from our studios here in tokyo, this is nhk "newsline." i'm james tengan. doctors without borders says a hospital it supports in conflict-stricken yemen was hit by an air strike. 11 people were killed. the group says the air strike in the northehern province of haja happened on monday. the victims include hospital staff and patients. 19 people were injured. and in another air strike last saturday, doctors without borders says ten children died at a school in northern yemen.

civil war broke out in march last year between the government of the president and anti-government forces. u.n. sponsored peace talks began in april but were suspended earlier this month without an agreement. that led to the resumption of air strikes. at least 27 people have been confirmed dead in central ne ball after a bus went off a local road in the mountains. it plunged 300 meters into a gorge on monday. police say 42 people were also injured. the road was said to be wet from heavy rain that started the day before. buses are an essssentialervice for people liviving inn the country's mountainous areas but accidents involving vehicles are common.. many roads in s such areas are unpaved or lack guardrails. a 5.4 earthquake has shaken southern peru killing at least

four people. the u.s. geological survey said the quake struck a mountainous region on sunday. peruvian authorities say 263 houses collapsed. at least four people died beneath the rubble and 55 others were injured. evacuees have been forced to take shelter in the severe cold. roads to be affected areas are blocked hampering rescue and relief operations. the recent powerful quakes in southwestern japan are a reminder how the country remains exposed to natural disasters with nearly a hundred thousand active faults nationwide. currently members of a government task force give the probability of the active faults triggering an earthquake within the next 30 years. but these figures tend to be

small because such quakes usually occur over a span of thousands of years. the fault thought to have caused ththe consume mow toe quake was jujust 0.029%. some say such low numbers create a false sense of security. they are now planning to rank the faults on a new four-level scale that uses letters instead of numbers. "s" is greater than 3%. "a" will stand for a range between 0.1% and 3%. "z" will signify a probability of less than 0.1%. finally, "x" will be used when it is unclear but cannot be ruled out. the experts say that under the new system, about one-third of the country's 97 faults will be ranked "s," the highest level of threat.

the 2020 tokyo olympics are four years away but officials are already concerned about heatstroke. they say hot weather could cause a risk to both athletes and spectators and they want to put measures in place to help. they want to install warning devices at several spots. they'll be located along the planned marathon course and other places. the instruments display the risk of heatstroke on a four level scale. from attention and warning to danger. the level is based on various data including temperature, humidity, the intensity o of sunlight, and its reflection. >> translator: many visitorors e not u used to japan's hot and humid weather. we'll provide appropriate precautions in various languages. >> the tokyo games are scheduled for late july and early august of 2020.

every year during this season, hundreds of people across japan are taken to hospitals on especially hot days. authorities regularly issue advisories to people to be beware of heatstroke. on day 11 of the rio olympics, artistic gymnastics fans gathered to watch the vault. japan paved their way to the country's f first vault medal since '84. she is the only man to perform the move in a competition. north korea attempted the hardest combinations. his attempts carry the high difficulty rating. ri wins the gold. he's the first korean man to win

an olympic gold medal. japan takes home the bronze. a new women's record was set in the throw of 89.29 meters. she beat the other competitors by more than five meters. the only woman to have thrown turn than 80 meters won gold. in another track and field event, the women's 400-meter final was a neck and neck race. and won gold. this is the first medal for the bahamas in rio. russia's doping whistle blower says she fears for her life after her whereabouts were hacked by the database for international athletes. yulia spoke as she remains in hiding in the u.s. with her

family. she said if something happens to them, everyone should know that it's not an accident. she said she has no regrets. earlier she was cleared to run in rio. but the ioc overruled it citing her prior role in the scandal. and that the officials simply say whatever is going to serve them. a coach for the german olympic team has died in a car crash in rio. police say stefan hanse died from massive head injury. he was a coach for the canoe slalom team. he was in a taxi when it crashed into a roadside barrier. the cause of the crash is not yet known. the german team is planning a memorial for him on tuesday.

german flags at all olympic venues will also be lowered to half-mast. another problem for the olympic games in rio, several visitors were injured when an overhead tv camera came crashing down in the olympic park. the camera had been suspended by two kilometers of cables to take aerial images of the area. it plummeted 30 meters to the ground. an eyewitness said it looked like a flying saucer coming through the air. >> i was looking at the camera and the cable, you heard a massive snap. then it snapped and the camera fell at an angle. >> the incident happened on monday afternoon near the venue for judo and wrestling.g. many v visitors werere walalkin around the area at the time. organizers say they're trying to find out what caused the accident. now outside the stadium, olympic organizers are trying to deal with a series of thefts at the athletes' village.

about $55 in cash was stolen from the room of a hand ball player last friday. police are questioning cleaning staff. police are also investigating a complaint from two iranian track and field athletes who reported about $3500 in cash missing from their rooms. some athletes at the village earlier reported thefts of laptops and mobile phones. there's tight security around the village, so intrusions are considered unlikely. the brititish delegation has banned housekeepers from entering rooms. orgaganizers have been swamped daily with requests to bolster security. checking now on the markets. tokyo stocks ended lower on a stronger yen. ramin mellegard has more from the tokyo stock exchange. >> tokyo stocks actually opened

higher following fresh records on wall street but stocks came in far bit of selling. let's look at the closing levels for tuesday, august 16th. the nikkei ended at 16,596 and the topix closing at 1,298 down 1.4%. the dollar f fl to the lowest level against the yen i in more than a month. anand exporters really taking t brunt of the selling. precision equipment maker such as nikon and murata manufacturing were among those ending down. the worst performing sector was real estate. we did see sumitomo realty and development down. and that's to the speculation the bank of japan won't cut interest rates further. trading is expected to be thin the whole week as many people here in japan stay away from the holidays. i'm ramin mellegard at the tokyo

stock exchange. and moving on to other markets in the asia pacific region. in china the shanghai composite retreated nearly 0.5% from a seven-month high. many investors booked profit in financials. the benchmark in sydney snapped two days of gains. but shares rose on a rally in oil prices. seoul was back from holiday ending the day a touch lolower. and hong kong slid back from monday's nine-month high. the bank of japan introduced its negative interest rate policy six months ago. the move has encouraged home refinancing. but it's gaining for boosting investment or consumptionon or pullining the country out of deflation. boj officials started applying a minus rate to a portion of the balances held by banks at the

central bank. this means the financial institutions have a pay a fee on some of the funds they park at the boj. the aim is to encourage them to increase their lending to businesses and individuals. borrowing costs in general have come down during the past six months. pushing mortgage rates to record low levels. many people have taken the cue and refinanced their home loans. companies are also taking advantage of low interest rates by issuing corporate bonds. analysts at nomura securities say corporate bonds from january to july reached $59 billion. that's about $15 billion more from the same period last year. but the negative rate policy is starting to hurt the profitability of commercial banks. boj officials say they will review the benefits and side effects of their monetary measures. including the negative rate at their upcoming meeting in september. japanese leaders are keen to

expand their foothold in one of the world's last economic frontiers. they'll use a conference to pledge aid for s several major prprojects across africa. prime minister shinzo abe will attend the sixth tokyo conferenence on african development. he'll meet with leaders in the two-day meeting in nairobi. the conference begins on august 27th. delegates will discuss ways to boost trade and investment. they'll also talk about counterterrorism measures. it's the first time the ticad summit will be held outside japan. government officials in tokyo are mindful of china's growing influence in africa largely achieved through big development projects. they're hoping to counter that by putting an emphasis on the quality of the infrastructure technology they can offer. more people are making the

switch to l.e.d.s. energy efficient lights are an obvious way to save money. so product developers never sit still. they're working on ways to shine the light onto a whole new space. john ladue reports. >> reporter: a tokyo art gallery. you can hear music, but where are the speakers? the soothining sounds arere com from a vibrating l.e.d. lamp. a tiny light and sound show beaming from above. >> translator: this functions as a lamp and as a speaker. i decided to use it because it doesn't stand out and distract from the works of art. >> reporter: a major electronics maker is setting the mood. it started selling the duel lamp speaker in may.

a peeee inside shows a speaker mounted in front of the l.e.d. that setup creates a problem. the speaker casts a shadow. designers fixed that by tweaking the cover. they found just the right thickness and angle to bund the light. the final result? hardly any shadow. users can choose from 192 colors and dim to 32 levevels. >> translator: when it comes to audio/visual development, we're working on products that do not draw attention and that fit in well with the surrounding space. >> reporter: but conjuring sound from light is just one of the

possibilities. this small venture company is working on l.e.d. lamps that communicate. this l.e.d. light is not just illuminating the room. it's doing another job that we can't see. it's transferring wireless information down to this computer and then back up to the light again. justst connect the usb adapter a computer and you've got wirereless internet fafast enouo batch a video. it's called visible light communication. here's the proof. block the light and communication stops. the signal range is very tight. within 120 degrees of the ceiling light. it stopped. that means less chance of data theft. >> translator: at present many use this light for security. and factories use it to prevent

their precision measuring instruments from malfunctioning due to radiowaves. >> reporter: here's another application. in a product showroom, a customer approaches a display shelf, holds a smart phone or tablet under the lamp to learn more information about the item. setting up a smart lamp is a simple plug-in operation. using a normal l.e.d. >> translator: by developing new services and apps with lighting and communication technologies combined, we want to sell value that has never existed. >> reporter:r: dual function products are just the beginning. promising to light up our lives in a very different way. john ladadue, nhk world, tokyo.

makers of traditional textiles used for kimonos are in the process of creating works that will represent all of the participants in the 2020 tokyo olympic and paralympic games. they have unveiled designs featuring motifs of the g7 nations. keiko yamamoto has this report. >> reporter: at the reception for the g7 ministers in early may, some very unusual kimonos were unveiled. the kimonos symbolizing france featured the red, white, and blue of the country's flag in beautiful flowers. the italian kimono has a design

of arches. the product is the brain child of this man. he runs a kimono shop. he hopes this will take the traditional world of kimono beyond the usual design of flowers and birds. he wantsts to revitalize kimono culture and transform it into something younger people will embrace. >> translator: i felt that the imagage of kimono had gotten stale. i'd like to shatter the stereotypes showing this can accommodate any type of design from anywhere in the world. >> reporter: over the past two years, he's enlisted designers across japan to produce representing countries across the globe. 20 have been completed so far.

the pieces were among the first to be completed. for the theme ed kimono, this designer had an interesting design. look closely and you can see motifs from "alice in wonderland." the designer behind the german kimono says the country inspired this abstract design. the straight lines echo a school in the country's modern architecture. the national flolower is incorporated into gears representing german's heavy industry. and a classical music score floats in waves across the fabric.

>> translator: i wanted to create a piece that expresses my individuality. it's my understanding that the germans excel in that regard. i wanted my work to live up to their reputation. >> reporter: at the may event, models decked out in six kimonos moved across the stage. and the audience applauded each and every one. but some have special place for the pieces representing their country. >> there was many, many ideas from germanyny in there. brands, companies, ideas of culture and very well in terms of colors and designed. very nice. >> a mix of the traditional japanese tradition and the new design. they were beautiful. especially the italian one. >> translator: the ministers

from each country appeared to be pleased. i was moved by their happy expressions. >> reporter: tuakakura has 170 more kimonos to complete and only four years to go. nhk world, tokyo. akakura has 17 more kimonos to complete and only four years to go. nhk world, tokyo. wind and rain are picking up around the tokyo area as a tropical storm approaches the region. jonathan oh joins us. does it look like things on my veranda will be flying around or what? >> hopefully not. hopefully you'll bring some of the things in through the overnight period. because the winds and rains will continue to pick up through the overnight period into the day on wednesday. that's a very good reminder. if you do have a balcony or veranda with plants, bring those

inside. the winds will pick up enough that they will be blowing over. we don't want that to be happening. here's a look at the satellite perspective. we're keeping an eye on this tropical storm. we are expecting the system to make a slight tilt towards the north itself. that means it's going to mainly parallel the coast of japan as we go throughout the day on wednesday. overnight into wednesday. but in the meantime, this system trying to keep itself together. but it's still packing a punch even though it is considered just a tropical storm. winds gusting to 108 kilometers per hour. and it's moving at a pace of 28 kilometers per hour. you're dealing with the rainfall, sometimes heavy amounts. we do have strong warnings in place because of that. we do go throughout the overnight period. that's when we'll see it getting

toward the closest region. then it will move along the coast of japan moving past the tohoku region before rushing past putting on the gas here and moving over hokkaido as we go into t the day on ththursday. that's when we should see this thing taking off for russia. in the meanantime, lots of plac could be dealing with up to 250 milleteters rain dururing the next 24 hours. gusts could be up t to 126 kilometers per hr.r. this is also of concern. those of youou thinking l let's the waves, not a good idea. we have wave heieights of up to meters. ththat's very dangerous. you do not want to be heading toward the coast. stay inland as we go throughout the next 24 hours. it's going to be a wet forecast here for wednesday and into thursday. we're looking at wet weather. temperatures are going to stay relatively steady. but we will see the clouds lingering throroughout the d da thursday and friday i think we'll see more sunshine as we head toward the weekend. now, we are looking at two very

different stories in terms of the weather further back toward the west. i think we're talking about heat in places like western japan and also into the korean peninsula where highs are in the mid-30s. this high temperature will remain as high pressure controls the weather. meanwhile, down toward the south and west, we have another tropopical system. we go forward in time and we're looking at the possibility of seeing anynywhere f from 250 to millimeters of rainfall throughout the next 72 hours. so by friday, w we're looking a flooding concerns. and so please make sure that you're keeping an eye out on this. that tropical system really picking up moisture into the area. mid-30s for tokyo. as you look at what's happening over into north america, we have a lot of rainfall taking place in louisiana.

since august 9th, louisiana saw close to 800 millimeters of rainfall. high pressure is off the coast of carolinas. a low pressure systetem to the north bringing in a cold front. that's going to really pick up ththe rainfall possibilities on again from the great lakes down through the western portions of the deep south. some areas could s see up to 10 millimeters of rainfall mainly during the next 24 to 48 hours. eastern side of the united states into canada, looking at wet weather. drier to the west through tuesday. hope you have a good day wherever you are, here's your extended outlook.

and that was this hour's news and weather from our

studios here in tokyo. i'm james tengan. thanks for watching this edition of n

>> hello there. you're watching live from paris on "france 24." debate over he whether the beach wear should be allowed after mayors banded in the last few days. we will be looking at both sides of the a argument in the next few minutes. the biggest release in guantanamo bay reducing the number of