it's a tuesday evening here in japan. welcome to this hours "newsline." police are investigating monday's explosion that hit central bangkok. they're trying to track down a man seen near the blast site to see if he was involved. 20 people were condition firmed dead and 125 others injured. police combed through the site

on tuesday looking for clues. authorities have released photos of a man caught on nearby surveillance cam thera. he was care erieing a back up. here he is after the explosion without a backpack. they have not ruled out any possibility on who is behind the attack. >> the explosion is highlighted the factors in thailands society. nhk world reports from the capital. >> translator: seems like such a massive and deadly attack. it sent shock waves through the thai government. >> translator: this is the worst incident that's happened. in the past, there have been minor explosions.

this time they came to take the lives of innocent people. for whatever reaso it's to destroy the tourism and the economy. >> for more than a decade a scandal has provided and asked of prime minister in 2006. in 2010 groups occupied an area including the black sight for months. in may last year the military seized the power and it's political term oil. it has drafted a new constituti constitution. news reports talk about another factor. they're operating in the countries deep south.

since 2004 they have stepped up the attacks in three southern and more than 6,000 people have been killed. a majority of thai's are buddhi buddhist, they're home and they have really carried out the attacks outsi of the prove vance. shortly after monday's explosion the police chief said that the attack did not match those carried out in sudden thailand. monday's explosion is sure to have impact on the economy. police have reported another ins accident say that an

explosive was thrown from a bridge and no one was injured. it's unclear if it was related, but we will keep you updated. local media saying that they were storing has or douse material and about t 3,000 tons. there was 700 tons of sodium sigh night. local media say that authorities detained ten people and the top officials of the country that manages the warehouse. they have found the wreckage of a plane that disappeared on

sunday and recover erped the body of all 54 people on board. the air service flight in northern was heading in the ntral part and lost contact about 30 minutes after the take off. they found the wreckage about 10 km from the destination about 2,500 meters above the sea level. they retry retrieved the remains of all. four of it'sorkers were on board with $470,000 in dacash. it was for the poor. the plane flu into rough weather. the safety committy will panel lietz for clues on the cause of the crash.

leader in china have been trying a range for the housing market. they say it as a biggest threat for economic growth. now they have some rare good news. officials of the national bureau of statistics say that new home prices rose out of 70 major cities. they were done and unchanged and it's the first time in 15 months that more cities record a rise than a fall. the officials say that the in creases were in bigger cities and prices were up more than six percent. they were up nearly two percent and more than beijing one percent. they have introduced tax breaks to encourage people to in vest in housing. panel cy analyst say that it looks uncertain and falls in cities. people are becoming reluctant to

switch stocks. checking on the market and they closed lower after a tight range. let's get the details from the business reporter at the tokyo stock exchange. >> thank you very much. they're hesitant today and that really affected the overall. let's look at the closing levels for tuesday august 18th. 20,554 down and 1,672 in the negative. mart kept in the in vestment and among the players there with the food and trading higher. there are lower oil prices and medals on the producers as you can see there. as well as the metal section and the mining. now, i was also following

reports of the u.s. news and entertainment side and the tie up with yahoo japan. they plan to create a japanese language version of the site. investors sold shares today, so it took a bit of a tumble on the news. now one of the gambles was in the i t section and jumping over 16 percent and growing concerns over hacking and data attacks is really in creasing the usage of data and that's the in crease there. they really risk the reverse until they get further clues from thebacks and key data out of the u.s., europe and other sectors as well. for now, that's all for me and back to you in the studio. >> thanks for the update at the tokyo stock exchange. many other markets in the asia

region ended lower and a plunge in china. the shanghai dropped and then it fell on the profit taking. they became worried. spreading to hong kong and it declined 1.4 percent in six weeks. sidney dropped to a 7th month low. the philippines extended the losses to the fifth day. malaysia pu malaysia bucked the trade. the indian government has launched a new initiative for the black out. nhk world reports. >> wearing t-shirts with a light

bulb are at the forefront of' revolution. they're cheer leading for less electricity and to last long e er. it was launched in january under a government lead energy saving program. the project has been launched for people to save as much energy as possible. it cost about five dollars. a price that's beyond the budget of many indians, but the government got discounts on the price but ordering huge ones of the bulbs.

it set the price of each one at 15 percent and adding the balance of little by little to people's bill. about a month has passed since it started and about 1 million lightbulbs have been sold. >> it helps us a lot. smaller electricity bills and the light last long. >> in the 21st century for ito be a global economy. it's not enough to be energy efficient. >> witn the next three years the government plans to replace 770 million light bulbs and 35 million street lamps.

>> it's estimated to be 25,000 mega watt. if you see in terms of dollar is about $25 billion. >> the campaign is taking to areas n. the southern state the hopes are high that it will solve the problems in villages and make people's life easier. the distribute er says that they have taken the shinen this. >> they're making their own home based businesses.

>> before they were all worried about the cost of lighting and the work. now they can work as long as they like. he has been probably to provide it and he has been able to save about $23 over the past through months. >> we can use the extra money for the kmirn's education and even the house. >> india's campaign has just begun. they hope that it will reduce the lives.

the prime minister has done interest and said that he would like to attend an event on the island. e he made the remarks and the prime minister said that the form is being held, and he said that he is very interest in the event and will be able to take part and it will be held through august 24th. last month the russian newspaper quoted saying that they're doing such a trip. the visit would lay the ground work for putin to visit japan by

the end of the year. it's one of four islands by russia. it say that is the islands were occupied after world war ii. observers say that a visit to the area could affect the diagnose log between japan and russia. there's a new law to fight terrorism and it limts the freedom to support the struggle. the new law supports the anxiety of the worsening skurlt. the signe legislation was in law and it gives authorities more power to fight militant groups. they face fines up to $64,000. they have carried out several attacks and abductions.

they claim to be members of a local branch of the militant group. peel have been living alongside and they hold more u.s. bases than anywhere else in japan. locals argue that they're shouldering too much and they feel that the voices are not being nerd japan and we meet people that are trying to shed light on these issues in a rather unusual way.

>> on stage is a group of comedians. they were borned and raised in owkanawi. they write and script and produces the show. he say that is he wants to highlight the issues of concern to local people. during class our teacher would be explain and writing something on the black board, and a u.s. military jet would suddenly fly over the school like it just did. the teacher would stop and wait for the jet to pass, so the students would pause like this too that's life here.

>> the big military brings problems for the residence. in 2004 a u.s. helicopter crash on a university campus. the accident was hit by using it and barely registered elsewhere in japan. he was living in tokyo at the time. he realized that people outside of there do not pay much attention to what's happening on the island and how little idea what it's like for the basis. so he decided to do something about it. what i am trying to do is convert the anger into laughter. i thought that people would understand the problem better that way. his latest script deals with the

aircraft that the u.s. is deploying and locals say that it's too noisy and poses a safety risk. the yuvenue is packed for the

performance. >> translator: i love the way that they transform the feelings into laughter. >> translato when i first hear the jokes, they make me laugh. then they get me thinking. >> translator: u.s. bases are still here 70 years after the war, and there's a plan to build a new one. i may have to make this a live long mission to keep on telling fun funny tales about military bases. >> translator: still he is dream of the day that he will make jokes about anything but u.s.

military bases. the first step is to get everyone in japan to treat the problems as their own. nhk world. >> converting anger to laughter to raise awareness. highs around 31egrees celsius or 88 degrees. jonathan sporting a nice tan is going to tell us. >> yes, james if you're getting a tan you're getting the rain in the process. not the siltation that you want to be seeing. what is happening is that i want you look closely on the satellite. we have a long line of clouds extension back to the peninsula. this is causing a dynamic that's unstable. look at this map.

you see how this is set up. we have a low pressure system with cold er air coming in from the south and the north and east. that's a little bit different, so that creating the in stability. i want to show you the video coming out. look at that right there and popping up due to the severe storms and rolling through earlier this week and the residence and downed power lines and one home was hit by the lightening and setting it on fire. the rough weather resulted in damage and ended that heat wave that's been in the country for some time now. we have been having the hot temperatures and now that the rain is coming into the picture, it's starting to cool off. areas like poland are missing out on the skpran tand the drou

problem. now, seeing the severe weather and areas shaded in red and areas that booer goiwe're going the heavier rainfall and look for the possibility of flash flooding in some ways place s as we go through the day. all seeing wet weather and back to the east and moscow, we're going to see a high of 15 with rain on tuesday. so seeing a litt wbit of a cooler patch there. double trouble in the eastern pacific when we see the typhoons. it's moving closer and closer to the northern edge of the philippines here as we go to the west. the pressure is expected by thursday afternoon. then as we see the turn during the weekend and focussing on taiwan as we go into the week end. it will continue to make the approach go the islands and we're going see an active

possibility of a weekend for both the islands with these two systems continuing to move to the north and west. we had in stability in japan, so we s some rain and storms. that is starting to move away a little bit. we will see a little bit more sunshine as we go into wednesday. a low pressure back for the southwestern portions and bringing the heavy rainfall and we're seeing the flooding problems and that will continue into wednesday ask then looking at thunderstorms as well and partly to mostly cloudy skies and highs in the low 30s. now, wrapping things up with north america, we have a very long line of storms and rain extending from the great lakes to the plains and producing the possibility of the severe weather and then it extends down to the south and east and high pressure is down there and it's a dirty high. it's not strong enough for the

clouds and the rainfall. look out for thunderstorms from atlanta to dc and chicago and dan v denver as we go through tuesday. here is your extended outlook.

peoeople in the philippines will be able to watch a poplar tv series in their own language. tv network 5 will air the season from october. it is dubbed and amachan is a

story of a high school girl that becomes a diver. she dives for products like sea you a you are she wants. she plays the star role of aki and sent a message in manila and says that she hopes that people in the philippines will enjoy the series. ♪ >> the series has been aired in ten countries and regions and subtitled in local languages. more people in the philippines are becoming fans of pop culture. they hope that will will help them deepen their understanding of japan. hi to all of our friends in the

philippines. thanks for watching this edition of "newsline." >> you are watching "france 24."

i am aurore dupuis. these are our top stories. a failed attack has taken place in bangkok. explosive in the capital. know what has been injured, but it comes one day after a bomb went off near a shrine, killing at least 22 people. heavy rain falls, triggering fears that the water mixed with chemicals could release toxic gases and potentially spark new explosions at the chinese warehouse. to have a newlled superhero hand. the six-year-old