here in japan. i'm james tengan in tokyo. welcome to "newsline". we start off with a quick look at the hour's top stories. intelligence officials in seoul say north korea's defense chief may have been executed for not obeying leader kim jong-un. >> in philadelphia five people are dead and more than 50 are injured after a passenger train derailed and tipped over. a strong earthquake has

rocked northeastern japan. authorities say there's no major damage but warn another tremor may hit within days. south korea's intelligence officials say north korea's defense chief may have been executed for treason. the move follows the purge. officials from the national intelligence service gave the update on twoed a parliamentary committee in seoul. they say minister of people's armed forces hyon yong choi was shot to death at a firing range in the capital late last month. they suspect he was executed after not obeying kim jong-un and expressing his dissatisfaction. he visited moscow shortly before his death. he held talks with his russian counterparts. the former chief became the country's defense chief last year. kim has reportedly ordered several executions including his

uncle in december 2013. he was considered to be second in power in the north. officials in seoul say the execution was carried out without a decision by the political bureau of the union workers party of korea or court procedures. they suggest kim may be losing confidence in senior officials. authorities in philadelphia are investigate the cause of a fatal passenger train derailment. they say five people are dead and more than 50 are injured. the train was heading from washington, d.c. to new york when it went off the rails. authorities say 243 people were on board. they say 53 are injured. six of them are in serious condition. at least seven cars flipped off the tracks. some of them were mangled and lying on their sides. the u.s. national transportation safety board is sending in a team of investigators. japan and china are sparring at a conference on nuclear

disarmament. they have opposing opinion including an appeal for world leaders to visit hiroshima and nagasaki. those cities experienced atomic bombings. the language would appear in the final document reviewing the nuclear nonproliferation treaty. npt conference negotiations are in full swing at u.n. headquarters in new york. the meeting will end on may 22nd. japanese foreign minister proposed calling on world leaders to visit the two cities last month. he feels they could learn about the inhumanity of nuclear weapons. china apparently work with the conference chair to delete the phrase. they suggested japan is using it to portray itself as a war victim. >> the only thing we have against is the japanese government making use of this historical event and the

sufferings of the japanese people during the war to serve their purpose, to distort history, and to hide the atrocities. >> the japanese delegation issued a statement saying it will continue working to put its proposal in the documents. people in northeastern japan were shaken out of their beds on wednesday by a powerful earthquake. authorities didn't issue a tsunami warning but say the tremor is a remind terrify region is still prone to after shocks from the devastating march 2011 disaster. >> reporter: officials with japan's meteorological agency say the 6.8 magnitude earthquake extended from the northeastern region to northern hokkaido. they measured the biggest tremor in iwate prefecture. a minor tremor was also felt in tokyo, about 500 kilometers

away. officials said the focus in the pacific observation off the coast of miyagi prefecture was 46 kilometers below the ocean floor. no casualties were reported. >> translator: i couldn't even stand up. >> translator: i called home after the quake. the cupboard doors had opened, but other than that, there was nothing to worry about. i was relieved. >> reporter: officials with the operator of the fukushima daiichi and daini nuclear plants say they found no problems at those plants. the owner at the onagawa plant also reported no problems. railway officials halted shinkansen bullet trains temporarily to confirm the safety of the system. >> translator: the earthquake occurred off miyagi prefecture, and we view this as an aftershock from the quake on march 11, 2011.

>> reporter: a seismologist said the tremor is an aftershock of the major quake four years ago, as it occurred in the area where the pacific and the continental tectonic plating meet. he said tremors measuring around magnitude 7 have occurred offer the coast ever since about once a year. meteorological agency officials are advising people to remain on alert for more aftershocks over the next seven days. nhk world. thanks for that update. a u.s. air force official says 400 special operations troops will be stationed in western tokyo. force will be operating osprey aircraft starting in 2017. u.s. military officials announced on monday the first deployment of ospreys in japan outside of the prefecture of

okinawa. three will be deployed in 2017 and additional seven are scheduled to be there by 2021. the air force official says the troops will take command from a special operations group at the base in okinawa. the construction of aircraft maintenance facilities will begin as early as next year and be completed before 2020. the u.s. military already operates a fleet of ospreys in okinawa. officials initially considered deploying more to the prefecture but gave up on the plan due to local opposition. authorities of local municipalities around the base are against the deployments of the ospreys. disabled people in japan are fining it easier to get work. record number of mentally and physically challenged people are being employed through job placement centers. almost 85,000 people with disabilities found jobs from april 2014 through march this

year. that's up more than 6700 an increase of 8.6% from the previous fiscal year. highest figure since 1970. around 34,500 of the newly employed were mentally disabled. more than one-third of the new jobs were in medical care or welfare service. other employment sectors included manufacturing, wholesale businesses and retail. ministry officials say more companies have been looking to hire competent personnel since quotas for employing the disabled were mandated in 2013. time to get a business perspective. gene otani is here to tell us about encouraging results of a recent survey. >> this added to the positive data. a government poll shows japanese workers are feeling better about the economy, the economy

watchers survey indicates the mood has brightened for the fifth straight month. officials at the cabinet office asked more than 2,000 workers each month about their views on the economy, the index stood at 53.6 up 1.4 points. a figure above 50 suggests people are optimistic about business conditions. some said consumer activity was steady for food and other items on the back of wage hikes. people working in retail cited large numbers of foreign tourists visiting their stores. leading index that forecast conditions a few months ahead also rose 0.8 to 54.2. the officials maintain their assessment that the economy is recovering moderately. japanese companies have been releasing their earnings report. nissan motors among the firms putting on a strong performance. >> nissan is reporting solid

financial result for 2014 despite challenging market conditions particularly in japan and in some emerging markets. >> nissan executives say the group's operating profit rose to $4.9 billion through march. up 18% in yen terms compared to the year before. they credit the growth mainly to higher sales overseas. nissan officials are also expecting to sell more cars and earn bigger profits for the currents business year. they expect brisk sales from customers abroad. officials are preparing to recall more vehicles with air bags made by japanese company takata. toyota and nissan have filed wrorts the transport industry. it will cover more than 1.6 million vehicles of 33 models. they were manufactured from july 2003 to march 2008. that brings the total number of vehicles involving takata air bags to 4.69 million. ministry officials point to

faulty ceiling and metal container holding chemicals. the component helps inflate the airbag. they say the container could rupture after the airbag is activated. officials say the defect could expose the chemical cams to excessive moisture leading to the rupture. checking the matters investors have been reacting to some disappointing economic data out of china. they saw new figures showing trial is output in the world's second biggest economy rose 5.9% and retail sales up 10% both results were weaker than analysts expected. the shanghai composite snapped its three day winning streak closing down 0.5%. but some went buying in to the hope the government will introduce new measures to spark the economy. tokyo stocks ended their gains in a fourth day closing at a two week high. the nikkei average added 0.7%

finishing at 19,764. there's speculation that bank of japan may buy more exchange trade funds. in sidney the s&p/asx 200 rose 0.7% closing at 5715. they cheered at a tax break to small businesses. rebound in crude oil also supported the rise on the resource heavy market. in other markets in the asian/pacific region hong kong 0.58% following losses. kosumi gained 0.8%. posted it's biggest one day gain in nearly three weeks. indonesia ended up by a tenth of a percent hitting a two week high. executives at japanese electronics maker sharp have backed down from a plan to radically reduce its capital. officials at the struggling

company decided to change course. they will book their first loss in two years. sharp officials were thinking of slashing it's $1 billion capital to $835,000 or less as part of a restructuring move. the cut would have turned sharp into a small or medium size company for tax purposes. firms in that bracket are subject to lower tax rates opinion they changed their mind after the minister made a comment. he said as a means of corporate rehabilitation the plan gives him a sense of discomfort. sharp executives are thinking about reducing its capital by a much smaller margin to about $4 million. they will announce medium term management plan on thursday and that's expected to include the capital reduction measure and other stream lining steps. japanese researcher says artificial lighting is harming

country's main staple crop rice. he's finding street lamps are affecting the plants growth so he's come up with a bright idea to solve the problem. >> reporter: an exhibit at a recent lighting equipment show in tokyo drew a lot of attention. the reason was this streetlight that does not have a negative effect on rice. it's the first time that such lights are being marketed in japan. >> translator: i was amazed. i didn't know about this. >> translator: this will be very useful, because there are many rice paddies near streetlights. >> reporter: the streetlight was invented by a professor at yamaguchi university. he's been studying the effects of light on rice plants for ten years. he began to look into the effects of artificial lighting on crops by observing a rice

paddy at the university. he found that rice plants exposed to the glare of streetlights at night experienced a delay in their development. normally, in late summer, when the nights begin to grow longer, rice plants sense that autumn is approaching and begin to produce roots. but streetlights mislead the plants into sensing that the days are still long, resulting in stunted growth. the professor investigated the effects of light on a number of farms. this area does not have streetlights. local farmers were concerned that light would affect the quality of rice and result in lower prices. but others were also worried about safety.

>> translator: many female college students use the road in the evenings. there have been calls for putting up street lights. >> reporter: to develop a streetlight that's friendly to both humans and rice plants, the professor decided to find out which type of light has a negative effect on rice plants. in experiments, he repeatedly showed about 300 different wave lengths on rice plants. plants expposed to red light and yellow light were late in putting forth ears. plants exposed to blue light and green light produced fruit normally. yamamoto also discovered a way to diminish the negative effect, by flickering an l.e.d. light at a rapid speed that's undetectable to human eyes.

he succeeded in further minimizing the effects on rice plants. >> translator: this won't cause plants to suffer from light pollution while providing light at night. i have found something that serves both purposes. >> reporter: the product was finally ready in march. it will soon light up footpaths and convenience stores adjacent to rice paddies. it costs twice as much as a regular streetlight. but the manufacturer intends to explore new markets. >> translator: i am pleased that i am off to a good start to help society. i hope this product becomes widespread throughout japan and other east asian countries that cultivate rice. >> reporter: the light developed by the professor is friendly to

both humans and rice plants, and it's about to shine a new light on rice farming around japan. nhk world, yamaguchi. >> that's it for business news. i'll leave you with the markets. wednesday marked two months since a powerful cyclone hit the

south pacific nation of vanuatu. a team of japanese experts went to vanuatu to try to assess the strength of the storm and the damage it caused. >> reporter: this image of cyclone pam was captured by a japanese radar satellite. the eye of the cyclone is clearly visible. the pressure near the center of the storm reacd 896. the strength of a super typhoon. many buildings were destroyed. and more than 160,000 people, 60% of the population of vanuatu, were affected. late last month, a research team from kyoto university went to tanna, an island near the center of the damage.

it suffered the most damage. this neighborhood is in the northern part of the island. most of the buildings here were destroyed in the high winds. this church built of concrete blocks was one of them. jutting from the damage, the research team determined the wind speed was close to 290 kilometers per hour. >> translator: i have never seen a concrete wall completely destroyed like this. >> reporter: on the island's eastern coast, damage was mostly caused by extremely high waves. the area was hit by waves as high as 20 meters. so this bridge was washed out. this neighborhood was among those inundated. about 40 houses were swept away.

>> big wave like we've never seen before. >> reporter: fishing boats were hurled onto a cliff in this area. the team's research shows that the waves reached up to 12 meters. >> translator: i got the impression that the waves were comparable to tsunami waves. the typhoon was of the highest category, and i think the high waves also fell into that category. >> reporter: but there were some positive things. a warning system saved many lives. >> translator: the radio. tanna is an island. >> reporter: people received announcements from the local radar source. they took shelter on high ground and in sturdy buildings.

as a result, not a single resident of this neighborhood was killed. the team hopes its research will help prevent future disasters and make evacuation easier. >> translator: since super typhoons don't happen often, we want to observe a variety of events to figure out how they work and what kind of damage they cause. >> reporter: experts warn that if global warming continues, super typhoons as powerful as the one that hit vanuatu could strike big cities, including those in japan. they plan to use the results not only in the reconstruction of vanuatu but also in drawing up measures in case a major disaster hits large urban areas. nhk world, vanuatu. places like japan might have to rethink city planning in the not too distant future. jonathan oh is here to tell us

what's happening on the weather front starting off with europe. jonathan? >> hello. during the week we saw temperatures moving into the mid-20s for the central portions of europe because of high pressure bringing some warm air into the continent. now we're seeing a little bit of a change over because we have a system that brought a lot of rainfall into the scandinavia peninsula associated with the cold front bringing some more rain now into central portions of the continent. that's going to bring rainfall maybe even some stronger thunderstorms, especially for the tail end of this cold front as it slips through the southern portions of the continent and then we'll see temperatures dropping off five to ten degrees cooler as we go from wednesday and into thursday. look at the conditions we're expecting for wednesday. yes we still see showers in stock home to berlin and paris. down here in madrid and also in iberian peninsula temperatures in the throw mid-30s. very warm conditions expected. 20s for the eastern side of europe. and also into vienna but we'll see that change over into much cooler temperatures.

once that cold air moves in we're going from 22 down to 17 on thursday. 30s dropping down into 020s. lisbon in the 20s and 10 degrees in london on thursday. some big changes coming up as you progress through the next couple of days. i want to take you over to the western pacific as we continue to track a new typhoon. this typhoon is named dolphin. we've been tracking this as a tropical storm and severe tropical storm now it has intensified into a strong typhoon. packing winds of 126, gusting to 180, pressure down to 965. currently gaining strength and i want to point out guam typhoon watch is in effect to saipan. typhoon weather conditions. you'll see the outer bands of this system as it moves to the west. the big concern aside from the very powerful winds will be the heavy rainfall. look at this in the next 72

hours. you can see here easy developing line of rainfall up to 200 millimeters of rainfall possible in a very short period of time so you want to make sure you're prepared for this in terms of the flooding conditions. and we're going to have to wait until around next week before we get an idea whether it will have more of an effect for the larger land masses but for the next couple of days we watch this system as it moves towards the west. as you look at the forecast for the rest of east asia low pressure really up towards the northeastern portion of china not developing much in terms of rain. do have some instability towards the southern portion of china as it brings rain on thursday. 31 degrees in tokyo as we go throughout thursday. we made it up to 28 degrees for your afternoon on wednesday. that's the wmest so far. getting warmer as we go into thursday. i want to briefly take us over to nepal where an earthquake took place tuesday. now we are keeping an eye on

this situation as rescuers are trying toe help these people out. i think we're going to see drier conditions for thursday and friday and that's going to allow rescue workers to go back in and help out. going to be quite hot. highs around 30 degrees. wrapping up with things with a look at north america. low pressure down towards the south in the southern plains. bringing more moisture. another system in california. finally getting much needed rain with a high of 20 degrees as you go through wednesday. hope you have a good day wherever. here's your three day outlook.

hope the weather is looking good in your neck of the woods.

more to come here on nhk world so stay with us.

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us in pakistan, shooting dead 43 shiite muslims. the eu plans to slap quotas making them accept migrants. rescue operations continue to find survivors of a deadly new earthquake in nepal. also coming up in business france's economy gets a surprise boost with growth hitting the highest level in nearly two years. we will be finding out more on that.