a look at some of the stories we're following this hour. royal welcome. britain's prince william is looking at the past and towards the future while on his first visit to japan. japanese police officers have arrested three teenagers on suspicion of murdering a 13-year-old boy. and islamic state militants have released another video,

this one apparently showing them vandalizing ancient artifacts. britain's future king is busy taking in the sights around tokyo. prince william is on his first visit to japan, and he's using this trip as an opportunity to promote relations between the two nations. more from nhk world's keiko yamamoto. >> reporter: prince william is spending some of his time looking back at the past. he saw row after row of war graves in yokohama near tokyo. this is the final resting place for 1700 commonwealth service members. they died after being taken prisoner by the thank you defunct japanese interior army in asia during world war ii. the prince paused here to reflect, and pray silently. he took time to pay a visit to emperor akihito and empress

michiko at the imperial palace. he's following in the footsteps of his parents, prince charles and princess diana, who came to japan 29 years ago. nearly 100,000 people are said to have come to see the couple's motorcade in tokyo. the princess sparked a social phenomenon across japan known as diana fever. the prince's grandmother, queen elizabeth, visited japan in 1975. at that time the queen toured nhk studios that were used for historical drama. as a young royal family member prince william is expected to build a bridge between both countries, and also between tradition and the future. and that's what he did at this conference promoting british innovation. delegates showed him some of their latest products. the prince spoke here about some

of his experiences so far in japan. >> in just 24 hours so far in japan, i've had a chance to experience the blend of ancients and modern which so characterizes this amazing country. catherine and george cannot be here in george this time but i know that she looks forward to visiting japan in the future. >> reporter: the prince will also get a chance to see a much different landscape before he's his four-day tour wraps up. he will head to northeastern japan to see how people are rebuilding after the earthquake and tsunami nearly four years ago. keiko yamamoto, nhk world, tokyo. japanese police officers have arrested three teenagers on suspicion of murdering a 13-year-old boy. the eldest suspect is 18. he told officers he doesn't want to say anything. the two others are both 17 and they've denied killing the boy. they're suspected of killing

ryota uemura whose body was discovered a week ago on a river bank in cow sayaka city near tokyo. he had been stabbed in the neck. authorities found a box cutter blade and a stick near uemura's body. the victim had bruises on his face and arms. investigators have been reviewing surveillance camera footage taken around the time uemura was stabbed. they say it shows him walking toward the river with several young men. police found charred fragments of the victim's clothing in a toilet near the murder site. they believe the suspects were trying to destroy evidence of the crime. uemura was frequently seen with the group. police say the eldest suspect is the leader. they say he quit high school about six months ago. a boy says he once saw the suspect hitting uemura. >> translator: uemura says he no longer wanted to play around with the group. i guess somebody told that to the leader.

he made uemura sit on the ground and struck him hard a couple of times. >> uemura had sent a mobile phone message before he was murdered. he was asking friends for help saying his life was in danger. people placed flowers where he died. >> translator: my child is 13. the same age as the boy. i prayed for him as if he were my own son. >> translator: my grandchild is around the same age and lives in the same city. i get the feeling something like this could happen to us, too. prime minister shinzo abe has offered his condolences to the boy's family. >> translator: protecting children is the responsibility of adults. i will do whatever i can to ensure such a terrible incident never happens again.

>> abe called on authorities to examine whether there was enough coordination between the school the local board of education, police and child welfare offices. the boy's teachers didn't notice changes in his circle of friends or signs indicating he was in danger. but his struggles were documented locked away in a social networking tool. nhk world's jun yotsumoto explains. >> translator: i had heard he might be killed but i never believed it would be true. >> reporter: ryota uemura lived on a small island in west japan before his family moved to one of the country's biggest cities. his friends say he joined a basketball club in kawasaki and went to school every day. but last summer that suddenly changed.

>> translator: i think the lessons with his fans could be the reason for his absence from school. >> reporter: uemura was frequently seen at night in a park with older students from other schools. a month before he was murdered a friend noticed uemura had bruises on his face. >> translator: he told me he got into a fight with a stranger. but when i said that was an obvious lie, he admitted that a senior student had punched him. >> reporter: uemura had sent out a call for help to his friends through smartphone application, line. he wrote i may be killed since i was not obedient to high school students. and nearing the limit. hours before his death, uemura had dinner with his mother and left the house for the last time. police suspect the group of

teens lured him outside through line. his smartphone has not been found. police believe the teens tried to destroy evidence. experts say social networking services enable children to connect beyond schools and community. >> translator: children contact each other using smartphones. there's no way for adults to know what's going on. >> reporter: he says the invisibility may heighten the risk of children getting involved in crimes. uemura's home room teacher spoke to him once by phone. he said the boy didn't reveal his situation. he also tried to visit uemura at home, but did not see him. >> translator: if we knew more about his troubles and suffering, we could have done more to help him.

>> reporter: members of kawasaki city's board of education are looking into how the school handled uemura's absence. and they are talking about the rapid rise of social networks sites and how best to protect children online. june yot moto, nhk world. the indication ministry has set up a special team to discuss measures to prevent such incidents from happening again. officials decided to survey whether any other children are in danger across the country. a gunman has opened fire inside a home near seoul. the 73-year-old man killed three people with a hunting rifle before taking his own life. police say the man shot and killed his older brother and brother's wife in a house in hwaseong city. they say the third victim was a police officer who reportedly rushed to the scene. gun owners in south korea often

keep their firearms at police stations. the shooter had retrieved his gun just one hour before the incident. south korean media report the man's family had been arguing over finances. islamic state members have released another video on the internet. it shows militants destroying artifacts from the ancient civilized nation of mesopotamia. the objects apparently date to the asyrian period that flourished until the 7th century b.c. the footage shows people vandalizing a museum and ruin. they call the artifacts symbols of idol worship. western media say the museum is in mosul, northern iraq. the city fell to the militants in june last year. the director of unesco's iraq office axel plathe says it is trying to verify the video.

he says the agency is working with authorities to assess the imagine. he said if it's true it condemns acts that do not value culture and history. people around the world are learning more about the islamic state militant known as jihadi john. he's the masked man featured in videos showing the purported killings of american british, and japanese hostages. nhk world's craig dale has more on the media investigation that revealed his name background and why he may have joined the fight in syria. >> reporter: a cluster of journalists gathered outside the apartment block believed to be the former home of one of the world's most infamous islamist militants. >> an entire army, thirsty for your blood. >> reporter: this masked man became the menacing face and voice of the islamic state group. in video after video that showed the murders of hostages. he was known as jihadi john.

now a "washington post" investigation has identified him as mohammed emwazi. a british skutcomputer programmer, born in kuwait but raised in london. >> widely known in the intelligence communities. so i was assembling bits and pieces along the way. and then we also relied on what we knew from the video. and what we knew from hostages who had been with john. >> reporter: "washington post" reporters say they eventually confirmed emwazi's identity with his friends, along with a representative of a british human rights group who knew him. >> you might be surprised to know that the mohammed that i knew was extremely clean. >> reporter: that seems to have changed in the years after emwazi graduated from this university in 2000 flynn. "the washington post" says he and some friends went to tanzania for a safari but police there detained and deported them. emwazi went on to amsterdam where he apparently met an agent of britain's secret service mi5.

they believed he wanted to fight with militants in somalia. he denied that and said mi5 tried to recruit him. back in london he decided to move to kuwait to start a life there. but on return trips to britain emwazi again crossed paths with mi5. was reportedly fingerprinted, searched and in one case stopped from going back to the country of his birth where he planned to marry. "the washington post" said he felt like a prisoner in london and the newspaper paints a picture of his radicalization. "the post" says he eventually made his which to syria around 2012 and joined the islamic state group. his family described as well-to-do is not talking and government officials in britain and the u.s. are saying little. >> i'm not in a position to either confirm or deny that the individual named in these reports is the individual that we're searching for. >> reporter: analysts say emwazi fits the profile of people who left london to join the militants. >> we know that people from west london who did travel out to syria around this time, they are all themselves of arab or north

african origin as he is basically as well. so he does fit the pattern. >> he's such a -- >> reporter: but the british human rights campaigner who knew emwazi argues he fits another pattern, that of minorities ail yented by society and a pattern of individuals pushed to the edge by heavy handed security services. >> we have created here in the uk an environment in which the security agencies can pact with impugnnity and destroy the lives of young people. >> reporter: security experts say the case highlights the challenges facing intelligence authorities. >> who mustn't alienate whole communities, and yet have to deal with making assessments about large numbers of people. >> reporter: the story of mohammed emwazi is just one of many involving foreigners who joined the islamic state group. more than 20,000 according to some estimates. young men and some women from dozens of nations lured to a dusty battlefield, in a war like no other. craig dale, nhk world. nigerian authorities say a

string of bombings has left dozens of people dead. they suspect the islamic militant group boko haram is responsible for the attacks. local media say a suicide bomber at a bus station in the northeastern town of biu killed at least 17 people. witnesses say a crowd stopped a second bomber from detonating his device. two other bombs went off the same day in the central city of jos. one attack took place at a bus station. the other nearby. at least 15 people are reported dead. on tuesday, suicide bombers targeted two bus stations in other parts of northern nigeria. reportedly leaving more than 20 people dead. fighting between government forces in boko haram has intensified. the group threatens to disrupt the presidential election in march. the head of u.s. intelligence says last year was the worst ever for global

terrorism. director of national intelligence james clapper says islamic state militants carried out many of the attacks. >> when the final accounting is done 2014 will have been the most lethal year for global terrorism in the 45 years such data has been compiled. >> clapper told a senate committee there were nearly 13,000 attacks in the first nine months of 2014. he said it left 31,000 people dead. he said half of the attacks and fatalities were in iraq, pakistan, and afghanistan. clapper said the islamic state group conducted more attacks than any other terrorist organization. last year. it's a friend who speaks and answers questions. softbank's robot was on sale but you can't buy it any time soon. ron madison is here to tell us why. ? >> this things's pretty cool gene. generate quite a lot of buzz. in fact all 300 units of this robot offered by the major

japanese telecom operator have sold out. the human-like robot can talk and read, and even read human expressions. well that little guy there, his name is pepper. the robot. just 120 centimeters tall, weighs 28 kilograms. the 300 units were sold online and at stores for software developers and it quickly sold out. the robot is equipped with cameras, microphones and sensors. it's linked to a cloud server and converses with humans after analyzing facial expressions and voice tones. softbank developers hope they will create applications that can be downloaded to the robot. they expect to add functions such as care giving and serving customers. >> translator: i'm interested in using this robot in the education field, such as at schools. i bought one to pursue those possibilities. >> translator: the key to its

success will be engineers freely developing applications and we can't anticipate and expanding the robot's use. >> softbank executives plan to sell the robot to the public after june. the price tag? $1,650 roughly. mazda motor has launched a new model of diesel car. executives at the japanese automaker hope the move will help its diesel engine compete with eco-friendly hybrid and electric rivals. the new exact utility cx-3 is equipped with a 1500 cc diesel engine. the executives say it's the first model in japan exclusively fitted with a diesel engine that meets current emission standards. diesel engines will more fuel efficient than their gasoline rivals. mazda executives hope the new car will help spread the popularity of the engine. japanese leaders, of course have been trying to pull the country out of deflation. officials at the internal

affairs ministry say prices for daily goods and services rose in january for a 20th month in a row. but the pace actually slowed down due to a plunge in oil prices. the officials say the consumer price index was up 2.2% from january last year. that's 0.3 percentage points down from december. now they don't factor in creche food. that's because those prices tend to be pretty volatile and distort the results. gasoline and heating oil prices declined, limiting the rise in consumer prices overall. the officials estimate without the consumption tax hike in april consumer prices would have increased by about 0.2%. bank of japan governor haruhiko kuroda have suggested consumers are likely to start feeling more positive about the economy. he says although oil prices are falling, people can expect wages to increase after the spring labor negotiations. kuroda has explained why the bank is sticking to its 2% inflation target while also

setting a time frame. he stressed stronger measures are needed to pull the country out of decades of deflation. >> translator: in order to realize our inflation target we need speed and momentum that will change people's expectations. >> well in terms of future monetary policy kuroda said his bank will not react to fluctuations in crude oil prices. he says the boj will keep watch on whether the change from a deflationary mindset among consumers continues steadily. all right, let's get a check of the markets now on this last trading day of february. european shares seem to be treading a bit of water, one day after british and german indexes marked all-time closing highs. now we're seeing the majors are mixed right now. we've got declines for both london and frankfurt. paris is seeing slight gains. some company shares such as airbus and lloyd's banking are rallying, after strong earnings reports. earlier here in asia tokyo's

nikkei edged higher to a fresh 15-year high. shanghai closed at a one-month high. and mumbai outperformed the region's markets on hopes for the government's budget, which will be announced tomorrow. but in seoul and jakarta, investors there taking some profits from recent gains. moving on to currencies the dollar remains pretty strong against the yen after positive u.s. economic data yesterday. the euro is still pretty week against the dollar and the yen. in march the european central bank will start a quantitative easing program. all right. that is going to wrap it up for biz tonight. i'll leave you with the markets.

researchers in australia have unveiled the world's first jet engine made entirely with a 3-d printer. they say the new technology is expected to drastically cut more manufacturing costs. the avalon international air show in australia features the latest developments in aviation technology. this one meter long engine was developed by engineers at monash university and associates. each component was made with a 3-d printer. a cylindrical component in the come boston chamber usually takes more than three months to produce however this one was made in just five days. >> whereas we can scan this print it off in a matter of days and so the big advantage is that we can speed up the

turnaround time on the jet engine dramatically. >> engineers plan to have printed engine components in flight tests next year and receive certification for commercial use within five years. a powerful winter storm is battering northern japan, and more is to come this weekend. our meteorologist sayaka mori is here with the forecast. sayaka? >> yes, gene there's no sign of spring for northern japan. blizzard conditions still happening across the north from hokkaido down towards hokuriku region. the worst is happening across eastern hokkaido. the snowfall accumulation is about 1.5 meters. that is the record for the area. more to come probably an additional 60 centimeters in the next 24 hours. with gusts of about 130 kilometers per hour likely and waves are going to be up to seven meters. that's very severe conditions likely continue into your saturday morning.

after that clearer weather should come back. however it will not last long. we have another system to come in from the west. first the system will produce rainfall west and then snowfall to the north. so snow will come back by sunday. additional snow could raise the potential for avalanches where snow is still on the ground, so please watch out for that. now here are your temperature forecasts. sapporo, 3 degrees on saturday. because temperatures are not too low, most precipitation should be heavy, wet snow. tokyo will be warm 12 degrees with sunny conditions rain is on the menu on sunday and then sunny weather should come back by monday with very warm conditions. very good news for many people with the exception of those who have hay fever. now this is your cherry blossom forecast. i think cherry blossoms may come up in march 26th in tokyo, and the flowers may in full bloom by early april. so let's look forward to the

season. now across the iberian peninsula, you can see clouds hanging over the north and a buildup of clouds move through. heavy snow and rain are affecting this syria. i'm going to take you to the pyrenees first to show you the situation. in the pyrenees the heavy snow blocked multiple roads which led to 200 students not being able to make it to school. in addition to the snowfall there was a greater concern for avalanches making it nearly impassable for skiers to enjoy the slopes. meanwhile heavy rainfall led to serious flooding in five municipalities near four different rivers running through the country. officials expected the rivers to crest at their maximum levels by friday morning. residents in some areas have to be evacuated due to the flooding. now the system has gone but still the risk of rain and snow will continue across the north. you'll see a nice break in the stormy conditions from saturday into early part of sunday but the next system will move in by sunday afternoon. now, flooding is still

continuing across many parts of brazil peru as well as bolivia. this is the rainy season. more rain is expected so the risk of flooding will get quite higher day by day. now across the americas there's no sign of spring so far. we still have a high pressure system dragging very cold air from the north. so quite cold conditions is continuing across many parts of the u.s. but, precipitation is gone across the east. however, snow is increasing across the west from the southern plains up towards the pacific northwest. about 120 centimeters of snow is on the menu for the south of colorado, 20 centimeters for the north of texas. temperatures are as follows, quite low. minus 11 degrees in winnipeg. minus 9 in chicago. but finally temperatures will moderating into more typical levels by early next week. here's the extended forecast.

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

' is hour. the german parliament voted one big yes to extend financial aid to greece by another four months. this after bitter clashes in the streets of athens between police and protesters during antigovernment demonstrations. one year to the day after russian troops and pro must go -- pro-moscow forces began seizing the crimea, the un security council has sat an emergency session on ukraine. news coming out of kiev saying that three soldiers have been killed and seven others