hello, and welcome to nhk newsline. here's a look at the top stories we're following this hour. the united states navy has sent a warship close to artificial islands built by china on the disputed spratley chain. officials took measures to

resume the work against many residents. a powerful earthquake that rocked northern afghanistan left more than 300 dead and 1800 injuries across south asia. u.s. commanders sent a warship into waters claimed by beijing in the south china sea. the vessels sailed within 12 nautical miles of artificial islands built by china. the diplomatic sources say a u.s. navy destroyer entered water near the manmade islands in the spratly chain. it's claimed by china, vietnam, malaysia, and taiwan. international law says nations can declare up to 12 nautical miles from their coast as sompb territories, but does not apply to artificial islands. they say they are challenging claims over the territory. officials in washington have not officially confirmed they sent a

ship. they have stressed their commitment to freedom of navigation. >> the president, actually, when he was next to the president in the rose garden indicated that the united states was, you know, would operate, fly, or sail anywhere the international law allows. >> tf the first time a u.s. military vessel entered the 12 mile zone in three years. u.s. commanders have been refraining from such operations over concerns about raising tensions with beijing. nhk world is in china following how leaders in beijing are reacting to the news. >> reporter: chinese foreign ministry officials have condemned the move. spokesperson says the uss illegally entered the waters adjacento the islands. >> translator: we oppose any country violating sovereignty.

we will continue to monitor waters and air space in the area and take all necessary measures. >> the state run news agency says washington counted out provocative action. the agency says the u.s. action violated the commitment president xi and barak obama have made at the summit meeting. observers in beijing say chinese leaders may take stronger action in the rising tensions in the south china sea. >> u.s. leaders watch china grow bolder to staking claims in the south china sea. here's the report. >> reporter: for the past year, chinese workers have. conducting massive dredging and building operations in the spratlys. manmade islands rose from three previously submerged reeves.

this shows a complete runway on firy cross. now china claims 12-mile limit around the art official islands. the u.n. convention on the law of the sea says such limits cannot be set around manmade territory. so the u.s. has been studying the possibility of deploying naval ships to the region to conduct freedom of navigation operations. >> the united states will fly, sail, and operate wherever international law allows as we do around the world and the south china sea is not and will not be an exception. >> reporter: the issue was one of the main topics last month in a summit meeting between president obama and president xi. many experts believe if they had come up with a solution to the problem at the meeting, the u.s.

would not have sent the warship. >> the move was triggered to narrow the gap over china's increased activities over the south china sea in a fight between the country's leaders in september, but the operation was long before the spokesman of u.s. dod made this operation in may so the u.s. just wait to stage the operation because of chinese behavior. >> reporter: he says china may try to stop the u.s. ships by sailing very close to them. both the u.s. and china ultimately want to avoid military conflict, but they are expected to continuously pressure each other in the south china sea. nhk world. against the backdrop of china's activities in the south china sea, president obama and

his counterpart joko increased maritime security. joko is on his first visit to the u.s. since gaining office last year. they the u.s. president also plemged to work with indonesia in the region. >> we discussed the importance of working through channels like asean and east asia to encourage a continuing strengthening of rules and international order governing the behavior of nations in the maritime area. >> indonesia plans to join the transpacific partnership. ten countries including the united states reached a broad agreement on the trade pact earlier this month.

in other news, toshiba is trying to rebuild after an accounting scandal. gene otani has that and business headlines. >> john, raja. industries say they will stop producing single function chips used in automobiles, but profit margins on them are low. the sources say ss they will fos on processed memory chips where they have a competitive edge, and they are in talks with sony used in smart phones and other devices. they are expected to announce this week, measures to streamline its chip production. executives at two regional banks north in tokyo are in the final stages of merger talks. they say combining jojo bank and ashikaga holdings will have more

than $120 billion. m executives expect a basic agreement in early november and finalize the merger next object. officials at the financial services agency say japan's 100 regional banks face a challenge. they project about 20 of them will see their pretext profits for the year ending in march 2018, fall by half from four years earlier. finance minister is bullish on the deal. >> translator: i take it the executives at the two banks thought hard about their management strategy before making the decision so they could provide efficient financial services in the face of a shrinking population. >> government officials urge regional bank to develop medium and long term plans including mergers. chinese foreign minister yi says japan, south korea, and his country should speed up negotiations on the free trade agreement, speaking ahead of a

summit that takes place in seoul sunday. saying china, japan, and south korea are major economies and contribute to stability and development. he says it's in the interest of the people of the three countries to reach a free trade deal soon. checking the markets, tokyo shares retreated after two days of gaining. investors locked in profits ahead of central bank policy meetings in japan and the u.s. for more, we go to our business reporter at the tokyo stock exchange. >> that's right, the nikke closed in negative territory. the index near the two-month high, and like yousaid, the bank of japan and fed set to decide on policies meaning it's the perfect time for investors to take money off the table. let's recount today's closing prices. it fell by .90 do close at 18777. the index erased yesterday's gain, but up on the month 8% on track to post the best monthly gain since november 2013.

topix fell 1%. investors are on the sideline in wait and see mode so certain companies who sold ahead of earnings like the robot company, fanuc down 2 .and hitachi down almost 3% over concerns growing in china. after the market closed, they revised their business forecast through the business year of march. the business stocks could move the markets on wednesday. optimism for expansionary moves in china were short lived, and the market is, again, trading cautiously ahead of key policy events in the u.s. and japan. >> thanks. let's move on to other markets in the asia pacific region. in chie narks the shanghai added .1% and extended the winning streak to a fourth day. investors booked profits, but others bought on hopes of stimulus as the communism par is underway.

taiwan retreated from yesterday's close in highest in three months. manufacturers sold ahead of earnings results from tech giant, apple. hong kong rebounded .1%, and singapore snapped four days of gain down 1%. mumbai stretched losses to a second day falling .4%. here's a look at the other business stories we are following. prices of corporate services in japan rose 0.6% in september from a year earlier, the 27th straight monthly increase. the officials at the bank of japan say the reason for the rise is growing number of tourists from home and abroad pushed up hotel charges. the health, labor, and welfare ministry white paper estimates the number of people in japan falls to 87 million people by 206. officials estimate 40% of them will be 65 or over.

they say there should be better support for pregnant women and those raising children. japan is being hit by many more typhoons than expected this year. we report on what japanese companies are doing to improve their preparedness for extreme weather and other natural disasters. >> reporter: violent winds, record breaking heavy rain, a typhoon leaves big scars behind. one storm in july inflicted heavy damage in western japan. it killed 10,000 yellow tails raised at this seafood company. the damage amounted to about $5.8 million. the company raises about 400,000 yellow tail in 40 preserves, cultivated for two years, and them shipped around japan.

officials are trying to prevent a recurrence with this. the preserve containing fish sinks slowly into the sea. here's how the mechanism works. when a typhoon hits, high waves near the sea surface kill fish that are thrown against the wire netting. they can escape if the netting breaks. the new preserve is equipped with a float that's inflated or deflated as needed. when a typhoon approaches, the float is deflated, and it's lowered to near the bottom of the sea where impact of waves is felt less. the cost for installing the new equipment was around 300,000. >> translator: typhoons travel in various direction, but they are reportedly becoming stranger.

our duty is to deliver yellow tail to our customer, so we take measures to prevent shortage in supplies or even a single day of delay in deliveries. >> reporter: new initiatives have been launched by insurers against corporate risks. this is a leading life insurer based in tokyo. its employees are analyzing the routes typhoons take when approaching japan. >> translator: the number of typhoons is growing, especially eastern japan. they are seeing more typhoons. >> reporter: this firm developed a new insurance product that pays out according to the number of times typhoons pass through. a company takes out the policy paying about $2500 to insure against typhoons passing within 200 kilometers. the policy pays out if a typhoon

passes once. the second time the payout increases. the insurance is limited to a payout of about $14,000 for a maximum of five typhoons. >> translator: a lot of companies see their profits slashed due to the passing or landing of ttyphoons. hotels, for example, we're getting inquiries from them. they say they want to hedge their risk of clients making cancellations. >> reporter: measures to deal with the impact of typhoons are becoming indispensable for averting risks and for sustainability of companies. as weather becomes more extreme, these measures will grow in importance. >> that's all for business news, i'm going to leave you with the markets.

registrati rescuers look for survivors after a powerful earthquake rocked northern afghanistan. the death toll has reached over 300. the 7.5 quick hit the region monday, and jolts felt as far away as pakistan, i understand

india, and 28 people have been killed and more than 1620 injured. in the northern afghan province of tahar students fleeing a girl school created a stampede leaving dozens dead. 81 killed and 270 injured across the country. afghan officials are having difficulty gauging the extent of the damage as mobile phones are not getting a signal in most parts of the country. pakistani authorities deployed military forces for rescue operations, and officials there are strulging to determine the level of destruction. mobile phone coverage in some areas remains down. authorities plan to dispatch aircraft to survey the situation. people in turkey head to the polls for a general election scheduled this weekend. they are stepping up efforts to combat islamic state militants and maintain stability in the

country. they raided the militant's hide outs in the northeast. seven killed and a dozen others obtained, two security officers killed, and there was a large stockpile of guns and ammunition. they targeted 17 locations in the city. security forces raided terrorist positions in istanbul. authorities blame the islamic state group and other extremists for a double suicide bombing killing more than 100 people in ankara this month. people are going to the polls monday to determine whether the ruling party has to share power for the first time in 13 years. the tit-for-tat battle over local and central governments to relocate a military base in

okinawa southern japan entered a new phase. there's moving to go over the governor's head if he continues to stand in the way. the air station is said to be moved within prefecture to the less populated area. they discussed the map tuesday in a cabinet meeting. ier early this month, they issued reclamation work, but they ordered a temporary suspension of the decision, and now they agreed the governor's move is illegal. they approved procedures to authorize by proxy the work if the governor refuses to comply with the land ministry's demands. the ministers agreed there's no problems with the permit. they said revoking it makes it difficult to remove the danger of having a base in a depositionly populated area, and they added, it hurts relations with the u.s. people protesting the

construction of the base have criticized the central government. >> translator: it's the will of the people, this prefecture, asking for judgment from a fellow minister in a cabinet. in a word, it's a farce. >> translator: the government is making a decision upon request from within the government. the move demonstrates the potential government's disrespect towards people of okinawa. >> the governor told nhk he's not yet learned details about the cabinet's decision. the world health organization released a study that's causing concern among bacon lover and producing a beef with beef producers linking bacon and red meat to cancer. the who's intergnarl agency for research on cancer or aric is behind the report, considering

800 studies from around the world about meat and cancer and concluded ham, sauce sasage and dogs are cars jennic, and cooking over open fire may create carcinogens. each 50 gram portion of processed meat eating daily increases the risk of colon cancer by 18%. the same research found that red meat probably increases the risk of colon, prostate, and p pancreatic cancers. >> these reinforce existing guidelines from a number of health authorities, that is people who eat meat should consider reducing their consumpti consumption. >> meat producers in the united states reacted sharply arguing cancer is a complex disease not caused by a single food. people in tokyo have seen sunny skies this past week, but that may change with the mercury dropping as we approach the

weekend. let's get the details from our meteorologist, johnathan oh in the world weather report. >> the change is coming, so hopefully you enjoyed the daytime hours for those of you living in tokyo with the sunny patte pattern. high pressure brought a nice fall day and the breeze is taking place as we see the change coming int the picture. you see the batch of cloud cover extending out of the korean peninsula and moving in the northern and western portions of japan. it's a cold front bringing rainfall and cloud cover as we progress into the overnight period and also on the day wednesday. behind this system, we'll have cold air wrapping around so temperatures drop off. we see above normal temperatures as we go throughout the day wednesday, and by thursday, temperatures are closer to average for daytime highs. so, as we transition throughout the day wednesday, fukuoka has

rain then sunnier day with a high of 20 degrees, rain in osaka and a high of 23, tokyo and sapporo, more rainfall as the front takes longer to get out of this region, and when we transition into thursday, there's more sunshine, but, again, much cooler temperatures. now, further towards the west, high pressure is controlling the weather over china, and that's extending into the korean peninsula, and because of the northerly winds coming in, that's going to help bring down the temperatures. the high around 14 degrees as we go throughout the day wednesday. 21 in shanghai, 16 in beijing, and further south, a mix of sun and clouds, highs will be in the upper 20s. now, as we go further west into the middle east, notice the clouds rolling over portions of iraq and also iran. that's associated with a low pressure system creating stormy weather earlier into israel. over into tel-aviv where there

was a crane that snapped because of the strong winds. must have been a scary sight for those on the ground level for motoristand pedestrians, but no one, as far as we know, was hurt from this, and so that is the good news from it, but some parts of the state lost power because of the windy condions. now, unfortunately, the same storm resulted in six casualties in alexandria over the weekend. it's not all good news, but at least in israel when it comes to the crane, looks like no casualties reported from there. as the pair of lows continue to push east, there's rain and stormy conditions for those in baghdad, and tehran, there's moisture there, and cay row sees rain exciting the area. high pressure is bringing drier conditions, but in the west, there's a cold front slipping in to bring rain in paris and

madrid as we go through the day on tuesday. have those umbrellas handy. wrapping up with north america, we have the remanents of hurricane patricia, ushering rainfall in the u.s. southeast. we're going to see an additional 1 millimeters of rainfall in coastal new orleans. we had 270 millimeters of rainfall already. this is a concern moving forward in time. look for the rain from the north from another cold front from d.c. to atlanta and miami as we go throughout the day tuesday. you'll need umbrellas. have a good day wherever you are. here's your extended outlook.

and before we go, some people in china are disappointed after their attempt to cook their way to a new world record was ruled invalid. in the eastern city, 300 people cooked nearly 4200 kilograms of fried rice. the city's signature dish, and an internet user revealed some of the food was loaded into garbage trucks. chinese media reported some frierice was used for pig feed. officials from china announced they are disqualifying the attempt after confirming 150 kilograms of the rice was improper lly thrown out. items created in record attempt

have to be eaten by humans and not wasted. that's all for now on this edition of "newsline", and úa

>> you are watching france 24. rescuers struggled to reach areas in afghanistan and pakistan, worst hit i monday's earthquake. stands at over 300. beijing slams the u.s. after it sends a warship close to china's man-made islands in disputed