hello it's a wednesday night here in japan. i'm james tengan in tokyo. welcome to "newsline". here are some of the stories we're following this hour. japanese authorities are trying to determine why an asiana airlines plane skidded off a runway in hiroshima, injuring more than 20 people. china's economy continues to cool. gdp for the january to march period slowed to 7%. that's the lowest quarterly growth in six years. and u.s. president obama is

paving the way to take cuba off a list of states sponsoring terrorism. >> investigators are looking for the cause of an airline accident in western japan. a plain skidded. >> reporter: asiana airlines came in for a landing but veered off the runway. when it came to a stop it was facing the opposite direction. it's horse accidental tail left wing and engine were damaged. a communications facility near the runway was also struck. the airbus a 320 departed incheon airport. 73 passengers and eight crew

members were on board. rescuers say 25 people were treated for minor injuries. >> translator: i saw fire coming out. and smelled something burning. >> translator: the plane dropped suddenly before it landed. >> reporter: officials say that the plane was descending when it struck the communications facility 300 meters in front of the runway. authorities suspect the asiana jet's altitude was too low. nhk has learned that around the time of the accident visibility near the airport suddenly got worse. visibility at 8:00 p.m. was more

than 1800 meters. but five minutes later it dropped to between 300 and 500 meters. radar shows rain clouds over the area at the time. aviation analyst and former airline pilot says the investigation will likely focus on the weather conditions and how the pilot decided to deal with them. >> translator: it is said that there were walls of fog, so-called fog banks around the airport. in this thick fog, the pilot may have been unable to see the landing lights which show the correct angle for the aircraft during its descent. but in such a case ascending and making another landing attempt is the common rule for

internal aviation. >> reporter: transportation safety officials in japan have already opened an investigation and korean officials have joined them. >> gene otani joins us from the business desk. gene. >> quite a hot topic. a lot of economist and investors in the world are talking about the second large economy. a lot of countries were envy in the january to march period. gdp slowed 7% year-on-year. it's down from the previous three months. they say that's the slowest quarterly growth in six years right after the financial crisis. this came as housing prices

continued fall. that led to high levels of inventories and investment. . >> translator: the chinese economy is stable as a whole. and structural adjustments are steadily moving ahead. >> officials in beijing say they are shifting their focus to the quality of expansion rather than speed. they have lowered their annual growth target to around 7%. the result for the first quarter is in line with that level. but the economy shows continued signs of a slow down. >> earlier i talked on china's gdp figure. he recently spent two years in beijing covering china's economy. >> translator: one of the major factors behind china's sharp

decline is sluggish growth in consumer spending particularly on automobiles. china's new car sales were up only by 3.3% from a year earlier. that's in contrast to the nearly 10% year-on-year growth the country saw before. experts say chinese consumers have been increasingly wary about buying high priced products as its economy slows. chinese exporters of inexpensive consumer goods have become less competitive due to rising labor costs. furthermore, real estate investment which have bolstered china's economic growth in past years have been in a slump. >> what's china's government saying about its slowing gdp figure. >> it hasn't had a big reaction.

>> translator: i think this kind of slow down is very normal. now that china's economy is entering the phase of the new normal, the slower pace of growth will help with structural changes to some extent. >> last month the chinese government lowered its growth target for 2015 to around 7%. that's 0.5 over percentage point lower than last year's number. many years of high economic growth generated a pile of social programs including serious air pollution prompting officials to lower their target. with the downgrade the chinese leadership has clearly shown its result to put quality and efficiency ahead of high growth. they called the initiative the

new normal. still, the measures show few signs of progress. the measure appears are shake up and restructuring of less efficient state-owned companies, and easing of regulations. senior communist party officials and local civil servants are believed to be hindering the reform. they have the authority to give permission and guidance to state-owned businesses. they are afraid of losing their discretionary power. >> do you think there will be progress in the future? >> not necessarily. recently officials made a new move related to structural reform. beijing announced it will establish a system in may to ensure bank deposits. the government has long protected the banking industry

using public funds to bail out failing banks. the practice has helped banks with poor management efficiency survive. the latest move is viewed as a measure to promote competition in the banking industry. the country needs a system to ensure individual depositors before letting any banks collapse. this move shows that the chinese government is trying to achieve a shift towards economic growth marked by quality and efficiency. i think the measure will be indispensable for china to maintain stable growth over the long term. but in the short term it may have a negative effect on the economy. indeed china's growth for the first quarter dropped 0.3 percentage points from the previous year. beijing is required to strike a

difficult balance between maintaining growth at a certain level and proceeding with structural reforms. china clearly faces an extremely difficult phase, the likes of which it has never experienced before. >> the weak gdp figures soured investors. shanghai posted their biggest loss. the index closed at 4084 after a volatile session. many investorsing looked at profits from recent strong rallies. the hong kong moved in and out of positive territory. the hang seng ended at 27,618. investors hope for further stimulus from the chinese government in light of the weak gdp figures. reaction reaction is mixed. indonesia down by a fraction.

south korea kospi closed higher ending another four year high. moving on to the tokyo the nikkei average was down. it closed at 19 869. analysts shy some investors sold exporter shares on the stronger yen but others bought stocks. chinese authorities say their newly proposed development bank will have 57 founding members. they say the countries will be eligible to help frame basic policies of the asian infrastructure investment bank. officials with the chinese finance ministry say 57 countries are from southeast asia and the middle east. also included are g7 members like britain and germany and russia india and brazil. japan and the united states have not applied to join. they say the bank's governance lacks transparency. taiwan applied for membership but was rejected.

no reason was given. the bank's founding members will decide on their capital contributions and the bank's lending requirements. they want to establish a bank by the end of june. some experts see bright spots in japan's economic future. analysts at the organization for economic cooperation and development have upgraded to the growth outlook for 2015 but they say bold restructural reforms are needed. the ocd releases a report every two years on japan's economy. the latest report upgrades the growth forecast for this year to 1% from the previous outlook of 0.8. it said lower crude oil are pushing up personal spending and capital investment. for 2016 the outlook has been upgraded to 1.4% from 1. ocd general secretary urges

japan to make further progress in structural reform. the third arrow of abe economics. the bold easing promoted by bank of japan has its limits. >> third arrow is arrow that would stay medium and long term. he will do everything he can, he's doing a very good job but that's a limitation. he's holding creating the space for policies to be put in place. >> he said japan needs to increase its female workforce. he also recommended consumption tax hike to help the country regain fiscal health. japanese financial authorities aim to achieve a primary balance surplus by 2020. the oecd is not optimistic. it says the country is far from achieving that goal even if the consumption tax is raised to 10%

as planned for 2017. japanese engineers are pitching their know how and products at one of the world's largest space industry fares. some 165 internal firms and organizations are exhibiting at the expo that opened monday in the u.s. state of colorado. they include nine japanese companies including mitsubishi and smaller businesses hoping to enter the u.s. sce market. one tokyo company is promoting its welding its techniques. its engineers helped bummed japan's astro explorer. >> translator: we should be able to find an opportunity with the unique strengths of japanese techniques. >> analysts predict the commercial space market in the u.s. will grow as the government encourages private firms to compete. that's it for business fuse. i'll leave you with the markets.

>> north korea is celebrating the birthday of their late leader.

the country's paper justified. he said kim jung moon's leadership will make the party shine. north koreans brought flowers to the consulate office. members of human rights watch said he should be remembered for creating a state characterized by crimes against humanity. president obama has given his approval to clear a major hurdle in normalizing ties with cuba. he's notified congress that he will remove the country from a list of state sponsors of terrorism. obama said in a statement on tuesday that cuba has not provided any support for international terrorism in over six months. he also said officials in havana have provided assurances that they will not support terrorist activities in the future. american leaders put cuba on the list in 1982. they said the caribbean nation

was providing weapons to terrorist groups. they also believed the country was training anti-u.s. militants in latin america. the announcement comes after his talks on saturday with cuban leader raul castro on the sidelines of a regional summit in panama. it marked the first meeting between both countries in more than half a century. they confirmed they will work to reopen embassies on each other's soil. the u.s. will remove cuba from the list in 45 days. >> some republican lawmakers are voicing criticism. >> the decision made by the white house today is a terrible one but not surprising. cuba is a state sponsor of terrorism. >> house speaker john boehner issued a statement saying cozying up to the regime in cuba is a blow to all who long for dignity. program is expected to face further difficulties in lifting economic sanctions on cuba.

the caribbean country wants to see them removed before restoring diplomatic dies with the u.s.. most of the embarringos on cuba can only be ended by the republican controlled congress. armed militants in somalia have attacked a government building in the capital killing ten people. islamist extremist group al shabaab has claimed responsibility. a car bomb exploded outside of a building that house the education ministry on tuesday. then gunmen ran inside and engaged military troops in an hour long gunfight. somalia's government said the dead include two soldiers. it said troops also killed seven attackers. al shabaab has rebettedly attacked government facilities in somalia. earlier the group invaded a university in kenya killing 148 people. the somali government and

african union troops have conducted sweep operations but failed to stop their terror attacks. the u.n. special envoy is resuming work to broker peace in syria. they will sit down with bashar al-assad's administration and other forces. representatives from other countries will also take part. >> what motivates it is the clear understanding that for the good of the syrian people and the region, we need to find a politil agreement. >> u.n. media talks failed to reach a break through last year. russia has also been unsuccessful. more than 210,000 people have died in the four year long conflict. diplomats from the countries involved in the conflict say talks may help.

>> elderly japanese are getting a taste of meals to keep them healthy. they account for a rapidly growing proportion of the population and many can't eat hard food. many factors are showing off culinary treats. >> reporter: japanese food companies show off their products here every year. you can always find novel dishes and cooking appliances. firms here are showing off meal options for the elderly. they are getting interest from nursing homes, restaurants and ordinary households. >> translator: it will being a great if we can share these nursing care foods. there's a lot of demand in towns and cities as the elderly

population is growing. >> reporter: officials at the agricultural ministry are pushing companies to create new kinds of nursing care food. they want elderly people to get tasty nutritious meals that are easy to chew and swallow. visitors at the exhibition are enthusiastic. >> translator: it's really good. and really soft as well. i'll be helping myself to these sooner or later. >> reporter: companies are giving nursing care foods a completely new image but that's not all. they want to help prevent seniors from needing nursing care so they created new products with added nutrition. these special powders are made of proteins. you can add them to any food like this miso soup but don't change the taste and are more

nutritious. government researchers found about 70% of home bound seniors are probably under nourished as some elderly people avoid food that's difficult to chew. they don't get enough calories and protein. they can get so thin and weak they lose the ability to walk. that leads them to needing nursing care. plans to broaden innovative food will lead to more competition. this is expected to help enhance the quality of life in the future. >> thanks for that report. you're watching "newsline" coming to you from tokyo. time now to bringing meteorologist jonathan oh on board. parts of europe are being ravaged by storms. >> we've been northerning the tale of two weather situations over the continent of europe.

high pressure is keeping the skies sunny on the western side of the continent but on the flip side towards the east a major low pressure system. can you still see the spin with this particular core that's produced lost of rainfall and strong thunderstorms and we're talking about some damage in places like poland. let me show you the video to give you and idea what people experienced on the ground level in northern and eastern side of poland. numerous homes lost roofs because of the strong winds along with the downed trees. this powerful windstorm kicked up hurricane strength winds monday night, 20,000 homes remain without power as of tuesday morning and winds have backed off just a bit since monday allowing emergency officials to help repair damage to buildings. as we continue on throughout the next day or so we'll see a little bit of a change over when it comes to those winds because the winds responsible for producing the active weather is

lifting to the east. moscow you'll see the rain and gusty winds from time to time. down towards the south we'll see high pressure bringing some very dry conditions and sunny conditions and warm temperatures in the 20s. we are looking out for this low pressure system coming on shore for the iberian peninsula. that will produce rain and possibly some stormy conditions as well. also going to bring temperatures just a bit in the teens from madrid with a high of 17. check this out 24 in london. 26 degrees taking place in paris as we go throughout the day. now as you take a look at the forecast for north america a wide range of weather from the sunny skies in the central portion of the united states to very wet weather towards the east and south. we have an extended cold front. lots of cool air pushing against warm air from the south. that lift is producing a lot of moisture meaning a lot of rainfall is expected as we go throughout wed so have that umbrella handy.

we're looking at possible snow for the northern portions of the higher elevations of the rocky mountains. stormy in denver. if you're in the deep south look out for the possibility of seeing heavy rainfall as we look in the next couple of days places in louisiana which see up to 120 millimeters of rainfall at times. look out for that on the roadways. 13 in denver. now as we wrap up things with a look at east asia. japan has a major low pressure system that created a very interesting situation originally expecting to see rain. that's shifting more towards the mountains and hokkaido where some aas saw up to 100 kilometer gusts on wednesday. the low pressure continues to track towards the north that will bring the possibility of unstable weather, very cold air aloft. so look at the possibility of seeing stormy weather during the overnight. high pressure comes in behind

it. for the western and central portions sunny skies. 22 in shanghai. 25 in taipei as we go through thursday. hope you have a good day wherever you are. here's you extended outlook.

a chimp at a zoo in the netherlands has taken on one of mankind's latest technology and won. a camera equipped drone was flying near a tree the primate climbed. angered by the intruder the chimp grabbed a large branch and knocked it out of the sky. the drone was being used to film for a television program. the camera filmed as the chimp approached the downed aircraft and toyed with it. zoo officials say it apparently planned the ambush.

so if one day a drone is delivering your pizza make sure it stays clear of all primates. i'm james tengan in tokyo. thanks for watching.

ed drowned after their boat capsizes off the southern coast of italy. the president of turkey rejects the results of the e.u. debate on the armenian genocide saying his country will disregard the parliaments views over those 1915 killings. this week the pope described it as genocide. the u.s. is set to remove cuba from its list of state sponsored terrorism clearing the main obstacle to restore diplomatic relations. also the europ