s. isn't looking to start a long war. >> american people opinion on sending goods to isis has been changed a lot but i think over

time to send some ground troops. here is a president who end iraq war and afghanistan war so also for now american most american people doesn't have war fatigue. so he knows american people thinking, so he doesn't want to make big war anymore. >> reporter: she said opinions are divided among congressmen about the resolution. >> there is two kind of group to disagree with it. one the republican which has control both the house and senate right now. think don't need any -- to make good effort. just sound ground troops to isis. and another one is most other people kind of the democrats doesn't want to be involved war

anymore. >> reporter: international ministers will gather later this week in washington. they look at ways of stopping people from joining militant groups. already, more than 20,000 foreigners are believed to have gone to syria to fight. >> the point will be collaboration between local and local and state and also the countries together. like america has been kind of secure after -- so america has what to do to deal with terrorists in u.s. land so u.s. want to show the work u.s. has done. japan can learn what's going on. what is rule. how to make standards for international terrorists to protect to the. >> reporter: she said the importance of information sharing will be highlighted in the meeting.

as she said it may provide momentum to take new measure across the border. chie yamagishi, nhk world. tens of thousands of people in denmark have turned out to remember the victims of last weekend's deadly shootings. the attacks at a free speech event in a synagogue left two people dead. the gunman was killed by police. about 30,000 people attended the memorial in copenhagen. prime minister thorning-schmidt urged them to uphold the values of democracy, freedom and solidarity. >> we have received expressions of sympathy and support from leaders and people around the world. it has warmed my heart anddeeply.

>> last month gunmen killed 12 people in an attack on the french satirical weekly "charlie hebdo." u.s. president barack obama phoned thorning-schmidt to offer his condolences. they reportedly agreed to fight the enemies of free speech and religious expression. children in the west african nation of liberia are going back to class. schools there have been closed for seven months because of the deadly ebola outbreak. in the three hardest-hit countries, guinea liberia and sierra leone all schools closed in july last year. about 5 million students were kept home in guinea. the number of new cases has fallen significantly. schools there reopened last month. now some schools in liberia have resumed, too. >> i'm so happy to be back in school. >> some parents and teachers are concerned the virus could spread easily at a place like school. schoolchildren are being told to wash their hands, and have their temperature checked.

unicef is training teachers and providing hygiene kits. sierra leone has -- was hit hardest by ebola and officials plan to reopen its schools in march. japan's prime minister wants to make the country more business friendly and taking the first step. ron madison is here with the details on this story. ron? >> yeah, that's right, gene. japan's top effective corporate tax rate is 34.6%. that puts it among the highest in the world's major economies. and the cabinet of japanese prime minister shinzo abe has approved tax reform bills for fiscal 2015 and it's calling for a corporate tax cut. government leaders hope the bills will help pull the country out of deflation, and revitalize the economy. the bill includes cutting the effective corporate tax rate by 2.51 percentage points in fiscal 2015, which begins in april. the bills also include mention of a further cut that will bring an overall reduction of 3.29 points in fiscal 2016. now, as part of efforts to

reinvigorate local economies a tax break will be given to companies that relocate their head office functions from tokyo to other areas. this does exclude the major cities, though. the bills also include raising the consumption tax from the current 8% to 10% in april 2017. the government hopes the diet will pass the bills before the current fiscal year ends in march. well leaders in greece are inching closer now a major deadline. they want to pare back austerity measures to create a bond as part of a deal to bail them out of debt. but their eurozone creditors won't compromise on the package which expires at the end of the month. finance ministers from greece and 18 other eurozone countries got together in brussels to discuss the bailout. they ended four hours of negotiations. >> the disappointment over the fact that there was still no firm common ground on what such an adjustment in the program could look like and how much of the program would actually be carried forward by the new greek

government. >> finance ministers from eurozone countries issued an ultimatum. they said athens has until friday to agree to extend the deal on its current terms. but greek finance minister rejected the proposal. he demanded eurozone countries compromise by winding back austerity measures, and reducing the debt. now the euro group president indicated that eurozone ministers are prepared to be flexible, but only if greece agrees to an extension. he said they would be open to another meeting on friday depending on what greece intends to do. well the deadlock between greece and its eurozone creditors is weighing on investor sentiment in the eurozone. here's how benchmarks are looking at this hour. a bit of a mixed picture now with london paring back on earlier losses. it's now up 0.4%. paris is also paring back losses but it is still in the negative down about 0.2%. frankfurt declining 0.3%. in asia the shanghai composite ended the day higher for the

seventh straight session. the index closed up 0.75%, 3,246. that works out to a three-week high. investors cheered the launch of china's so-called silk road infrastructure fund. it's worth $40 billion. here in tokyo, though the markets saw some profit taking. the nikkei retreating from its 7.5 year high closing just a touch lower 17 sshs 987. worries about europe also weighing on investor sentiment. here's how other asian markets wrapped up the day. hong kong finished a quarter percent higher. seoul finished the day nearly 0.2% higher. after the south korean central bank left its interest rate unchanged at 2% as expected. taking a look at currencies now, the euro has been gaining some ground against the dollar. euro/dollar is at roughly 1.1405. we're seeing some market players do expect the eurozone finance ministers will be sitting down again this week to discuss that greek bailout. meanwhile, the dollar is moving in a narrow range against the

yen. right now at 118.87. traders waiting for the outcome of a two-day policy meeting by the bank of japan that wraps up on wednesday, as well as comments from governor kuroda. china's real estate market remains a bit sluggish. housing prices in many major cities continue to fall last month but there are signs that the situation is stabilizing. officials at the national bureau of statistics said the price of new homes fell in 64 of 70 cities in january. that contrasts with 66 cities in december. it's the ninth consecutive month that housing prices fell in more cities than they rose. housing prices do appear to be bottoming out, though in some big cities prices were flat in hang high and gunz due while those in beijing were down by just 0.1%. some analysts atribute this to government stimulus measures introduced since late last year. housing inventories remain high around china. that's raising uncertain about

the country's economic outlook. a bitcoin exchange based in china says it has suspendedselveses after about $1.7 million worth of the digital currency were stolen. they announced on the website that 7,170 bitcoins were taken. the firm says it stopped trades and withdrawals from sunday. the exchange reported that to police. now this incident is the latest in a series of problems that's been hitting bitcoin firms. a major tokyo based exchange went bankrupt in february of last year. the firm reported a massive loss of clients' bitcoins. a hong kong based bitcoin company also stopped operations in december prompting an investigation by the police. all right. that is going to wrap it up for biz tonight. let's see how things are looking on the markets.

prime minister shinzo abe says his statement on the 70th anniversary of the end of world war ii will generally stick with the positions of past leaders. abe was speaking in an upper house question and answer session. the liberal democratic party's leader in the chamber ken sigh mizote said he wants abe to deliver a future core yented document meaning it should clearly show that japan feels remorse and has fully reflected on the war.

>> translator: my basic position will be in line with those of past cabinets. they include statements released by previous prime ministers, come itchy murayama in 1995 and koizumi in 2005. >> abe said the statement will express remorse over the war and include comments about japan's post-war progress as a peaceful nation. he said he's asking people about the best way to communicate how japan wants to continue to the asia pacific region and to the rest of the world. abe said his statement will also outline what kind of country japan hopes to become in the next 100 years. a series of earthquakes has struck northeastern japan. meteorologists say two of them were aftershocks from the march 2011 major quake. they're once again saying the effects of that earthquake could lead to additional storm tremors.

people across aomori prefecture felt strong shaking just before 2:00 p.m. tuesday local time. authorities say they have received no reports of major damage. officials at the japan meteorological agency estimate the magnitude at 5.7. they say the epicenter was in the pacific ocean at a depth of 50 kilometers. earlier on tuesday a magnitude 6.9 earthquake hit further offshore. >> translator: it's been almost four years since the march 11th earthquake. however, we expect more aftershocks similar to what occurred today. we call on people in the area to be well prepared. >> authorities issued a tsunami alert immediately after the earlier tremor. they observed waves of up to 20 centimeters around the area. they later called off the tsunami advisory.

for decades people in china have learned to read and write using simplified versions of traditnal characters. but now some people on the mainland are turning back to the characters their ancestors used to. the opposite is true in hong kong, where simpler lettering is catching on. nhk world explains. >> reporter: simplified chinese characters are everywhere in china. they are used to write the name of president xi jinping. chinese readers introduced them in the 1950s to improve the nation's literacy rate. but nowadays -- ♪ -- some words appearing on screens in karaoke bars are written in more complex,

traditional characters. young mainlanders write songs from hong kong and high juan where the older characters prevail. that's why they show up in song captions. younger chinese are not bothered by the traditional way of writing. they find characters hip because they're used in cities they think of as trend setting. >> translator: the traditional letters are cool. they're rich in character. >> reporter: interest in the traditional way of write inging sparks both generations. both adults and children are taking this calligraphy class. the students say they are fascinated by the old character's complex design. every year a growing number of

students learn traditional chinese characters. >> translator: given the number of strokes and complex shapes traditional characters may be challenging. but it's a matter of getting used to the writing. even children grow fond of it. >> reporter: the trend is moving in the opposite direction in hong kong. most people there typically use traditional characters but now, simplified versions are becoming more common. one reason is tourists. more than 40 million mainland chinese visit hong kong each year. to attract their business currency exchanges use the simpler signs. not everyone is pleased. students protesters say it's

another example of the growing influence of mainland chinese. >> i feel the mainland is eroding hong kong's unique features. like culture and language. i'm worried. >> reporter: an expert says both old and new characters have a role to play. >> translator: traditional characters should be used for transmitting our culture. the simplified version is necessary from a practical point of view. both should be preserved as important parts of china's culture. >> reporter: china is changing in so many ways. the characters serve as a window into a culture. nhk world. more snow may be on the way

for tokyo and central japan wednesday. our meteorologist jonathan oh is here with the forecast. jonathan? >> hello, gene. yes. we saw some snow rolling through the central portions of japan as we went through tuesday. especially for the morning hours. we had a low pressure system tracking through the south, and that picked up the moisture and brought enough cold air to where we saw snow totals from 15 to 20 centimeters in the kanto coach u region. i think we're going to see more snow as we go through wednesday. let me show you what we saw on the streets of tokyo. some of you who are familiar with the layout of this ward you can see how people are still getting around. it wasn't particularly heavy in terms of the snowfall but we did see the snowfall taking place. the accumulations were a little bit higher further toward the north and west, where we saw some of the more cooler conditions. but i think we're going to see even more tomorrow. we have another low pressure system. a couple of them in fact pushing

in from the west. now traditionally when we have a system coming in from the west the sea-effect snow ends up getting trapped up against the mountains and doesn't make it all the way down toward tokyo. and for the other side the pacific side of japan. however, because we have enough cold air we have some moisture still coming from the low down toward the south, and then another push of moisture from the west. that combination will lead to the possibility of seeing some more snowfall as we go into wednesday. now as this continues to push toward the east we'll still see some chilly weather, a high of only 4 degrees in tokyo as we go through the day. and then we're going to see a slightly drying pattern, in fact, a big warming pattern as we go in to thursday and friday. but beforehand, look out for the snowfall. here's a look at the forecast. high of 4. mix of snow maybe some rain as it progresses through today as it warms up. 5 in seoul. 10 in beijing. a little warmer down toward the south. that warmth will be heading our way as we go through this week. now let me talk about another area seeing some very cold weather. the eastern side of the united states as we take a look at the forecast from north america, a

big slam of cold air coming down to the south producing pretty but a little bit dangerous conditions over into arkansas. let me show you some video coming out of little rock where people were sliding around because of the slippery roadways. we're talking about ice on top of the snowfall. and in the process, more than 25,000 power outages were reported in the area monday. you can see the icicles forming because of the icing taking place on top of the snow. now, here's the contrast. we had a high of 22 degrees on valentine's day in little rock on saturday. and so big contrast seeing the big dip in the temperatures. we had this high pressure back toward the west and that is bringing all that cold air in and it will stay in place throughout the day tuesday. and because of the cold weather, still concerned about icing especially for the carolinas, and into tennessee, and kentucky. colder air and moisture moving through the north and east of toronto, chicago, winnipeg all in to new york and d.c. you're looking at a chance for some snow as we go through tuesday, and then down toward the south, chilly weather still continuing single digits into atlanta and

oklahoma city. now, much warmer conditions as we take a look at the forecast for europe. but stormy conditions as we look at this low pressure system down toward the south of the mediterranean. this system is going to bring some stormy conditions and very strong winds in to the balkan peninsula and some snowfall. plentiful amounts of snowfall into turkey as we go through tuesday. 7 for the high in athens. 16 in rome. some rain also into paris with a high of 9 degrees. hope you have a good day wherever you are. here's your extended outlook.

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

from all of us here at nhk world, thanks very much for joining us. until next time, good-bye.

rubble photos fell to meet a deadline to start with throwing heavy weapons. and the aggravated pending trial of former imf boss dominique strauss-kahn have dropped accusations against him. french president france while on has been visiting the jewish cemetery in the northeast reason -- francois hollande has been visiting the jewish cemetery northeast france after grace of been desecrated. and greece's debt dilemma. we will be looking at the