a look at some of the stories we're following this hour. an act of defiance. north korea fired ballistic missiles toward the sea of japan as the u.s. and south korea started their annual joint military drills. an investigation by nhk has uncovered new details about the sarin gas attacks nearly two decades ago on subways in tokyo.

and, u.s. president barack obama is calling on private firms to join forces to find ways to stop cyber attacks. north korean leaders have staged an act of defiance over annual military exercises between the u.s. and south korea. they fired two ballistic missiles off their east coast drawing a swift protest from tokyo. officials in seoul say the short-range missiles were launched monday morning from the western port city of nampo. they estimate the missiles traveled for about 500 kilometers before landing in the sea of japan. japanese prime minister shinzo abe instructed his officials to work closely with their counterparts in the u.s. and south korea to gather and analyze information. and he said the launch posed a serious threat to safety at sea and in the sky. >> translator: the launch is a violation of the japan north korea pyongyang declaration. the joint statement of six-party

talks, and u.n. security council resolutions. we lodged a strong complaint with north korea right away. >> north korean leaders repeatedly demanded the two countries scrap the exercises. they suggested they would respond with military action. south korean officials are on the lookout for further provocations by north korea. thousands of troops from south korea and the u.s. are conducting their annual joint drill amid a heightened security alert. 200,000 personnel from south korea and 12,000 from the u.s. are taking part. the drill is the largest such exercise for the two countries. they'll use computer simulations to study how to deal with signs of nuclear or missile attacks from the north. and they will carry out response maneuvers and conduct landing exercises. japan's top government spokesperson is expressing the importance of widening channels of communication with south korea. officials from the two countries are marking the 50th anniversary of the normalization of diplomatic ties and they're

considering issues of mutual importance. >> translator: we want to build a future oriented multilayered japan/south korea relationship from a comprehensive point of view. through dialogue at various levels. >> suga said communication with leaders in seoul is needed for the peace and stability of the region. pack geun-hye spoke at a ceremony commemorating the 1919 anniversary of the uprising against japan, when the korean peninsula was under japan's colonial rule. she called what the two nations have achieved since then remarkable. but says there are still historical issues to be resolved. >> translator: i hope japan will have the courage to admit historical facts. so that south korea and japan will create new history as partners over the next 50 years. >> park spoke about those

referred to as comfort women. she also expressed concern over increasing coverage of the takeshima islands in japanese history books as japan's inherent trorts. south korea controls the islands. japan claims them. park said distortion in the textbooks damages japan's relationships with its neighbors. we're learning more about a series of sarin nerve gas attacks carried out by members of the aum shinri kyo cult on tokyo's subway system nearly 20 years ago. nhk has obtained exclusive police data on the victims and the information shows why so many people were affected. nhk world has the details. >> reporter: few people in japan will ever forget march 20th,

1995. it was the day cult members boarded packed trains during the morning rush hour and carried out the deadly gas attack. 13 people were killed. and another 6,000 were left sick. the police records indicate where the victims got on and where they suffered from the nerve gas. it shows members of aum shinri kyo religious cult spread deadly sarin gas on five trains on three different lines, all heading towards the busy government district in tokyo. authorities have identified the locations of 5,002 victims when they were attacked as shown in this chart. cult members targeted cass mig secondsy station where 798 people suffered effects of the gas. kodemmacho station was not a main target but 1,699 victims, or about a quarter of the total victims, fell near here. a senior alm member walked onto

the train with a plastic bag containing sarin. he then used the tip of his umbrella to pierce the bag. this photo shows the station just moments after the attack. part of the platform is stained with liquid seeping from a plastic bag. a passenger felt something wasn't right, and threw it onto the platform. radio communications records indicate police got word of the incidents at 8:21 a.m. they were told about the damage and confusion and they also learned that large numbers of passengers were getting sick. people arriving on other trains also game ill after inhaling the gas. five other trains were allowed to pull into the station after the attack. two of them stopped to let out passengers making the situation worse.

chaos broke out as crowds of people rushed towards the exits. some of them tried to help clean up, and remove the bag. >> translator: i extended my hand to pick up the bag. but when i was about to touch it, i became totally unable to breathe. >> reporter: kanazawa was later hospitalized for six days in critical condition. 90% of those affected at kodenmacho station became sick after. this man was in charge of decontamination efforts after the attack. >> translator: the plume of gas

lingered in the confined space of the underground station. the effects of the attack were amplified. mainly because crowds of people remained in the closed space. >> reporter: the terror attack was the first time a chemical weapon was used on people in a major city. and officials say this information will help to ensure something like this never happens again. nhk world, tokyo. two japanese ministers are denying receiving improper funding. they're the latest to be questioned on money in the diet. three of prime minister shinso abe's ministers have quit over scandals since october. justice minister yoko camp cow way and yoshio mochizuki were asked about political donations they had. the law bans donations within a

year. he said he didn't know the company was going to receive public funds. >> translator: the decision to grant the subsidies was made by an association promoting energy saving. so it is not the subsidies the government decides to grant as stipulated in the political funds control act. >> kamikawa said he think ss she also made contributions to the organization she represents. >> i have confirmed that the government did not directly decide to grant the subsidies. i understand there is no possibility that the donation was in violation of the political funds control act. >> the agriculture minister resigned last month after he came under fire over contributions from a wood processing firm that had received state subsidies. japanese police say a reported leader 6 of a teenage group has admitted to fatally

stabbing a 13-year-old boy. the 18-year-old suspect is one of the three teenagers arrested last week on suspicion of murder. rye oato uemura was found dead on february 20th. he had been stabbed in the neck. police arrested the leader and two 17-year-olds on friday. the eldest suspect initially refused to talk but investigators say he later admitted to killing uemura. investigators say the suspect was angry because uemura told his friends he was beaten by the leader in january. suspect was quoted as saying he made the victim swim in the river and then used a box cutter blade to stab the boy. the murdered boy hung out with the youths. but he reportedly wanted to leave the group. both the 17-year-old suspects deny involvement in the murder. one of them has reportedly said it was the lead here stabbeded victim. it's time for biz news bee have ron madison with the latest on where prices are going in the eurozone. ron? >> gene, inflation in the eurozone state and negative territory in february for the third straight month.

the main reason was lower energy prices. the statistical office of the european union has released preliminary data for last month. euro stat officials say the rate dropped 0.3% from february 2014 hat compares to a 0.6% decline in january, which matched an all-time low. officials at the european central bank are worried the eurozone is slipping into deflation. they've decided to launch a quantitative easing program. euro stat officials say the unemployment rate for the single currency bloc in january stood at 11.2%. that's down slightly from december. all right let's get a check and see how investors are reacting to the latest economic data from the eurozone. major markets there are looking pretty mixed right now. we're seeing the paris is still declining, extending declines. london, and frankfurt both seeing gains of about a quarter percent each. taking a look now at asian markets, officials at china's central bank surprised market players over the weekend with a rate cut. that did give a boost to stocks.

hong kong was up 0.25%. seoul closed at a five-month high while sydney settled at a seven-year high ahead of the reserve bank of australia's policy meeting tomorrow. we did see some volatility after china released sluggish economic data. the hang shy composite finished higher 0.8% after the government tried to shore up the slowing economy by cutting rate ss for the second time in three months. here in japan, the nikkei closing at a 15-year high 18,826. it briefly hit 18,900 as exporters traded higher on the weaker yen. shares lost a bit of momentum though, in the afternoon, as investors worried about the overheating market. moving on to currency the dollar is little changed against the yen right now at 119.80. market players are waiting for the outcome of u.s. manufacturing data later on today. the euro mean time gaining ground against the dollar we've got it at roughly 1.1224. market players keeping a close eye on the european central bank policy meeting on thursday.

well the people working at japan's satellite launch business faced some pretty tough competition from their american and european rivals. so an lices see a deal now between mitsubishi heavy industries and the united arab emirates space agency as a sign of confidence in japan's mainstay rocket. industry leader mitsubishi offers launch services using the h2a rocket. an h2a carrying a uae earth observation satellite is scheduled to lift off in 2017 from southwestern japan. this is mitsubishi's third overseas launch order since it entered the business in 2007. the h2a placed a south korean satellite into orbit in 2012. another is scheduled to launch a canadian satellite in fiscal 2015. the h2a boasts a 96% success rate with 21 straight successful launches as of last month. well a leading u.s. meat industry official wants to see a trans-pacific partnership free

trade deal soon. he's urging members of the u.s. congress to pass a bill to give the government more power to speed up the talks. u.s. meat export federation president philip tseng told members of the media he's intensed with the intensity and speed of the talks so far. >> we recognize that even though we might be close to the finish line when it comes to tpp between the u.s.able japan, there is still much work that needs to be done here in japan, and also in the united states. >> some u.s. lawmakers are against the fast track legislation but seng says he hopes congress will pass it soon. well huge numbers of foreign tourists visited japan last month during the lunar new year holidays. that gaves sales at all four major department stores a pretty big boost. officials say sales rose 4% compared to february 2014. they were up 2.6% at sogo &

sogo & seibu. 1.6% at daimaru. the department store chains last month posted their biggest sales increases since the consumption tax hike in april 2014. they saw especially good results for watches, bags and cosmetics, as foreign tourists really snapped them up. analysts say japan has become a more popular destination for chinese tourists due to the weaker yen, and an easing of visa requirements. japan's new auto sales in february fell by almost 15% from the same month last year. that's the second straight month now that the decline in sales has topped 10%. auto industry officials say roughly 482,000 new vehicles were sold in japan last month. that's down more than 14.5%. in january new car sales fell more than 19%, the largest drop since the consumption tax hike. the officials blame the plunge mainly on a rush to buy cars ahead of that tax hike. they warn that a drastic

recovery in sales is unlikely as the japanese market continues to shrink. all right. that is going to wrap it up for biz tonight. i'll leave you with the markets. every morning investors turn their attention to asia. the tokyo market leads the way. and markets around the world follow. >> from the decisions that could change the course of an economy. >> to the companies at the

forefront of change. >> up to the minute market reports. >> and analysis by specialists from around the world. >> get all the latest business news and insight every day. here on "newsline." american leaders are stepping up their protection to fight off cyber attacks. they've seen more and more critical data and infrastructure come under threat and they're now calling on private companies to work together to stop hackers. more from nhk world's alex whartman. >> there's only one way to defend america from these cyber threats. and that is through government and industry working to the, sharing appropriate information. yes, we can. >> reporter: president obama called on private company leaders to pro-actively report to the government on damages

inflicted by cyber attacks. most businesses have held back reporting because of the privacy concerns of their clients. but the proliferation of attacks on the private sector has increased five-fold since 2009. this has sparked a sense of urgency within the u.s. government. specialists are now beginning to recognize the importance of sharing information. representatives for computer security firms that protect corporation's networks get together in washington regularly to discuss the issue. they exchange the latest data on malicious software used for cyber attacks. and develop technologies to remove them. brian bartholomew was at the conference.

his company monitors its clients' networks 24 hours a day to prevent cyber attacks. last year ten firms, including his, joined in a first of its kind experiment to cooperate to counter cyber attacks. he says this type of coordination is vital in order to counter hacker groups such as one called axiom. >> this group in particular is extremely sophisticated. they're very good at what they do. this group was so widespread and they had such a far reach, that we're still actually trying to -- we're finding new victims every day, almost. >> reporter: axiom is a mysterious hacker group thought to be based in china. that has exceedingly advanced technologies. there have been nine types of identified malicious software apparently developed by ax up. their software slips through the security firm's defenses and penetrates the networks.

there are limits in the countermeasures each company has when dealing with this independently. things such as confidential information, and trade secrets are often stolen. bartholomew's company began to see the strength they could draw by cooperating with one another, and started jointly developing countermeasure software. as a result they were able to prevent damages in 43,000 cases. >> we got to the and said what if we combine forces here and shared information between us. we could really put a dent in this group. >> reporter: the obama administration recognizes that the cyber threats facing the country will only continue to increase. leaders believe it is essential to put in place the mechanisms now to deal with this growing challenge in the future. alex worthman, nhk world, washington.

the crowd at a market in nigeria has beaten a girl to death. people believed she was a suicide bomber. the incident happened on sunday in the northeastern city of bauchi the associated press reports the teenage girl refused to be screened at the entrance to a vegetable market. people then discovered she had two bottles under her clothing. they were strapped to her body. a police official questioned whether the girl was a bomber. he said if she had any explosives, she would have detonated them when she was attacked. islamic extremist group boko haram has been using women and young girls as suicide bombers and people suspect the group was behind a series of bombings in northern nigeria. after powerful storms ripped through sydney australia, the weather will cooperate in the cleanup efforts. our meteorologist jonathan oh is here with the details. jonathan? >> hello, gene yes. we have been looking at this front that rolled through

australia during the weekend. and as we take a look at the satellite perspective, now things have calmed down a little bit clear for the moment but you can still see plenty of activity toward the north. we have these storms rolling through every once in awhile. sometimes they pick up a lot of steam as they roll across the country, and now we have some video coming out of sydney to show you what it looked like. you could see even the person trying to shoot the video was having a hard time keeping the camera still because we had winds up to 100 kilometers per hour blowing through the area mostly concentrated in the storm's gust front as you see right there in the video. thousands across new south wales lost power because of the storm. on top of that high rise building windows, several of them in the city were blown out, and the good life festival which was an event organized for teens in sydney was canceled because of the high winds. we are going to see, though those conditions calming down. now you can see the clear conditions down toward new south wales also victoria. but still toward the north still looking at the possibility of some thunderstorms as the tropical air mass continues to

control the weather. we see here on tuesday, for sydney, drier conditions calmer conditions a high of 28 degrees. we do see the rain returning on wednesday and thursday ep halfly the recovery efforts for the damage that took place is able to be cleaned up as we go throughout tuesday. i want to point out though down here in alice springs, 40 degrees on the high on tuesday. that's dangerously hot so please make sure you're taking precautions as you go through the week as temperatures are going to be in the upper 30s to around 40 degrees as we go through tuesday, wednesday and thursday. as we shift our focus toward east asia we are seeing relatively calmer conditions. now that the low pressure system located toward the northern portions of japan moved toward the north and east the winds are going to calm down by later tuesday. in the morning hours we're looking towards strong gusts, close to 100 to 110 kilometers per hour. at times with six meter waves, and up to 60 centimeters of snow possible. but then by the afternoon that should clear. high pressure has been bringing some very pleasant weather for a good portion of central, western japan but that will shift as low pressure comes in from the west.

that's going to bring the chance for some rain and maybe even some flurries for the korean peninsula and then the rain spreads toward the east. you'll need your umbrella in tokyo as we go throughout the day on tuesday. 11 degrees for the high with chance for rain. 5 in seoul. and down through the south a little bit of a disturbance that's going to bring some showers into taipei and also hong kong as we go through the day. i want to take you to europe where we have this powerful low pressure system blowing through the central portions of the continent and also bringing snow for the scandinavian peninsula and peaks of central europe. plenty of rain. some areas seeing gusts sometimes up to 100 kilometers per hour as we go throughout the day monday look out for those gusts to pick up from time to time, and again, big story will be the rain. anywhere from germany into france, also further toward the east. even into ukraine, like kiev you'll see rain with a high of 60 degrees as opposed to the snowfall that we typically see, and we've been talking about for the past several weeks. now we're mainly going to see a wet weather pattern. not really the case as we look at the forecast for north

america. cold air has been controlling canada, and also a good portion of the united states. and the moisture's all hitting the ground as snowfall. heavy knowfall still taking place into the new england states, the mid-atlantic states will see a change of snowfall as we go through monday. freezing rain in chicago. look out on the roadways because it's going to be very slick as the rain hits the ground and freezes on contact. snow into the lower rockies, into denver and oklahoma city as we go throughout the day. hope you have a good day wherever you are. here's your extended outlook.

musicians playing as japanese instruments performed a concerto with the seattle symphony orchestra. the musical piece was composed to encourage the restoration effort in japan's disaster-hit northeast. japanese kyoto and bamboo flute

players took part in the u.s. premier of japanese composer's "revive." nykot sochlt a 13 stringed instrument. the player is from fukushima prefecture part of the region devastated by the march 1th earthquake and tsunami in 2011. the traditional japanese instruments provided an exotic flavor for the more than 2,000 concert goers. ♪ a member of the audience said he and his daughters were moved to seers. >> you know you just you realize this idea that you know no matter what we face sometimes that the human spirit prevails. yeah, very powerful. that's "newsline" for this hour. i'm gene otani in tokyo.

determined israeli prime minister and angered white house. benjamin netanyahu is in washington to tell lawmakers why there should be no deal with iran over the nuclear program. new video emerges of the murder as thousands march in moscow to pay tribute to the prominent kremlin critic. fears over russian fuel a narrow victory for pro-western parties in estonia's parliamentary elections. those are the top stories this hour. also coming up, the batt