welcome took nhk world news line. here's a look at some of the stories we're following this hour. britain's prince william kicked off a four day tour of japan that includes a stop in the region devastated by the 2011 earthquake and tsunami. >> a north korean shipping company is disguising the identity of its vessel to evade

sanctions. more people in that are turning to japan to receive state of the art medical care. people in tokyo are trying to get a glimpse of britain's future king. that ear giving prince william a rock star welcome. some some of them waited for hours to catch a glimpse. making his first visit to japan. many royal watchers turn to technology to capture the moment. >> translator: i wanted to get his attention to i just shouted hello. >> translator: i got a good picture. i didn't expect i could see him today so i'm very lucky and really excited. >> he took in a boat tour of tokyo bay. he had a chance to see some of the locations for the 202 olympics and para-olympics. the coke yo governor served as az guide.

fire department vessels gave them a special welcome. prince william toured a traditional garden. he sat down there for a tea ceremony. he's heading to north eastern japan to see how build are rebuilding after the earthquake and tsunami after hour years. he'll depart on sunday for china. vessels are being given good names to get around sanctions and they say it's the same business that was caught two years ago carrying illicit weapons. diplomatic sources say a u.n. security panel finalized an annual report. the leaders in pyongyang has come into numerous tests. the u.n.e panned the sanctions to cover ocean marry time management company. one of the firm's ships got seized two years ago. authorities suspected it was

carrying arms from cuba to north korea. the u.n. froze the company's assets. the report says that the firm worked the businesses and individuals in asia and latin america. one possible target is a hong kong based company run by a japanese man. an elderly japanese woman stranded in north korea after world war ii has died there. she had hoped to travel to japan. she was interviewed last august by north korea's special investigation committee. she always wanted to travel to gentleman man to be reunited with her family but she was left behind in the confusion following the end of the world war ii. maria lived in chong jang in the

countries northeast. last september she met her brother who traveled to north korea to visit her. he said he was notified on thursday that she had died last month. he said japan and north korea had began talks and his sister had been interviewed for a possible visit to japan. so it's sad she died. he said his sister lost the race against time and he wishes she had been able to set foot in japan. members of japan's ground south force and u.s. marine corps are working together to ensure the smooth cooperation the defending japanese islands. they've. holding a month long annual

joint exercise in california. about 270 jap piece in personnel and 500 american marines took part. they had 14 amphibious vehicles land on the beach and they also used an osprey aircraft. >> translator: the u.s. marine corps has experienced actual combat in many parts of the world. we were able to learn from their knowledge in many areas, including medical and rescue operations. >> they continued professionalism that we see every time from the japanese defense force. i think we're right on track. >> japan's defense minute tris plans to acquire 52 amphibious vehicles and 17 ospreys over five years. they'll use nem to boos the capability to remote islands. officials in okinawa have been opposing tokyo's plans. japanese government officials

have already had concrete blocks placed at the site. local officials aren't happy that they're checking the coral reef to see if they've been damaged. they went with divers to the planned site off the cost in that go city. they placed blocked weighing up to 45 pounds with float to mark a no entry zone. prefecture official say the blocks may be outside of the approved zone and have likely damaged the reeves. they'll check how the blocks have been placed and divers will take pictures of the reeves. okinawa's governor suggested he may reverse his pred desz sore. he wants the base moved out of okinawa. he replaced a former governor in december who was in favor of the government's plan. preparations for the drilling survey are continuing. defense personnel brought scaffolding into the

construction site. they're expected to begin the survey in about a week. several unidentified drones were spotted this week over key landmarks in paris. french authorities have launched an investigation into who is operating the latest drones buzzing over the capital and why. the local media reported sights of at least five small unmanned aircraft on tuesday and wednesday nights. they were seen seen flying over the eiffel tower, the u.s. embassy and other key landmarks. the sights follow a string of drone flights over nuclear power plants and military operations. french law bans the operation of private sector drones over sensitive areas. the use of development of drones are spreading rapidly around the world. they've proved helpful in logistics and other uses in the

civilian sector. investigations have been launched into the use of such devices. last month's crash of a small drone within the white house compound raised concerns about their use. a recent survey shows that more than 70% of the american people think drones should be regulated in some way for security and privacy reasons. members of the islamic state militant group have been recruiting people around the world from join me. now the authorities in the united states have charged three men with conspiring to support the group. they believe two to have them were planning to travel to syria to fight. one is 19 from kaz sick stan the others are from ooze beck stan. all live in brooklyn new york. two of them intended to go to syria. officers arrests the youngest at john f. kennedy airport. he was prepared to board a

flight for turkey. investigators believe the old ers provided the money for plane tickets. two of the men posted sper net messages in support of the militants and contacted someone with link to the group. fbi initials and new york police officers believe they're trying to carry out terrorist i attacks in the united states. they also had plans to kill police officers and assassinate president barack obama. >> this is an ongoing investigation and among a number of investigations that we're engaged? >> the u.s. government officials say more than 20,000 foreign fighters from 90 countries have traveled to syria. they say 3400 of them are from western nations. people in gaza are struggling to survive six months after a cease-fire was declared between israeli forces and hamas militants. many still have no shelter and lack essential infrastructure

such as electricity and water. more than 2,000 palestinians and 70 israelis died during last year's conflict. streets remain skrun from rubbles of bimgd droid from the shelling. effort to rebuild are moving at a glacial pace. israel has partially relaxed its economic blockade on gaza for the amount of cement and other construction materials that made it into the material in december was just 17% of what is needed in a month. international donors had a meeting in egypt pledged $5.4 billion for the reconstruction. gaza has reportedly yet to receive much of the aid. russia and ukrainian leaders are arguing over something essential. natural gas. president vladimir putin says time is running out for its neighbor to pay its bill and he's threaten to cut off the

supply. it's add another layer to the country already at odds in eastern ukraine. more from mhk world's craig dale. >> russian president vladimir putin has issued an all too familiar warning to ukraine, pay your gas bill or face the consequences. putin notice that advanced payments have been made for three or four days. if nothing further comes, he says the supply will be cut off. management from the company have done that on several occasions in the gas. putin is again using gas as a political weapon. he's at odds with european leaders over the war in earn ukraine where separatists have been struggling to implement a cease-fire. a cut off has an impact and it sends a message. with winter still not over eu officials in brussels are working on a solution.

>> we're trying to convene a meeting between ukrainian and russian energy ministers and me and the commission. >> the uncertainty swirling around the gas supply is hurting ukraine's already weak kbhi. the country's currency continue to take a beating. in 2014 it lost half of its value and already this year its value is halved again. as the prime minister points out, the exchange rate affects the budget food prices petro prices, the entire economy. the fact that ukraine has invested heavily in a war it can't really afford has maeds managing the yor all situation even harder. the country is december separate for the international monetary fund to approve a multibillion dollar loan argument arrangement. residents in the's are in dire straits. a fair number lack essentials such as food and water so they're relying on humanitarian

assistants. the russian have blamed ukrainian leaders for making things worse. president putin says leaving millions of people without gas smells of genocide. russian is supplying the east correctly and sending the bill to kiev. >> in terms of the overall supply they're refusing to make further payments was they say gaz prom has yet to deliver on prepaid shipments that were due the this week. it only started flowing in december. car sales are still driving in the slow lane in japan. ron madison is here with the latest. >> the executives at the biggest car makers same the impact of the consumption tax hike drag into the new year. they said they made fewer cars for nick sales in january extending their disappointing

run to seven mobt pps executives at eight car makers released data showing that production fell to 770,000 units. that's just down 10% from last year. executives at the top three auto firms all reported double digit fall. those at honda say it was down 38%, at toyota it was 14% and over at mazda, just about 11%. executives did have some good news. they reported an increase in exports to $320,000 cars that's up 3.5%. they credit shipment to the united states and other strong markets. well the people at one of japan's biggest banks struck a deal that will expand their business oversees. executives say they've agreed to acquire the business fromhe royal bank of scotland. they'll be paying about $3

billion for the portfolio. they say the loan commitments in the u.s. and canada are worth more than $36 billion. it's streamlining the business to recover from a slump that was triggered bring the 2008 global financial crisis. mizh mizhou is expanding because of the low interest rates here in japan making it defendant to boost their profits from domestic lending alone. let's have a check of the markets. in factors really didn't find any surprises in revised gdp data. they're pretty subdued in early training and that kept the european stocks steady. as you can see things are still fairly mixed with markets that are gaining seeing modest results at this time. now here in asia we had a pretty mixed bag. tokyo's knee kaye rose to levels

we haven't seen in years. some investments are weaker. sydney, for example, retreated from yesterday's seven-year high. the dollar is lower against the yen. traders waiting to see what the latest data on the consumer price index will have to say. the euro is flat against the dollar. well chief negotiators from the 12 countries in the transpacific partnership pretrade talks are gearing up for the next round of discussions. they'll be meeting in hawaii start march 9th. they're hoping to hold talks with their u.s. counter parks on the sidelines. they want to reach a tpp deal sometime in the next few months before the u.s. presidential campaign starlts to dominate the political agenda. the two sides are divided over tear tariffs. the negotiators have not comes to terms on auto parts.

japanese officials want a safeguard measure so japan can temporarily raise tariffs. but they haven't been able to bridge the gap on u.s. negotiators on how it will be implemented. japanese rail firm is touting their energy. east japan railway executives are hoping to sell their bullet trains to people in india. they're demonstrating a bullet train semilater in new delhi. visitors can get a taste of the action in the driver's seat as the train hits the top speed of 320 kilometers per hour. >> this is something good. i would really want this to come to india. >> translator: i hope people in india appreciate japanese technology and one day bullet trains will run on indian soil.

>> prime minister narendra modi said he wants to build a high speed network. jab neen government officials are hoping they'll be able to supply that technology. all right. that is going to wrap it up for bids tonight. i'll leave you with a check of the markets. more chinese are turning to japan to seek out better health care. many of them hope to take advantage of state of the art

technology and they're being met by well-trained medical staff. nhk world explains. >> reporter: this man and his wife have been looking forward to this trip to japan for several weeks. the 43-year-old business owner was diagnosed with liver cancer last october. he was treated at the hospital but his condition didn't improve. a friend who had received medical care in japan recommended that he get treated here too. >> translator: i searched the internet for what treatments i could get in japan. i knew i could trust japanese health providers so i decided to come. >> reporter: the organization for japan's medical tourism says the highest number of calls it handles are from china.

song and many other patients hope to receive radiation therapy. some treatments are either rare outside the country or japan is the only place that provides them. >> translator: not all of the patients in china have access to new treatments. if our new medicines or therapies can be described for their diseases i think we should provide them to patients from overseas. >> reporter: in a procedure like this patients are isolated from others. but here patients have peace of mind because they hear instructions in their own language. even so communications between doctor and patient relies largely on the translator.

she said that medical translators are required to know more than health care vocabulary. >> translator: what i do difference differs from the conference translator. i pay attention to how the patient feels mentally and physically. >> reporter: to respond to various demands of chinese patients, this hospital here provides unique services with extra care. this room is specially designed for overseas visitors who undergo preventive medical examinations. most of them accompany executives from china and their demands are high. the package costs an average of 4,000 clars, including massages and males. also a kons yarj will take you to a department store, a two-hour drive from the hospital. about 100 chinese came here last

year. 150 are expected to come this year. several times a month medical staff learn basic chinese so they can provide even better service. >> translator: maintaining quality medical care is our first priority but we also provide extra services. >> reporter: she works with japan's government to provide medical services to overseas patients. >> translator: with the upcoming olympics in mind the health ministry have has been working on the guidelines and curriculum for medical translators. we try to apply business perspective to the medical field so the patients can acquire the best treatment in and outside japan. >> reporter: japanese medical service providers are improving

their system. they believe that in doing so they will win even more international acclaim. nhk world. blizzard conditions are on the table for northern japan. our meteorologist sack ka mori joins us. >> yes, we had quite beautiful weather, springlike wamt earlier this week. but we're expecting to see blizzard conditions in northern japan on friday. we have a couple of low pressure systems and the system will intensify as they approach on friday and then bring blizzard conditions especially for the northwestern side of the country because of the sea effect snow. we're looking at about 70 centimeters of snow could fall within between the region. gusts are going to be up to 130 kilometers per hour. so the combination could result in low visibility making for extremely dangerous driving

conditions. waves up to 6 meters. i was warm earlier this week so some snow has melted. but because of the low temperatures it could refreeze and they will see additional heavy snowfall. eventually that could cause avalanches. dangerous conditions across the north. blowing snow is on the menu on friday. but very different story across tokyo. sunny weather will come back and the temperatures getting back to the double digit. it's more like springlike conditions that will stay into your saturday. across the americas extremely low temperatures are still affecting many parts of the eastern canada and the eastern united states and the cold weather affected the south where we usually see mild conditions even in winter. we have some video from haleville, alabama. a state of emergency was declared on wednesday across

alabama. a low pressure brought snowfall to the northern portions of alabama forcing schools, government offices and many businesses to close. this came after a cold snap forced temperatures to fall below freezing on tuesday. some places like anniston broke snowfall records, up to 20 sent meters fell in isolated parts across the portions of the state. the system has moved away from alabama, so clear conditions have returned across these areas. but because temperatures will drop at night, moisture could refreeze making for hazardous driving conditions. the system is now affecting the eastern portion of the united states with heavy snowfall up to 20 centimeter most for the next 24 hours. temperatures are still on the cold side for the next couple of days across many parts of the eastern u.s. and eastern canada. as we go into early next week milder conditions are waiting for you. now across europe looking quite

stormy across the north and the west. we have a huge system coming in. that is causing high waves across the north of spain. this was the scene. rough weather battered people in northern spain, high waves crash into the coast closing off a part of the sea front for pedestrians. gusts of about 115 kilometers per hour were reported and heavy rains up to 130 millimeters have also provoked a landslide. calm weather will likely return to the peninsula by your saturday. but until then stormy conditions will likely continue. now temperature wise quite warm across central europe. looking at 9 degrees for berlin and across the east looking 3 degrees in moscow with raby weather on thursday. here's the extended forecast.

that's newsline for this hour.

the fight against global warming. against official policy, three french parliamentarians declaring the syrian president lost all his legitimacy several years ago. the move has drawn the ire of the government in paris military sources in kiev say the kerning president is likely to order government forces to start pulling back heavy weapons in the countries east.