here in japan, a thursday evening in tokyo. here's the hour's top stories. e.u. leaders respond to a crisis, agreeing to give more support to my grants from the middle east and africa. world leaders at the u.n.

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>> the company is in a difficult situation. it needs to be transparent. the entire situation must be clarified. the the german media said officials said they can begin they are calling for checks throughout the european union, and u.s. authorities are subjecting volkswagen to criminal investigation. they discovered the use of illegal software. they do not sell diesel cars in japan, but this shocks tokyo drivers. >> translator: i wonder why such a major company did something like that.

>> translator: german cars have a trusted image. i think the scandal is damaging their reputation. >> reporter: volkswagen sold more than 5 million vehicles worldwide in the first half of this year, overtaking their rival, toyota, for the first time. the company is likely to face fines and lawsuits along with a damaged reputation which could result in a serious drop. nhk world. newsline will keep you updated on that story. thank you very much. trade officials from asia's three economic powers are back at the negotiating table, and gene as all the details on that story and a wrapup of today's business head liens, gene? >> thanks, james. representatives try to hash out the dae taetails of a free agreement. they are looking at terror: delegates are spending two days

together in beijing with the goal to map out a frame work for the negotiations, and that means deciding on a minimum amount of goods that should be exempt from terrorists. after that, they'll focus on which items should qualify. they said the exemption should apply to a wide range of products and calling on the countertalks to speed up talks, and chinese representatives are tentative. they are trying to arrange a summit by november. there was a broad selloff after a five day holiday. that put it in line with other asian markets suffering through a slump on wednesday. our business reporter has the details from the tokyo stock exchange. >> investors in tokyo reacted to a couple things, all the little delays, the volkswagen emision scandal and china's pmi data showing another contraction in

manufacturing. they lost nearly 2.8% thursday louvring to 17,571, the lowest in two weeks. share prices of car makers and companies said to make auto parts fell on the wideni volkswagen scandal falling 7% on diesel technology making it especially vulnerable to the news. honda drop 3%, and toyota fell almost 22%. the company holds a large stake in chinese e-commerce from alibaba, and the u.s. stock after trading with a ipo lockup. late on thursday, u.s. federal reserve chair janet yellen is scheduled to give a speech to hint at any timing of a interest rate heek.

>> thanks. moving on to other markets in the asia pacific egion. in china, the shanghai composite rebounded from yesterday's 2% fall gaining .68%. some took hart from the president's statement to the u.s., picking shares that could benefit from closer bilateral economic ties. the hengseng expandedlosses on concerns of slow downs in china, hitting the lowest close in more than two weeks, sydney's index bounced back from wednesday's two year low, rising 1.5% with investors buying back a wide range of shares, and indonesia's market was closed for a holiday. the outlook for japanese corporate activity predict a decline in the closely watched bank of japan report out in a week's time. the economists from 13 research

institutes say that quarterly repo will likely show that the index has major manufacturers of plus 10 and plus 14s. they requested being in the previous survey in june. the report measures the percentage of respondents who are optimistic versus those who are pessimistic. after major nonmanufacturers, all but one firm predicted downturns in sentiment, and forecasted the report went from plus 17 to police 24. plus 23 in the previous. we'll take china's economic slow down hurting exports in manufacturing, and uncertainty is adding to the problem. our large special economic zone opened in a supper from the biggest city, the japan international cooperation agency and major jab these trading firm worked on the project. the special economic zone includes a 400 hector park, and

47 firms plan to set up operatns there, more than half are japanese. deputy prime minister visited the plant of a japanese auto parts firm. officials in japan and myanmar plan to build another industrial complex in the zone to cover up to 700 hectors. in tokyo, officials from both countries celebrated plans for the opening of a tourism office for the myanmar government. the senior myanmar official said tourism is themost important industry for his country and says these new offices will boost industries. japanese visitors last year topped 83,000. that was nearly double the number from three years ago. here's a look at some of the other business sries we're following. people representing japanese chain stores say hot weather in august led to a spike in supermarket sales. they say purchases of summer

clothes contributed to a 2% increase from the same month last year, the fifth month in a row that sales have been up. they drive up prices of imported goods. consumers across spent more on air conditioners and refrigerators too. officials at manufacturers association say shipments of electric appliances topped $1.5 biion, up 14% from a year earlier. blue fin tuna is a favorite among jab these diners. it is an important part of japan's food culture, but they have taken a serious toll on the global population. many countries have been working on controls to limit catches. we have a report from a fishing town that is directly affected by the new restrictions.

>> a restaurant. >> this is the tuna bowl. >> reporter: the dish contains plenty of blue fin tuna, and it's been a hit since the restaurant started serving it two years ago, but it's not available every day. >> translator: the price is high and the catches are small. i'm disappointed i can't serve it to everyone. >> reporter: the pacific population of adult blue fin tuna was stepped around a third of 20years ago. the main reason is excessive fishing of young tuna. the japanese government imposed catch restrictions from this year for young fish weighing less than 30 kilograms. officials in the northern prefecture police stationed limits of 216.5 tons of catches on japan's side where the

fishermen operate. that's half of what it used to . the catches were exceeding the limits until the middle of last month. he says he and his fellow fishermen pay a steepprice for the overfishing. >> translator: the port has brought its energy. >> reporter: the problem has to do with a local fishing method. it uses fixed nets. they exceeded the limit because the fish traveled north earlier due to up usual warmer water temperatures in spring. >> translator: i've been using a fixed net for a long time. i can't get by without catching tuna. >> reporter: the fishermen are taking measures in attempt to stay within the catch limit. the nets used to an opening of 9 meters. that's now been narrowed to 1.5

meters. this helps to prevent tuna from enteng as they catch only other smaller fish. >> translator: it's tough. we need to find out the reason for this decline in the tuna population. >> reporter: experts and officials recently gathered for an international conference. they discussed ways to control pacific blue fin stocks. they proposed drawing up new rules by next year. they would impose emergency limits if the possibility arose in young tuna stock. other countries in the conference approved. >> translator: we agreed to decide on emergency measures next year if the need arises so we made some progress. the countries will start to work out the details of the new rules. the hope is that stocks can be

conserved while diners canon the continue to eat blue fi tuna. >> that's business news, james, i'm going to hand it back to you. >> thank you very much, gene. the chinese president now visiting the u.s. took a diplomatic tone with corporate leaders there. he expressed confidence the country is capable of maintaining steady economic growth. >> translator: i believe that from a long term perspective, china's economic fundamentals are good. >> among the 30 top executives in ceo were apple's ceo tim cook and warren buffet, and chinese businesses like alibaba were there stressing huge consumer potential as an opportunity for u.s. companies, touching on next year's opening of shanghai disneyland park, xi welcomed diverse cultures into the country and pledged to gn a bilateral court soon to

facilitate mutual investments. people in new zealand geared up to decide what their national flag should look like. lawmakers designed for voters to choose from in a referendum. there's a red peak, and a ground swell of plek support for the fifth design convinced officials to also include it. people submitted more than 10,000 designs for the flag. three of the finalists feature a silver fern against different backgrounds. two have red stars representing the cross, and also on the current flag. some people pointed out the red peak in the newest edition represents a u.s. kpoen's logo. they can vote for the design through november through it's and decide whether to replace the current flag in a second referendum in march.

people in the world's newest nation, south sudan, await a peace agreement last month will end the civil war. nearly two years of fights between government forces and rebels left many people refugees in their own country. here's the report from the capital. >> reporter: last month, an nhk team headed for a refugee camp in the city. more than 28,000 refugees have fled fighting, many in the north of the country, to find safety in the camp. in 2013, fighting between governments and opposition forces broke out. more than 10,000 civivians have been killed. allegations includerampant killing, rape, looting, arson,

and horrific acts such as burning of people inside their own homes. women and children are being treated at a medical clinic in the capital. this following year, they have endured the poor nditions for so long. she was kicked from the northern part of the country before her young children became separated from her when they escaped the fighting. their whereabouts are still unknown. >> translator: i think about my children nonstop. i'm worried, and i feel helpless. i've lost my appetite too. >> reporter: like her, many of the refugees in this camp have been separated from family members. she wants to search for her children, but she can't even return to her hometown because

of how dangerous it is there now. >> translator: all i can do is pray to god and ask him to bring peace as soon as possible. >> reporter: many at the children's hospital are treated for malnutrition. the fighting resulted in a food shortage in the country. about 250,000 children are severely malnourished. the condition has worsened over the past year due to the destruction in the war-stricken area. >> we need guarantees from both parties, and for many that humanitarians will not be prevented from having access to all of these areas so that we can reach the most vulnerable women and children in the world. >> reporter: they have seen the

most recent attempts of fragile attempts of peace in their country, but ve been done before, but fear they could be traded again. nhk world, south sudan. >> thank you. you're watching "newsline" on nhk world from tokyo where we have intermitten rain. parts of japan drenched with heavy rainfall today as we learn in this hour's update. >> the weather was gorgeous over the silver week holiday, but now we are dealing with heavy rainfalls. you can see many clouds are blanketing the country. the worse conditions occurred in the region this morning with some video coming out of the prefecture. unstable atmospheres gripped japan bringing rainfall this morning. 260 millimeters fell in 24 hours. evacuation advisories were placed for over 150,000

resident residents. rain has comntinued, but take a look at the rainfall report in 24 hours. the heaviest rain fell where about 360 millimeters of rain fell in just 24 hours. landslides and flooding reporting, and now the rain is moving east in the region, and more heavy rain is expected into friday in the tokyo area, and it will be more like mid-october. you may want to ar one more layer of clothes tomorrow. temperatures will be in the 30s and sunny weather will continue into the weekend, but stormy weather anticipated next week because a storm is approaching. we have a severe tropicalstorm named azaela in chinese, packing winds at 100 kilometers in the

center, and because the waters are warm enough to strengthen the system, this will be a strong typhoon by saturday and get very close the kinawa region or taiwan early next week, that'll be monday, so heavy rain and strong winds are anticipated over the areas so watch for the zormy conditions. all right, across europe, severe weather is affecting the central areas while we have a system affecting the northern areas, and as you can see, there's cooler air drifting over warm oceans. temperatures are cooler than average in the north wegs. we are in 12hours about 30 millimeters of rain fell in turkey, but ten times more than the monthly rainfall in december. ooding is taking place, and, unfortunately, ten people were injured because of the flooding. the mid part of europe, and this system causes severe weather,

especially for the western part, concern of large hail, damaging winds, and even some tornados in the area into friday. ahead of the system, it's warm, but back behind the system, cooler than average. okteberfest is taking place with a high of only 15 degrees on friday. severe weather it gripping the united states, there's thunderstorms and large hail in the area, and meanwhile, rain increases on the southeast coast over the weekend, and in the west, a new system moves into british columbia so more wet weather. the ground is quite saturated, so additional rain will cause flooding. to the south, dry conditions, but temperatures are mid-summer like, although fall started yesterday. highs in arizona and california will be in the 40s into the weekend. here's the extended forecast.

now from italy, judges at the world's most prestigious tv and radio festivals have honored nhk giving a prize on a

documentary about autism. what you taught me about my son was in the running at the italian competition. it shows how autism brought together two men from opposite sides of the world. now japanese aautistic wrote essays that shed light on his condition, and david mitchell was british with an autistic son. he translated his work into english. >> the three judges gave the documentary a special prize reserv for work that promotes and communicates human values. they said it's outstanding because it reveals the autistic man's mind and praised it for

giving hope to other people who have autistic loved ones. one day soon, the world will be able to watch that documeary live. i'm james, and thank you for

>> it is 1:00 p.m. in the french capital. you are watching live from paris, all the international news for you from "france 24." the death toll has risen in saudi arabia. 310 people have been confirmed killed in the stampede at the hatch pilgrimage -- at the hajj pilgrimage new mecca. when billion euros to help