. welcome back to "newsline." i'm meeky yamamoto in tokyo. saudi arabia and other gulf nations have begun air strikes in yemen. authorities are looking into the link between an extremist group and the gunmen who carried out the fatal museum attack. and french investigators are

analyzing audio from a german airliners cockpit voice recorder to try to figure out why it crashed. saudi military officials are making moves to protect their border in what they call yemen's legitimate government. they launched military operations in the capital sanaa with a newly formed coalition of gulf-region allies. the say the air strikes are to counter rebel forces that drove out their president. saudi airplanes have targeted houthi strongholds. they dropped bombs on the airport in sanaa and air base. the air raid was at the request of yemen's president. president hadi fled last month. the militants have been advancing toward aden. and they called on nations for

support. five gulf nations including saudi arabia and the united arab emirates membered to protect their people. u.s. forces are now backing up iraqi troops in the key city of tikrit. they began launching air strikes against an islamic state position. a white house spokesperson says they remained on the sidelines until now, waiting to be asked for assistance. >> in response to a specific request from iraqi security forces the united states has been providing isr support to the ongoing mission. it stands for reconnaissance. >> military advisers have been struggling to retake the city since early this month. but the islamic state fighters dug in and the offensive stalled. pentagon spokesperson steve

warren indicated iraq was initially optimistic about the campaign in tikrit. he said u.s. support is indefensible in defeating islamic state militants. afghan president guani has voiced concerns that islamic state could gain a foot hold in his country. >> their goal is to destabilize he every country in the region. >> he was speaking before the u.s. congress. he said islamic state militants are already sending advanced units into afghanistan. some taliban insurgents in the country are showing support for the group. guani saying they will push for members of the taliban. the president called for u.s. support to fight terrorism. the speech comes as the white

house decided to review its plan to half the number of u.s. troops in afghanistan by the end of this year. president obama agreed on tuesday to remain with the current level of u.s. troops until the end of the year. tunisians are offering prayers for the victims of a fatal attack. gunmen last week targeted tourists at the national bardo museum in the capital tunis. they killed 21 people including three japanese. members of an islamic extremist group were behind the shootings. nhk has more. >> reporter: it was the worst attack we've ever had in tunisia. >> translator: i can't believe that something like this could happen in our country.

>> reporter: residents gathered for a funeral. the man was shot dead on the spot by security forces. his father said he couldn't see what was happening to his son. >> translator: he didn't pray so earnestly as a child. but after the revolution here in 2011 he started praying with passion. still, i thought he was no different than before. >> reporter: tunisia's government, in 2011 experiencing an uprising. he was among the many young people who hoped their lives would improve. but political instability continued and he became disillusioned. one of his friends says islamic extremists took advantage of his disappointment. >> translator: he was a normal

person, but then he started going more often to the mosque. he made some bad friends. they totally changed his mind. >> reporter: tunisian authorities say they believe members of the islamic extremist group committed the attack. this 20 year old man said he was recruited to join the group. he says some people approached him at school and at the mosque. >> translator: they approached young people using lines from the koran and the words of the prophet mohammed. and they said the police and the government were doing wrong. they appealed to people's faith. >> reporter: he attended weekly meetings of the group along with

other young muslims. they were taught extremist ideals and eventually, some of them were brainwashed. >> translator: the members often talked about jihad. making us think about killing foreigners and muslims considered weak in their faith. more and more people started thinking about engaging in acts of terror themselves. >> reporter: he said many disillusioned young people were attracted to extremist ideas. tunisian authorities are now beefing up security to prevent another tragedy like this. nhk world, tunis. search crews are scouring the steep slopes of the french alps where a german passenger

jet crashed. they found the plane's voice recorder but not the flight data recorder. they say they're making every effort to determine the cause of the crash. the head of france's air investigation agency says the cockpit voice recorder is damaged but not beyond use. >> we just succeeded in getting an audio file which contains usable sounds and voices. >> but, he said it would take weeks or months to grasp what happened to the airliner. they need to analyze carefully the sounds of machinery and voices on the recording. the audio suggests one of the pilots left the cockpit before the plane's descent and was unable to get back in. the quote is from a military official taking part in the

investigations. he says there are sounds of someone knocking lightly on the cockpit door but there's no answer. the knocker then hits the door harder, but there's still no answer. investigators know that the airbus a 320 operated by germanwings unexpectedly lost altitude about 30 minutes after takeoff. the plane was flying at 38,000 feet. it descended for eight minutes and lost contact with the control tower after reaching an altitude of 6,000 feet. the head of the investigation agency said the debris at the crash site is not characteristic of a plane that scattered in flight. it suggests the plane may have crashed into the mountain side at high speed. the plane was en route to dusseldorf. there were 150 people on board. now let's go to business

news with ron madison. japan's biggest automaker is making a new move on how to make cars. >> what it aims to do is streamline the entire process. they want to standardize the engineering process as a way of cutting costs and increasing quality and are starting with a new model to be launched this year. the new system involves modular technology like engines and transmissions will share a common design. that will be allowed to be used on different models of cars. it will also allow them to be more flexible in designing cars to meet the needs of local consumers. until now they developed cars separately for different markets in different countries and procured parts separately as well. they want to begin this with the newest prius hybrid. now european car makers have

already adopted modular technology. volkswagen has introduced it on its vehicles and bmw and ford are promoting similar systems. here in japan nissan is using the technology. a new infrastructure bank has been established but the u.s. and japan are caution about the plan. jack lew talks about it next week when he visits beijing. 33 countries are officially backing the aiib. chinese officials say that other nations have until the end of the month to sign up. lew will be in china just before that deadline and will discuss economic relations between the u.s. and china when he meets officials. he told a congressional hearing that he's worried about whether the aiib will operate in line with the high standards of existing institutions such as the world bank. investors have been selling

asian shares causing losses throughout much of the region. many people were spooked by what happened on the nasdaq which suffered the biggest slide in nearly a year. and they were concerned about tech shares. the nikkei is down 1.4%. 19,471. some investors sold shares to lock in profits from recent gains. the kospi snapped two days of gains. it finish the down nearly 1% 2,022. electronics shares were dumbed causing samsung to fall. in shanghai, they're recovering from yesterday's losses. many people are hoping the government will increase the stimulus and that helps to lift the market. more business people in japan have looked to natural gas as a stable energy source since

the nuclear crisis in 2011. tokyo gas and sumitomo corporation have tied up with an energy company to work on a facility to produce liquefied natural gas. workers have started building a plant in the u.s. state of maryland. japanese and u.s. company officials attended a ground-breaking ceremony. the cost will be nearly $3.3 million. the aim is to export gas starting in 2017. tokyo gas and kansai will buy energy produced at the plant. >> translator: japan will increasingly rely on liquefied natural gas. most of it now comes from the middle east. this project means that japan will be able if toto secure a stable supply from the united states. toshiba is involved in a

plant in texas. and a similar project is being worked on in louisiana. business leaders across japan regularly share their insight for our series "view from the top" in this installment, a chairman of jetro sets out his vision for the country. he's working with leaders to boost agricultural exports and foreign investments. >> reporter: he and his team at jetro help all kinds of businesses. they support japanese firms trying to reach customers overseas and companies abroad that want to expand into japan. >> the jetro's very important to provide, not only simple information but also solution to the people.

>> reporter: officials at jetro are working hard to drum up more direct foreign investment. one example is b brown, a german medical company with a manufacturing plant north of tokyo. b. brown executives will plow more than $60 million into the japanese operations in the next two years. >> we have the highly skilled people, very loyal employees that work for a company with all their emphasis and they are staying with the company for long time. >> reporter: japanese leaders have struggled to attract foreign investment. jetro officials are trying to help. they've been offering office space in tokyo and other major cities with the lure of free rent for the first two months.

>> the investment promotion, like jetro in foreign countries are very very active in attracting investment to their countries by continuously providing the information. we jetro, have to improve our information. we have to deliver the high quality information to the foreign investors. i think it's not enough at all. we have to intensify all our prs. >> reporter: jetro officials are also trying to boost sales of japan's agricultural and seafood products abroad.

they've been meeting with local producers and foreign buyers in an effort to bring the two sides together. international consumers are getting hungrier for japanese produce. but farmers have been struggling to increase their exports. they account for less than 1% of japanese goods that go overseas. >> the export of agricultural products has enormous impact on the japanese economy. japanese are good industry, could be a great potential. if they allocate their resources in the exports of agriculture products from japan, i'm sure that they will be able to you know develop their market in foreign countries. that's number one. number two, abenomics, so far, has been successful.

however, if we go to the rural areas such assessment are not very much concerned about. the agricultural industry is one of the major local industries. the if we could revitalize this industry the economic landscape of rural areas would be quite, quite different. >> reporter: he is determined to promote small and mid-sized companies or smes from japan to the world. his team at jetro has dozens of offices in japan and other countries to provide staff at those firms with expertise. >> our japanese companies have their own cutting-edge technologies. but they are lacking in

experience of doing this in foreign countries. the jetro has started up a program for the smes. under the program, jetro has a spot with experience for those japanese smes. by using this network, we can provide necessary information as well to the japanese smes. >> reporter: he says by 2020 he wants to double the am ofount of investment coming into japan and the number of agricultural products going out. he knows it's an ambitious goal but he says he can make it

happen. >> okay. and that is going to wrap it up for business hour. let's get you a check of the markets. japanese police have arrested two people on suspicion of importing 1200 kilograms of mushrooms from north korea in violation of a trade embargo. the two suspects are the head of a tokyo-based food retailer.

they were arrested on thursday. kyoto police believe they imported the mushrooms in september of 2010 by falsely claiming they were from china. japan imposed a total import ban on north korean products in 2006 following its nuclear test and other developments. police believe toko is connected with residents in japan. police also raided the residence of the association's chairman. he is a leader of north korea's assembly and is known to have close ties with the country's leadership. he tells officials he had no idea with the food company and had no ties with it. >> translator: the raid was carried out as pyongyang looks into the fate of japanese nationals abducted to the north. japan's government is responsible for any

deterioration is bilateral ties. the raid is discriminatory and unforgivable. >> ho says the police did not confiscate anything after raiding his home. candidates running for governor in ten prefectures across japan have launched their campaigns. the contests are expected to hinge on policies to revitalize local economies. aspiring governors registered in the prefectures of hokkaido nara tokushima and oita. voters head to the polls on april 12. candidates for the ruling coalition and main opposition are battling it out in hoekkaido and oito prefectures. they will elect 41 prefecture assemblies. the nationwide elections take

place once every four years. voters in smaller municipalities will choose members on april 26. it's time for world weather with our meteorologist sayaka mori. several tornados ripped through parts of the central united states. what's the latest >> the slow start to the tornado season in the united states but things are changing in fact, at least seven reports of tornados we had on wednesday. take a look at some video coming out of oklahoma to show you the damage done by a couple of tornados. electric flashes were visible from the air in moore, oklahoma as transformers exploded due to the powerful winds of a tornado ripping through the city. another tornado tore through sand springs near tulsa, damaging close to 60 buildings, so far one person has been killed and several others injured. there are three more reports of

twisters in arkansas. now take a look at the satellite imagery. you can see clouds over oklahoma and arkansas. and if you take a close look at this, there are dots in clouds this means weather was very unstable. and usually we have 70 tornados or 80 tornados for the entire month of march in the united states, but up until tuesday we have none. so it's a slow start to the tornado season. typically the peak of the tornado season is in may. there's a slight risk for tornados thunderstorms, large hail and damaging winds. and in fact softball-sized hail was reported in oklahoma. the system will likely move towards the east. so widespread rain is likely for the eastern one fourth of the united states for thursday. temperatures will be cooling down dramatically new york 13.

washington, 23 down to only 6 degrees. take care of your health. it's a very sharp drop in temperature. now very different story about the southwestern corner of the united states. temperatures will be midsummer like. l.a., 33 on friday. stay hydrated and watch out for heatstroke. now across europe there's a risk for tornados across italy, the balkan peninsula as well as northern africa. we have a lingering low pressure system over the mediterranean countries. heavy rain and large hail is a possibility too. rain is not falling over france where the plane crash occurred. temperatures are going to be at 9 in paris with rainy weather for you. cooler than normal in madrid with a high of 12 degrees. and across the east 6 for the high with snowflakes on the menu

for your thursday. now across asia the monsoon rain is still falling over the philippines, taiwan as well as vietnam and moisture is still hanging over southeastern portions of china. this system will likely move towards japan as we go into the weekend. but until then sunny weather will continue across japan, and temperatures will be on the rise. take a look. tokyo, 19 on friday and even going up to 22 degrees for the high. sapporo at 16 degrees on friday. so watch out for avalanches if you're living in hokkaido and across osaka, staying in the 20s over the weekend. here's your extended forecast around the globe.

well that's "newsline" for this hour. thanks for watching.w?q?q?q?q?q?

as reportedly locked out of the cockpit. in the block box, you can hear the pilot trying to break the door down. saudi arabia launches airstrikes on houthi rebels. iran has condemned the attack. in nigeria wraps up security ahead of the general election there this weekend. he number one priority -- stopping any attacks from militant group boko her wrong. those of the headlines for you this