here in japan it's 7:00 p.m. on a thursday. i'm james tengan on a thursday. welcome to "newsline." french authorities say that there was a raid on another terrorist group.

officers stormed an apartment building of saint denis. they were looking for a suspect abdel abaaoud. >> translator: we successfully sub -- subdued another terrorist group. >> local media quote investigative stores that the group was planning an attack on the business district northwest of paris. authorities say abaaoud is not one of the men taken into custody. he's an islamic state recruiter. investigators are trying to verify whether he was among those killed at the scene. the alleged ringleader and other suspected militants had been on the authorities radar for some time.

nhk explains. >> reporter: abaaoud belongs to the group in syria. in july, he was sentenced to 20 years in prison for recruiting fighters for the militants. he's suspected of being involved in other similar operations in the past. in january of this year, belgian police raided a group a group suspected of an attack on civilians. their magazine published an interview with him in february. he told the magazine that he and his group had successfully established a safe house in belgium but it had been raided in january. he said he had gathered a cache of weapons in belgium to plan attacks in europe. a french prosecutor revealed new facts about last week's attack

in paris. he said nine terrorists had mounted attacks in at least six locations. that means at least two suspects are still at large in addition to the seven that were shot dead or blew themselves up. one of the two is sal la abdeslam who is wanted by authorities. french police are tracking him saying they have key information that can reveal an overall picture of their attacks. police also found a mobile phone that transmitted a text message let's get started around the time of the attack at the concert head. they came from molenbeek. the ran a shop in the center. it was shut down in two years ago. a man who knew him said he could not believe he was behind the attacks.

>> translator: he was just like any other young boy. nothing unusual in appearance. >> reporter: security is still tight in the streets of paris. chris i will lum nations have not yet been shut on. anti terrorist operations will continue for the next several days. the u.s. government is offering a reward for information on the whereabouts of a key islamic state leader. the state department posted the offer on line. it will pay up to $5 million for information leading to the location or identification of abu-muhammed. they have previously offered information for other leaders, including their leader.

they have launched air attacks on several members. they targeted an aide to baghdadi in august. police in japan are honing their anti terrorism skills. the exercise involved about 80 people. police trained along staff that operate the ship. some attempted to negotiate with the mock terrorist but that was just a way to distract him. officers snuck aboard and got the man from behind. their team later disposed of his explosives. >> translator: we want to work with the private sector to counterterrorism in any conceivable situation. >> japan will host the g 7 summit next year and the olympics in 2020.

the police chief in charge of the drill saying working with ship operators will be a vital aspect of security. republican lawmakers in the u.s. are preparing to submit a bill to the hourpt -- house of representatives on thursday to stop refugees from being accepted. >> we are a compassionate nation. we always have been and we always will be, but we also must remember that our first priority is to protect the american people. >> the obama administration said in september that the u.s. would accept at least 10,000 syrian refugees over the next year. that's about six times the previous limit. a white house statement says the proposed bill would hamper efforts to assist the most

vulnerable in the world. five syrian men have been detained in honduras for carrying false greek passports. they said the men were trying to head to the united states and are investigating whether they have any links to terrorists. local media report they were detained at the international airport and are believed to have traveled through lebanon, brazil and other countries after leaving syria. >> why? why? why honduras? >> refugees. >> refugees. >> honduras is often used as a route by south american migrants trying to reach the u.s. authorities in the central american nation have been beefing up border controls in the wake of the terror attacks in paris. leaders have having a tough time to getting trade to flow in the way they want. gene otani has the details and a round up of other business

headlines. >> thanks, james. japan's trade balance is back in the black for the first time in seventh months. imports fell sharply. officials say japan's trade surplus for october stood at about 111 billion yen or about $900 million. exports were down 2.1% year on year. it is the first such decline in 14 months. car exports to the united states were strong with sales of auto parts to china and steel and metal processing machinery to asia were down. imports dropped 13.4%. prices of crude oil and liquid natural gas fell sharply. officials say cheaper oil will continue to reduce imports for some time. exports have been weakening due to china's slowdown. four members at japan's

central bank agree that their monetary easing plan is the best way to get japan on track for 2% inflation. they continue their view of the economy. they say it has continued to grow moderately. they spent two days discussing the monetary policy. production has been mostly flat due to slowdown of the economy. business has been on a moderate rising trend as corporate profits have continued to improve significantly. private consumption has risen. boj officials appear to be taking comfort from the strength of domestic demand. after the policy meeting, bog governor kuroda says he can't

deny that wages are increasingly slowly despite a sharp rise of corporate earnings. >> translator: we'll be watching with great interest to see what wage hikes employees win in negotiations early next year. >> he also said he thinks the terrorist attacks in paris have had a limited impact on the global economy. more travelers are taking the opportunity to visit myanmar and officials at one of japan's major airlines plan to train staff to improve safety. managers will bring the staff to japan as part of a government-backed internship program, the number of flights and passengers at the airport has doubled over the past three years. they are the first airline to have accepted myanmar staff under the program. 15 trainees will leave for the

airport next year. they would spent one year learning how to guide airplanes and handle cargo. it's time to check the markets. japanese stock closed at a fresh three-month high following a business announcement. we have more from the tokyo stock exchange. >> the boj's decision was a surprise. shares extended their winning streaks this thursday, november 19th. the nikkei rose 1% and closed at 19,859. that's the highest close since august 20th. one analyst said retail investors are chasing the market higher as we approach the year end. we might see the 20,000 level. broader topix close at $1,600.

both major indices closed at three-month highs. a higher stock market will lead to more active trading by investors and active trading will lead to more trading fees with japanese brokerages. -- nomura rose. japan's tourism agency said yesterday the number of visitors coming to japan surged 44% in october from a year earlier so cosmetics members both rose about 4% because their products are very popular among chinese tourists. however, analysts are worried that japanese tourists will be not want to travel abroad

following the terrorist attacks. most other markets in the asia pacific region rallied on the feds confidence in the state of the u.s. economy. shanghai closed at 3617. the index snapped two days of losses. climbing to a one-week high. sydney's s & p index closed higher 2%. the resource heavy index, seoul's kospi rose 1.3%. hong kong gained 1.4% and singapore rebounded from yesterday's six-week low. here's a look at some of the other business stories we're following. japan's crude steel production has fallen for the 14th month in a row out stripping the slump that followed the 2008 financial

crisis. industry officials say in october domestic output was just down 9 million tons. they say demand for automobiles was weak. sales for japanese department stores were up in october. it's the seventh month in a row they have increased from the year earlier. over 200 outlets collectively brought in more than $4 billion. they credit good weather and strong spending by tourists overseas. people across south korea have been drawn into a scandal that are affecting millions of

motorists worldwide. many are demanding refunds from german carmaker volkswagen for vehicles they say have lost value. now government officials are expanding the scope of their investigation into the matter. here's more. >> reporter: volkswagen's emission scandal has been snowballing across many countries, including south korea. drivers, such as this woman, were furious. she owns one of 120,000 vehicles in a country that are affected by the scandal. she took out a loan to buy her $40,000 volkswagen. she wanted a car that will produce fewer toxic emissions on her daily drive to work. and she believed the volkswagen still better diesel option will be more environmentally friendly. >> translator: volkswagen's reputation has plummeted. i can no longer sell my car. its value has sunk in the used car market. >> reporter: more and more motorists in south korea have been embracing diesel. they like the idea of driving something that's fuel efficient and eco-friendly.

volkswagen group officials say their sales have been climbing, especially since the free trade agreements last year between south korea and the eu eliminated a tariff on cars with engines over 1500 ccs. they say last year, south koreans bought more than 30,000 volkswagens and they say sales for subsidiary audi increased more than tenfold to 28,000. but now many owners are lining up to demand refunds. >> translator: these people are very upset. vw hasn't come up with a clear plan for a recall or compensation. >> reporter: he says the number of plaintiffs could rise to 6,000. the south korean government is responding to volkswagen's emissions scandal. officials began conducting tests

on the auto maker group's diesel cars sold in the country. investigators are putting the cars through their paces on highways, hills, and other outdoor surfaces so that they can emit the effect of the legal software that only works on tests performed indoors. authorities plan to release the findings soon, and they say they'll consider punitive measures for any violations. >> translator: consumers want to know if their cars are involved in this fraud. we want to carry out the test as carefully as we can. >> reporter: and that's not all. government officials now say they plan to check not only volkswagen vehicles, but all diesel cars in south korea. they'll launch that inquiry in december. nhk world, seoul. >> that's it for business news.

i'm going to leave you with the markets. ♪ ♪ the islamic state group is showing on line what it says is the explosive used to bring down a russian passenger jet. all 224 people on board died last month when the plane went down over egypt.

they published a photo what appears to be a bomb improvised from a can of soda. it says islamic state militants initially planned to target a plane from countries participating in a u.s.-led coalition, but once russia began in airstrikes in september they shifted their target. the publication also claims the group has killed two captives. one from nway and the other from china. militants linked to the islamic state group have claimed responsibility for bringing down the airbus jet over the sinai desert. the photo appeared a day after russian authorities concluded the plane was destroyed by a bomb. a kremlin spokesperson said russian officials have seen the magazine. it is called an act of terrorism and security forces will do everything possible to track down those responsible. the site also claims they have killed two captives. one from china and one from norway. chinese president xi jinping has denounced the killing.

they say they have executed the men. he has been identified the chinese man. the brutal act was condemned and terrorism is a common enemy of human kind. xi says china strongly opposes and will crackdown on any form of terrorism. the world anti-doping agency or wada has suspended russia's agency and says it broke the rules. it made the decision after a vote was taken without russia. the vote was unanimous. russia was allegedly involved in systematic doping with its track and field team. wednesday's decision could make it difficult for the country to host international competitions.

wada demands that any countries or territories not following the regulations should not be given the right to host an international competition. in response to the allegations, the international association of athletics federations or iaaf provisionally suspended the russian athletics federation. >> we now start the work wit their assistance. above all, the ball is thoroughly in russia's court, that they have to become compliant, and clearly we will help them to do that. >> we do all of this for support and to complement a recommendation which were given by iaaf and wada. >> the wada board decided to expand investigations into other countries and territories. japanese officials are struggling to find ways to handle contaminated waste from the nuclear disaster at the fukushima daiichi plant.

they are likely to postpone on-site proposals. environment ministry officials have been going to one of the three candidate sitein miyagi prefecture almost every day to start their survey. but local protesters have prevented them from entering the site. the town authorities decided to close the road to the site on friday in advance of the snow season. officials wanted to start the survey by the end of the year. contaminated soil and other debris is accumulating at several temporary sites. the government wants to set up disposal facilities in five prefectures near fukushima, but it is facing strong local opposition. the ministry officials say the sites should have thorough security measures in place, including roofs, concrete walls and floors to prevent any leakage of radioactive substances. "newsline" come to you live in tokyo starting with the weather update and a powerful storm system battling the

pacific northwest. >> a series of lows moving into the area on tuesday severe floods occurred because of a powerful storm system. we have some video coming out of seattle. heavy rainfall continued in seattle wednesday and that brought flooding to the big city. at least three people were killed in washington state on tuesday and more than 360,000 homes were without power in the seattle area. storms packed gusts close to 80 kilometers per hour which toppled trees and power lines. it also left debris on many roads. now the system has pulled away but a new system is moving into the pacific northwest. more heavy rain is expected across the coastal areas including seattle on your thursday, and then heavy snow is expected for i would not areas -- inland areas as we go through the next couple of days. we'll see rainfall on thursday in seattle, vancouver, as well

as portland. friday, you can see sunny weather. that will continue into weekend. you'll see a nice break into the weather. temperatures will be quite chilly in the single digits. there's a huge front across eastern canada and the utilizes. winds are blowing across parts of manitoba as well as ontario. blizzard warnings and heavy snow warnings in place for parts of canada. severe weather is affecting the southern portions of the united states and a risk for floods across many parts of the eastern united states. watch out for tornadoes if you are in the carolinas, virginia, as well as georgia on your wednesday. temperatures are going to be as follows. about 20 degrees for the high in new york city, washington, d.c. as well as atlanta, but behind the cold front, chilly, 9

degrees in denver. only 2 degrees in winnipeg with a chance for snowfall. cooldown, chicago, 8 degrees for the high on thursday, cooling down to 2 degrees. you may see the first snowfall on your season on saturday. across asia, there's a tropical storm that will likely develop into a strong typhoon and could pass to the south of guam on saturday. the system will likely heads toward northwest as we go into the next several days. mostly across many parts of japan will be dry. beijing at 3 degrees with the high. snow likely on the menu on friday and snow will continue into the weekend and temperatures will drop significantly through the weekend in sapporo as well as tokyo. only 3 will be the high in the

sapporo area. finally over europe, it's wet and windy over the northern areas like the british isles, the scandinavian peninsula as well as northern europe. then warm weather continues across the south. cold air will cool down temperatures over the weekend. many areas of europe have been warm but cooling down will be on saturday. here's your extended forecast. ♪ ♪

don't forget to watch "newsroom" at the top

anchor: you are watching "france 24." we are heading into a live coverage of the aftermath of the terrorist attacks. i'm genie godula. he is not among the eight suspects arrested, no confirmation yet whether he is among the two people killed in the raid. is still under a state of emergency, put in place in e